GOP debate

The Republican debate tonight clarified a few things for me.  In reverse order of how well I think they did:

1. Rick Perry is toast.  Most of the answers he gave were petty and repetetive.  If he accomplished anything it was making Romney look strong. He’s a horrible debater and I sure don’t look forward to  him going up against Obama.
2. Michelle Bachman had some good moments, but not nearly enough. Her last response was directed at the “women of America”.  Sorry… I’ve had enough divisiveness from our current president.
3. Rick Santorum is trying way too hard.  I know he’s sincere, and I love the guy, but he’s just not ready for prime time.
4. Ron Paul I would mostly love except for his foreign policy stances—some of which I even agree with!  Why do we need so many troops in Germany and Korea?  But Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and his blame America for 9/11 just eliminate him from consideration.
5. Mitt Romney, as I said, was helped immensely by Perry.  His biggest weakness—RomneyCare—would be difficult for the Dems to attack, but that does him no credit. He was strong on the counterattack against Perry and is a solid candidate.
6. Herman Cain, cheerful and colorful (no pun intended), would make a very satisfying contrast to Obama.  His 9-9-9 plan is suspect but not a bad starting point for tax reform. He really needs to put more emphasis on his resume, and not just the pizza part!
7. John Huntsman didn’t show up for the debate because Nevada, Florida, and New Hampshire are forcing the primaries so early that my already useless Texas primary is even more useless.  Good for him.  Thanks, John. (Probably won’t help much, though.)
8. Newt Gingrich.  Three months ago, when he dissed the Ryan plan, Newt was on my spit list. Right now, though, I LOVE the way he refrains from directly attacking the other candidates.  His eye is on the real problem—Obama.  I know he’s a flawed candidate and he gives the Dims a lot of easy ammunition, but if Texas had a primary that mattered, right now (and this really surprises me) Newt would get my vote.  Watching Newt debate Obama would be a treat.

Like Romney said in the first debate—Any ONE of these people would be better than Obama. 

Even Ron Paul.

Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat.

He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. A while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back To the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water.

She called out, " Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!"

Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

Obama's shovel-ready record

I believe in whirrled peas

Marco Rubio is good!  This video is 14 minutes long, and in the last half he responds powerfully to two questions from John Kerry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_68GjR6V6zI&feature=player_embedded

 

Debt Ceiling Quotes from Obama

During the debate to raise the debt ceiling in 2006, then-senator Barack Obama had this to say:  “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure... America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership . Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”
He subsequently voted against raising the ceiling. As president, however, Obama has called opposing a rise in the debt ceiling as dangerous.

A 'present' from Barack

If the "Tea Party causus" can't bring themselves to vote for any increase in the debt limit, then they should just rip a page out of Obama's book.  Can you imagine if EVERY Republican voted "present" on increasing the limit?  The Dimcocrats would own the whole thing, and nothing would make it clearer why we need to put the GOP in charge of government.

Stormy Monday

This is my brother Paul singing Stormy Monday. He and Georgia were on their honeymoon cruise on the Carnival Destiny, May 15, 1999.

American Pie

This is almost 10 minutes long but the mass choreography is impressive. The people of Grand Rapids worked hard to put this together.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI&feature=player_embedded

 

The music is good, too.

God Bless America

"The trouble with quotes over the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine."
--Abraham Lincoln

NOBAMACARE at AARP

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – The AARP, the focus of an investigation by a House subcommittee in part for the role it played in passing and benefiting from President Obama’s landmark health care law, has reportedly received a waiver — making it exempt from the law.   The waiver was revealed by Let Freedom Ring, which has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Health and Human Services Department.

The AARP was one of 200 organizations that reportedly received waivers in the latest round and conservative critics of the law say that the Obama administration allies are essentially receiving political payoffs for helping push through the new law.

[more]

Nevada (yes, Harry Reid’s state) also got a waiver. 

Newest terror plot.

TEACHER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Eric Holder said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.  

'Al-Gebra is a problem for us', the Attorney General said. 'They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values.'  They use secret code names like 'X' and 'Y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'.  

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, 'If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes.'  White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President - It is believed that another Nobel Prize will follow.

Ain't it the truth?

'Historic' deal to avoid government shutdown

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent David Espo, Ap Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON – Perilously close to a government shutdown, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a historic agreement late Friday night to cut about $38 billion in federal spending and avert the first federal closure in 15 years.  Obama hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in history." House Speaker John Boehner said that over the next decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion, and won an ovation from his rank and file tea party adherents among them. "This is historic, what we've done," agreed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the third man involved in negotiations that ratified a new era of divided government.

Golly, reading this you’d almost think the spending cuts were the Democrats' idea!

March Madness: U.S. Gov't Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue

You don't believe Conservatives when they warn about the fiscal disaster the country's heading toward? Maybe you'll believe Bill Clinton's former Chief of Staff.

Planned Parenthood 'Unplanned'

Rubicon: A River In Wisconsin

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER 

Posted 02/24/2011 06:05 PM ET

 View Enlarged Image

The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

At the federal level, President Obama's budget makes clear that Democrats are determined to do nothing about the debt crisis, while House Republicans have announced that beyond their proposed cuts in discretionary spending, their April budget will actually propose real entitlement reform.

Simultaneously, in Wisconsin and other states, Republican governors are taking on unsustainable, fiscally ruinous pension and health care obligations, while Democrats are full-throated in support of the public-employee unions crying, "Hell no."

A choice, not an echo: Democrats desperately defending the status quo; Republicans charging the barricades.   [more]

Dog day afternoon...

This is Jeff Hammer, brother to my son-in-law Rick.

What's wrong with this video?

Why is it funny?
It makes me want to laugh. And cry.

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.
- Henry Fielding

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances -- it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Glenn Beck takes over!

Just for the halibut

I just watched the 2nd episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska series. Okay, I’m impressed. That’s not too surprising, since I’ve always been a fan of hers. But I have been listening to the critiques that say she’s not qualified to be President of the United States, regardless of whether she can see Russia from her back yard or not.
So what does the series tell me about her that I didn’t already know? Other than she can shoot, fish and cook better than me?
Not much, I guess. Does a President actually need to know anything about catching, cleaning, and cooking halibut? Does he (she) really need to know about how a fishing boat makes a living? Or is an understanding of how to organize protests against ostensibly unfair working conditions a better qualification?
Gosh, that’s a tough one!

Fantasy: Nancy's first (and last) commercial airline flight

 

A bored Democrat congressperson from San Francisco was seated next to a little girl on a commercial flight so she turned to her and said, "Do you want to talk?  Flights go quicker with intelligent conversation."
 
The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the somewhat familiar stranger, "What do you want to talk about?"
 
"Oh, I don't know," said the politician.  "How about global warming, universal health care, or the stimulus package?”
 
"OK," the little girl said.  "Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first.  A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass.  Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps.  Why do you suppose that is?"
 
The former Speaker of the House, visibly surprised by the question, thinks about it and says, "Wow, I have no idea."
 
To which the little girl replies, "Do you really feel qualified to discuss global warming, universal health care, or the economy, when you don't know shit?"
 
And then she went back to reading her book about the Boston Tea Party.

 

And Nancy went quietly back to California and was never heard from again. 

(I wish…)

 

(CNSNews.com) - When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2007, Pelosi’s first day as speaker, the national debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04 (8.67 trillion), according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department.  At the close of business on Oct. 22, it stood at $13,667,983,325,978.31 (13.67 trillion), an increase of 4,997,387,083,005.27 (or approximately $5 trillion).

Pelosi, the 60th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has added more to the national debt than the first 57 House speakers combined.

 

NPR fires Juan Williams!

I guess it's my cynical side that makes me laugh at this. As often as Juan Williams has pissed me off with his (I consider) off-the-wall opinions, I've always respected him. In fact, sometimes I wonder if Fox pays him to say those things so they can be "fair and balanced". I like him too much to think he could actually believe that stuff.

But now I can't help myself...this is the best thing that could have happened two weeks before a critical election. With a likely GOP takeover of Congress, NPR (and PBS) will come under increased pressure to reform their left-leaning editorial content--and hopefully even lose public funding! Even better, this sorry episode exposes liberals and Democrats as the politically-correct hypocrites that I've always known them to be--at least since Jimmy Carter educated me. (Alright, one more time, I'm sorry I voted for him. Okay?) Just one more rock for all the Dimocrat candidates to carry into the election.
Please pardon my grin.

"A declaration not of war, but of ambivalence"

Regardless if you agree with the war in Afghanistan, this column by Charles Krauthammer is a devastating indictment of Obama.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/248433/why-he-sending-them-charles-krauthammer

You might be a redneck!

You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, 'One nation, under God.'
You might be a redneck if: You've never protested about seeing the Ten Commandments posted in public places.
You might be a redneck if: You still say 'Christmas' instead of 'Winter Festival.'
You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.
You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.

You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have.
You might be a redneck if: You've never burned an American flag, nor intend to.
You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.
You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same.
You might be a redneck if: You'd give your last dollar to a friend.

If you’re just dying to get rid of Obama, here’s a suggestion.

The Forgotten Man

National Review comment here.

Oorah!!!

News Alert

from The Wall Street Journal

 

 

U.S. Marines early Thursday boarded and seized control of a German-owned commercial vessel that had been commandeered by pirates, in what appeared to be the first American-led military boarding of its kind amid a recent surge of attacks in the Gulf of Aden and along the east coast of Africa.

 

A raiding party of 24 Marines boarded the ship about 85 miles southeast of Mukallah, Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden, according to the U.S. Navy.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575481252054001786.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

 

Pee Power

“Urine-powered fuel cells to offer pee power to people”  [Link]

Low on fuel?  Stop at the next 7-11, buy and drink a case of Coors, then wait for nature to call.

Now if they’d just figure out how to capture and use the methane produced by bean dip we can literally drive those eeviilll oil companies out of business!

The Gipper speaks!

Time magazine cover

I like National Review’s comment on the Time magazine cover:

Time Suddenly Finds a Cover Story You Can't Ignore 

Managing editor Rick Stengel explains: "Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years. Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story by our own Aryn Baker on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban -- and how they fear a Taliban revival."

I see that image and think, "Tell me we've killed a lot of these guys. Tell me we're going to kill a lot of Taliban today, and a lot of Taliban tomorrow, and a lot more before we leave, even if we don't leave this country in the state we originally desired." I realize that the problem in Afghanistan is not a lack of firepower or enemy casualties and that the difficulties there are complicated by a mess of local corruption, shifting tribal alliances, consistent suspicions of Pakistani assistance, and some of the toughest terrain on this earth. But clearly the foundation for a better tomorrow for all of our children is built upon a high stack of Taliban corpses. I don't know if God will look into the eyes of a man who disfigures a woman like that and forgive him; I just know that we ought to help arrange that meeting as quickly as possible.

I’m not a big fan of Time magazine, but their cover story this week is right on target.

Check the cover out:  http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20100809,00.html .

 

 

 

Regarding the Gulf oil spill ABC News reports, “…the federal government have amassed an army to clean the oil up, but there's one problem -- they're having trouble finding it. At its peak last month, the oil slick was the size of Kansas, but it has been rapidly shrinking, now down to the size of New Hampshire.”

Or, as I heard one commentator on Houston’s KNTH radio describe it, “The oil slick at one point was the size of President Obama’s ego.  Now it’s the size of his credibility.”

 

www.usdebtclock.org

This you just got to see!

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

 

You just can't describe a liberal better than this!

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.  [Link]

 

This has raised a few eyebrows but I think it’s a great idea.  If we build a mosque on the moon maybe Obama could finally shut down Guantanamo!  Shoot, we won’t even need any barbed wire!

 

How much do you think we could get for Washington DC?

Greece starts putting island land up for sale to save economy.

 

House, Senate leaders finalize details of sweeping financial overhaul

"This is about as important as it gets, because it deals with every single aspect of our lives." –Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.)

 

"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works.”—Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.)

 

"My guess is there are three unintended consequences on every page of this bill," Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas) said of the nearly 2,000-page bill.

 

Maybe now I can sleep better!

Joe Barton was right about the ‘shakedown’, but he shouldn’t have apologized to BP.  He should have apologized to the nation.

This just makes me proud to be an American...

Residents get 6 votes each in suburban NY election

By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 15, 4:08 pm ET

PORT CHESTER, N.Y. – Arthur Furano voted early — five days before Election Day. And he voted often, flipping the lever six times for his favorite candidate. Furano cast multiple votes on the instructions of a federal judge and the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a new election system crafted to help boost Hispanic representation.  [Link]

 

An itsy bitsy problem

Freedom of religion is the very first guarantee in the Bill of Rights:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

How, then, can we possibly deny the right of Muslims to worship as they wish?  This question has been bothering me for quite a while.

Here’s an interesting observation by Andy McCarthy (in his book, The Grand Jihad) that I hadn’t thought about:

… though Islam aspires to be much more than a religion (it is an all-encompassing legal, political and social system from which the spiritual elements are indivisible), it is given the label of “religion.” [link]

This raises an interesting—and not entirely hypothetical—question:   Do the American people have the right to divest themselves of their first amendment rights?

You might want to ask the Canadian people, who enjoy these Fundamental freedoms in Part I, Section 2 of their Constitution:

Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication

Now talk to author Mark Steyn, who is currently being prosecuted—in Canada—for statements critical of Islam in his book, America Alone.

I got to thinking about this today when commandos from the Israeli Defense Force—the IDF—tried to stop some “peace activists” from delivering “relief supplies” to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.  The Israelis were attacked with pipes and knives, and ended up killing nine of their attackers.  (You may not have heard that this all happened after the ship refused an Israeli offer to escort the ship to port, inspect its cargo, and then allow it to proceed. They do this to prevent arms from being delivered into a highly volatile region.) I suppose it’s just a matter of time before the UN condemns the Israelis for having the nerve to defend themselves.  And since Obama is the first citizen of the world he’ll have no choice but to, sadly, go along. (Dare I say, a fellow traveler?)

Anyway, back to the subject I never really left…

If Muslims themselves consider Islam to be more than a religion then it would seem apparent that we have the right (obligation!) to just say no!  Isn’t it just a bit odd that Baptist pastors are threatened by the IRS if they endorse specific candidates, while Muslim Imams are free to preach a form of Sharia  law that would condemn homosexuals and force women back into the 18^th century?  It’s painful for me to imagine an America where that itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini would have to covered by either a burqa or a barrage of stones. 

Cliff

 

Bad, bad America

Christie for President?

New Jersey Gov. Christie ain’t pretty, but he's quickly moving up my list of Republican presidential prospects!

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

From Politico: 
During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant (BP) and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.  
An Obama spokesman rejected the notion that the president took big oil money.  [Link]

I thought this pair of headlines on Drudge today made for a revealing contrast:

 

Obama To Wall Street:

"I Do Think At A Certain Point You've Made Enough Money"  [source]

 

Want to get rich? Work for feds  [source]

As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee. In other words, the average federal bureaucrat makes twice as much as the average working taxpayer.

Yes, these are the same people who are running the economy!

 

1st Annual Everybody Draw Mohammad Day

Here’s a great idea! The “Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor” (CACAH) has designated May 20, 2010, as the First Annual Everybody Draw Mohammad Day. 

Ever since the crazy jihadists decided that any depiction of The Prophet is blasphemy punishable by death, all of the “courageous” media—most recently Comedy Central—have been working overtime to avoid offending the most cowardly fighters in the history of the planet. (What else would you call killers who then run and hide behind their own women and children?)

Anyway, the jihadist threat seems a little extreme given the fact that no one has a clue what Mohammed looked like.  I suppose it’s like the little girl who decided to draw a picture of God.  When told that no one knows what he looks like she said, “They will when I finish!”.

In that same spirit I heartily endorse the idea and have already started work on my drawing.

'Mercury Falls'

I have a book recommendation that I’m a little hesitant about because it’s so irreverent.  In fact for a while I was worried it was going to be sacrilegious but I don’t think it ever went quite that far (I was laughing so hard I may have missed it).  It’s about the Apocalypse and it’s called “Mercury Falls”, by Robert Kroese.  Mercury is a (sort of) fallen angel, and (sort of) a Mitch Rapp or Jack Bauer with wings. (He doesn’t really have wings, but that doesn’t really matter, either.) There’s also a fat slob named Karl who wins a contest to become the Antichrist.  Plus lots of other seraphim and cherubim to keep things rolling along.

Up to now the funniest book I ever read was Don Quixote, but this one is right up there.  I pedaled my stationary bicycle for 67 minutes tonight, laughing all the way, just to finish it. You can download it to your Kindle for $2.99.  Or you can pony up $12 on Amazon for the paperback.

 

 

 

Stupid humans!!!

“Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory.”  [Link]

 

They couldn’t fool us with falsified temperatures and sloppy science, so now we’re stupid.

 

We the People

Sean Penn just oozes compassion.  Or something.

When asked on CBS' "Sunday Morning" about those who question his motives for his humanitarian work in Haiti, he [Sean Penn] said:
"Do I hope that those people die screaming of rectal cancer? Yeah.”    [Link]

 

 

US Marines airdropped into Taliban-held territory

US Marines airdropped into Taliban-held territory

Feb 19, 7:05 AM (ET)

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) - Elite Marine recon teams were dropped behind Taliban lines by helicopter Friday as the U.S.-led force stepped up operations to break resistance in the besieged insurgent stronghold of Marjah.

About two dozen Marines were inserted before dawn into an area where skilled Taliban marksmen are known to operate, an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

 

Let’s see…in this story he’s revealed our troop strength, target and approximate location. 

Does anyone besides me think this anonymous “officer” should be identified and shot?

 

 

Valentine's Day

For some reason Valentine’s Day always reminds me of a short poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay:

 

All the grown-up people say,

“What, those ugly thistles?

Mustn’t touch them!  Keep Away!

Prickly!  Full of bristles!”

 

Yet they never make me bleed

Half so much as roses!

Must be purple is a weed,

And pink and white is posies.

 

 

Global warming and chaos theory

Here’s the latest headline from the global warming front:

UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article [Link]

I remember when I first heard of chaos theory that what grabbed my interest was the “butterfly effect” hypothesis that a wind current generated by the flap of a butterfly’s wing could set off a chain reaction resulting in a hurricane. It was a fascinating idea, but today I think it’s about as silly as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wanting to reorder the world economic system based on anecdotal evidence from one student’s science paper and a couple of mountain climbers.  That certainly is a formula for chaos!

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series. [Link]
I know…what business does the US government have interfering with college football?  Yes, I know, I know!!!  But maybe, just maybe His Majesty will stay so busy screwing up something as harmless as the BCS then he won’t have time to screw up health care, the environment, and the economy.

Think of it as Tinker Toys for half-wits.

 

This just keeps getting better and better.  The London TimesOnline, referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that won a Nobel prize in 2007, said today that at least five “glaring errors” have been found. 

The error that started it all was the one about the Himalyan glaciers melting by 2035.  Syed Hasnain, the Indian glaciologist who was erroneously quoted about the melting glaciers, said he first noticed the mistake in 2008. But he didn’t mention it because he wasn’t working for the IPCC at the time—even though his boss, Dr. Rajenda Pachauri, was the head of the panel.

“I was keeping quiet as I was working here. My job is not to point out mistakes.”

I wonder whose job it is?  Must be a union thing.

 

John Stossel on free markets

Watching John Stossel's reports is a much needed antidote to the non-education provided by our public schools and colleges. Here are links to a report (in 6 parts) on Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" that soon morphs into a seminar in free market principles.

1. Atlas Shrugged (part 1)
2. Atlas Shrugged (part 2)
3. Atlas Shrugged (part 3)
4. Atlas Shrugged (part 4)
5. Atlas Shrugged (part 5)
6. Atlas Shrugged (part 6)

backlash!

Here’s an excerpt from Victor Davis Hanson’s excellent column today:

 

Voters are sick and tired of a terrible year of big spending and big deficits — especially the sight of Obama and his congressional allies almost daily talking breezily about spending what we do not have.

Voters went for the hope-and-change Obama in part because he promised fiscal sobriety after the Bush $500 billion deficit. Instead, in utterly cynical fashion, Obama trumped that red ink four times over. In the process, he developed a terrible habit of promising favored constituencies a hundred billion here, a hundred billion there as if it were all paper money — rather than real borrowed currency that will have to be confiscated in the future from the beleaguered taxpayer. It only makes it worse than the more the administration borrowed, printed, and spent, the higher unemployment rose and the lower economic activity plummeted.

Most have had enough of pie-in-the-sky talk of massive new health-care entitlements, cap-and-trade taxes and regulation, more stimulus, and more takeovers of private enterprise. The country is broke and the people want to pay off, not incur more, crushing debt. What got us into the mess was too much borrowing, skyrocketing debt, and reckless spending — not too many balanced budgets and too much lean government.

 

"crony capitalism"

John Stossel’s expose on “crony capitalism” was on Fox Business Network last night and will be repeated tonight at 9 PM Central.

Everyone in this country over the age of 12 should be required to watch it.

Take your blood pressure medicine first.

 

 

Can BO tell a lie?

You be the judge.

Thousands protest global warming!!!

Review of the movie Avatar

Review of the movie Avatar, by Cliff Raymond.

Caution! This review may contain ‘spoilers’. (I hope so, anyway.)

Remember the Alamo!

Remember Pearl Harbor!!

Remember 9/11!!!

Remember Tree Home!

Tree Home? Oh. Yeah, that’s the giant tree those evil Marine mercenaries knocked down for that evil corporation from Earth. You know—where the only good Marines are dead, captured or traitorous Marines. That peaceful tribe of tree-hugging Bambi lovers was about to get their tail shoved up their collective blue butt until Corporal Jake Tully, USMC, decided to become Tarzan of the Na’vi. The only thing missing was the Tarzan yell that told all the ferociously precious creatures on planet Paradox to attack and kill Jarheads! But never mind, he just got down on his knees and asked the Tree of Souls to do it for him. And boy, did he/she/it/Gaia come through. Those poor unsuspecting blue-baby-killers never had a chance against Mother Nature, Tully, his red flying steed and blue hissing girlfriend. (Not to mention a couple of well-placed grenades.)

If you’ve ever seen Tarzan, Gunfight at the OK Corral, and Dancing with Wolves, then you’ve seen this movie. Except for the special effects, Johnny Weissmuller did it better.

Remember when Hollywood made movies that actually made you proud of your country?

I do.

---

President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really an imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation. [link]

---

These are the people who are trying to determine my future. And yours. And your children’s.

And they’re giving this Venezuelan thug a standing ovation.

Does any sane person really not understand that America is under attack?

Recession? What recession?

For feds, more get 6-figure salaries

Average pay $30,000 over private sector

By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY 

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.   [Link to full story]

The Manhattan Declaration

Remember the Alamo, when Col. William Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword?

The Manhattan Declaration—“a call of Christian conscience”—is such a line. Here’s the final paragraph:

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.

The full text is at http://manhattandeclaration.org/images/content/ManhattanDeclaration.pdf .

If you wish to sign the statement you can join me and over 228,000 other Christians at http://manhattandeclaration.org/.

---

Manmade warming is REAL (at UEA)

This just in from www.TimesOnline.co.uk:

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years. The UEA’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was forced to reveal the loss following requests for the data under Freedom of Information legislation. [Link]

Is anybody surprised? One thing for sure: the atmosphere at UEA is definitely getting warmer!

---

global con job

Kimberly Strassel in today’s Wall Street Journal writes

The more than 3,000 emails and documents from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have found their way to the Internet have blown the lid off the "science" of manmade global warming. [Link]

Here’s a direct quote from one of the released emails:

OH **** THIS. It's Sunday evening, I've worked all weekend, and just when I thought it was done I'm hitting yet another problem that's based on the hopeless state of our databases. There is no uniform data integrity, it's just a catalogue of issues that continues to grow as they're found. [Link]

And another:

But what are all those monthly files? DON'T KNOW, UNDOCUMENTED. Wherever I look, there are data files, no info about what they are other than their names. And that's useless.. take the above example, the filenames in the _mon and _ann directories are identical, but the contents are not. And the only difference is that one directory is apparently 'monthly' and the other 'annual' – yet both contain monthly files.[Link]

Why would a real scientist refuse to release his original data? What else can you do if have no clue about the source of the data you’re feeding into your (admittedly buggy) climate models. This is the “science” that Al Gore claims is settled! I saw on another site that some wag is calling this CRUdgate.

This stuff is going to make an awful lot of Very Important People look Very Foolish. And that’s being kind.

For over two and a half years I’ve been posting anti-global-warming articles on this blog—at least 32 of them by my count (including this one). Please forgive my gloat.

---

How you say "IOU" in Chinese?

Charles Krauthammer explains the problem with the House and Senate health care bills so clearly that even Dimocrats should be able to understand it.  [Link]

I particularly like this suggestion:

The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool.

 

My GI grandson !

Clay Hammer, my grandson, in boot camp!

sex in 'Po City

From GMANEWS.TV in the Philippines comes this new rationale for the world’s oldest profession:

Effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines to risk dangerous jobs, and sometimes even into the flesh trade. Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country.

In the Philippines, small brothels usually pop out near the coastal areas where many women do sexual services to transient seafarers.

Who knew? When I was a Marine at Subic Bay in 1972 I thought all those girls in Olongapo City were just doing it for the money! If I had know it was only because of climate change maybe I probably might have given my girlfriend almost my whole paycheck and sent her packing. (As it was she took most of it anyway.) Too bad Algore wasn’t there to enlighten me; I guess he was busy inventing the Internet.

Anyway, It’s good to see on their website that Olongapo City is now a much more respectable town. I’m glad.

Win7

I just upgraded from Vista to Win7. It was just semi-painful, which is a lot better than I expected. There are plenty of aggravations, of course. Like when they "recommended" that I uninstall ZoneAlarm and Norton Ghost. Me being so computer literate, naturally I ignored their advice...until I got to the part where Win7 won't install at all as long as those bad boys are around. Maybe I'll send a dictionary to Microsoft with the words "recommended" and "required" marked. Oh well, at least it's done, and the problems I was having with Vista seem to be gone...for now.

Veterans Day

Here’s a thought for the Republicans:  Introduce a bill to make Veterans Day a holiday for ALL veterans (and not just those that work for the Post Office).

Do it before the Dimocrats realize it’s a cheap way to make themselves look more patriotic than Republicans.

Semper Fi to all vets!

 

If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it's free.

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter  makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. [Link]

 

Three Strikes against Obamacare

From NationalReview.com:

 

“If Democrats succeed, Americans will lose their insurance,  be subject to rationing, and be charged $1.3 trillion for the privilege.”  [read full article]

 

 

New movie about global warming

(I mean 'climate change')