Exaggerated rumors

Are the Tea Parties giving up and moving on to different things as Harry Reid predicted? Even conservative Michael Barone has an article in which he posits this very thing. Ever since the tea parties splashed on the scene when Obama started his outrageous spending spree, self-styled experts have predicted their eventual burn out, just like all political movements eventually run their course.

But I think there's another reason why you aren't seeing tea party protests all over the place right now....they are taking a breather in between elections. No movement can maintain the level of energy that the tea parties harnessed to take the House dramatically away from democrats. We need a break for a while to recharge. Motivated tea party patriots get involved in politics when election time rolls around. In the mean time, we are busy making money, paying our bills, and generally living our lives. It's not that we aren't paying attention, it's just that somebody has to work in order to pay the country's bills and we all know democrats don't generally work that much.

Fear not Harry, the tea parties will be back in 2012 just as energized as ever and ready to unseat The Messiah-in-Chief and wrench the Senate away from you once and for all.

Bonus: a double, super-duper bonus cookie to the first reader who can, without cheating, name the person loosely referenced in the title of this post.

UPDATE: My high-school friend Susan snuck in and seized the day by correctly naming Mark Twain as the person who used a phrase suggestive of "exaggerated rumors". Well done Susan!

The emperor has no sense of irony

Without the slightest sense of irony or shame, Pres. Obama yesterday accepted an absurd award for executive branch transparency during a ceremony at which the press was denied access.

With a straight face, press secretary Jay Carney justified the award thusly:

"This president has demonstrated a commitment to transparency and openness that is greater than any administration has shown in the past, and he's been committed to that since he ran for President and he's taken a significant number of measures to demonstrate that."

It's like there is a total and complete disconnect between what this administration says and what it does. And the hypocrisy will continue only because the democrat shills in the shamefully complicit media allow it to.

Stimulus....EPIC failure!

Don't be fooled by slick democrat spin about how great the Stimulus plan was for America's economy....it wasn't.....

From Heartland.org -- We’ve just passed the second anniversary of “economic stimulus” under President Obama. Aside from spending on the stimulus itself - the actual price tag soon climbed from $787 billion to $821 billion - not much else has been stimulated.

Nearly a trillion dollars have been poured into the U.S. economy, courtesy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Result? Unemployment has barely budged, housing prices continue to fall in many markets and more mortgages slip into foreclosure.

The moronic Keynesian philosophy of economic stimulus to which democrats subscribe, absurdly claims that government spending is the best way to increase economic activity. You'd have to be clinically retarded not to see that nothing could be further from the truth. The government doesn't have a penny of money of it's own. For every single dollar the government "spends", it's first got to take that dollar away from somebody who earned it. So even a ditsy porn star coming off a 3-day bender at Charlie Sheen's house could see that government stimulus, as far as the economy is concerned, is a zero-sum game. All it serves to do is redirect money away from earners to those who are politically favored, and to whom the politicians can point at election time and bleat about what they accomplished. With few exceptions government spending is bad for the economy.

Obama's war on Jello

Having solved all the other crises facing the nation, Obama's FDA is finally tackling the menacing spectre of red dye #3....

From FoxNews -- After staunchly defending the safety of artificial food colorings, the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether foods like Jell-O, Lucky Charms cereal and Minute Maid Lemonade should carry warnings that the bright artificial colorings in them worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children.

Before long there won't be any substances in our lives that our regulatory overlords at the FDA don't blame for hyperactivity in children, and for which lazy parents can sedate them with drugs to keep them quiet.

I'm sorry but if your caterwauling, misbehaved brat can't keep his yap shut for five minutes, it's not because of red dye #3 in his jello. And if you're obstinate enough to think it is, then stop feeding him jello.

Slow news day

Sort of a slow news day today. Besides, I've got some actual work to get done so feel free to peruse the archives and I'll probably get some stuff up a little later today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dilbert goes green

"Dilbert" by Scott Adams probably has as much influence as anyone.  This is great!

 

POSTED BY BILL

Europe contemplates it's own suicide

Europe is already a moribund continent, hellbent on self destruction through extreme political correctness, dhimmitude, and an utter failure to breed. Ordnarily that reality would be enough to rouse a civilization from it's apathetic stagnance, but not old Europe. They are absurdly determined to drive the final nail in their own coffin as they tilt against the imaginary, global-warming windmill.....

From Telegraph -- Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.

If deluded Europeans have their way, we'll all be forced to live within walking, biking, or rickshaw distance of our workplace. But Soviet-style, collective misery for the little people through centrally-planned economies is a utopian vision of communists, environmentalists, and democrats alike. 

If you don't think this sort of thing isn't planned for the US, think again. If Europe goes through with this idiocy, somebody like Obama will try it here too. I'd better go out and buy some Schwinn stock tout-suite!  

We're all handicapped now

The Obama administration has dramatically expanded the official definition of "handicapped" for the purposes of equal employment opportunity. Most estimates say that the new definition includes over half of the American workforce because it has various mental problems as handicaps. The list includes, but is not limited to, autism, diabetes, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Don't be fooled. Obama isn't trying to be nice to handicapped people, he's trying to get as many Americans to be dependent on government as possible because government dependence equals democrat votes in the deranged mind of a liberal marxist like Obama.

All this will do is stifle hiring because companies won't know what outrageous demands the EEOC will place on them to accomodate all the maladies on the new list of handicaps. It will actually decrease handicap hiring, not encourage it. But that works for democrats too because that means more people on unemployment....again, more government dependence.

Check Haley Barbour off my list

This hesitance on the part of republican presidential hopefuls to say out loud that global warming is a farcical sham, conjured up in the fever swamps of the unhinged environmentalist movement, is very distressing to me....

From ABCNews -- CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Potential presidential candidate Haley Barbour appears to be staking out a moderate position on global warming than some of his possible rivals, saying at an event in eastern Iowa on Friday that the country should “proceed in national policy as if global warming is actually happening.”

“I think the prudent thing for us, when you consider the potential risk, the prudent thing is to proceed as if global warming is an issue,”

I'm making a list and checking it twice....and republicans are dropping off like flies. If Barbour is unwilling to say what we all know about global warming, then he's too iffy for me when it comes to putting a halt to idiotic and disastrous CO2-emissions controls based on the fantasy of lowering the temperature of Earth.

I wonder which republican will be the next to say something stupid and lose my vote?

No plan, no direction, no end

See if you can follow the logic of the Obama administration's meandering qualifications of our great Libyan adventure over the weekend.....

Obama promised a limited engagement of "days, not weeks" and that our interests there are of vital national importance.
SecDef Gates said that of course we have no vital national interests in Libya.
SecState Clinton said that while the US has no vital national interests, that they are of vital national interest to our Euro-trash allies qualifies them as our national interests.

I haven't seen any polling yet, but I'll bet less than 10% of Americans imagine they have a clue as to what we're doing in Libya, the rest know that we're in a quagmire already. And where are the howling republicans demanding from Obama a thorough explanation of what the mission is? What defines success? On whose behalf are we really fighting if Al Qaida is present with the rebels? Will we leave Qaddafi in power? If so, then what was the point of all this?

Without loudly questioning the wisdom and logic of this politically expedient attack on Libya, republicans validate their reputation as the party that loves to go to war any time, any place. If there's shooting to be done and hapless, third-world militaries to decimate....then we're all for it, no questions asked. That's the image of the modern republican party if Boehner and the boys don't stand up and demand some answers.

Gurkha shows how it's done

POSTED BY BILL

One of the smartest things the Brits ever did was keep these guys in their Army after the imperial days.

From NavWeaps Discussion Boards "The Land Forces" by "San Mao An"

A FEARLESS Gurkha who single-handedly fought off an attack by up to 30 Taliban soldiers has been awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.
Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun, 31, above, fired 400 rounds and launched 17 grenades to thwart the assault on his checkpoint in Afghanistan.
He also beat away an insurgent with the tripod of his machine gun when the weapon stopped working.
The Gurkha ran out of ammunition but detonated a mine to repel the final two Taliban fighters.

His company commander, Major Shaun Chandler, arrived shortly after and slapped the Gurkha on the back – which made him think he may have been under attack again.

Asked if he might have accidentally fired on his commander, he smiled and said: “I had no ammunition left.”

Acting Sgt Pun was on sentry duty in Helmand province in September when he spotted the Taliban fighters.

He sped to the roof, opened fire and was under attack from rocket-propelled grenades for at least 15 minutes.

Most of the militants were 50ft away but two fighters got on to the roof.


Read more: link

RIP Geraldine Ferraro

This is too bad....

From NBCNewYork -- Geraldine A. Ferraro, who earned a place in history in 1984 as the first woman to run on a major party national ticket for vice president, has died. She was 75-years-old.

Ms Ferraro always seemed like one of the few reasonable democrats around and I enjoyed and respected her debate points as a FoxNews contributor.

Obama the dhimmi and Holder the brainless

Read this story and tell me that Obama's justice department isn't Muslim-centric and hostile to American values and mores.....

From FoxNews -- ...Safoorah Khan, 29, was hired to teach middle-school math in November 2007. According to her lawyer, she was happy in her job, which included preparing sixth, seventh, and eighth graders for state tests, and running the “math lab.” After nine months on the job, Khan requested a three-week leave of absence in order to perform the hajj — the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are obliged to undertake at least once in their lives if they can afford it.

Show me one regular American who's had the stones to ask for and expect 3 weeks off work after only 9 months of employment, and do it with a straight face?

That the incompetent boob Eric Holder is fighting what is a local school issue is absurd, and shows that Obama is exceedingly submissive to Muslim demands regardless of how outrageous. "Once in their lives".....why can't she take her 3 week vacation in the summer like all teachers? Are the other teachers supposed to pick up the slack from her absence? If Holder wins, can all Illinois teachers then take 3 weeks off any time they like, as long as they cite idiotic religious reasons, real or pretend?

Can anybody show me a Islamic legal issue in the US in which Obama and/or Holder didn't side with the Muslims?

Obama's culture of corruption

Evidently it pays to be an Obama lick spittle....

From FoxNews -- The company (G.E.) reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.

Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

CEO Jeffrey Immelt is probably Obama's best corporate friend, and G.E. has received various benefits from that association. G.E. builds most of the stupid wind-mills that the Obama administration got behind legislatively. They also manufacture all the dim and dangerous compact fluorescent bulbs which will replace the efficient, bright incandescent bulbs that Obama outlawed. Now we see that Immelt's company pays no corporate taxes? How does Obama square that with his historic hostility toward industry and business in general? I guess if your network gives him enough fawning coverage and you donate enough money to his campaign, he'll ignore pretty much any thing.

The Obama standard for intervention

Based on Pres. Obama's standard for when the US should intervene in the internal business of another country, despite that country posing zero threat to the US on any level, there are many countries around the world where we should be lobbing cruise missiles and pretending to care about the people besides Libya.

The best that I can tell, Obama's doctrine is to one: ignore human-rights hot spots, especially in Islamic/Arabic countries, until the international community notices it for political purposes and starts to wonder when the US is going to do something. Step two: call a hastily put-together press conference and act like we've been on top of the situation all along and state that "all options are on the table". Step three: wait until there is an international political consensus, ignore strident domestic opposition to intervention, then attack that country in ways that make no sense whatsoever.

Based on this doctrine of meddling in the affairs of other countries, we should have invaded North Korea, Cuba, Somalia, The Sudan, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Chad, Laos, Cameroon, etc. Are you getting my point?

The countries in whose affairs Obama decides to meddle seem entirely arbitrary and political. Is this what we want in a President? Agree or not with Bush on Iraq, but at least he and the rest of the modern world believed there were WMD's and that Iraq and Afghanistan together with Iran made the nexus of terrorism exportation which threatened the West. I can't think of a single good reason to have attacked Libya.

Jamie Gorelick at the FBI? Heaven help us!

I heard today that on the short list to replace Robert Mueller at the top of the FBI is none other than Clinton crony, Jamie Gorelick. You may remember that as Deputy Attorney General, she is the one who wrote the rule preventing the CIA from sharing urgent intelligence information with the FBI. Had that one rule not been in place, the FBI would have certainly been aware of a couple dozen swarthy Muslim males learning to fly airliners early in 2001.

She grew up in the drug-addled haze of the sixties just like Bill and Hillary and all the other military-hating hippies back then. To them, the FBI, CIA, and US military were the foci of all evil in the world. When given the opportunity to hamstring these agencies, she did it. If there is one person at whose doorstep you can lay the blame for 9/11, it is Jamie Gorelick. And now Obama is considering her to head up the FBI? You have to be kidding me!

It's not a war, it's a kinetic military action

Since Obama himself is on record against the executive unilaterally invading a foreign country, the administration is trying mightily to avoid calling this our third participatory war in the mid-east region.....

From Hotair -- deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes took a crack at an answer. “I think what we are doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals, which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone,” Rhodes said. “Obviously that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.”

Just how stupid does the administration think we are? Obviously pretty stupid since just over half of us voted for this boob. Do they think that by changing what they call it, Americans will suddenly forget that we are now engaged in our third open-ended, expensive military mis-adventure in an Arab country? It's every bit as stupid as Janet Napolitano calling terrorism "man-caused disasters" and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "overseas contingency operations".

If Americans are stupid enough to fall for that lame of a ruse, then we deserve to be led by the nose over the cliff. Only liberal media types are that gullible.

What everybody knew was going to happen, finally happened. We tried to hand over control of the Libyan war to France, but they don't want control and NATO doesn't want anybody running the war but the US. Now what? We are stuck in a military action against a country with whom we are not at war, nor do we intend to declare war on Libya. Will Obama ask for congress' blessing for this misadventure? It's doubtful at this point.

So what is it that we are doing? What is it called? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

Hideaki Akaiwa -- badass of the week

In case you haven't heard the story of Kideaki Akaiwa click on over to Badass of the Week, and read the harrowing story of this dude's exploits in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. But I'll recount the events briefly here....

Kideaki was working at his job when the earthquake and tsunami hit. Knowing that his wife was home alone and in the path of the tsunami, did he wait for rescue workers to inform him that his wife had perished along with thousands of others? No, he ran toward the tsunami while every one else ran away. Somehow he managed to grab a SCUBA suit from somewhere(super heroes can do this type of thing) put it on and dove into the tsunami in search of what was left of his home. It is unknown whether Hideaki knows how to use SCUBA equipment but he clearly didn't let that stop him.

In case you're a moron, the Japanese tsunami had crushed homes, cars, electric power lines, debris, not to mention the violently churning, murky water....not exactly ideal diving conditions. Not to be deterred, Hideaki swam on for 200meters before locating his underwater house. Inside was his frightened, distraught wife of 20 years, terrified for her life. He grabbed her and swam to safety. But he wasn't finished. His mother was also unaccounted for so he went out in search of her, found her, and rescued her too.

But that's not all. Most mortal men would call that a day's work and be happy that his family was safe...but most men aren't Hideaki Akaiwa. To this day, he goes out on his bicycle several times a day, armed with a backpack containing a pocket-knife, canteen, flashlight, and the baddest set of aviator sunglasses a hero could wear and searches for people to rescue.

My hat is off to Hideaki Akaiwa.

If you want to donate to the rescue effort in Japan, click on this link and get a cool T-shirt for your help. I did, and you should too.

The planned obselescence of the modern male

Well men, it looks like the days of our usefulness are numbered....

From Guardian -- Scientists have grown sperm in the laboratory in a landmark study that could help preserve the fertility of cancer patients and shed fresh light on male reproductive problems.

Fertility experts called the work a "crucial experimental advance" towards the use of lab-grown sperm in the clinic and a stepping stone to the routine creation of human sperm for men who cannot make the cells normally.

With women pretty much doing everything that men used to do and science headed in this direction, males of the future will be relegated to opening jars and paying for dinner and little else.

Can we afford operation Odyssey Dawn?

Now that the US economy is on the mend, the deficit is shrinking, housing prices are back on the rise, gas prices have stabilized, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are drawing to a close, and Japan is recovering nicely, it makes perfect sense for us to spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting a war that other countries are perfectly capable and willing to fight without us....

From Yahoo -- With U.S. and coalition forces bombarding Libya leader Muammer al-Qaddafi's forces from the sea and air, the cost for the first day alone of the operation was well over $100 million with the total price tag expected to grow much higher the longer the strikes continue, analysts said.

With allies expected to shoulder some of the bill, the initial stages of taking out Libya's air defenses could ultimately cost U.S.-led coalition forces between $400 million and $800 million, according to a report released by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments earlier this month.

Maintaining a coastal no-fly-zone after those first strikes would cost in the range of $30 million to $100 million per week.

What are we doing? Libya is a third-world piece of crap country with a rag-tag 1950's military. I'm pretty sure Great Britain and France can handle things without the US piling on just for the fun of it. Any other time I'd say sure, pile on, get some training in at Qaddafi's expense. But we should be occupied dealing with our own problems right now. Unless a country poses an existential threat to the US, let somebody else spank them for a change.

Obama's Abu Ghraib? Don't count on it

When the disturbing images from Abu Ghraib were made public, politically opportunistic democrats and their complicit attack dogs in the media almost brought down George Bush by blaming him and Rumsfeld personally for the actions of a few depraved individuals. This might be worse.

SpeigelOnline will publish what they say are thousands of pictures of American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq casually posing with the corpses of civilians who they killed, as if posing with a 12pt trophy buck.

Do you think the media will turn on Obama the way it did Bush now that soldiers under his command have behaved badly? Not a chance.

We want Europe to play a leading role, now let them do it

Every time there's a dust-up around the world and the US rides, Lone Ranger style, to the rescue once again, every body whines that the Europeans don't pitch in and do their part. Or better yet, they rightly point out that the Europeans never handle trouble in their own back yard and the Americans have to come handle what should be Europe's business.

Over the weekend, France and Great Britain, both with very capable, modern militaries, pounced on the chance to take the fight to Qaddafi in Libya. Now, Obama is being criticized for the US's intentions to take a back seat in the fighting. Obama deserves criticism for a lot of things, but letting Europe handle Qaddafi while we play a supporting role is not one of them.

Just because there's some shooting and killing to be done, doesn't meant the US has to be the king-daddy deliverer of it all the time.

White males invisible to Obama's DOJ

With the world crumbling on multiple continents, Obama is distracted by Spring Break trips to Brazil and anti-bullying initiatives. But if you are bullied, you'd better not be a straight, white male because Obama's DOJ will ignore you.....

From WashingtonTimes via Moonbattery -- DOJ will only investigate bullying cases if the victim is considered protected under the 1964 Civil Rights legislation. In essence, only discrimination against a victim's race, sex, national origin, disability, or religion will be considered by DOJ. The overweight straight white male who is verbally and/or physically harassed because of his size can consider himself invisible to the Justice Department.

Are there still people who have deluded themselves into thinking that Obama and the incompetent racist Eric Holder are not hostile to white males? If you are bullied while being white and male, you're basically on your own and you should handle things yourself just like Casey Heynes did.

What's our mission in Libya?

No doubt you've heard that the US and assorted allies attacked Libya's command and control infrastructure on Friday night. The US and Britain launched 114 Tomahawk missiles and the US bombed Libya's air force bases with stealth bombers out of Missouri. The putative purpose is to protect the rebels from being slaughtered by Qaddafi, but curiously not to depose or kill Qaddafi himself. Why not?

By leaving Qaddafi in power with his ground army intact, we essentially have an open-ended mission. Everybody knows he has mustard gas and could deploy it by other means as a substitute for bombing the rebels from the air. Are we really, as Obama promised, not going to put troops into Libya to protect the rebels in Benghazi? Will the Brits, Canadians, or French put soldiers there to fight the Libyan forces loyal to Qaddafi? How will we just walk away now that our job is basically done, when Britain and France do not have the technology to direct several nations' attacks?

Obama bowed to international peer pressure without really thinking this through and tried to triangulate his position by pleasing the international community on one hand, while attempting to please his base by promising not to send in troops on the other. Maybe it'll work, maybe not, but we cannot afford another expensive, middle-east misadventure like the other two in which we are already hopelessly entangled.

Heh heh...irrationally terrified Californians are scarfing up every chemical suit and gas mask they can find, despite the measurements of radiation from Japan in California being 1/1,000,000,000th of what's necessary to cause illness

From CBSLosAngeles -- BREWER, Maine (AP) — The owner of a military supply company in Maine says he’s been inundated with orders from people in California buying gas masks and chemical suits.

Maine Military Supply owner Frank Spizuoco says hundreds of gas masks are going out the door. He says people are also ordering related gear, including chemical suits, jackets, gloves, pants and boots.

This is exactly the comedic relief we need right about now....dumb Californians running around in gas masks and chemical suits for no reason.....hilarious!

Harry Reid weakly justifies once again, NPR funding

Harry Reid regularly revalidates the fact that he's an idiot. The context this time is Lisa Murkowski's recognition of the Iditerod racers and Reid takes the opportunity to comment on the defunding of NPR vote in the House....

From FoxNews -- “They had a really, really good piece on public radio before the start of the race,” explained Reid. "I hesitate saying this because I know I will probably get in trouble, but this is a good reason why the House vote was bad today to defund public radio."

Seriously, Reid's personal enjoyment of the dog story justifies the hundreds of millions taken from taxpayers to pay for it? The only people dumber than Reid himself are the Nevada voters who keep electing him.

I hope you Nevada voters are proud of your shameful, vulgar Senator.

Government recalls pavement because of skinned knees

From Reuters -- Around 169,000 pogo sticks have been voluntarily recalled due to a risk of serious injury, the government said on Wednesday.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a statement that 123 incidents involving the sticks have been reported to California-based Bravo Sports, including nine reports of injuries. Those included facial laceration and chipped and knocked out teeth.

How stupid! This his how human children learn to assess danger and risk, by getting hurt occasionally. If the nanny government removes all risk from life, how will generations of American kids ever learn to judge what they can and cannot do?

Here's a valuable life lesson that can only be learned the hard way.....

Terrified Chinese make a run on iodized salt.....followed by run on bottled water

Wild rumors going around China have resulted in panic buying of iodized salt in the mistaken belief that the iodine will protect your thyroid gland from radiation damage. Even some Americans are under the same illusion.

The recommended dosage of iodine for radiation protection is 130milligrams. There are only 75micrograms of iodine in one gram of iodized table salt. That means that you'd have to eat 3.5 pounds of salt to get the correct protective dosage. Obviously this would kill you way before the radiation gave you a nice "glowing" tan.

Our benevolent, political overlords, if you believe them, have assured us that any radiation that reaches the US will be so dispersed as to approach background levels and iodine dosing isn't really necessary. You should package up your potassium iodine tablets and give them to the Red Cross so they can give them to the Japanese who actually need them.

Does the US have a Libyan responsibility?

With Qaddafi's military trouncing the rebels all over the country and about to deal the death blow to them, Arab nations all over the middle east as well as Great Britain and France are calling for a no-fly zone to be established over Libya. Obviously, they want the Americans to do it....everybody always wants the Americans to do their dirty work.

I would argue that we have no responsibility to get militarily involved in the Libyan civil war, if that's what it turns into. First, if it's such an emergency, why aren't France, England, and other Arab nations preventing the Libyan air force from bombing civilians? They all have state-of-the-art air craft and could easily intimidate pathetic Libyan pilots.

Second, the US cannot afford to expend valuable blood and treasure entangled in yet another middle-east misadventure. Let them sort it out for themselves.

Lastly, why should be rescue a country whose citizens cheered the triumphant repatriation of the Lockerbie bomber? It was only a short six months ago that they partied in the streets of Tripoli when the man responsible for 270 deaths tricked his way out of a British prison. They don't deserve our help.

If England and France are so upset about Qaddafi murdering thousands of his own citizens, for once, let them do the heavy lifting. They are right there, whereas we have to project force half way around the world.

Obama's hypicrisy knows no bounds

Ask not at whom Obama laughs, for he laughs at you....

From Politico -- President Obama’s only event at the White House that isn’t closed to the press on Wednesday is a ceremony in which he’ll accept an award for being open to the press.

Here are examples of the transparency for which he'll gladly accept the award:
-fewer than 1 in 3 FOIA requests to the administration were answered and those that were took far longer to process.
-the Obama justice department aggressively prosecuted federal whistle-blowers who were exposing wrong-doing.
-Obama's aids meet with lobbyists daily, just outside Whitehouse grounds so they can keep the meetings off the appointment books and don't have to report them.

Of course the fawning, lapdog media will report the award ceremony as much deserved, despite the fact that Obama is more guarded and interacts with the press less than any President in my memory. If only we had a media that pretended to do it's job, things would be very different in America.

Twitter might abandon SanFrancisco

Twitter is currently located in San Francisco, but not for long if the city council insists on collecting a 1.5% occupational tax for the privilege of working there. The council is debating on whether to grant Twitter a 6 year waiver in order to keep it from moving south a few miles to Brisbane where there is no occupational tax.

This encapsulates perfectly what is wrong with the US when it comes to capitalism and economic viability. Smarmy politicians think that all money belongs to them and they're doing you a favor by letting you keep some of what you earned. Punitive taxes and onerous regulations, not corporate greed, are what have driven jobs outside the country to places like Mexico, China, and India. Companies and people are leaving high-tax states in favor of low tax states where the business environment is more friendly. You'd think the high-tax states would learn eventually, but they won't. They'll just keep raising taxes on those that are left.

Adrian Peterson plays the slavery card.....jumps the shark

Crybaby Adrian Peterson, Vikings running back, who makes $10.72million a year in base salary, is comparing the plight of NFL players to slavery. (You can stop laughing now. Apparently he's serious.)

He thinks that the NFL owners are making too much money for themselves and not sharing enough of it. That's the basis for the players going on strike, possibly cancelling the 2011 season.

Stupid NFL players who are looking for sympathy from ordinary citizens, who pay their lavish salaries and who are struggling to put gas in their cars and food on their tables, probably are barking up the wrong tree. When it costs $500 to take a family of four to a football game, it's hard to identify with players' demand for more money, knowing that the fans will be paying more for tickets to give it to them.

The One tackles the really hard problems

President Obama is just as lazy with his NCAA tournament picks as he is being President. For the third year, in a silly stunt for ESPN, the leader of the free world wasted taxpayers' money making his picks for the Final Four....he chose all #1 seeds to make it.

Civil war is about to descend on Libya and Qaddafi is slaughtering his own people, violent protest in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain threaten the world oil supply, Iran and Israel confront each other over arms shipments to Gaza, our own economy teeters on the brink of utter disaster, we're hemorraging money for no apparent reason in Iraq and Afghanistan, and worst of all, Japan is in the worst crisis ever....earthquake, tsunami, aftershocks, radiation leaks, volcano eruption, food shortages, rolling blackouts, and freezing temps with no shelter for tens of thousand homeless. Plus, our government flirts with a shutdown every week. In the midst of all this world and domestic turmoil, our President has time for golf, 3D movie screenings, and a stupid basketball tournament.

"But Ed", you wrongly point out, "Obama can't do anything about these world events so why shouldn't he kill time amusing himself"?

I agree that he can't do anything personally, but his diddling around with trivial amusements while people are suffering just looks bad. It's as if these things are distractions from the important stuff...his golf game, partying with celebrities, and looking cool by filling out his tournament bracket on ESPN. If Bush had played golf, hosted celebrity movie parties, and goofed around on Sports Center during all this, the feckless media would have been calling for impeachment for dereliction of duty during a crisis, but it's cool for Obama to do it.

What does this guy do all day?

RIP FRANK BUCKLES

Rest in Peace Frank. You deserve it and may God bless your family. Today is a sad day in the country, and sadly most people are just getting ready to party on St. Patrick's Day. Today we are burying the last soldier from WW1. He was 110. Today Arlington Cemetery receives a veteran and we lose a patriot, something that we desperately need more of. I don't know the aforementioned Frank Buckles, but I wish him Godspeed and I wish his family grace a peace in this time of separation. He will be missed by you as a parent, grandparent, etc. But he will be truly missed by this country as one of the men that stood up against tyranny and injustice. A man that set aside his life to travel around the world to fight - just because the country felt it needed to as protection for our freedoms. A generation of Americans that believed in this country and put it before their lives( something that is missing today for the most part). Maybe some of our so called current statesmen could take a look at your sacrifices and step up to the plate and truly become statesmen. If it weren't for the true military guys and gals out there, we would have a minimal number of patriots around. Goodbye Frank, You and your generation will be missed.

Some people have more money than sense

If you are one of those ultracompetitive parents who thinks that the pre-school where your caterwauling brat wets himself every day, will determine his eligibility for Harvard.....be ashamed of yourself....be very ashamed!

From DailyMail -- A Manhattan mother is suing her four-year-old daughter's preschool amid claims it deprived the child of the edge needed to get into an elite elementary.

Nicole Imprescia, said she paid $19,000 in annual tuition fees to York Avenue Preschool and now wants it back, according to the lawsuit filed last week.

Would you expect anything less stupid from a woman named Imprescia?

Punk kid gets an attitude adjustment

The most satisfying video clips are the ones involving some puke of a kid getting what he deserves courtesy of another kid....



That punk won't be picking on anybody else for a while....or walking correctly for that matter. And what better way to exit the scene after delivering an ass-whipping than to just turn and walk away?

The spoils of war

Having solved all the other problems facing Texas, this legislator has decided to demand that Mexico return a flag it won fair and square at the Alamo....

From MySanAntonio -- A Houston-area legislator is seeking the return, at least temporarily, of the only flag known to have flown at the Alamo in 1836.

State Rep. John Zerwas said the Alamo's Long Barrack Museum would be an ideal place to display the New Orleans Greys flag, which has been housed at the Museo Nacional de Historia in Mexico City.

This is about the stupidest idea I've heard in a while. Mexico kicked our butts at the Alamo and to the victor go the spoils of war. We have no right to ask for it back.

Opportunists

The anti-growth and prosperity lobby has been handed two golden opportunities in the past year.  Being opportunists, they have run with them.  The hysterical media have been invaluable allies.

The Gulf oil leak was first.  Remember the dire predictions?  The Gulf would be a dead sea for centuries.  The oil would go around Florida, devastate the Eastern seaboard and continue to Ireland.  I remember seeing those computer generated maps.  Obama did what he wanted to do anyway and couldn't beforehand, shut down exploration. Some people still won't visit the pristine Gulf beaches or eat the seafood.

Now comes the once in a millennium earthquake and tsunami.  10,000 dead, maybe more.  $35 billion insured loss.  What do the media fixate on?  The nuclear power plants that are mostly doing what they are designed to do - contain the radioactivity.  I hear Cong. Markey on TV calling for a moratorium.  Sound familiar?  I see guys on TV talking "meltdown" and radioactive cloud all the way to the US.  "We're all going to die!"

I grew up in the era of above ground nuclear testing, as did everyone over 50.   Most of us are quite healthy - the healthiest in world history in fact.  The radioactivity from those tests was orders of magnitude higher that what has leaked from the Japanese nukes.  Grow up, world!

Econ 101

Some dope in the WSJ wrote an article wondering why this Givenchy Pierrot T-shirt had a price tag at $800?

He interviewed the store owner who offered as excuses for the price, the cotton blend of which the T-shirt is made, the attractive and seasonally popular leopard print, the exclusivity of the designer, and that only a few hundred of these will be made.

While each of these plays a role in selling the T-shirt, it's the mutually beneficial agreement between the seller and the buyer that sets the price. Obviously at $800 there are people who want the T-shirt more than they want that $800 burning a hole in their pocket, while the seller wants the money more than he wants to keep the shirt. Without this freely agreed upon deal between buyer and seller, the transaction does not take place.

Less erudite people than TRR readers will scoff that the seller is greedy or the buyer is stupid, but neither of these is provably true. Buyers and sellers acting in their own interest agree on a price for an item and a transaction is made. That's how successful economies work.....efficiently allocating resources within the consumer-equilibrating framework of supply, demand, and price.

The next time you whine about the price of something not government related, remember that somebody must be willing to pay it, or else the price would be lower, and your refusal to pay it exerts downward pressure on the price.

The unreasonable creep of the police state

In Australia, two men were arrested after cops observed them "behaving suspiciously", searched their suitcases, and seized the $2.5million they were carrying.

I'll bet the US police have the same "suspicious behavior" standard that the Aussies have.
Questions if this happened in the US: Why is it illegal to carry around a lot of money? What constitutes "suspicious behavior" to the point that it justifies a personal search? What evidence do the cops have that the money is illegal? Don't the cops have to show reasonable cause before they confiscate for themselves, money belonging to other people?

This is the problem that I have with the $10,000 banking transaction law. If you deposit, withdraw, or otherwise make a transaction of 10K or more, there is automatically a red flag with the IRS goons as well as law enforcement that allows them to investigate you for the possibility of you being a drug dealer. You don't have to have done anything wrong. Merely the handling or possession of a lot of cash constitutes reasonable cause in the US now. I think that's wrong.

The religion of peace claims more victims

4 year old Elad who along with her two siblings and parents were stabbed to death by barbaric Muslims of the Palestinian variety.

From FoxNews -- A Jewish couple and three of their children were stabbed to death in bed in a West Bank settlement in what Israeli officials said Saturday was an attack by one or more Palestinians who broke into their home.

For those who try absurdly to claim that the fighting between the Israelis and Palestinians is bilateral or mutual or some other such nonsense, show me where Israelis slaughtered in cold blood, an entire Palestinian family while they slept. I don't care what your position is on West Bank settlements, this is unacceptable in the modern world. Palestinians have shown over and over that they are little more than primitive savages willingly used as pawns by Iran, Syria, and other anti-Zionist states to fuel their hatred of Israel.

Israel has a history of returning violence on Palestinian attackers with 10-fold viciousness. When they find these people, look out. I hope it's painful.

Test failing is OK if it helps to fill race quotas

The "post-racial" President and his racist attorney general, Eric Holder, forced the Dayton, Ohio police department to lower their testing standards for hiring new policemen. It seems not enough blacks passed the tests so the results were thrown out.

From DaytonDailyNews -- The original passing scores determined by Civil Service required candidates to answer 57 of 86 (66 percent) questions correctly on one portion and 73 of 102 (72 percent) on the other. The lowered benchmark requires candidates to answer 50 of 86 (58 percent) questions correctly and 64 of 102 (63 percent) of questions on the other.

Absurdly, the new standard for passing is actually failing. To its credit, the Dayton chapter of the NAACP came out against the lowering of standards just to fill a perceived racial quota, determined by the Obama justice department. Even they see how wrong that practice is. Remember this is the same justice department whose policy it is NOT to pursue race-based complaints if the defendants are black. There is a pattern in this administration of preferential treatment for minorities, which undermines the concept of fairness and equal protection under the law....concepts that are guaranteed by the Constitution.

Ironically Obama, the "post-racial uniter" as the media sold him to us, has done more to contribute to disunity among the races than any one else I can think of.

Japan's earthquake changed the mass distribution of Earth

To appreciate the awesome power of plate-tectonics, look no further than the data that show the entire island of Japan moved nearly 3 meters to the east as a result of the 9.0 earthquake. Additionally, because of the redistribution of mass, the Earth is spinning on it's axis 1.2microseconds faster than before the quake. A microsecond is 1millionth of a second, so it's not that big a deal, but still, any change in the Earth's distribution of mass because of naturally occurring phenomena is a sobering reminder of how insignificant we humans are. We're basically along for the ride and have absolutely no control whatsoever in our destiny, despite the silly pleadings of dumb environmentalists.

Contrast Japanese disaster survivors with Katrina survivors

Has anybody else noticed the differences between how the survivors of the Japanese earthquake have behaved themselves and how the Katrina survivors behaved themselves? Sure, you might say that the Japanese society and culture are more homogeneous so they all react similarly to the same event, but the Katrina victims were pretty homogeneous too....for the most part they were all dependent on government for pretty much every thing, resentful of those who have more, they feel entitled to that which they have not earned....etc.

No, this is more basic in terms of individual morals and personal codes of decent behavior, respect, and civility. Watch videos and news coverage of the shelters. People are waiting patiently in line for food and blankets and saying respectful thank-you's to the rescue workers. They are maintaining the normal civility and social respect with which they treat each other every day. I have to say, it's kind of embarrassing to observe the dignity, character, and etiquette with which the Japanese conduct themselves during such a life-changing tragedy, against the context of degeneracy, selfishness, and blame with which we Americans conducted ourselves in similar circumstances.

Eco-retards blame earthquake in Japan on global warming

You knew it was only a matter of time before the global-warming nutjobs found a way to blame man for the earthquake in Japan. Here are a few examples of the deranged rantings left by stupid, hippie lunatics over at DailyCaller...

“I’m worried that Japan earthquake, on top of other recent natural ‘disasters’, is a sign we’ve passed point of no return for climate change.”

MrVikas said “Events like the #Japan #earthquake and #tsunami MUST keep #climate change at forefront of policy thought:

Tayyclayy noted her frustration by tweeting “An earthquake with an 8.9 magnitude struck Japan.. And some say climate change isn’t real?!”

DanFranklin postulated “Never really believed all this global warming talk, but after the earthquake in NZ and today in Japan. Maybe we’ve ruined the world.”

Have you ever read anything so stupid? Like Rush Limbaugh said today, after witnessing the awesome, destructive power of mother nature in Japan, it's a wonder we as humans make it through each day at all.

Since the whole global warming ruse is now known to be totally false, activists who depend on it to eek out their livings must rely on ever more outrageous natural phenomenon to falsely blame on climate change.

The Wealth of Nations was published 235 years ago today

Did anybody wonder why I used the quote from Adam Smith at the top of the page? Well, it's the 235th anniversary of the publishing of The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith used the term, "the invisible hand" to describe how self-interest, competition, and supply and demand are perfectly capable, without coercion from government, of allocating resources in society and creating wealth for individuals without harming the economic situations of others. He is generally credited with bringing economic theory into the modern dialogue and it is the natural relationship between self-interest, competition, and supply-and-demand that frames the basis for the current economic model of America. It is what has made the US into the greatest economic force ever, on Earth. It's also what liberals detest about our economic model.....there's no need for government meddling and therefore no need for liberals to redirect resources toward those citizens who're more likely to vote for them.

Anyway, take a moment today to appreciate our excellent economic system and how it must be preserved with as little government interference as possible if we want to pull ourselves out of the mess in which our craven political class has enslaved us.

Biggest earthquake ever to hit Japan.....8.9!

In case you're one of those dumb Americans who's obsessed with Charlie Sheen and you get your news from Entertainment Tonight, you've probably heard about the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan over night. Here's some of the early footage of the tsunami coming ashore and washing everything away.....



For those who don't know, the Richter scale is on a base10 logarithmic scale which means that a 5.0 earthquake isn't 20% stronger than a 4.0, it's 10 times stronger. 8.9 is the strongest earthquake ever measured in Japan.....EVER! And it's on the top 5 on Earth for all time since we started measuring them.

If you watch some of the video closely of the wave crashing through that town, you can make out people running and riding motorcycles down streets searching for a route to get ahead of the wave.....scary!

And as always, the US Navy stands ready and prepared to lend assistance how ever it can.

Uniions are bad for America, public-sector unions are a complete and utter disaster for America

Why are conservatives so opposed to public-sector employees bargaining collectively for salary and benefits deals? Two reasons:

One: unionization distorts the labor market by introducing extortion into the negotiations. By threatening the company with shutdowns, the union can drive up wages and benefits up to absurd levels, far past what that labor market would otherwise bear. Contrary to popular liberal dogma, employees are nothing more than tools the board of directors and managers use to make as big a profit as possible for the stockholders. They are no more important than the machines on the factory floor....probably less valuable when you think about it.

Two: unionized public employees essentially negotiate with politicians for salary and benefit deals. Neither has a stake in the money over which they wrangle. They are negotiating with other peoples' money. Democrat politicians give unions sweetheart employment deals, and in return the unions literally re-elect and then bribe those politicians with union dues. It's an incestuous circle of corruption and the taxpayers are forced to fund it all, without a say so.

The last gasp for Wisconsins public unions

Dumb, hippie kids who apparently don't have anything better to do, like got to class or a job, continued to stink up the Wisconsin capital building as republican legislators rightly voted to seriously restrict the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

The temper tantrum pitched by the petulant, infant-like teachers and assorted, liberal band-wagoneers has been covered by the media as a righteous, popular uprising of honest citizens. If tea-partiers had behaved like this, the media would have been calling for an armed response from police to tamp down the dangerous, Neanderthal conservatives. But not a cross media word has been spoken toward the protesters or their democrat standard-bearers who're still cowering in Illinois.

I swear, the media in this country find new ways every day to plumb the depths of hypocrisy and fecklessness. I despise the despicable, main-stream media for refusing to cover this story in any way resembling fairness or even handedness.

The Sheen ridicule continues

Heh heh....we're going to be treated to a plethora of jokes at Charlie Sheen's expense for a while.

An eye for an eye

I don't blame this guy....

From FoxNews -- The father of a 5-year-old boy killed in 1975 is vowing to murder his son's killer if he is released, as scheduled, several years early from a 40-year sentence.

John Foreman said in an interview Monday with WPRO-AM radio that he will kill convicted murderer Michael Woodmansee "as aggressively and as painfully" as he killed his son if Woodmansee is released from prison early.

I would have precisely the same intent as this father, but I wouldn't announce it to anybody beforehand. This way if anything ever happens to the perp, the father will get blamed. The satisfaction of killing the man who murdered your son is between you and him. You want him to know why you are killing him as you twist the knife in his guts, but everybody else doesn't need to know. How does the murderer of a child get only 40 years and then get a reduced sentence for good behavior anyway?

This dad needs to recon the perp's schedule, establish an elaborate alibi, kill the guy in private, then return to his life. I doubt the cops would look very hard for his killer anyway. Either way, I'd do the same thing. If it comes to it, I wish him good luck and good hunting.

Hey Wisconsin teachers, your mom doesn't work here

In the aftermath of petulant, infant-like teachers in Wisconsin trashing their own state capital, the estimates for cleaning up behind them are coming in. According to one, the cost of repair for the damage done by the derelict squatters will be in the $7.5million range.

Personally I'm dubious of that number but they say the damage to the marble floor will be extremely costly to repair nevertheless.

By contrast, the estimates for cleaning up after tea-party activists, whose rally numbers dwarf those of Wisconsin teachers, is precisely $0. After all, progressive teachers believe every job is some one elses' responsibility, never their own. Tea-party people pick up after themselves, the way responsible adults are wont to do.

Common sense 1 - Union bosses 0

 POSTED BY BILL


Unionized employees of Lockheed Martin at the Marietta, GA plant voted this weekend against going on strike against the plant.   The plant has been in operation since WW 2, when it produced Bell versions of Boeing's war-winning B-29.  Since then, over 2300 C-130's have been built, up to the -J version of today.  The last examples of the finest air supremacy fighter in the world, the F-22, is built there.  C-141's and C-5 were all built there and the C-5's are being modernized with new engines.

Amazingly, in a state with over 10% official unemployment, union bosses urged their member to GO ON STRIKE! 

Gratifyingly, the union member showed far more common sense, and voted to continue to work for good pay and benefits.

Liars and crooks, all of them!

Here's HHS Kathleen Sebelius trying to explain to a congressional subcommittee how the same $500million can be used for two different purposes....trying and failing....



The administration's own accountant is telling them they can't fund Obamacare by the same $500M that they also claim to use to fund Medicare, yet Sebilius did precisely that. Outright fraud is how Obama sold dumb Americans and media socialists on Obamacare. Fraud to the tune of half a trillion dollars.

By a show of hands, who here still doesn't think the Obama administration is staffed with liars, cheats, and scumbags? OK, that's one, two.....everybody! And there are still democrats and almost all the media who continue to shove America toward the cliff by advancing the Obamacare agenda despite these accounting shenanigans and lies.

Conservatives.........stop already with the moralizing!

If Mike Huckabee wants to be President, he's going to have to avoid Dan Quayle moments....

From USMagazine -- “[O]ne of the things that’s troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman who boasts, ‘We’re not married but we’re having these children and they’re doing just fine,” Huckabee told Michael Medved. “I think it gives a distorted image. It’s unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of-wedlock children.”

Two points:

One - Huck is right. Our cultural glorification of single parenthood has contributed to a shocking number of single-parent households and unwed mothers caring for children they alone cannot afford to raise. Single parenthood is the single biggest indicator for poverty. Greater than dropping out of high school or drug use. So culturally Huck is correct to question our celebration of single motherhood but.....and that brings me to point two.

Two - the amoral media and democrats will love to hit that hanging curve ball right out of the park, just like they did when Dan Quayle criticized Murphy Brown for the same thing. It may not be right, but that's political reality in America.

Any conservative candidate must stay as far away from morality and social issues as he can or his campaign will get bogged down defending what the media will portray as self-righteous moralizing, judgementalism, and hostility toward single parents. That's something democrats never have to defend because democrats are happily on the record as being amoral in general. I mean how can a party that defended Bill Clinton claim to be even slightly moral?

Moreover, there are bigger problems to solve in America than dopey Hollywood actresses having babies with men they are about to marry. If any of these guys has a chance of beating The One, they'll have to be careful to stay away from the social conservative agenda. Nobody cares about that stuff when their jobs are disappearing, taxes are being raised, cost of living is sky-rocketing, and lives being threatened by terrorists around the world.

The hostile media are going to bash these guys enough as it is, they don't need to hand them the bat to do it with.

Even our rockets refuse to embrace the imaginary menace called global warming

Even hardware knows what stupid global-warming zealots refuse to accept.....man-made climate change doesn't exist.....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean after a failed launch attempt Friday, the second-straight blow to NASA's weakened environmental monitoring program.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off early Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring satellite two years ago with the same type of rocket.

Heh heh....stupid global warming activists continue to convince NASA to study a wholly imaginary phenomenon rather than actually explore space and aggressively colonize other planets like Mars. That this is the second utter disaster in the effort to document global warming on behalf of Gaea-worshiping hippies and pandering democrats should give the new congress pause before shoveling more money in the direction of NASA.

"Useless" F-22 invulnerable to Libya air defense system

POSTED BY BILL

The quote below is from someone who wants to remain unidentified.  It was sent out with a note from the president of the Air Force Association and represents part of a response to a question about a "no-fly zone" over Libya.  Remember that SecDef Gates and others killed the F-22 by arguing the non-sequitur that it "hadn't been used in Iraq or Afghanistan" as if those operations represented all future military challenges to our country.

I am not advocating a "no-fly zone" or not in this post.  I do know our President Obama is making us look weak by acting as if there is nothing we can do, while the Brits and Germans fly uninvited into Libya to rescue their citizens instead of chartering a ferry.

"the air defense system could not threaten the F-22.  The Libyans have older systems.  The network is integrated for a common radar picture.  However, their aircraft are older -- mostly Mig 21s and Mig 23s with some light attack/trainers and some ground attack aircraft.  The Surface to Air missiles are also older SA-2s, SA-3s (Viet Nam era) and about 50 SA-6s.  The latter are lethal to almost all aircraft except for the F-22. "

Thursday tunes

I just discovered this indie rock band from LA. They are Foster the People. Check 'em out....

Ted Kennedy continues to loot taxpayers from the grave

We already knew that Ted Kennedy was a misogynistic, degenerate lush who was directly responsible for at least one girl's death while in his company. A death for which he was not held responsible in any way. We also knew that TK spend his entire career taking money from those who earned it, giving it to those who refused to earn, then taking full, personal credit for the generosity.

Now FOIA briefs have revealed that in the 60's he rented out an entire brothel in Chile' for his personal entertainment, while there to meet with the "angry young men" in that country. By "angry young men" he meant communist rabble rousers. I doubt the tax-payer-funded Edward M. Kennedy Institute will make mention of it, though opening a whore-house in his name would probably bring in more tourism than it will otherwise.

This guy wasn't a President. Why do the taxpayers have to fund a monument to him? His family has billions, but to be consistent with the liberal doctrine that defined Kennedy's life, it's the taxpayers' responsibility to pay for everything, not private donors. His wife clamors for more tax-payer money to this day to pay for his stupid shrine.

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.