A True Hero

(from American Thinker)


Navy pilot steadies his plane in order to let his crew bail out. He dies, going down with the plane.

Full article here.

Quotes:

The starboard propeller shut down, causing the plane to become unstable and plunge. Zilberman ordered his three crew mates, including the co-pilot, to bail. He manually held the plane as steady as possible so they could jump.

"He held the plane level for them to do so, despite nearly uncontrollable forces. His three crewmen are alive today because of his actions," Navy Rear Adm. Philip S. Davidson wrote to Zilberman's parents.

Latest Hubble Pic

The Hubble apparently still works, and is giving us some amazing photos of deep space...

From the site:

Hubble's 20th anniversary image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising in the Carina Nebula. The top of a three-light-year tall pillar of cool hydrogen is being worn away by the radiation of nearby stars, while stars within the pillar unleash jets of gas that stream from the peaks.

The New Secret Robot Rocket

Kerosene??? Hydrogen peroxide??? Is this a secret mission to go camping and kill bacteria?

The new "X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle", recently launched into space.
Apparently, it's shuttle-like: it'll return to earth.

The science is not settled

MIT professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen (yes, they study climate, not meteors) in the WSJ today:

That is to say, the issue relevant to policy is far from settled. Nonetheless, the letter concludes: "Our academies will provide the scientific backdrop for the political and business leaders who must create effective policies to steer the world toward a low-carbon economy." In other words, the answer is settled even if the science is not.

***

But it is unwise to assume that those who have carved out agendas to exploit the issue will simply let go without a battle. One can only hope that the climate alarmists will lose so that we can go back to dealing with real science and real environmental problems such as assuring clean air and water. The latter should be an appropriate goal for Earth Day.

We pause now for a brief but true Zombie Story

WE ZOMBIES

by Jonathan Grey Chapman

There I was again; about to kill. Damn me to hell; damn me.

But then I guess I was already damned. Isn’t that what a zombie is? Damned?

... continued on the web site...

America the Peach; Obamaism the Fungus

The real story of the Story of Stuff

Look, I'm not a materialist nor a consumerist. I think many people spend far more than they should, in terms of spending beyond their means and buying simply too much stuff.

But that does not mean I want some statist telling me how much of anything I can buy. And we as a nation are doing a decent job of improving everything we do in order to be easier on the environment. So there.

So watch this, if you're interested in countering some enviro-propaganda...

America, The last and best hope...

America's liberals have never learned to look at life through the prisms of contrast, comparison, and context. If they would honestly compare our country to ancient Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, or to Ottoman Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Russia, Britain, and France, then they would have to conclude that America was and is the least imperialistic power in recorded history.
- Edward Glick, at American Thinker

Full article here - short, and great.

The One-Man Revolution in New Jersey

There are 700,000 more Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey, but the voters appear to have had enough of the Democrat-Public Employee Union control of the state. Check out what Gov. Chris Christie is doing in NJ...

George Will: Bringing Thunderous change to New Jersey

Some facts from the article:

• An estimated $70 billion in wealth has left New Jersey after taxes have been raised 115 times in the last 8 years (and you thought taxing the "rich" would always bring in more revenue!)
• The new Governor has immediately enacted spending freezes, closing the $2 billion budget gap (have you ever noticed that the $20 billion California budget gap is always referred to as insurmountable, or otherwise impossible to reduce? It's not impossible - just cut $20 billion in spending. It's very possible.)
• Property taxes have increased 70% in just 10 years

Stock talk: AAPL's revenue sources

Great info from Business Insider.

The disaster that is Illinois; Chicago-style run amok

Unbelievable.

Chicago-led Illinois democrats (mainly) have spent $500 Billion since 2003.
$500 billion, with a "b". How is that even possible?

Worse yet, there is no real accounting for this money. This is a huge scandal, if the voters of Illinois care enough about it to pursue it. We'll see.

One road project alone came in $375 million over budget.

Illinois now has a $13 billion budget deficit and is $200 billion in debt, including pensions.

Full story here.

Happy (God Created The) Earth Day!

VDH: An Age of Untruth

And now, the always-awesome Victor Davis Hanson - my Central Valley homeboy.

Read the full article here: An Age of Untruth

Some incredibly great quotes from the article...

O Ye of Little Memory! Do we recall any American shock when the Guardian published Charles Brooker’s lament — “John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. — where are you now that we need you?” And I don’t recall anyone felt that language was getting too heated when Howard Dean, head of the Democratic Party, fumed, “I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for.” And was it not The New Republic that highlighted Jonathan Chait’s infamous “Why I Hate George W. Bush” article? Of course, there was that thoroughly civil New York play, “I’m Gonna Kill the President.”

***

The real diversity — that of differences in thinking and independence of opinion — was hardly welcome, and any sort of call for such genuine diversity of thought was seen as hostile and sometimes had to be dubbed “reactionary,” “racist,” “homophobic,” “sexist,” etc.

So we ended up with “diversity” meaning “university” — a synonym for monolithic intolerance, for everyone worshiping “diversity” without exception. If that seems harsh, it is also the way things are.

***
There is no such thing as an easy, fuzzy notion of instant money creating economic growth. Instead it is a euphemism not for borrowing, but for massive borrowing and unsustainable debt. Indeed, note that we do not even use words like “borrowing” or “debt,” but instead prefer “deficit” (e.g., It’s only a year-to-year thing) and “stimulus” (e.g., spending what we don’t have somehow makes us richer in the future).

***
Do not believe that “illegal alien” is necessarily a hurtful or inexact term. Everyone who crosses the border without proper authorization is both doing something “illegal” (not a mere “infraction”), and is an alien (not a U.S. citizen; “alien” = “not of this place”.) When I lived in Greece in the 1970s, I was an alien; had I overstayed my visa, or accepted work without proper documentation, I would have been an illegal alien.

So what is illegal immigration? For most, it is a desperate attempt by the poor of Latin America to find a better life in America, made all the more attractive because postmodern America has no confidence in its institutions and thus asks little of its immigrants in accepting our own culture.

And for us, the hosts?

For the corporation it is a way to profit, masked in libertarian apologetics, of letting the market adjudicate labor costs without government interference.

For the racial tribalist it is payback for the Mexican War of two centuries prior.

For the liberal machine, it is an instant way through serial amnesty to hook a block constituency and redraw the electoral map of the American Southwest.

You can't wish it away: Iranian Nukes coming to a shore near you

Have you ever noticed that only the truly psycho regimes parade their missiles in public? The Soviets did this. Saddam did this. The Iranians and North Koreans love to do this. Nuts.

And what, exactly, is a lethal response to a country like Iran if they were to attack us first with a nuclear weapon? Do you obliterate Iran's cities? We could no doubt do this with ease. But what would be the point - killing all those innocent people, most of whom probably hate the mullahs anyway.

The answer is, there is no satisfactory response.

So the only solution to this problem is... a preemptive strike. Avoid nuclear war in the first place.

This new story coming out of our own Defense Department may finally force the hand of the U.S.: Iran may be able to reach us with a missile in 5 years. They'll be capable of producing a nuclear weapon before then - so all that's left is to figure out how to put that on a missile, and we have ourselves a new cold war with a culture and religion we can't even comprehend. At least in the good ol' days of the Cold War we knew Russia wouldn't sacrifice her existence to make nuclear war with us. There is no guarantee of that with Iran, whose leaders seem to be of the suicide bomber mentality.

The West spent half a decade denying and ignoring the threat of Hitler. And none of the wishing away, the peace movements, the hope, the negotiations, and the signed treaties - none of it prevented the largest war this world has ever seen.

Romney, putative Repub frontrunner - Obamacare originator

O'RomneyCare? Rom-bamaCare?

Before there was ObamaCare, there was RomneyCare.
The man who would again be a Republican candidate for president enacted a "health care" bill in his state that has all of the main features of the recently enacted federal bill.

I think Romney just made the "no way" list for me for the primaries.

If he can run Norway with an iPad, just think what you could do...

The Prime Minister of Norway is stuck in NY City due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

And Mr. Savvy is running his biz with his iPad. Now that's just way too cool.

What day of the year do you stop working for Big Government?

If you live in California, the answer is April 14.
There, now you're free to earn some money for yourself and your family.




Source: Tax Foundation

(Prog)Rock On...

you can own the rich tasty goodness here.

Gov't Spending OUT OF CONTROL!!!

Remember, the chart below shows inflation-adjusted dollars - not 1965 dollars.
So indeed the chart shows government spending per household has tripled!!!!



(hat tip: Rep. Paul Ryan on his Facebook blog)


And by the way, household income has only grown 30% or so in roughly the same amount of time:

Californians, here's where the money goes

Taken from the California Governor's budget for 2010-2011:

click to enlarge

Thank God for the Frozen Chosin

Chosin from GI Film Festival on Vimeo.

Victor Davis Hanson: We'd have laughed if Obama ran on what he's done

"Nonetheless, until now we had not in the postwar era seen a true man of the Left who was committed to changing America into a truly liberal state. Indeed, had Barack Obama run on the agenda he actually implemented during his first year in office — “Elect me and I shall appoint worthies like Craig Becker, Anita Dunn, and Van Jones; stimulate the economy through a $1.7-trillion annual deficit; take over health care, the auto industry, student loans, and insurance; push for amnesty for illegal aliens and cap-and-trade; and reach out to Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela” — he would have been laughed out of Iowa. "
- Victor Davis Hanson

Read this awesome article in its entirity here.

More quotes:

Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice were not paradigms of racial equality, as we once assumed. The new correct protocol of unity and togetherness is not to ignore race but to accentuate difference whenever possible. Thus we have a uniter and his flock talking of a “typical white person,” of white country folk who “cling” to their fears and superstitions, of “cowards” who refuse to discuss racial matters, of a “wise Latina,” of police who “stereotype” and act “stupidly,” and of polluters and high-school mass-murderers identified as typically “white.” In place of real civil-rights marches, we have psychodramas where congressmen wade into a crowd of protestors in search of a televised slur. To this president, the tea-partiers are sexually slurred “tea-baggers,” in his Manichean worldview of opponents to whom we are “to get in their faces” and “bring a gun” to their knife fight — all as we praise “unity,” “bipartisanship,” and “working across the aisle.”

Why They're Called "The Drive-by Media"

The major media pick up and run with a story that they want to believe. It just has to be true to them. Except, sometimes the story is not true at all. But it's too late. That damage has already been done, and their goal of tearing down their enemies a little bit more is accomplished.
And they wonder why their audience ratings are dropping as fast as a dead insect.

There is still no evidence that the n-word or spitting occurred on the day of the singing of the "health care" bill. Yet I bet if you asked the average person, they'd say that someone from the Tea Party protesters did just those things.

Well, you can go right to the source - the congressman who made the accusations and is now backing off of them. He is a liar, and should be censured for it. It's shame he uses the banner of civil rights as protection for his virulent lying.

Full story here at the American Thinker: Spittlegate.

Half of the US do not pay taxes

This is not really news! OK, so the percentage has gone up, but this is not news. However, as a reminder...

50% or so of income earners in our country do not pay any income taxes, and in fact, a good percentage of those actually get money from the government (that's right, not only do they not pay income taxes, they actually get money from the government in the form of credits).

The top 10% of earners pay 70% of the tax. Other than that, the rich sure need to "pay their fair share."

Full story here.

And while you're thinking about this, think about this:
Alan Reylnolds: The rich can't pay for ObamaCare.

He explains the myriad ways in which top income earners simply escape, avoid or otherwise stop paying taxes when the rates get too high. And there's no way Obama is going to get the $1.2 Trillion in extra taxes out of the rich. Ain't a gonna happen.

Come to Sunny Kyrgystan!

not the best picture put out by the Ministry of Tourism...



You know - Kyrgystan! Right next to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Ring a bell? No?

Well then, you need to visit the CIA World Factbook.

Watch out, Whitney...

Dick Morris: Repubs will take back BOTH houses...

Full article @ Towhall.com here.

"Presaging the Republican sweep that looms ahead is the shift in the party ratings on various issues. Rasmussen has the Republicans ahead by 49-37 on the economy and 53-37 on health care. His likely voter poll shows GOP leads on every major issue area: national security (49-37), Iraq (47-39), education (43-30), immigration (47-34), Social Security (48-36) and taxes (52-34).

When Republicans are winning issues like education, health care and Social Security -- normally solidly Democratic issues -- a sweep of unimaginable proportions is in the offing."

Wow! Boy, do those Iranians love us now!

See? All of our liberal-persuasion friends were correct. If we only got Bush out of office, the Iranians would love us. We'd talk to them. They'd no longer hate us because the cowboy would be gone.

From Reuters...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who Wednesday called President Barack Obama a nuclear-armed "cowboy", said Iran would "try to make an opportunity out of sanctions" rather than change its stance to avoid them.

This is what it feels like...

every time the liberals pass some legislation...

You've got to hear Roger Ailes speak...

This guy is considered the Great Satan by liberal pundits.
You've probably never heard him speak before.
At least watch this clip - he's the most down-to-earth, forthright, commonsense speaker I've heard.

Roger Ailes on Uncommon Knowledge

Mr. Ailes is the reason behind a lot of successful ventures - including Fox News, which now totally dominates their class of programming. You'll find out some fascinating things about how he runs Fox News.

Quotes:
On his view of government:

"The American people have got to understand that everything government does costs money and there are only two ways to get it: their wallet or to print it. And if they print it, it reduces the amount of money in your wallet."

On the failure of big government policies in big cities:

"Every time you have a poverty city you have a one-party government - Chicago, Newark."

The whole series can be found here: scroll down to see the Ailes episodes.

Forget The Economy Killing VAT - Try a Flat Tax

Politicians need money and power in order to get elected - which gives them more money and power. Not trying to sound overly cynical - but most of what these guys do is create legislation that allows for tax loopholes for their causes and donors. The power to do this (shower money on or remove taxes from certain constituents) is what gets politicians donations.
So how could this cycle ever be broken? I've got some ideas there, but more on that later.

For now, one can at least imagine...

The Most Dangerious Jobs

OK, now we know what the most dangerous jobs are...
- any political job for a black conservative
- any acting job for a hollywood conservative

But here is a more realworld snapshot of job danger:

The obligatory and depressing post on California schools

We have a great school in our humble district of 5 schools. Excellent district.
But when looked at on the state level, there's not a lot of positive things happening.

Quotes from The Economist: From bad to worse

California’s 8th-graders (14-year-olds), for example, ranked 46th in maths last year. Only Alabama, Mississippi and the District of Columbia did worse.

The California Teachers Association (CTA) is the biggest lobby in the state, having spent some $210m in the past decade—more than any other group— to intervene in California’s politics.

But although schools account for the largest part of California’s budget, California entered the recession ranking 46th in spending per pupil. It has the largest classrooms in the country, with 23.4 students per teacher in 2008, almost twice the national average. Schools in black and Latino districts fare much worse than those in white areas.

Talk About Original Intent: The Constituion

From the eminent Walter Williams:

James Madison, the acknowledged father of the Constitution, explained in Federalist Paper No. 45: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State."

" Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution lists the activities for which Congress is authorized to tax and spend. Nowhere on that list is authority for Congress to tax and spend for: prescription drugs, Social Security, public education, farm subsidies, bank and business bailouts, food stamps and other activities that represent roughly two-thirds of the federal budget. Neither is there authority for congressional mandates to the states and people about how they may use their land, the speed at which they can drive, whether a library has wheelchair ramps and the gallons of water used per toilet flush. The list of congressional violations of both the letter and spirit of the Constitution is virtually without end. Our derelict Supreme Court has given Congress sanction to do anything upon which they can muster a majority vote."

Full article here.

The iPad: It doesn't run apps - it becomes the app

Well put by TidBits...

In contrast, the iPad becomes the app you're using. That's part of the magic. The hardware is so understated - it's just a screen, really - and because you manipulate objects and interface elements so smoothly and directly on the screen, the fact that you're using an iPad falls away. You're using the app, whatever it may be, and while you're doing so, the iPad is that app. Switch to another app and the iPad becomes that app. If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

Full article here.

iWant the New oPad.

Public Safety Alert: Violent Media Members

A warning about violent media members..

Iowahawk: Journo-Politico Violence: Deadly Threat or Menacing Trend?

Quite hilarious, and a nice long hilarious laundry list of dirty deeds as well.

iCantWait

the ipad is here.