The ◊ Pantheon ◊ Journal

What Media Bias - the Balanced NY Times

2011-04-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

A Must Read: Dependence Day and the decline of the West

2011-01-19T21:47:00.000-08:00

Mark Steyn nails it in this must-read article.

Salient quotes below...

"Continental Europe has given us plenty of nice paintings and agreeable symphonies, French wine and Italian actresses and whatnot, but, for all our fetishization of multiculturalism, you can’t help noticing that when it comes to the notion of a political West—one with a sustained commitment to liberty and democracy—the historical record looks a lot more unicultural and, indeed (given that most of these liberal democracies other than America share the same head of state), uniregal. The entire political class of Portugal, Spain, and Greece spent their childhoods living under dictatorships. So did Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel. We forget how rare on this earth is peaceful constitutional evolution, and rarer still outside the Anglosphere."

...

‎"Within a decade, the United States will be spending more of the federal budget on its interest payments than on its military."

...

"When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the modern British welfare state in 1942, his goal was the “abolition of want,” to be accomplished by “cooperation between the State and the individual.” In attempting to insulate the citizenry from the vicissitudes of fate, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams: Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity. "

...

"Many crimes (in Britain) have been decriminalized (shoplifting, for example), and most crime goes unreported, and most reported crime goes uninvestigated, and most investigated crime goes unsolved, and almost all solved crime merits derisory punishment."

...

"In our time, to be born a citizen of the United States is to win first prize in the lottery of life, and, as Britons did, too many Americans assume it will always be so. Do you think the laws of God will be suspended in favor of America because you were born in it? Great convulsions lie ahead, and at the end of it we may be in a post-Anglosphere world."

"Reverend" Sharpton, The Big Bigot

2010-12-20T23:45:00.000-08:00

Climagte is Far From Over

2010-11-17T22:18:00.001-08:00

Have you forgotten about the sham science and outright fraud behind the "science" of the leading man-made global warming crowd? I haven't.

Great article from American Thinker on how the Washington Post has buried and mis-characterized the whole thing. And how the "investigations" into the fraud were essentially all about covering up the story, and not getting to the truth.
But it's far from over...

Full article here.

Another great article from Atmospheric scientist Fred singer.
Quotes:

Then, on May 13, Nature ran an editorial ("Science subpoenaed") attacking Cuccinelli, and in the process labeled those who dared question Mann's science as "climate-change deniers." That term would seem to include all of us who recognize that for the past two million years, the climate has been changing, dominated by ice ages, interrupted only by brief warm periods; that for the past ten thousand years, the earth has been both warmer and colder than today; and that there was a Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and a Little Ice Age (LIA). Who indeed can deny that climate changes?

...

Fortunately for climate alarmists, the upturned "blade" of the hockey stick is still there, showing rapidly rising temperatures over the past thirty years -- thanks to the valiant efforts of Prof. Phil Jones. We are breathlessly waiting for expert scrutiny of his methods of selecting data from thousands of weather stations to arrive at a single number for "global temperature." Perhaps Jones will reveal the algorithms he devised to "adjust and correct" the raw data. But unfortunately, he did not save the original temperature records; as the saying goes, "The dog ate them."

And who are the Palestinians???

2010-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Let's see - and from whom did Israel take the "Palestinian Territories"? Trans-Jordan. Which quickly became "Jordan" after they no longer straddled both sides of the Jordan river. That was 1967, when the Arabs surrounding Israel tried to destroy Israel and wipe out the Jews. Think about that - they would have created a second Holocaust if they could have. But Israel prevailed, taking some land in the victory - land that had historically been a part of Israel. After that came the creation of a distinct Palestinian people.

Check this quote out:

"The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism."

More here.

The Middle East Problem in 5 Minutes...

2010-11-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

Housing and Bank Crisis - We Had Regulation

2010-11-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Many lame aspersions have been cast at the Republicans and the Bush administration for the housing/banking crisis.

There are lots of factors that went into this crisis. But one of the biggest is how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pumped trillions into the housing market by buying loans from lender originators.

The person put in charge of overseeing Fannie and Freddie did his job. He was shot down by Barnie Frank and the Democrats. Why? Why didn't the Democrats care about all those that would be harmed by the ensuing fallout? Because Fannie and Freddie and their liberal CEO's were powerful, rich donors to the Democrats.

Get what happened? Government-created monsters in Fannie and Freddie owned the government that created them, and their CEO and democrat board members made hundreds of millions in income.

And... here's another one where we can pretty much say Barney Frank is guilty as charged.
Keep in mind the below video quotes Frank at the peak of the housing bubble. And, he's dead wrong - the housing bubble was worse than the dot-com collapse. The bubble involved billions in loads that should have never been made, a radical relaxation of lending standards, and all sorts of shenanigans.

and.. a little more background...

Ooh, Bahney Fwank is Cwanky!!!

2010-11-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

From the Boston Herald...

Sorry, Barney Frank, but you can’t be trusted

and...

Testy Barney Frank incensed, even after big win

I'm The King the World!!! So, use less energy. You, not me.

2010-10-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

So, What Part of Capital Punishment is Ineffective?

2010-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

A man murders someone, serves 14 years, gets out... and kills six more people. 6 more.

See, now here's where I'm thinking that the death penalty, if applied in the first case, would have been 100% effective. And six more people would be alive.

Who are the next 6 who will be murdered because a known murder was released from prison? At what will your argument be if you think the death penalty shouldn't have applied to that murderer?

Ready, Aim, Advertise...

2010-10-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I wonder if Democrats across the country will be copying this ad by a fellow Democrat...

The Fraud Continues...

2010-10-12T00:07:00.000-07:00

The fight still goes on - the fight to simply allow open and honest debate about "global warming."

Here is an mind-opening letter from Harold Lewis, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to the president of the American Physical Society.

(from American Thinker.)

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence-it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d'être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford's book organizes the facts very well.) I don't believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer "explanatory" screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind-simply to bring the subject into the open.<

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members' interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people's motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don't think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I'm not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.
Hal

Lovely Che Pic

2010-10-09T22:08:00.001-07:00

Finally, a picture of Ché that makes sense...

Racism in the NAACP and the Georgia government...

2010-07-19T23:16:00.000-07:00

Whoa.
Racism in the NAACP and the Georgia government...

Besides her speech, it's also shocking that the NAACP crowd seems totally fine with her language...

Break Time: Moments of Serious Beat-downs

2010-06-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

Crass? You bet.

Differential gears

2010-05-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

this is so cool...

Did you actually know how a differential gear worked before seeing this? I didn't.

How a differential gear works.

JPost Columnist Caroline Glick: Prepare for war

2010-05-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

A terrible scenario in the Middle East is becoming clearer and clearer. The radical, and rabidly anit-Israel, states are near the point of no return in developing serious weapons capabilities. This mostly applies to Syria and Iran, but these two nations may have armed the terrorist groups Hamas (working within Israeli territory) and Hezbollah (working in south Lebanon) with hundreds of scuds and tens of thousands of other missiles. These could decimate or at least cause serious damage to Israeli cities in an attack.

Remember, Israel is smaller than New Jersey. It's like living in San Jose and the people of Palo Alto have missiles aimed at you. (More on this here.)

So, unfortunately, Western nations have turned a blind eye to this situation, and Israel now stands alone to confront terror at its borders and beyond, in the case of Iran.

And it would seem that keeping the peace is fraught with complexity, but the case for war is simple: there is no way Israel can afford to let terrorists states acquire terrible weapons and give them to their terrorist, stateless proxies.

Peace movements are great - but only when there are two reasonable sides in a conflict. When one side simply wants the other dead and gone there is no peace movement or treaty that will do anything about that.

The brilliant Caroline Glick, at the Jerusalem Post: Time to plan for war

Quotes:

"The repeated abdication of responsibility by the Obama administration from preventing nuclear non-proliferation leaves it on Israel's shoulders."

"...diplomacy is no longer a relevant tool for preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Appeasement has failed. Sanctions are dead in the water in the Security Council."

"THE US abdication of its responsibility as the leader of the free world to prevent the most dangerous regimes from acquiring the most dangerous weapons means that the responsibility for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has fallen on Israel’s shoulders. Only Israel has the means and the will to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power."

"Syria and Iran have armed Hizbullah with some 40,000 missiles and rockets, including hundreds of Scud missiles and guided surface-to-surface solid fuel M600 missiles with a 250 km. range. This week, Hizbullah threatened to attack Israel with non-conventional weapons. Syria itself has a formidable chemical and biological arsenal as well as a massive artillery and missile force at its disposal."

"These are dangerous times. Iran, which seeks to position itself as a regional superpower, has been emboldened by the Obama administration’s abdication of US global leadership. Only Israel can prevent Iran from endangering the world. But time is of the essence."

Tragic floods in Nashville

2010-05-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Cinco de Franco

2010-05-05T23:33:00.001-07:00

"Cinco de mayo! When the Mexican Army defeated the French at the Battle of Pueblo...Really? Who HASN'T defeated the French in a war??? If the Germans had a holiday for every time they beat the French they'd do nothing else...just sayin'..."
- from a friend

Terror as a way of life in Palestine

2010-05-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

and remember, in Palestine, Abbas represents the more moderate Palestinian view of Israel.

Steve Jobs: Flash sucks and it's old.

2010-05-05T23:01:00.000-07:00

From Breitbart: Steve Jobs attacks Adobe Flash as unfit for iPhone

In a detailed offensive against the technology owned by Adobe Systems Inc., Apple's CEO wrote Thursday that Flash has too many bugs, drains batteries too quickly and is too oriented to personal computers to work on the iPhone and iPad.

Flash is Adobe Corporation's platform for interactive media delivery over the web - it's often used as a video player or simple animation. Adobe makes money on selling the developer tools to people who author content, while us users use the flash player (usually embedded in a web site) for free. Much of the video you watch on the web is in the Flash format, though it looks like that may change...

Flying the flag of a country you don't want to live in

2010-05-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Victor Davis Hanson on the whole Arizona-how-dare-they thing...

"One either wishes or does not wish existing law to be enforced. If the answer is no, and citizens can pick and chose which laws they would like to obey, in theory why should we have to pay taxes or respect the speed limit?"

"...the anger at the U.S. and the nostalgia for Mexico distill into the absurd, something like either “I am furious at the country I insist on staying in, and fond of the country I most certainly do not wish to return to” or “I am angry at you so you better let angry me stay with you!” "

"California’s meltdown is instructive. If about half the nation’s illegal aliens reside in the state, and its problems are in at least in some part attributable to soaring costs in educating hundreds of thousands of non-English-speaking students, a growing number of aliens in prison and the criminal justice system, real problems of collecting off-the-books income and payroll taxes, expanding entitlements, and unsustainable social services, do we wish to avoid its model?"

"Finally, legal immigration should be reformed and reflect new realities. Millions of highly educated and skilled foreigners from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe are dying to enter the U.S. Rather than base immigration criteria on anchor children, accidental birth in the U.S. without concern for legality, and family ties, we need at least in part to start giving preference to those of all races and nationalities who will come with critical skills, and in turn rely less on the social service entitlement industry. They should come from as many diverse places as possible to prevent the sort of focused ethnic tribalism and chauvinism we have seen in the case of Mexico’s cynicism."

Read it all on Pajamas Media.

And you still think the U.N. is useful?

2010-05-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

Worse than useless, the U.N. is a harmful distraction.
We try in vein to get Russia and China (a pseudo-dictatorship and a currently communist regime, respectively) to agree to sanctions against Iran. They say yes, then they say wait a minute let's not be too rash.

Now, the U.N. has put Iran on its commission on women's rights.
And, who better than a mullah-controlled regime that stones women and literally sends out the fashion police to watch for women who dress immodestly or too Western?

Hey, maybe there's an anti-terror commission we can put them on, where the venerable committee will watch out for nation states with nuclear ambitions that fund terrorism worldwide and kill U.S. troops?

If you think the U.N. is a valuable institution, then you have truly drank too much of the KoolAid.

Fox News: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights

What's in a name...

2010-05-05T21:48:00.000-07:00

Lawrence Zeiger thought through this one, and named himself after a liquor store:

And faux-intellectual John Leibowitz changed his name to...

click here.

As Hedley Lamarr says in Blazing Saddles, "Too Jewish."

And, is it me, or does "Lauren" sound much better than "Lifshitz?"

Is China About To Crash?

2010-05-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well, not China as such, but its markets...

Marc Faber on Bloomberg: China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months

Investor Marc Faber said China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as declines in stock and commodity prices signal the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

Obama Took In Most $$ in BP Donations

2010-05-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Remember, Obama and all other liberals are all about the little guy, keeping it real, sticking it to the man, and soaking the rich so that they will pay their fair share of taxes.

That's why liberals must take in millions of dollars in campaign contributions from oil companies: so that they can tell the rest of us to hate oil companies.

Seriously, though, this is totally congruent with the liberal democratic threats to heavily tax the oil industry (remember 2 years ago when oil was high, and oil companies made a lot of profit).
This is simply how the system works - a lawmaker must make laws to regulate an industry because that ensures they will then get donations from that industry. It's the best way for that industry to influence legislation.
So the fact that one of the most liberal senators, and now president, took in the most money out of everyone else from a big oil company makes total sense.

And notice how, in the quote below, that even though the Dems love campaign contribution limits, they all know that corporations, or anyone (George Soros?), can work around this limit any way via PACs. It's a big lie that liberals and democrats aren't interested in big money.

From Politico: Obama biggest recipient of BP cash

Quotes:

While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.

From on high they speaketh...

2010-05-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

From Victor Davis Hanson:
Collate the anti-capital rants of a zillionaire currency speculator George Soros, the green sermons from a late Ted Kennedy who stopped a wind farm from marring his vacation home’s views, a John Edwards of “two nations” fame constructing a Neronian Golden House, a Tom Friedman warning of the consumer habits that lead to a hot, flat earth from a 10,000 square foot English-style estate of the sort that 18th-century English barons built after successful careers in the Raj, the comic case of Jeremiah Wright moving to a mostly white golf course to dream up more sermons about “white folks’ greed runs a world in need,” or a $5 million a year earning Obama — with all his expenses picked up by the government — lamenting out loud why rich people seem to want ever more money they don’t need. Some spread the wealth around.

Fully awesome article here.

A True Hero

2010-04-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

(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

2010-04-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T23:55:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

The real story of the Story of Stuff

2010-04-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Great info from Business Insider.

The disaster that is Illinois; Chicago-style run amok

2010-04-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

VDH: An Age of Untruth

2010-04-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-20T00:00:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-15T23:56:00.003-07:00

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...

2010-04-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

you can own the rich tasty goodness here.

Gov't Spending OUT OF CONTROL!!!

2010-04-15T22:18:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

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

click to enlarge

Thank God for the Frozen Chosin

2010-04-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Chosin from GI Film Festival on Vimeo.

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

2010-04-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

"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"

2010-04-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-08T22:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-04-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

every time the liberals pass some legislation...

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

2010-04-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T00:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-06T16:05:00.000-07:00

Public Safety Alert: Violent Media Members

2010-04-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

the ipad is here.

RNC Partying at Bondage Club?

2010-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Way to go, morons.

Fox: RNC Says Member Will Return $2,000 Reimbursed for Visit to Bondage Club

I guess I need to remember that the Democrats probably have an official Bondage wing of their party, where at least in the Republican party they deny reimbursements for such stuff.

Total Surprise: Terrorists return to terror

2010-03-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Total shock. I cannot believe that more Gitmo detainees returned to a life of terror and killing our troops. Was not expecting that...

Fox News: More Guantanamo Detainees Are Returning to Terror Upon Release

Al Franken, Man of The People

2010-03-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

When You Spend It, You Spend it More Wisely

2010-03-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

"Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."

Nobel economist Gary Becker, on the recently passed health care bill

Full article here.

Anything to look good in foreign policy

2010-03-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

US signs nuke deal with... wait for it... the... Russians???
This is so '70's and '80's.

This is the most important treaty to be signed since the Liechtenstien-Switzerland peace treaty signed last month.

I love these "strategic arms reduction" agreements. It's like signing a treaty, the title of which is "Time to Get Rid of Some Old Nukes We Have Sitting Around."

NJ Gov. Bans State Gov't From Lobbying For More... State Gov't

2010-03-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

You're not going to believe this, but the newly elected Gov. of New Jersey, Chris Christie, has just banned state agencies from using - what else - tax dollars to lobby for themselves.

What's so totally unbelievable is that this is legal in the first place. State agencies using tax dollars (do they have another source of income?) to pay lobbyists to influence lawmakers to pass laws that ostensibly would get those agencies more money.

The fact that it was just banned means it's been going on - and in how many other states????

If you don't see the pernicious insanity in that, then I don't know what to say. If something doesn't scare you about government lobbying government to make government bigger, then nothing will.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "government sponsored enterprises", that were started and funded by the federal government. They were supposed to be private corporations. But something happened along the way - they gained so much money and power they became a strong influence on the government that was supposed to regulate them. And that influence meant that the overseer under George W. Bush's administration cried foul, but was shot down by the Democrats, who received massive donations from the CEO's of the companies. The corporate boards were also full of democrats. It was in essence the same thing as occurred in New Jersey.

You see, government tends to create monsters that grow bigger.

More on the New Jersey thing here.

Still no proof of spitting on Congressman or use of the n-word

2010-03-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

See for your self at 1:33 in this video.
It looks like he's reacting to some overspray from the guy shouting. And then Cleaver lets into the guy about something.
But intentional spitting? The n-word?

I believe that is the man in the center of the spit and n-word controversy, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. And it doesn't look like he was spat on. Notice the police officer accompanying him - why did he not pursue an assault charge right there when the officer is present.
Conclusion: because it didn't happen.

I'll just come out and say it. A congressman has made a racially charged accusation, and he is lying about it. Prove us wrong, Congressman Cleaver.

Two Huge Tells In One Week by Obama

2010-03-25T23:17:00.001-07:00

Did anyone else notice, that within one week Obama made friendly overtures to Iran, and was rebuffed, and received friendly overtures from Israel, and rebuffed them.

In one week he tried to make friends with enemies, and make enemies of friends.

It's difficult to destroy foreign policy that much in one week, but we as able to.

The Government-Run Model: The Post Office

2010-03-24T21:15:00.001-07:00

The Post Office was technically "separated" from the federal government a while ago.

But that does not seemed to have improved their lot. Which is our lot. Which is about to rack up serious debt.

Eagerly They Cried "Racism!"

2010-03-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

I've not yet seen actual proof of any of the anti-health-care-reform-bill protesters shouting epithets.

Yet the Monolith Media have totally picked it up and run with it. But where's the proof?
The accusation comes from one congressman: Democrat Emanuel Cleaver.

Video and audio recorders were rolling the whole time - apparently even during the time Cleaver makes this charge. But there is no evidence that it ever happened. A lot of people are rightly angered at such an act - if it occurred.

But if it didn't occur, then we have, again, race-baiting by the Dems and the Media (but I repeat myself).

So are the Tea Party members racists? Where's the proof?
It may eventually surface, but so far all we have is this (from AT):

"What is uncorroborated is whether Cleaver even heard a single person utter the slur in question. William Owens, a black Tea Party activist from Nevada who had joined in the protests, confirmed to FOXNews.com, "Never did I hear any type of racial slur."

House majority whip James CIyburn, who walked with the contingent from the Black Caucus, heard no racist remarks either. "

WW = WW

2010-03-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Woodrow Wilson and World War.

Interesting article from AT:

"Wilson presided over a segregated federal government. Wilson took this country into World War I, for which his pacifist policies left us almost wholly unprepared. He permitted black soldiers in the U.S. Army to be detailed to the French to plug holes in their lines, but he withheld his white troops.

Wilson's willful and one-sided negotiation of the Versailles Treaty led the U.S. Senate to reject both the treaty and the League of Nations. That international organization was one to which Wilson was willing to yield up too much of U.S. sovereignty. Wilson refused the Japanese request for a racial equality clause in the Versailles Treaty. Japan was our ally in World War I. Fearing the reaction of his segregationist allies in the U.S. Senate, Wilson rejected their plea. All the Japanese asked for could be found willingly stated in the American Declaration of Independence. The Japanese walked out of the Paris peace talks, their democratic government hopelessly compromised by allied blindness.

What fateful consequences followed."

Fact of The Day: How many Obamas were aborted today?

2010-03-23T23:31:00.000-07:00

Fact: 1,400 African-Americans were aborted today.

How many of those would've run for office? How many would've invented a new medicine? How many would've set new records? We'll never know, because, though they were living, they were terminated as a means of birth control.

Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice doesn't change the fact that there are 1,400 fewer african-americans today. And tomorrow it'll be repeated.

Read more here.

Obama has "Crossed the Rubicon"

2010-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

This article will rock your world and confirm some truths you already intuitively know.

VDH rules.

Read here: We've Crossed the Rubicon by Victor Davis Hanson.

Quotes (but really - go read the whole thing - you have the time)...

"President Obama has crossed the Rubicon with the health care vote. The bill was not really about medicine; after all, a moderately priced, relatively small federal program could offer the poorer not now insured, presently not on Medicare or state programs like Medicaid or Medical, a basic medical plan.

We have no interest in stopping trial lawyers from milking the system for billions. And we don’t want to address in any meaningful way the individual’s responsibility in some cases (drink, drugs, violence, dangerous sex, bad diet, sloth, etc.) for costly and chronic health procedures.
No, instead, the bill was about assuming a massive portion of the private sector, hiring tens of thousands of loyal, compliant new employees, staffing new departments with new technocrats, and feeling wonderful that we “are leveling the playing field” and have achieved another Civil Rights landmark law. "

"In our brave new world, expect more of the lurid stories about the secretary of the Treasury not paying his FICA taxes. The multimillionaire Madame Speaker will spend more of the state’s millions on private jet travel as she lectures on carbon footprints and a culture of corruption. We will hear more about the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee hiding his income, or a member of the House Rules Committee bragging that, given the historic importance of health care, they are just making up the rules as they go along — and proud of it."

"In every statist society, large corporations either resist or join. For the latter, the machinery of government reinvents them as part of the solution rather than the problem — in the way that Al Gore really doesn’t really guzzle electricity, or John Edwards never really lived in a mansion. The transition to a Ministry of Industry requires a Ministry of Truth. With the Obama media we are already half there."

New on the menu: Weapons Vindaloo

2010-03-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Grenades with hot chili peppers.

"After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday."

This health care bill is massively popular!

2010-03-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Favorable ratings by public poll:
Pelosi: 11%
Reid: 8%

Story on CBS here.

And for Obama, from CNN:

"For the first time, a CNN poll has found that a majority of Americans disapprove of President Obama's job performance."

The State of The Arab World: UN Report

2010-03-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

Not a new story - I just happened to read it in an old paper copy of the WSJ.
Insightful to say the least - eye-opening.

Fouad Ajami: Autocracy and the Decline of the Arabs

Notable quotes...

"The Arabs, by their own testimony, have become spectators to their history."

"... an Arab Rip Abu Winkle awakening from a slumber into which he had fallen in the early 1980s to marvel at how little has changed. He would find Hosni Mubarak still at the helm in Cairo, the policeman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. He would miss Hafez Assad in Damascus, but he would be reassured that his son Bashar had inherited his father’s dominion. He would of course find the same dynasties in Jordan and in the Arab states of the Peninsula and the Gulf."

"The simple truth is that the Arab world has terrible rulers and worse oppositionists. There are autocrats on one side and theocrats on the other. A timid and fragile middle class is caught in the middle between regimes it abhors and Islamists it fears."

"There is no mistaking the animating drive of the new American policy in that Greater Middle East: realism and benign neglect, the safety of the status quo rather than the risks of liberty."

You Wanna Talk Inspiring??

2010-03-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Holy crud cakes, I can barely make it out on the mountain bike once a week, and this guy works out twice a day in pain...

"Firefighter Matthew Long -- who survived a horrific collision with a bus while cycling to work during the 2005 transit strike -- has gone from the brink of death to one of the world's fittest men."

NY Post: Fireman who almost died is now in buff elite

From Each To Each?

2010-03-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, another incredibly insightful article on American Thinker...

"In a free society, does one individual's needs constitute another individual's obligation to provide?"
- Andrew Foy, MD

Of course you should pay for my health care...

2010-03-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing article at the American Thinker. It's short. Read all of it.

"Under actual civilization, ordinary Americans in voluntary association would secure their access to health care by balancing their needs and their means through their own voluntary individual and collective efforts. Insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals would compete vigorously for their good opinion. And Americans would, so far as they were able according to their lights, obtain that decent provision of health care without compelling other Americans to provide health care for them through exercise of political power."
- Christopher Chantrill

Read full article here.

Stosssel with an awesome report on Gov't Health Care

2010-03-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

Bipartisanship Baloney

2010-03-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

"Conservatives desire a control of one's own destiny. Liberals seek to control everyone else's destiny. "
- C. Edmund Wright, on The American Thinker

The Myth of The Pro-Life Democrat

2010-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

"It is naïve for any elected official, especially one who describes himself as ‘pro-life,' to expect that a promise to issue an Executive Order that reasserts the intentions of the Hyde Amendment will be fulfilled by the most pro-abortion president to ever sit in the White House. Perhaps Mr. Stupak and his fellow pro-life Democrats forget that President Obama's first Executive Order was the repeal of the Mexico City Policy to allow for international funding of abortion."

"Not only would an Executive Order be rendered meaningless in the face of Congress passing legislation which actively provides for the massive expansion and funding of abortion services, but anyone who doubts the abortion tsunami which awaits this bill becoming law lives in a fantasy world."

"Barack Obama has lined every existing federal agency with the most dedicated pro-abortion ideologues, and we know that he will continue this pattern of pro-abortion appointments when it comes time for him to fill the over-100 bureaucracies created to administer his socialized health care program."

"Any formerly pro-life Democrat who voted ‘Yes' on the Senate health care bill tonight will be forever remembered as being among the deciding votes which facilitated the largest expansion of abortion services since Roe v. Wade."

"Mr. Stupak and his Democrat followers have now clarified that you cannot be pro-life and be a Democrat. If abortion was truly their biggest issue, they wouldn't willfully align themselves with the Party of Death."

"This vote has exposed the myth of the ‘pro-life Democrat.' With this single vote, the Democratic Party has divided our nation into the Democrat Party of Death and the Republican Party of Life, and future elections will never be the same."
- Phyllis Schlafly

More Here.

Just Another Russian Singing "Ho, Ho, Ho"

2010-03-20T23:52:00.001-07:00

I think we've started a new theme here at Pantheon with the way-weird Russian song video thing... This one might win the all-time prize.

Onward They Marched, Spiraling Down, Down...

2010-03-19T21:57:00.001-07:00

Government dependence is a downward economic death spiral. It is a cycle wherein the people receive largess from their government, and the government, evermore pressed to come up with the means to pay for it, exacts wealth by force out of the population. This exacting of wealth bleeds dry the important arteries of the economy. Lower wages and higher unemployment are the only possible result of fueling massive government machinery. It is simple: money that would have invented a new technology or new medicine or perhaps started a new business - with the inevitable hiring of new workers - is now pilfered, taken into the leviathan federal bureaucracy, as it trickles its way down through highly paid managers, unions, myriad federal employees, and finally to the receivers of the "free" government benefit. One need only look to the examples of the Big Government experiment that other nations have so eagerly set before us : high unemployment, soaring taxation, quicksand-thick regulation over businesses and private citizens, low or no economic growth, and national debt so staggering one is incredulous of the amount. Merely wishing for and imposing on the people "free" health care or any other entitlement does not change the real underlying costs of those things: the precious resources of time, energy, materials, finances. The death spiral gains momentum at an invisible inflection point: when those who must eventually pay for these "benefits" are politically outnumbered by those who either receive them or are employed in delivering them, for the latter will always vote for more.
© The Pantheon Journal

One of Malcom X's Killers Walks Free

2010-03-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

I never will understand the idea behind letting killers go free. Even if it is 40 years later. Murder is murder.

Be careful of the link here, it contains a photo of Malcom X on the autopsy table. Yikes. Not gory, but I thought I'd mention it...

The Smoking Gun says: Malcom X Killer Paroled.

Plan B on Iran: let them have nukes?

2010-03-18T23:35:00.000-07:00

Downright scary. Iran with nukes.

I don't get the U.S.'s game on this: Are we really willing to put this off onto Israel (that being, military action to stop nuke development)? We are really going to sit by and watch Iran get nukes?

So far, international action on this has been... inaction. We can't even get the UN Security Council to agree on "tough sanctions.".

Iran won't negotiate on this. It will only forestall. It won't stop until it is stopped from an outside force. If Iran attains nuclear weapons capability, then expect one to come floating up to the shores of Israel sometime soon after that. Heck, maybe even New York or LA. Put a nuke on a boat, have your terrorist friends sail it close to a city of their choosing. Simple.

Coulter Has The Best Health Insurance Plan

2010-03-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

Read it all here @ Townhall.com.

Quotes...

In the first sentence, Congress will amend the McCarran-Ferguson Act to allow interstate competition in health insurance.

We can't have a free market in health insurance until Congress eliminates the antitrust exemption protecting health insurance companies from competition. If Democrats really wanted to punish insurance companies, which they manifestly do not, they'd make insurers compete.

The very next sentence of my bill provides that the exclusive regulator of insurance companies will be the state where the company's home office is. Every insurance company in the country would incorporate in the state with the fewest government mandates, just as most corporations are based in Delaware today.

That's the only way to bypass idiotic state mandates, requiring all insurance plans offered in the state to cover, for example, the Zone Diet, sex-change operations, and whatever it is that poor Heidi Montag has done to herself this week.

The third sentence of my bill would prohibit the federal government from regulating insurance companies

This would, in effect, transform medical insurance into ... a form of insurance!

My bill will solve nearly every problem allegedly addressed by ObamaCare -- and mine entails zero cost to the taxpayer. Indeed, a free market in health insurance would produce major tax savings as layers of government bureaucrats, unnecessary to medical service in America, get fired.

Of course, an insurance company has to be able to refuse NEW customers with "pre-existing conditions." Otherwise, everyone would just wait to get sick to buy insurance. It's the same reason you can't buy fire insurance on a house that's already on fire.

That isn't an "insurance company"; it's what's known as a "Christian charity.

The Bill of The One

2010-03-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Reading.

H.R. 4872 - Reconciliation Act of 2010

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsors

2010-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

You've got to be kidding me - Warren Buffet in a commercial????? Wild.

By the way - he doesn't like the current health care bill...

Your Stimulus Dollars At Work...

2010-03-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

From: Stimulus Springs Eternal: Building Roads In Upscale Illinois Neighborhoods

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor

2010-03-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

100 Million Murders and Counting...

2010-03-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

You cannot make this stuff up.

North Korea executes official for blunder: report

The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party chief for planned economy, was for the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy," South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting sources.

Full story here.

How To Not Make The 24-Hour News Cycle: Be a Lib

2010-03-17T23:01:00.000-07:00

I don't really care to post things like this - people stumbling through speeches.
Because it could happen to just about anybody. And any time you speak in front of the public as much as presidential candidates (or presidents) do, you're going to make some gaffes.

But if this were, oh say... Dan Quayle, George Bush (I or II), or any other republican - it would be all over the web and the news. But Obama does it, and... nothing.

If Republicans are called stupid because they make public speaking gaffes, what do we call liberals when they do the same?

Fake Runaway Prius Moron Called 911????

2010-03-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

I did not hear the media report this, though they may have.

But give me a break - the guy is "out of control" and he... dials 911???
Did he have a headset on? Because if he didn't, boy is he going to be in trouble!

More here.