“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas
The last living American WW 1 veteran has died at 110, just over 92 years after the "War to end all wars." The last of 2 million. RIP and thank you for your service, sir.
My maternal grandfather was a WW 1 veteran, and he grew up surrounded by Civil War veterans, who had grown up around veterans of the Revolution. Our country is really so young, with only a few generations separating us from the founding. If I am correct, the term "Generation X" was coined to denote it as being the 10th generation of the United States.
It is up to us and our children and grandchildren to make sure there are 10 or more subsequent generations of Americans.
Democrats love to blame greedy corporations for outsourcing but it's the government from which corporations are fleeing. 3M CEO George Buckley puts it perfectly....
From FinancialTimes -- Mr Buckley, who has run the diversified manufacturer since 2005, said: “There is a sense among companies that this is a difficult place to do business. It is about regulation, taxation, seemingly anti-business policies in Washington, attitudes towards science.”
He added: “Politicians forget that business has choice. We’re not indentured servants and we will do business where it’s good and friendly. If it’s hostile, incrementally, things will slip away. We’ve got a real choice between manufacturing in Canada and Mexico – which tend to be pro-business – or America.”
The US now has the highest corporate tax rate of all industrialized nations. The hyper-regulatory nature of our government throttles innovation, retards expansion, and punishes success. Additionally, political correctness thwarts competition with quotas, set-asides, and preferential treatment for the undeserving. Frankly I'm shocked that we have any companies still doing business here. If the regulations aren't rescinded, taxes drastically lowered, and free-market competition allowed to work it's magic, the US economy is unalterable destined for moribundity...if it's not there already.
I didn't watch the whole show last night, but for the parts I did watch, the only reference to lefty causes I heard were two winners who went out of their way to thank their "UNION crews", with stress on the word "union". Unless there were others, I guess the Oscars were more or less politics free....a refreshing change from past years. But then, when the messianic, democrat President is in the white house rather then the loathsome republican George Bush, celebrities are loathe to criticize the government or it's policies.
So I guess it wasn't entirely unwatchable TV, but thank goodness for the "last channel" button on the remote so we could click back and forth between the Oscars and Through the Worm Hole on the Science channel.
Mine isn't the standard republican position on gay marriage, but then I'm a libertarian.....
From WashingtonTimes -- House Republicans and conservative groups are working together behind the scenes to fill the legal void created Wednesday when the Obama administration announced that it would no longer defend the federal law banning gay marriage.
The House leadership likely will introduce a resolution early next week to intervene in the four lawsuits pending against the Defense of Marriage Act, better known as DOMA, the 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, conservative leaders say.
This is a total setup by the administration and reflexive, social republicans have fallen for it. Republicans are going to get distracted by these silly, social-conservative issues like gay marriage and DOMA, when they should be concentrating on cutting the budget and international affairs. Getting bogged down in pointless social issues only lets the democrats, media, and late night comedians poke fun of how hypocritical conservatives are. And they're basically right....who has made a bigger mockery of the institution of marriage than heterosexuals? Which is worse, conservatives who lecture everybody on morals, then cheat on their wives(Newt Gingrich), solicit gay bathroom sex in airports(Larry Craig), or exchange dirty gay texts with interns(Mike Foley) or two gay people who love each other and want to be married?
We should accept that gay marriage is inevitable and get away from the distractions of what I consider to be silly social issues that set us up for ridicule from the Left.
Hook, line, and sinker.....idiots!
*A word of caution....be very careful before searching the web for images of "lesbian brides".....wow! Just sayin'.
Why are the Iraqis agitating against their government?
From Yahoo -- Protesters chant anti-Iraqi government slogans during a protest at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. Hundreds of demonstrators converged on central Baghdad as part of an anti-government rally inspired by uprisings across the Middle East and dubbed the 'Day of Rage.
Did we or did we not just set up for them a representative democracy? Iraq has the form of government already that the rest of the middle east is clamoring for. Or is it that they just want to get in on the protests?
I think this just goes to show that, with the exception of Israel, the primitive cultures across the middle east cannot appreciate the complexity, delicacy, and effort it takes to sustain a functioning representative democracy. The government we set up will fall and our efforts there will have been for nothing.
It's been quite a while since the federal government attacked an entire, legally operating industry for the sole purpose of extorting as much money from it as stupid juries would go along with.
From FoxNews -- WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department disclosed Wednesday it wants to require the tobacco industry to admit publicly that smoking causes a multitude of medical problems, killing 1,200 Americans every day.
The government proposed that a federal judge order the companies to say in advertisements that they lied to the public about the safety and dangers of smoking. "We falsely marketed low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes to keep people smoking and sustain our profits," one of the government's proposed statements begins.
Am I the only one to whom it's obvious that the government wants the tobacco industry to admit guilt so that they can use it as evidence of culpability in another round of law suits against the tobacco industry? Less than 5% of the original tobacco settlement money went toward smoking cessation programs in the states. Almost all of it, at least the 66% that the shamelessly predatory trial lawyers didn't keep for themselves, was used by politicians as a slush fund to pay for vote-buying schemes to get themselves re-elected.
It's no coincidence that the feds and states, being criminally reckless in how they spend taxpayer money, are woefully short on cash and are looking desperately for a revenue source. This move is designed to get tobacco companies to go ahead and settle under the threat of high-profile law suits. If cigarettes are as much of a public menace as our self-righteous politicians tell us in preparation for legal action, then why don't they ban them altogether? Because the government is the biggest recipient of tax money from the purchase of cigarettes. Politicians don't want you to stop smoking, they can't afford it.
Another word on unions: regularly we are treated to irate, defensive union members wailing about how "unions built America" and "workers are responsible for the rise of America as a superpower". Well, that's not exactly true.
America was built on the dreams of men who then hired workers to bring those dreams to reality. America was built by men who risked capital and invested their own money to realize those dreams. I hate to point out the obvious, but workers are just workers. That's not to diminish the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice of workers, but let's not glamorize their contribution to the point of farce. Entrepreneurs had big ideas and invested capital to make them happen. Part of that investment was to hire workers at market wages to do the manual labor necessary to fulfill these dreams....but that is all.
Show me a union-created job. Show me a union-created business. Show me an union idea to create wealth for stockholders. There aren't any because unions exist for only one reason, to personally enrich the thug bosses. To keep their jobs as union bosses, these men use dues extorted from workers to pay off politicians and intimidate with violence all who disagree with their mob-like tactics.
No, union workers are just workers. The men who hired them to work built America.
As much as I respect Newt Gingrich's intellect and agree with his political positions for the most part, this one question that came from a student at the University of Pennsylvania is the reason why I think he is unelectable nationally....
From PoliticalTicker -- In a question-and-answer session, Isabel Friedman, a student at the university who's also Democratic activist, pressed Gingrich on how he squares his pro-family values with the fact he has been married three times and has admitted to two extramarital affairs.
All his dirty laundry is being kept in a media file for the time being, but when/if he starts getting traction toward the republican nomination, and assuming other republicans don't cannabolize him with this dirt, the media hounds will drag this stuff out and hammer him with it until he's too distracted and damaged from having to address daily, questions about his two extramarital affairs. Then the media will have done what they always try to do, destroy conservatives on the issue of hypocrisy. Only this time, the candiate will have done it to himself.
Public-sector unions are not the same as private sector unions. Most people think that all unions are the same...all bad. That may be true, but public-sector unions are worse because they negotiate, and by negotiate I mean dictate, their own wages to politicians who they own, having donated heavily to their elections. In the private sector, labor is in direct conflict with management because unlike government, private companies have to make a profit at the end of the day.
Government bureaucrats, directed by politicians above them, negotiate lavish union contracts with taxpayers' money and are entirely unaccountable for any of it. Private company managers are directly responsible to their board of directors and stockholders if they pay union employees too much.
In 1962 union membership was dwindling because workplace safety issues had been addressed legislatively. Still, thug union bosses weren't able to extort as many dues because private workers were more or less happy at their workplaces and weren't forming unions. So Pres. Kennedy stupidly lifted the ban on government-worker unions and over night, union rolls exploded and the pillaging of taxpayers by public-sector workers began on a huge scale. Nobody foresaw that it would be the fat, greedy, public-sector unions that would threaten to bankrupt virtually every state in the union.
It's time for government employees to be subject to the same laws of supply and demand in the labor market with which the rest of us wrestle. After all, it's our wallets they are plundering to fund their lavish lifestyles.
Is San Francisco even part of the US anymore? There is a petition being circulated by a city councilman that if passed by a vote, would ban all circumcisions until the age of 18. I could understand if taxpayer money were being used to pay for the procedure, but I don't think it is. It's entirely elective and some insurance policies pay for it and others do not.
The American cultural issue aside, it is my understanding that circumcision is less painful when performed as an infant and you don't remember it, while adult circumcision is horribly painful, the pain persists for longer, and you remember the trauma of that for the rest of your life.
Where do the deranged loons in San Fran get off telling parents they can circumcise their child? Have they solved every other issue facing that city?
These Wisconsin doctors who're writing fake sick notes by the hundreds to the thankless, self-serving teachers who're violating their terms of employment by lying about being sick, are surely guilty of breech of medical ethics, no? I doubt if they're committing actual crimes, but certainly the state ethics board should look into it.
As for the teachers, lying about reasons for missing work should be grounds for termination....that is unless the union contract provided that teachers cannot be fired for any reason without the union first approving. If that's the case, what moron politician signed that contract?
As a 2nd amendment proponent, I reflexively approve of loosening the conceal/carry restrictions. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd be in favor of this....
From CBSNews -- AUSTIN, Texas – Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.
More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea.
Texas has become a prime battleground for the issue because of its gun culture and its size, with 38 public universities and more than 500,000 students. It would become the second state, following Utah, to pass such a broad-based law. Colorado gives colleges the option and several have allowed handguns.
Clearly, the notion of a gun-free zone is idiotic as it leaves likely victims defenseless against an armed perp. That said, you can't exactly have every 18 year old and up, walking around with guns, unrestricted in any way.
I would support a policy of allowing students over 18 to carry a concealed weapon on campus as long as they show completion of a thorough safety course, retaken each year, and pass a background check that includes any mental illness diagnoses that have been associated with anti-social behavior. If that's unacceptable, then I would support training as many teachers as want to, in conceal/carry gun safety, and encouraging them to pack heat on campus. That way if some kid went crazy, there would be an armed teacher nearby to put him down before he killed too many kids.
A lot of parents hate the idea of their kids being around guns, but what's their first thought when a shooter kills kids at school? "If only there had been somebody who could have stopped the killing." A trained person with a gun is the only person who can stop the killing.
Despotic Lybian dictator Moammar Gadhafi experiences an epic face-palm as he realizes that his tyrannical rule has probably come to an end. Reform-minded protesters have seized the second largest city, Benghazi, and are laying siege to the capital, Tripoli, despite being shot and maybe bombed by the Lybian military. There are reports, though denied, that Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez had invited him to come hang out there in exile. Where else is he going to go? Two peas in a pod.
If Lybia falls this quickly, it will embolden reformers throughout the middle east to press on against their own state bondage. The only thing more satisfying than Gadhafi spending the rest of his short life in exile half way around the world, would be if the protesters could arrest him and let him rot in a Lybian prison until he mercifully dies.
Tomorrow is George Washington's birthday (1732). Today is the official Washington's Birthday (Observed) despite the ignorance of our culture calling it "Presidents Day", which does not exist. It was a failed attempt by Congress in the '60's and Richard Nixon's mistake that led to the confusion.
I think some of the confusion comes from the general iconoclastic culture we've been plagued with for several decades. "Nobody could be as good and self-sacrificing as those old dead guys" we've been told ad nauseum.
Our country would not exist without General George Washington's leadership during the Revolution. On more than one occasion, the army, such as it was, was saved by actual miracles. Check out the retreat from Brooklyn and the attack on Trenton in 1776. Check out Valley Forge, where he is shown praying for deliverance above.
As President, he did not face the crises that faced Lincoln, Roosevelt, or Reagan. But, he set the standard for serving only two terms, eliminating the possibility of the "President for Life" until FDR.
He is the Greatest American, as far as I'm concerned.
NJ Governor Chris Christie keeps insisting that he's not running for President in 2012, citing reasons like "I'm not ready", "there's work left to do in NJ", and "the timing isn't right". Sometimes Gov. Christie, rather than waiting for the right time, the times call you to serve. I think this might by one of those rare times when the right candidate coincides with the right time, when a nation needs to change directions in a dramatic way.
How refreshing would it be to have a President who had to be dragged into office more or less against his will? For whom serving is a burden rather than a goal in and of itself? I think Christie might be the only man right now who can challenge the two-bit, street-corner pamphleteer we call President.
Maybe it's not the right time for Christie, maybe it's the right time for America.
With all the petulant, misbehaving union teachers in Wisconsin and other places agitating to retain their lavish salary and benefits packages, we regularly hear the question from the media, "Why should pro athletes make so much money for playing a game when teachers are far more valuable to society?"
The short answer is that unless the government sets salaries of all people the way communist governments do, then the labor market dictates how much each person is paid for their work. Nobody is paid according to his value to society. We are worth only how much our employer is willing to pay us.
There are only about 150 starters in the NBA. That's a pretty exclusive club and only a certain number of people are capable of doing what they do. There are 150 people capable of being teachers in practically every neighborhood in America. I'm not saying teachers aren't valuable to society, but if a teacher quits, there are hundreds of people who would be willing to take her place. It's based on the dynamics of supply, demand, and price.
The average salary of Madison, WI teachers is $100,000. That's because the unions and collective bargaining extorted these absurd salary contracts from city councils and school boards. If the free labor market were allowed to function, they would be making a more reasonable $50,000 a year, contributing to their own retirement, and paying a portion of their own health care, the same as everybody else. Public sector unions and their thug tactics are why most states are going bankrupt and it's why governors are trying to reign them in.
In Texas there's a proposal in the legislature to force dog owners to have insurance on their pets. I assume it's for any damage or injury the dogs might cause to others. Normally I'd be against this sort of heavy-handed government intrusion, but owning a dog is pretty much the same as owning a car. They make you have insurance on a car solely because of the damage you might cause to others, why not make you take out a policy against the harm your dog will inevitably do?
I just read where a woman was mauled to death by two Rottweilers that didn't even belong to her. Then the dogs turned and attacked their owner when he tried to pull them off. So if the safety of others is the reason we have to get car insurance, why shouldn't owners of known-vicious dog
breeds have to get insurance for when they kill or maim somebody?
If a dog attacked my family or me, it goes without saying that the dog would be killed by me and the owner severely punished by me, but it would also be helpful if the owner had insurance to pay for my medical bills for the dog, and defense lawyer who'd be defending me against charges of aggravated assault with malicious intent to harm the owner with a baseball bat.
Where are the ever present, know-it-all, whacko tree huggers when I really need them? Are they taking Valentines week off and soaking up rays in the Caribbean? Who knows, but the world still turns and we have a tree issue. Or is it a football issue? Or is it a matter of intelligence?
We will start with some basic background intel. The man pictured above is Harvey Updike. He is a former Texas state trooper and self professed Alabama fan.( I know that the Bama nation wanted this guy as their poster child). Some time back he calls in to the local sports talk show bragging about how he killed the trees at Toomers (other photo above) with a herbicide spike. He is now in jail, and still no sign of the environmental folks. I guess they hate Auburn as well and figure that it isn't a big deal to lose a tree that gets rolled constantly. It must be a matter of tree hugger dignity to defend a toilet paper clad tree. Is it beneath their dignity? Lets come back to that. Now as for Harvey Wallbanger here it is time for the madness to stop. If Harvey's actions stemmed from an Alabama loss to Auburn, per his comments, then some southern football folks need to take a long hard look at whet we are teaching our kids. If you don't like whats going on then just destroy something so it gets better. Even better is to destroy something of the other guy. Sounds like terrorism to me! People we need to carefully examine motives and such, understanding that no matter how much we love our team and/or hate the other team, its just a game. let it go. Enjoy the sport and the build up but don't go into the wild blue yonder over it.
Now back to the enviro wack jobs. Where are you people and what are you doing to resolve the destruction of 130 year old oak trees? As I see it nothing. You are sitting on the side with no comment. Help make this better. Do something. You have resources and can help save these trees, so that for many generations to come they can be pelted with toilet paper after an Auburn win. Tradition should count for something with you folks, shouldn't it? Get rolling then tree people ( I like the pun). Organize, don't sit by and watch and remain mute. Its not your style.
Feckless, self-interested, teachers in Wisconsin are protesting a cost-cutting measure by the governor of that state which would save millions, but would also curtail the power of the public sector unions to bargain collectively and extort lavish salary and benefits packages from taxpayers.
Many schools are closed as teachers have descended on Madison to agitate like thugs and demand to keep their cadillac packages. Meanwhile, state assembly democrats have fled to Illinois so they won't have to vote on the bill. Apparently the governor can have them forcibly brought to work as long as they are physically in the state. But like kidnappers or petulant 5 year olds, they are hold up in a hotel and have called in a list of demands to CNN.
Seriously? A list of demands? From an undisclosed location? Unbelievable!
I swear, if there's a more pernicious movement in the US than then the teachers' unions, I'd like to hear about it.
The Mexican military took a field trip into US territory recently....
Why aren't these guys dead? Though I'm sure Obama and Janet Napolitano would frown upon US military offering any resistance to the Mexicans testing the waters of our border defenses. This isn't the first time the comical Mexican military has ventured above the border. What are they up to?
Above in happier times we see our Hillary and President of Argentina Cristina Kirchner. Now comes news that the Argentinians have seized a C-17 load of U.S. equipment belonging to a Special Forces team that had been invited there to train with police. I'm sure the Argies didn't think our guys went anywhere without equipment, and something is certainly wrong with the whole picture.
I suspect that it's either a power play by the Foreign Minister, who personally seems to have supervised the seizure; or it's a pay-back by Kirchner, whom Clinton seems to consider mentally unstable, according to Wiki-leaks. Kirchner is the widow of the former President - think of Hillary inheriting Bill's presidency, as almost happened.
Either way, it's a weird deal. The Argies got supportive noises from Hillary when they started rattling swords over the Falklands, or "Islas Malvinas" a year or so back. Our real allies the Brits were plenty pissed about that. What will happen?
Did CBS cover up a story because it didn't fit a predetermined template?
From BostonHerald -- “[60 Minutes] correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, ‘Jew! Jew!’ as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo’s main square Friday.”
Powerful reporting on an important story. Two problems: It didn’t run until yesterday, and CBS didn’t run it. The quote is from the New York Post. And it was The Wall Street Journal that reported “the separation and assault lasted roughly 20 to 30 minutes.”
But CBS? They sat on their own story. For five days, as reporters reveled amid giddy celebrations in Tahrir Square, and as President Obama praised President Obama’s handling of the Egyptian crisis, CBS reported nothing"
To CBS, the throng of jubilant Egyptian men in Tahrir square celebrating Mubarak's departure validated the media image of middle-eastern men being peace-loving citizens who want nothing but freedom and democracy for the people of Egypt. When that throng turned into a mob of crazed Muslim rapists screaming "Jew, Jew" as they sexually assaulted a white journalist for 30 minute, it seems CBS didn't want to show an image of Muslim men being female-hating thugs. It conflicts with the template...and nothing is allowed to conflict with the approved template.
This is why nobody watches the network news anymore. They can't be trusted to report what happens, only their version of what they'd like to have happened.
Everyone remembers that a few months ago the North Koreans torpedoed and sank a South Korean frigate, killing a lot of sailors. It's pretty easy for a sub to torpedo a ship that doesn't think there's a war. They got away with it, despite the South finding, recovering, and displaying the remains of the torpedo - clearly of NORK origin.
Fast forward to now. Two Iranian warships are going through the Suez Canal on the way to the Mediterranean. I imagine their crews are about as professional as one might expect. The Israelis are taking this very seriously, calling it a serious provocation. At the very least, they probably assume the Iranians are carrying weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel has submarines, very good ones with highly professional crews. Just sayin'.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here a little but first, the question....
From ajc -- The latest attempt at Sunday alcohol sales legislation in the state Senate appears to be in trouble.
Opposition, especially from Christian conservatives, could prevent a Senate vote this year on a bill that would give Georgia communities a vote whether to allow Sunday beer, wine and liquor sales at stores.
As a libertarian, I agree with letting each town, county, whatever vote on Sunday sales and if the Baptists don't like it, then don't buy booze on Sunday. The question to me is, why is it ok for Baptists et. al., to impose their religious observations on the rest of the world, but they reject the notion of Islam imposing it's religious principles on everybody?
"But Ed" you smugly point out, "Christianity is the primary religion of the US, not Islam. We can do what we want in our own country."
Hey self-righteous reader, are you completely unfamiliar with the Constitution? There is no state religion of the US. What gives you the right to prevent by law, on religious principles, any citizen from buying alcohol on Sunday just because it offends you on moral grounds?
As self-described conservatives, is it not hypocritical of Christians to impose their religions beliefs on those who may not practice their religion? How are they different from jihadists?
Dorothy Rabinowitz is jewel. If you're not familiar with her, you should be. It was she who loudly blew the whistle on the modern witch hunt that was the "child abuse" scandals of the 1980's and 1990's, especially in Massachusetts.
Her column in today's WSJ covers the U.S. Army's "star officer" Major Nidal Hasan. At least that was how he was described in officer evaluations written by superiors who were completely steeped in and cowed by the multicultural imperative.
As she notes, the DOD and all four branches issued reports on the Ft. Hood murders. Not one mentions the term "radical Islam" or anything like it. Apparently not even dead soldiers gunned down unarmed on their home post is enough to break through the rot.
Now here's a budget item on the chopping block that is near and dear to many TRR readers' hearts. The $435 million proposed new-engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Questions:
-Does the F-35 need new engines or is this just a jobs program for Boehner's district in Ohio where they are built? It seems there is discord between the military and politicians as to the necessity of an engine upgrade.
-Why can't the F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-117 platforms be upgraded instead?
-With the tactical successes of far cheaper drone aircraft, how much need is there for cutting-edge manned aircraft, going forward?
-Isn't it the purpose of most defense spending to support the vast military-industrial complex in politically favored districts? And if so, why not continue to manufacture and sell existing platforms to our allies and not force taxpayers to pay for unnecessary upgrades until ours really need it?
TRR readers, familiarize yourselves with this map. This is where most of the news will be coming from for a while and it's useful to know the geography of the region while reading or watching the reports of revolution.
Click to enlarge
Today, the Bahrain citizens are staging an uprising to demand fairer treatement from their government. The population is comprised of a Shiite majority which is ruled by a Sunni monarchy. But the Shiite/Sunni difference isn't what they're demonstrating about. They, like their Egyptian counterparts, want government reforms and looser restrictions on the media and internet.
I don't think this is a religious uprising, thankfully, but the Muslim Brotherhood or a Taliban-type group could get a foot hold if allowed to. That this is the "home" of the US Navy's 5th Fleet is troubling if fundamentalists get some form of political influence. I doubt the ruling monarchy would allow any of it's power to be taken, though it might give some up to appease the demonstrators....and that would be a good thing.
Anyway, keep your eye on the quickly-developing news and maps of the region. Oil, shipping lanes, Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Zionist sentiment, US military presence, and the peoples' desire for representative democratic reforms to their governments all will play a role in the rapidly changing face of the middle east.
Looks like Silky Pony may finally get what he deserves....
From MSNBC via Hotair -- A two-year grand jury investigation of John Edwards has reached a decisive point. Prosecutors believe they have a strong case, but have not yet gotten a green light from the Justice Department to charge the former presidential candidate, NBC News has learned. The issue: did Edwards violate election laws by trying to cover up his affair with a campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter.
Let me just say that I despise John Edwards. He was the worst kind of low-life, malpractice trial lawyer, a loathsome democrat as a politician, and a cad of the highest order for how he treated his wife. That said, his teen kids have just lost their mother to cancer. Do we really need to send their father to prison, essentially leaving them parentless, all because he used campaign cash to hide an affair from his wife and the public?
I know the prosecutors have spent two years and probably millions in taxpayer funds to investigate and bring this indictment so they won't just drop it. But come on, the guy has kids still in high school. Isn't it punishment enough at this point just being Silky Pony?
This is LA CBS reporter Serene Branson reporting at the Grammys last night. She appears to completely mess up her two-sentence report, but was it more than that?
Contrary to early reports, she had not been to a pre-party at Charlie Sheen's house. Any body whose speech is that slurred as to be intelligible, wouldn't be so clear-eyed and able to stand upright, so smashed probably doesn't explain it.
Look at her bewildered expression right at the end of the report....she's clearly terrified. Some people think she had a TIA(transient ischemic attack) or mini stroke, right there on air, but paramedics checked her out and she seemed fine. She probably needs to go to a hospital and get checked out by an MD. Scary!
As you can see, discretionary spending only accounts for about 18% of the federal spending budget. We could certainly streamline the military budget by getting out of every God-forsaken country's business we don't belong in and generally reducing the overall size, but still that won't make much of a dent in the debt going forward.
Clearly, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid need to be revamped, the recipients need to expect less, and the eligibility guidelines need to be extended especially for SS.
We need to raise the retirement age to 72, immediately. Social Security recipients who are already retired will be grandfathered in, but anybody who's further than 5 years from retiring should be told that their politicians have been flat-out lying to them for decades, making a promise that they cannot keep. They should be told that their benefits will be reduced and they should start planning for alternate supplements to their retirement income. For those of us still a decade or two from retirement, tough s#%t!
As for Medicaid, if we remove the barriers and allow insurance companies to sell policies anywhere in the US, the price for tailer-made policies would come down fast and dramatically. With affordable policies available, far fewer people would then be relying on other Americans for their medical upkeep.
Politically, no politician wants to reduce or eliminate a government benefit on which Americans have come to rely, but that's exactly what's got to happen. Term limits on teat-sucking politicians would go a long way toward helping them make hard, unpopular decisions. If they aren't seeking re-election, why not make the right vote instead of the expedient vote?
I might be as excited about this as I was about the Rings and Jason Bourne trilogies. I hope they lived up to the spirit of the book and didn't dilute it too much for mass appeal. There will be some purists who don't like it no matter what, but as long as it sticks to the basic principles of freedom and objectivism, it'll get my approval.
In Obama's farewell to hapless oaf Robert Gibbs, he refers to himself as the Gipper.....
First of all, it's "win one for the Gipper" and "take one for the team", not take one for the Gipper....that makes no sense.
Still, it seems oddly coincidental that the relentless media comparisons of Obama to Ronald Reagan(the Gipper) would precede so closely this gaffe by the President. It's as if Obama himself is now advancing the absurd notion that he's a centrist bridge-builder by calling himself the Gipper.
So Hasni Mubarak stepped down and handed power over to the military. Egypt's constitution has no such allowance for a head of state to transfer power to the military or for the military to assume power through a line of succession. So technically, this was a bloodless, military coup.
Question 1: does this throw the whole Egyptian constitution into question or worse, irrelevance?
Question 2: What now, protesters? What's the plan?
How about getting back to work and securing the Suez canal for oil transportation? Hopefully the military will guarantee free and fair elections so the people can elect whatever leader they want. Alternatively, is it possible that, like Isildur in Lord of the Rings, the military realizes the power it holds and claims it for its own? That's almost always the case in these loosely governed countries. If there's a power vacuum, there's always somebody to claim power for himself.
UPDATE: The feckless, lapdog media are already trying mightily to spin this as a foreign policy triumph for Obama rather than utter failure and blind, dumb luck that had nothing to do with Obama. Still, what's the military going to do? What role with the Muslim Brotherhood play in any new governance? Obama's teleprompter doesn't have a clue so he'll be modest about Egypt because he can rely on the media to shower him with rose pedals and crown him a master foreign-policy tactician. The media fawning will reach an apex on the Sunday talk shows. Gag me with a spoon!
Over at Moonbattery, Van Helsing has a post about the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall of some compact fluorescent light bulbs because they may explode and burn your house down.
For no reasons other than to appease Al Gore and other global-warming hoax believers and to reward Jeffery Immelt of GE for being a loyal lapdog, our imperial government has banned cheap, efficient incandescent bulbs as being harmful to beloved polar bears. Instead, we will be forced to use dim, flickering, and potentially harmful CF bulbs that'll have us all squinting to read books in the relative darkness of our living rooms. It's likely that our benevolent Marxist overlords would like us to give up books altogether like in Fahrenheit 451, and mindlessly stare at the official Government Information Channel on TV instead. Forcing us to use CF bulbs to read by might just accomplish that.
If you haven't figured it out yet, Jeffery Immelt of GE stands to make billions for his company since GE will be the lone US manufacturer of stupid, expensive, and dangerous compact fluorescent bulbs.
If you ever visit the Oval Office and you see a pair of shoes sticking out from under the President's desk, they'll belong to Jeffery Immelt. He'll be thanking Obama for banning superior incandescent bulbs, as the ban was solely for Immelt's financial benefit, they just use environmentalism as an excuse.
Finally the world is beginning to see the absurdity of "green" energy. Everybody except the US that is.....
From FOXNews -- In a radical change of policy, the Netherlands is reducing its targets for renewable energy and slashing the subsidies for wind and solar power. It's also given the green light for the country's first new nuclear power plants for almost 40 years.
Why the change? Wind and solar subsidies are too expensive, the Financial Times Deutschland , reports.
When green energy becomes cheaper than traditional fossil-fuel, hydro-electric, and nuclear energy, without government subsidies, then the American people will use it. Right now, it's too expensive, inefficient, and unproven on large scales to be competitive in the free energy market-place. Holland has figured that out. I wonder when, or even if, liberals in the US will get a clue?
French President Sarkozy has now declared multiculturalism failure, joining Germany's Angela Merkel and the U.K.'s David Cameron. In this, I think these European leaders are actually behind their people. Of course, for years those in Europe who raised the alarm about the growing threat were decried as "extreme rightists" or "racists" or perhaps "nativists" and considered beyond the pale. Even when politicians who voiced the alarm started to get a lot of votes, such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the oh-so politically correct establishment types felt they could safely be ignored. Not anymore, it would seem, as one homegrown terror plot after another is uncovered or worse.
Therefore, I think it is very healthy, if quite late, for actual elected officials to note that the multicultural emperor indeed has been naked for some time. The only question is, in my mind, whether or not it's too late.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to get a retraining order against a stalker who kept pursuing him on...wait for it.....Facebook. The creator gets tormented by the creation.
Somewhere, Mary Shelley snickers.
[Bonus points to the first reader who can, without cheating, explain the last line of this post.]
The most important physical object in our existence gets taken totally for granted. Global warming alarmists dismiss its influence - yet think changing your light bulb can 'save the planet'. I refer of course to our star, AKA "The Sun."
We now have real time observatories 180 degrees apart in solar orbit and can view the entire sun at once. What amazing things can be done with barely a notice, while millions can discuss the latest Kardashian shenanigans in great detail.
I've never like Alex Rodriguez. He's a self-absorbed cheater who lied repeatedly about using steroids in baseball. He's a horrible sport around the diamond as has been documented numerous times.
The girl with whom he's currently sleeping is one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood. Fox Sports cameras at the Superbowl caught a 5 second shop of Cameron Diaz feeding him a mouthful of popcorn, something all couples do from time to time. It's just not a big deal, yet ARod pitched a hissy fit during the game and forced Fox to not focus the cameras on him for the rest of the game. How he did this remains a mystery. I would have told him to SHUT-UP, sit down, and enjoy the rest of the game and if he doesn't want to be photographed, don't go out in public. Then Fox publicly apologized to him for airing the 5 seconds of footage. How stupid!
ARod confirmed that he is a primadonna, pretty-boy, a-hole. That he has no sense of humor is the worst quality in a celebrity and should earn him as much ridicule, mockery, and derision as we can heap upon him. What a contemptible jackass!
I found a link to this great interview with MOH recipient SSG Salvatore Giunta by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington on Blackfive.net. The NFL did well to honor him during the Super Bowl. A truly humble representative of the American Soldier.
After the Obama administration sicked their attack dogs in the media and congress on Toyota, I'm glad they've been cleared of fault....
From OrlandoBusinessJournal -- The U.S. Department of Transportation concluded a 10-month study of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles with a report stating electronic flaws did not cause sudden vehicle acceleration problems
After exhaustive research by NASA engineers, NTSB engineers, and countless investigations into each of the 83 deaths previously attributed to "sticky gas pedals", this report concluded that it wasn't Toyota's fault.
In every case, the operators had misplaced the floor mats, stepped on the wrong pedal, or improperly large floor mats had been placed in the cars by someone besides the owner, i.e. a detailer, dealer, or mechanic. And that's what led to the pedal getting stuck on the floor mat.
The Obama administration called congressional committee hearings and applied as much pressure as possible to Toyota through threats of punitive fines and the feckless American media gleefully pitched in with some of the worst nonfactual, hysterical reporting I've ever seen. Never has a President attacked a private company this way, but why? Because he had just taken ownership of GM and Chrysler and badly needed them to succeed. Toyota had just taken over the #1 sales ranking in the world. Obama had to destroy his competition and he seized on the mysterious "sticky pedal" nonsense to do it. He didn't care if it turned out to be phoney, the damage he needed to Toyota was short term so who cares if it turns out to be the stupid carelessness of the drivers that caused the sudden accelerations?
For that reason, I will never buy a GM or Chrysler product....ever! I will buy Toyota's or if I buy domestic, I'll buy a Ford.
If this doesn't make you fume with outrage, you might be having a stroke right about now....
The licensure rate in this country has gone up 5 fold in the last 50 years or so. Why? There are three reasons I can think of, none of them are beneficial to consumers and all are corrupt....
1: With the ever-expanding nanny-State requiring more and more of our money, raising taxes again and again was obviously unpopular so local governments decided to create out of thin air, onerous and arbitrary criteria and force business owners to qualify to operate a business. Then they charge a huge fee for getting this license, and you must renew it over and over. Plus, failure to comply resulted in punitive financial penalties too, so they got you either way.
2: Existing business owners paid off politicians to create these absurd licensing boards in order to discourage competition. Less competition means they could charge higher prices.
3. The new licensing regulations meant the need for licensing boards staffed with lazy, bloated, self-important bureaucrats. To corrupt, incompetent bureaucrats, nothing makes more sense than to expand the regulatory bureaucracy. It makes the government unions stronger and increases the control they wield over regular citizens.
If this guy can't cut hair, his customers will stop coming and he'll self-regulate out of the barber business, no regulatory board necessary. That's how the free-enterprise free market works.
Obama promised(and by "promised" I mean lied) to remove the onerous regulations that hinder job growth and small business expansion, but we'll see if stupid licensing regulatory boards are abolished as they should be.....I won't be holding my breath.
American taxpayers on the hook again, this time for farm bailouts....
From YahooNews -- RENO, Nev. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering Nevada asparagus producers financial compensation for marketing losses resulting from imports during the 2004 through 2007 crop years.
Koble says the Asparagus Revenue Market Loss Assistance Payment Program aims to help commercial producers whose livelihoods were affected when asparagus imports dramatically increased during those years.
This is what competition is all about. Winners and losers. Why should American asparagus farmers be exempt from the tribulations of competition? Obviously because they are in Harry Reid's state, but other than that I mean?
Why should the American taxpayer be on the hook for bailing out farmers who couldn't compete, for whatever reason, in the cut-throat asparagus market? The free market is supposed to work like this: Asparagus farmers, including those in Mexico thanks to NAFTA, go out of business and the resulting shortage of asparagus drives up the price. Other farmers jump into the asparagus game to reap the benefits of the higher prices. The increased supply drives prices back down to an equilibrium. Everybody, farmers and consumers, are happy. And no taxpayers had to fork over parts of their paychecks to keep incompetent farmers idle.
Any deviation from that model of free-market principles in which the government props up the losers, skews the entire system and abandons the capitalist foundation upon which the American economy was supposed to be based.
Disgraced dingbat Keith Olbermann was fired from MSNBC a few weeks ago and it seems he's landed right where it's appropriate.....
From NYTimes via MichelleMalkin -- Keith Olbermann, the former top-rated host of “Countdown” on the news channel MSNBC, will announce his next television home on Tuesday, and people familiar with his plans pointed Monday to a possible deal with the public affairs channel Current TV.
Current TV is an obscure cable station that sprung from the fetid eco-swamp that serves as Al Gore's mind. It toils in utter obscurity with about 7 viewers. With Olby hosting a "news" show for an hour each day, the eventual collapse of Current TV will certainly accelerate, sort of the same way that AOL will eventually collapse with Ariana Huffington at the helm of it's news outlet.
You don't think Obama's a redistributionist? Socialist?
From RealClearPolitics -- "If we're fighting to reform the tax code and increase exports, the benefits cannot just translate into greater profits and bonuses for those at the top. They have to be shared by American workers.
First, if American workers want to share in the profits of their employer, they are welcomed to buy shares of that company. If the shareholders are unhappy with the distribution of profits by the board of directors, then attend meetings and vote for new directors who promise to limit executive bonuses and increase stock dividends. Alternatively, if a worker is unhappy with the how much he is paid, get a different job. Nobody is holding a gun to his head.
Furthermore, it is not a legitimate function of government in the first place, to dictate how a board of directors distributes profits. Obama already crossed that particular Rubicon though, when he forced the CEO of GM Rick Wagoner to resign over the objections of the board of directors.
Click on this link to watch a montage of various Superbowl clips that will amaze and astound you, including Christina Aguilera's awful rendition of the National Anthem, celebrity sightings, and the Black-eyed Peas atrocious half-time Tron tribute.
Out of one side of her mouth, Michelle Obama lectures Americans about health and fitness, tries to dictate restaurant-food content, and is trying to limit by law, portion size, while out of the other, she provides the following menu for her Superbowl party guests....
From Yahoo -- bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips.
Does that sound like healthy party food to you? It's OK for the President's bitter half to serve crap to her guests but we little people should feel guilty about eating it.
Look, I think it's a good project for the first lady to advocate good health, exercise, and good nutrition, but it should end with advocacy. When she has government agencies write rules that limit consumer choices, interfere in perfectly legal activities, or otherwise treat the citizenry like 3 year olds who are too stupid to make the "correct" choices for ourselves, then she's gone too far. And the hypocrisy of serving junk food while pushing healthy nutrition down our throats is laughable.
Am I the only one who isn't concerned that Christina Aguilera fumbled the words to the national anthem? I mean it's a hard song to sing under your breath, try doing it with like 100 million people watching you around the world. What bothered me is that these pop princesses always feel the need to jazz up the national anthem and sing it with a warbling opera-like voice that makes it impossible to sing along with and irreverent to the point of irritation. Clearly she thought the invitation was an opportunity to showcase her vocal talents. It wasn't that and undoubtedly most of the audience resented her drawing the attention to herself rather than letting people focus on the song.
Miss Aguilera has a terrific voice, why not use it to sing this one song as it was written?
Over at TheHairpin.com they have the best of sexual-harassment stock photography. My guess is these are used for those tedious, awkward training seminars by humorless HR toads. Here's my favorite. It uses the racist stereotype of Asians being short.
I'm sorry, but if she didn't want short Asian dudes staring at her pillows, she wouldn't have worn such a revealing, tight top. Just sayin'. Click on the link to look at all the funny ways we sexually harass each other.
From TheHill -- "I think there's a number of issues we could work on together, and I think it's pretty clear that the president has really pivoted to a much more centrist position, which I think makes it much more for us easier to work with him," McCain said.
For crying out loud! Obama's no centrist! He's a far left radical who's parroting centrist rhetoric to placate the media and fool moronic republicans like McCain. Obviously he wants the media adoration that he used to enjoy when they affectionately called him "Maverick". McCain knows that as long as he's kissing Obama's ass and chastising republicans for being too partisan, the media will love him and write fawning stories about what a great centrist bridge-builder he is. Gag me!
Rand Paul is getting a petition together to introduce a Right-to-Work Bill in congress that would make it illegal at the federal level to compel any employee to join a labor union as a prerequisite for employment.
Unions extort with threats of violence, over $8billion dollars from American workers every year, regardless of whether the employees are democrat, republican, or apolitical. A federal Right-to-Work bill would end that and make union membership entirely voluntary without punishment for abstaining.
You can click the link and sign the petition and of course, you are encouraged to donate to the cause. As political causes go, this would be a good one to throw some money at.
I'm getting a little tired of hearing NASA toadies chirp excitedly about the discovery of more planets that "could sustain life" out there around other stars. I think they are just keeping the alien question in every body's minds so congress doesn't cut their budget. Well, it's time they gave us more than probabilities. I want to see an alien retrieval mission. We should go to one of these planets, kill a few of the indigenous species or maybe capture a few of them and bring them back to be gawked at in booths at the state fair. I mean seriously, if there's life out there, why are we going and getting it?
You want to know why it's important that Sharia-style governance not be allowed to take hold in Egypt? Look no further than Bangladesh where the barbaric, medieval cult commonly known as Islam is strictly practiced in remote villages....
From DailyMail -- A teenager whipped to death in Bangladesh for having a relationship with a married man was allegedly raped by her cousin, it has emerged. Four Islamic clerics were arrested this week for ordering Mosammet Hena, 14, to receive 100 lashes in a fatwa or religious edict at a village in the south-western Shariatpur district. It has now been reported that the teenage girl was raped by her married cousin and then accused of having an affair with him.
Sharia regularly orders this sort of thing, yet moonbats in the once great Britain want to adopt Sharia law into Muslim neighborhoods in that country. We've even seen honor killings in the US already. Anywhere Islam is allowed to flourish, unchecked by law enforcement and basic human-rights standards, you'll see this sort of crime against women taking place.
I'd like to hear a sniveling liberal contort himself into knots trying to rationalize how Sharia is equal to normal human behavior and shouldn't be judged as barbaric savagery by non-Muslims.
It's as if Obama isn't even bothering to hide anymore the fact that he is having an affair with Jeffery Immelt of GE.
One month after the EPA began enforcing absurd rules regarding CO2 produced by existing and new power plants, Obama announced the first exemption to those rules. Turns out that the new Avenal Power Plant in California is powered entirely by turbines manufactured by General Electric. You're an idiot if you think that's a coincidence...or an Obama voter, but that's a distinction without a difference.
It's bad enough that GE pays on average 1/10th the corporate taxes of other comparable companies, but to blatantly exempt what is essentially a GE power plant from EPA rules that harm everybody else in the industry, is the epitome of sleazy cronyism and utter corruption.
Immelt was the driving force behind the incandescent light-bulb ban, because GE is the sole manufacturer of stupid compact fluorescent bulbs which we're all forced to buy now. Is there any end to the corruption of the Obama administration?
