They Believed It!

Via Maggie's Farm

What We Eat

Maggie's Farm has a fascinating post, showing large photos of the food eaten in a week by various families around the world. The weekly budgets ranged from $500 for a family in Germany, much of which was liquid, to $1.oo for a famiy living in a tent in Chad.

Humbling

How much influence do bloggers and talk radio hosts really have? Only one nationally syndicated talk show host, Micheal Medved, has been supporting McCain. Most talk show hosts and most conservative bloggers, supported or opposed programs in which McCain was on the other side, with one exception, the surge. The most popular politician on the national scene, Barack Obama, had the most liberal voting record in the U.S. Senate in 2007.

Voters don't seem to be reading conservative blogs or listening to conservative talk radio, do they?

Tonight's Sunset

We say goodbye to the coldest month of the year, and a tough month for conservatives.

John Wants To Know Why

Via Last of the Few

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Are you depressed about the way things are going in the Republican primaries? Don't fret, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Via Last of the Few

What Would Happen If The Tax Burden Were Extended to All Americans?

Greg has been learning about The Boston Tea Party. I don't think our boat would last long in the harbor, though.

This Morning's Sunrise

U.S. Marines

Via Yeah, Right, Whatever

Ted Kennedy Throws His Weight Behind Obama

Bill Clinton's Greatest Contribution to the Civil Rights Movement

As the contest for the Democrat presidential nomination sours over racial issues, former President Bill Clinton said today, “I owe it to Martin Luther King to take down Barack Obama by whatever means possible.”

President Clinton, eagerly hoping to return to the White House as First Gent, said “Dr. King envisioned a day when a person would be judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.”

“If we don’t work hard to tarnish Obama’s character,” Mr. Clinton said, “then I would be treating him as something less than a full political rival due to the color of skin. Each time Hillary and I sling mud at Barack, or stretch the truth a bit, or take his remarks out of context, it’s a demonstration of the triumph of the Civil Rights movement. He’s getting the same ruthless, negative treatment that we would give to any white candidate.”

The former president added that, “My greatest contribution to the Civil Rights movement will come when the first legitimate black presidential candidate falls in battle, crushed by the vicious tactics of a white presidential couple who love African-Americans more than they love themselves.”

This satirical post by Scrappleface is so close to being accurate, that it is scary.

An Awesome Accomplishment

Researchers have manufactured the entire DNA genome of a free-living micro-organism. This means that "artificial life" is on the verge of being created in a test tube.

The huge DNA molecule represents the chromosome that makes up the complete genome of Mycoplasma genitalium, a parasitic microbe that lives in the reproductive tract. Dr Venter and his colleagues made the chromosome by placing each of its 582,970 individual chemical units in their correct genetic sequence.

Read the whole thing here.

Sheep Circle

Via Scribal Terror

Obedient Woman, Respectful Child

From The Religion Of Peace

A Woman Who Knows Her Man

Here is a story about "a graying duo" that subdued two unruly passangers on a recent flight from Minneapolis-to-Boston. A retired police captain volunteered to help flight attendants, if they needed the men to be subdued. They developed a plan whereby the flight attendants would hold up plastic handcuffs if they needed him to subdue the unruly passengers. He looked around at the other men on the plane, but all of them averted their eyes. All, that is except the retired Captain U.S. Marine Corps.

But wait, this gets better. The retired police captain was accompanied on the trip by his wife.

When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine, whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and "some free air miles."

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."

How did I find out about this story? I learned about it from reading a wonderful blog called Redneck Peril.

Mother and Child Reunion

This is our Lhasa Apso female, Laura, with her new puppy. Laura is small, so her litters are not very big (as in one puppy). The puppy just opened his eyes today.

Barbarism, 2008

Did you know that ninety-six percent of all Indonesian families have sliced their daughters’ clitorises right off? The New York Times decided to write about this "tradition." Geckofeeder links to the NYT story and a critique by Phyllis Chesler of the NYT article.

We Have An International Mandate! Who Knew?

Did you know that the United States has an "international mandate" to do what we are doing in Iraq? Yep, it must be true, because it says so in the New York Times. To learn what news we can next expect to be reported by the New York Times, go here.

Next Up: Florida on Tuesday

What has happened so far in the Republican race for the presidency? The current numbers show Romney in the lead with 59 delegates, Huckabee second with 38, and McCain third with 32. 530,162 people have voted for Romney, 510,132 have voted for McCain, and 339,824 have voted for Huckabee. Of course, the big story is that my favorite candidate, Fred Thompson, has dropped out. I am hoping someone will pick him as a Vice President candidate running mate. Rudy Giuliani has to win in Florida on Tuesday, because he has put all of his eggs in that basket.

The March For Life (That You Did Not Hear About)

With young people chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go," hundreds of thousands of people marched on Tuesday to protest an estimated 49 million dead through abortion. On the same day, a young actor named Heath Ledger died. Guess which got more attention from our media?

President Bush spoke to the march through a telephone hookup, declaring, "I see people with a deep conviction that even the most vulnerable member of the human family is a child of God. You're here because you know that all life deserves to be protected. And as you begin your march, I'm proud to be standing with you. (Applause)

"Thirty-five years ago today the United States Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person. But we know many things about the unborn. Biology confirms that from the start each unborn child is a separate individual with his or her own genetic code. Babies can now survive outside the mother's womb at younger and younger ages. And the fingers and toes and beating hearts that we can see on an unborn child's ultrasound come with something that we cannot see: a soul." (Applause)

Read more here.

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?

Can you write a sentence using every letter of the alphabet? What if there were some politically correct edict that mandated that we not use certain letters? Go here for more.

Mouthful

Via Neatorama

Long Line? It Could Be Worse!

The next time you have to stand in line at the grocery store, imagine how much worse it could be. Here is the line at Customs at Heathrow Airport in London.


Via mental_floss magazine

President for Life

His Excellency Idi Amin has some advice for Hillary, whose candidacy he endorses. Saul Alinsky taught her well the tactics to gain power, but to implement a true dictatorship she needs to: 1.) Seize control over the North American Union. 2.)Care for those who adore you, destroy the rest. 3.)Use the military to enforce your will. 4.)Declare martial law. 5.)Convert to Islam.
Read the whole thing here.

Choice

Fox News is running this story: "British mom Lorraine Allard, 33, was four months pregnant when she learned she was suffering from liver cancer and had to decide: terminate the pregnancy and save herself, or delay treatment to save her baby."

Photo by Archant

New Versus Old, Mr. Nice Guys Versus Grizzled Political In-Fighters

It looks like both parties are down to a choice of new versus old. Do Democrats want to stick with what they know (the Clintons), or do they want to go with the new guy on the block, Barack Obama?

Republicans seem to be down to the choice between the old guy who loves to make deals with liberal Democrats (McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold, the Gang of Fourteen), or the new guy who has been an amazing success in business, the Olympics, and as Governor of a liberal state. If Rudy fails in his winner-take-all Florida strategy, we're down to McCain versus Romney.

Another way of looking at this is to contrast Mr. Nice Guy with the Grizzled Political In-Fighters. There is nothing the Clintons won't do to win; from pitting Hispanics and Whites against Blacks, older voters against younger voters, women against men, to charging Obama with all kinds of corruption, when they themselves are as corrupt as any two individuals who ever ran for the Presidency. Obama, on the other hand, seems like a nice guy, even to such veteran observers as Rush Limbaugh. Likewise, Romney exudes decency, seems like Mr. Squeaky-Clean. McCain has conducted himself in the Senate as an individual who stubbornly adhers to a philosophy that believes that America's problems can best be solved by the elite dealmakers in Washington, and to hell with what the people in the hinterlands think!

"Screw It, I'm In!"

Bill Clinton just could not restrain himself any longer.

Analysis of the Democratic Presidential Campaign

So far it looks to me as though Hillary is getting the best of Barack. By making him seem to be the unethical lawyer for the slumlord, she makes it look like his actons are contradicting the words of his lofty speeches. I wrote about the tactics I thought she would be using in the campaign in a post earlier this month called Falling On Their Own Petard.

Today Rush Limbaugh pointed out that he believes the Clintons understand the reality that Obama will win South Carolina and other southern states because of the black vote. Rush points out that Obama has more popularity among blacks than do elected black officials, the old line people who came to power after the civil rights movement. Rush noted that these officials are beholden to the Clinton machine, and Rush referred to them not as Uncle Toms, but as Uncle Bills.

Rush noted that Hispanics (64% of the Nevada vote) and older women are giving Hillary her votes, while blacks and young people are going for Obama. What will happen, Rush wonders, if Hillary is elected and chooses an Hispanic, such as Bill Richardson, as her running mate? Blacks will still vote mostly for Democrat candidates, but maybe by not such a huge margin as in past elections. If, on the other hand, Hillary selects Obama as her running mate, Hispanics will be unhappy. Rush suggested that Hillary will ultimately decide to appoint herself as vice president. That way, if she falls ill, she can just appoint herself to take over.

If Rush Limbaugh is not the funniest, most brilliant (and humble) political analyst in America, then I don't know who is! He pointed out that the Democrats are divided over race, and that there is not a dime's worth of difference among their top three candidates on philosophy. He is going to analyze the Republicans later today, but he previewed it by saying that the Republicans are divided over philosophy, not race.

The More The Merrier?

Because she works for a statewide on-line public school system, Colleen often does I.Q. or psychological testing of homeschooled children in libraries. Today she was testing in a library in Greeley, Colorado. A woman came up to her all excited. She remembered that Colleen had tested one of her children five years ago.

This woman has ten biological children and seven adopted children. She is pregnant with her eighteenth! They live on five acres with some chickens and goats. She invited Colleen to load up our family of seven children and come up for a visit. She said, "I bet you don't get invited over to people's houses very often. Colleen agreed, and the woman said, "Neither do we!" Greeley is two hours north of where we live, but we just might take her up on her offer.

They had an hilarious conversation about shoes. The woman said that recently one of her children showed up at church with one flip-flop and one cowboy boot, and she did not even get the slightest bit upset. They also compared notes about behaviors of children with Reactive Attachment Disorder.

Colleen noticed that the woman's older children were really sweet to the younger ones. That is the case in our family with our biological children, who are six and seven, but it is not always true with my stepchildren, who are fifteen and thirteen. They get very jealous when they see Colleen nurturing another child.

Martian

Have you seen this picture taken of someone who appears to be walking down a hill on Mars? This photo is from Fox News.

Tonight's Sunset

Be sure to click on the image to see the mountains.

No Gloom and Doom Today

This morning I ventured outside in the subzero temperatures, before the sun came up. However, when the sun came up, it was the bright Colorado sun we are accustomed to. No gloom and doom today.

Oh, Canada

Have you heard about the "Human Rights" Commission in Canada? Mark Steyn, very popular author of "America Alone," is being dragged in front of this Commission. McLean's Magazine excerpted parts of the book, and a Muslim complained to the Commission. If found guilty of offending the Muslim man, and if Steyn refuses to apologize, he can be jailed and his property seized. Is that the kind of hideous politically correct idiocy that will be coming to the United States?

He Had A Dream

Another week, another foolish stunt by Bill Clinton. Today he sat behind the speaker at a Harlem church commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. day, and went fast asleep. The New York Post has the complete video, which I found here at Sweetness and Light. Wait till someone shows this to Hillary.

Life

Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The annual March For Life will take place in Washington D.C. I wonder how many Presidential candidates will participate. An emailer to David Freddoso at The Corner says that Ron Paul will be there with Norma Leah McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade.

Obama: It Took Men To Give Women The Vote

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama today seemed to indirectly respond to presidential rival Sen. Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that Martin Luther King’s dream would have gone unfulfilled if not for President Lyndon B. Johnson who signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sen. Clinton’s comment was meant to contrast her vast record of accomplishment and political prowess, with Sen. Obama’s mere rhetorical skills and inspirational persona, but the rookie Senator offered an analogy of his own.

“The 19th Amendment to the Constitution grants women the right to vote,” said Sen. Obama, “and while women, like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, marched, and spoke and held inspirational rallies, ultimately it took men in 36 state legislatures to fulfill that dream.”

“Now, I would not suggest,” the former Illinois state legislator added, “that it takes a man to really make change in this country, nor even that it takes someone with experience in a state legislature. I’m just sayin’.”

Sen. Clinton refused to respond directly, but the campaign released a statement in which she said: “I have nothing but respect for Barack Obama, especially because he’s currently the only African American in the U.S. Senate. I’ll do whatever it takes to help him retain that distinction.”

Another brilliant satirical post by the inimitable Mr. Scott Ott

A Frosty Morning

The MSM Thinks Their Long Nightmare Might Be Over

I can see why the MSM doesn't like Governor Romney. He doesn't drink. He doesn't smoke. He has stayed with the same woman. He probably doesn't even cuss. What a complete bore! Most significantly, he has drifted to the right, changing his views on abortion to the point that he is now a dreaded right-to-lifer!

On the other hand, they love John McCain. McCain hangs with them, shoots the breeze, cusses like the best of sailors, votes with Teddy Kennedy (in fact, jointly sponsors an amnesty bill with Teddy). They view him as one of them. The Maverick is back! No more Reagan, no more Bush, The MSM has one of their own back in the saddle.

Falling On Your Own Petard

Kyle-Anne Shiver has written a piece in The American Thinker about the fact that both Obama and Hillary are steeped in the concepts of socialist organizer Saul Alinsky. As a second-year student at the University of Kansas Graduate School of Social Work, I met Mr. Alinsky and actually spent a day and evening with him. He wrote his famous book, "Rules for Radicals" while in the Kansas City jail.

One of Alinsky's tactics was to make someone an enemy, then make that person live up to his own rules. Obama has been stressing an inclusive America, yet as he has come to prominance, he has affiliated himself with people like his pastor, Rev. Wright, Mr. Farrakhan, and Mr. Soros, all of whom are anti-Semite and America-haters. Hillary is playing the victim, patiently waiting for Obama to fall on his own petard, which is the Alinsky concept. So far, Obama has stayed on the high ground, above the fray. But the Clintons know the Alinsky concepts inside and out. They will goad him until they finally get a heated reaction from him, which will be in contradiction to the lofty concepts he has been promulgating as his goals for America.

Where Our Political Correctness Is Getting Us

Mizz E links to a superb article in the Washington Times by Diana West entitled "The New Blasphemy." Did you know that Mohammed had 19 wives, married a nine-year-old when he was 54, and took part in murder and rape? Did you know that a Kurdish author has been sentenced to six months in prison for blasphemy for revealing these truths about Mohammed?

West points out that, "Where Americans have died, not just to de-fang jihadist threats but to "democratize" Islamic populations, freedom of speech is against the law." Please go to Gobsmacked Again to read this very important article.

West concludes, "we seem to have arrived at a strange junction where neither jihadist apologists nor surge enthusiasts want to hear the facts about Islamic law. You might say it's become the new blasphemy."

Guess Who Is Building The Fence on the Southern Border?

Via Fausta

Clinton's (and Monica's) Legacy

Ten years ago this month, the mainstream media's coverage of the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal was a turning point in the way the public views the main stream media. Scott Boriss writes about it here in Pajamas Media. Here are some of the points that I thought were most salient in the Boriss piece.

When Americans witnessed journalistic elites slithering out of their responsibility to call immoral behavior by its name exactly a decade ago, they were never trusted again.

The single set of national stories we now receive are hatched each night in a front-page-coordinating phone call between the New York Times and Washington Post, which is then dutifully copied by other outlets.

Monicagate: The community ruptures: It is hard to recapture the shock in America when this totally unprecedented news broke. A married president while in office had an affair with a 22-year-old intern under his charge. In less than ten years, we had gone from a president who would not take his jacket off in the Oval Office to one who could not keep his zipper up.

Unlike Watergate, journalists failed to do something that may now prove fatal to the Old Media. They never clearly condemned the president’s sexual relations as “wrong.” Nor that Clinton lied to them about it. Nor the credible allegations made by Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick that Clinton may have engaged in violations ranging from sexual harassment to rape. These were reported as if they were just political squabbles, typically with one side saying it was just about sex and the other side dismissed as “Clinton-haters” by James Carville and a “war room” that the media seemed to respect, if not celebrate.

The significant number of Americans to whom it was self-evident that Clinton’s behavior was a previously unthinkable outrage promptly revoked their membership in an Old Media that clearly did not share their values. According to the Pew Research Center, those who believed news organizations were “immoral” tripled from 13% to 38% — a level it has maintained since, dipping momentarily only in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when the media did share the values of a united America.

Now that news is converging onto the internet, which will provide a multitude of “news associations,” the Old Media outlets will likely never be able to reunite us in a single news community with shared values. Certainly, not those Americans who are convinced they sold their soul to a devil with a blue dress on.

McCain Gives A Very Good Speech

John McCain's speech to the people of South Carolina was a good one. You can read it here. Here are some of the points that I thought were his best ones.

I am running to keep America safe, prosperous and proud. I am running to restore the trust of the American people in their government.

I am running so that our children and their children will have even greater opportunities than the ones we were blessed with. I am running so that every person in this country, now and in generations to come, will know the same sublime honor that has been the treasure of my life: to be proud to be an American.

I seek the nomination of our party, because I am as confident today as I was when I first entered public life as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution _ that the principles of the Republican Party _ our confidence in the good sense and resourcefulness of free people are always in America's best interests. In war and peace, in good times and challenging ones, we have always known that the first responsibility of government it to keep this country safe from its enemies, and the American people free of a heavy handed government that spends too much of their money, and tries to do for them what they are better able to do for themselves.

We want government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and to do it with less of your money; to defend our nation's security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us; to respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; to enforce the rule of law that is first defense of freedom; to keep the promises it makes to us and not make promises it will not keep.

We believe government should do only those things we cannot do individually, and then get out of the way so that the most industrious, ingenious and enterprising people in the world can do what they have always done: build an even greater country than the one they inherited.

We can overcome any challenge as long as we keep our courage, and stand by our defense of free markets, low taxes and small government that have made America the greatest land of opportunity in the world.

I promise you I will always put America _ her strength, her ideals, her future _ before every other consideration.

Thank you, South Carolina.

Thank you for your trust. I will not let you down, so help me God.

Good night and God bless you as you have blessed me.

"It Didn't Bother Me At All"

Congratulations to Slate for producing this spot on video comparing the current Democrat race with Reese Witherspoon's move "Election."


Via Betsy's Page

Help Me

Can someone please tell me why all the MSM is refusing to mention Obama's name when talking about who won Nevada? He won more delegates. Isn't that what it is all about?

4 to 1: I Like Those Odds!

Today I asked my teens what they have been noticing about the Presidential race. They both answered, "Hillary." Then, one of them said, "Obama." I was not surprised, because they get their news from a cursory listening to the radio or glancing at the front page of the newspaper before getting to the cartoons. I doubt if they could name who is running on the Republican side.

However, as I indicated in my last post, I have noticed something else the media is not emphasizing: total votes being cast by Democrats and Republicans. I do not have the counts from South Carolina, but here is Nevada. Hillary got 5,353. Obama got 4,771. Edwards got 395, so the Dems got a little more than 10,00 votes.

On the Republican side, 22,649 people voted for Romney, Paul 6,087, McCain 5,651, Huckabee 3,616, Thompson 3,521, Giuliani 1,910, and Hunter 890. Well over four times as many voted Republican as voted Democrat!

Update: Here are the Republican results from South Carolina (from Fox News)

Candidate Raw # %
John McCain 140,354 33
Mike Huckabee 125,783 30
Fred Thompson 66,580 16
Mitt Romney 63,681 15
Ron Paul 15,534 4
Rudy Giuliani 8,935 2
Duncan Hunter 1,016 0

Surprised?

Based on what you have heard from the MSM, do these numbers surprise you?

THERE WERE ALMOST 9 TIMES THE NUMBER OF VOTES CAST IN THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUSES VERSES THE DEMOCRAT CAUCUSES.

Via Last of the Few

Please Don't Let This Woman Vote

Via Last of the Few

Obama on Reagan

Peter Robinson at The Corner gives us the exact words Barack Obama used in talking about Ronald Reagan. Here are Obama's words (that are causing him lots of trouble among Democrats):

I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

South Carolina: A Huge Disappointment

I am so disappointed that Fred Thompson is coming in a distant third in South Carolina. He is just not catching on. I can get behind Giuliani, and I would also vote for Romney. McCain and Huckabee leave me cold, but I guess I would vote for them over any Democrat. If Thompson and Hunter would team up in a third party, I would be tempted to go with them. That would probably give the election to the Democrats, though, wouldn't it? Maybe McCain, Romney, or Giuliani would select Thompson as his running mate.

While the American Family Seems Weaker, Especially Among Less Educated People, Other Aspects of Our Society Are Getting Better

This week I heard Rush Limbaugh refer to an article in Commentary by Peter Wehner and Yuval Levin, so I decided to check it out. Here are some of the excerpts I liked best.

Welfare reform sent a message in bright neon lights: higher expectations will yield better results. Rather than giving up on the poor, the new policy assumed that the able-bodied were capable of working, expected them to work, and was rooted in a confident belief that, materially and otherwise, they would be better off for it.

Innovators like then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in New York City and his police chief William Bratton pursued a zero-tolerance approach to crime that quickly became a model for other cities and states. Incarceration rates rose, policing improved, crime data were processed faster, criminal patterns were identified more effectively—all of which furthered the twin goals of intervention and prevention.

The progress we have made against drug use appears in large part to be another product of a reformed government policy. By the late 1980’s, in the heyday of the crack epidemic, drugs had come to be regarded as our most serious domestic challenge, and formed the subject of President George H.W. Bush’s first prime-time address to the nation. Discarding the piecemeal approach of the past, which concentrated now on one, now on another point of the drug-use continuum, Bush forged an integrated approach, applying pressure on all fronts: law enforcement, prevention, treatment, interdiction, and education. A critical element in the campaign was a public-awareness effort centered on the explicitly moral argument that drug use degrades human character.

The consequences were swift in arriving. If, in the 1970’s, drug use had been widely seen as liberating and glamorous, by the late 1980’s it was coming to be perceived as both dangerous and dumb. During the Clinton presidency, the drug issue was allowed to fade from attention, but since then national policy has returned to its former levels of efficacy, and the statistics reflect the encouraging results.

The rise in charter schools and publicly funded school-choice programs, along with the advent of “virtual” education, has created many more options for American families.

As for the decrease in abortions, it seems to have been influenced less by policy than by the changing terms of public debate and, more importantly, by increasingly responsible attitudes among the young.

Other factors played a role as well, including the efforts of pro-life groups to assist women with unwanted pregnancies, the greater availability of birth control, and advances in our scientific understanding of fetal development. Contributing to the rethinking was the more widespread use of sonogram technology, which enables would-be parents to see the developing child and its human form at a very early stage. All in all, not only has the public discussion of abortion been profoundly transformed, but younger Americans seem to have moved the farthest—in September, a Harris poll found that Americans aged eighteen to thirty were the most likely of all age groups to oppose the practice. This trend seems likely to continue.

Over the past fifteen years, on balance, the American family has indeed grown weaker—but almost every other social indicator has improved.

To be sure, we have not reached anything like nirvana. The gains made are not yet secure, and could easily be lost. Nor should it be forgotten that the improvements occurred after more than three decades of an almost uninterrupted freefall. Finally, the pathologies that still afflict us are serious, and evidently continue to be immune to the otherwise improving trend.

Thus, our popular culture remains, in many respects, a cesspool of violence and vulgarity. The “soft nihilism” and cultural relativism about which Allan Bloom wrote so powerfully in the late 1980’s are still with us, and at the same time many of our leading universities remain beholden to a radical leftist ideology. The yoking-together of these two syndromes may be even more widespread today than yesterday.

Perhaps most importantly, some of the most vital social indicators of all—those regarding the condition and strength of the American family—have so far refused to turn upward. Even as the teenage birth rate has fallen, out-of-wedlock births in general have reached an all-time high: 37 percent of all births in 2005. Over half of all marriages are now preceded by a period of unmarried cohabitation, and marriage rates themselves have declined by almost one-half since 1970.

In attitudes toward education, drugs, abortion, religion, marriage, and divorce, the current generation of teenagers and young adults appears in many respects to be more culturally conservative than its immediate predecessors. To any who may have written off American society as incorrigibly corrupt and adrift, these young people offer a powerful reminder of the boundless inner resources still at our disposal, and of our constantly surprising national resilience.

Liberal Fascism

The number one book at Amazon.com is Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism. Here is an interview with Goldberg. Here are some excerpts that I thought were meaningful.

I often like to ask college kids, except for the murder, bigotry, and genocide, what is it exactly about Nazism that you don't like? And they can't name anything. But, conservatives can come up with all sorts of stuff. They were socialists. They wanted free health care. They hated Christianity. They hated tradition. They were statists at the end of the day. All of those things are inherent to fascism and what was anathema to fascism was the idea that you can have, what the scholars of totalitarian theory call "islands of separateness" -- that churches can go their own way, that corporations can operate without coordinating with the state, that individuals can have free consciences, that there can be free debate, free and open discussion.

What distinguished Nazism was that it forthrightly included a world view we now associate almost completely with the political left: identity politics.

Today on the Left, we have people, like Richard Delgado at the University of Colorado, who says that blacks and Hispanics should flee the enlightenment as fast as they can because there is no way that the regime of white privilege could ever assimilate people who are born black or Hispanic, because you can never transcend your identity or your gender. It's where the whole logic of quotas come from, it's where the whole logic of Affirmative Action comes from. It's the idea that black people think like black people and white people think like white people and therefore, the only kind of diversity you can have is diversity by skin color, gender, and sexual orientation.

Have a Nice Eternity

Want to see what happened to the little island on the Euphrates River in Iraq that AlQaeda was using as a staging area?

via Strategy Page

Brilliant, Well-deserved Satire

Most of you are familiar with the fact that the latest New York Times effort to denigrate our troops features a story about a supposed wave of homocides across the nation caused by returning vets.

Iowahawk has decided to do some research. He has found that it is not military vets that are causing the problem. It is media vets! He has compiled a lengthy list of actual crimes journalistic vets have been arrested for. They include murder, child molestation, stalking, domestic violence, striking a police officer, property crimes, theft, and bank robbery.

What shall we do about this? Iowahawk quotes "media observer" Jim Treacher:

Long-time media observer Treacher sounds a similar alarm bell.

"Unless we do something quickly, America's editorial offices and news studios will become potential killing fields," says Treacher. "It's not enough that we treat media veterans with revulsion and contempt. They also deserve our pity."

Among the programs Treacher suggests are intensive anger management, drugs, psychotherapy, lobotomization, and "an anti-retard patch of some sort."

Treacher believes there is a strong correlation between journalism and sociopathy, but he has his own theory.

"Actually, I think the effect is in the opposite direction," explains Treacher. "Journalism doesn't always cause stupid, but stupid sure causes journalism."

Despite of the ever-growing and bloody toll of victims of media-related crimes, some observers counsel against jumping to conclusions. Among the defenders is University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds.

"I think it's unfair to single out journalists as thieves, or violent, or drunks, or child abusers," says Reynolds. "Sometimes they're all of the above." He cites the case of Kevin Lee Pettiford, a Knoxville journalist charged with abducting and threatening to kill three minor girls during a drunken high speed chase to an attempted bank robbery.

With the current media industry economic quagmire, more and more of these people are being turned out in streets, with no discernible skills, especially rudimentary math," says Owens. "The only thing they know how to do is make stuff up, and they really can't even do that very well. It's like a big incompetent powder keg ready to go off."

This is brilliant, well-deserved satire. Hats off to Iowahawk!

"Attrition and Border Enforcement Won’t Work. We Have to Have Amnesty."

There is a terrible problem. Arizona has passed tough new rules about illegal immigration. Legislators are complaining about the problems being created.

Here's the catch: the legislators are in Sonora, Mexico. Their complaints are about problems being caused by illegal immigrants returning home to Mexico!

The Truth About LBJ and Martin Luther King

Hillary Clinton praises LBJ as the man who got key civil rights legislation passed, and made it possible for Martin Luther King's dream to be realized. However, Frances Rice writes a very informative post here, which points out the important role played by Republican Senator Everett Dirkson. She also lets us know what LBJ really thought of Dr. King.

"Beware The Press With An Agenda"

NeoNeocon writes magnificently about the media's deceit and purposely misleading omissions "to magnify our wrongdoings and those of our allies, to downplay those of the enemy, to simplify matters that were really complex, and to sensationalize."

Diplomacy

The anti-war groups are directing their surrogates, Clinton and Obama, to move away from the unsuccessful strategy of refusing to vote for funding our troops. Instead, they are now going in a new direction: trying to prevent diplomatic agreements betweeen Iraq and the United States. I guess we won't be hearing amy more about diplomacy in the Democratic debates, unless Edwards stays in the race after losing in the state of his birth (South Carolina) next week.

Update: More here

Black Dreams, White Liberals

Charles Krauthammer writes one of his best columns today in the Washington Post. It is entitled "Black Dreams, White Liberals." It is about the flap that has developed between Obama and the Clintons since Hillary made her point about King's dream only being realized because of LBJ. Here are some of the points made by Krauthammer.

The analogy Clinton was implying was obvious: I'm Lyndon Johnson, unlovely doer; he's Martin Luther King, charismatic dreamer. Vote for me if you want results.


But where, I ask you, do such studied and/or sincere expressions of racial offense come from? From a decades-long campaign of enforced political correctness by an alliance of white liberals and the black civil rights establishment intended to delegitimize and marginalize as racist any criticism of their post-civil rights-era agenda.

The presidency is her due -- the ultimate in alimony -- and this young upstart refuses to give way.

But telling Obama to wait his turn is a tricky proposition. It sounds patronizing and condescending, awakening the kinds of racial grievances white liberals have spent half a century fanning -- only to find themselves now singed in the blowback, much to their public chagrin.

Who says there's no justice in this world?

Via RealClearPolitics

"We Are The Way To Happiness."

You want to see Tom Cruise talk about his love for Scientology? Go here to watch a nine minute video that is just a tad freaky.

Via Wizbang
Update:Go here to view an hilarious parody entitled, "Tom Cruise, Jew"

They Do Not Own The Seas (Yet)

An American carrier group (the Kitty Hawk) became "battle ready" when confronted in the Taiwan Straits by a Chinese destroyer and submarine on November 23, 2007. Adm. Timothy Keating, who heads the U.S. Pacific Command, is in Beijing this week to discuss this and other recent incidents. He told reporters Tuesday that U.S. warships will cross through the Taiwan Strait whenever they choose to.

“We don’t need China’s permission to go through the Taiwan Strait,” Keating said, stressing that it is international waters. “We will exercise our free right of passage whenever and wherever we choose.”

In 2006, a Chinese attack sub stalked the Kitty Hawk without being detected until it surfaced within firing range of the group.

via The Belmont Club

Disavow The Anti-Semites, Mr. Obama

If Barack Obama is elected as our next President, it seems likely that the ties between Israel and America would not be so close as they have been in recent years. Ed Lasky writes in The American Thinker:

One seemingly consistent theme running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. This ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates. Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism. This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a series of anti-Israel actions.


As his political fortunes and ambition climbed, he found support from George Soros, multibillionaire promoter of groups that have been consistently harsh and biased critics of the American-Israel relationship.

Enough of the soaring, vapid rhetoric, Mr. Obama, let's hear you disavow Soros, Wright, and Farrakhan.

Update: Obama has done it. Here is a statement he issued on January 15. "I decry racism and anti-Semitism in any form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements by Minister Farrakhan." Good start, now lets hear you denounce Wright and Soros.

The Homophobic Incidents Register

Here is another story from Britain. A columnist/farmer dared to express some politically incorrect words, was arrested, and wound up on the "Homophobic Incidents Register."

Via The Belmont Club

Give Em Hell, Herman

Perhaps the Iranians might want to be a little more careful. Read this story about the 27-year Navy veteran Commander of the USS Truman nuclear aircraft carrier. The buck stops there.

Via Theo Sparks at The Last of the Few

Do Not Trust "The Authorities"

If you see a gang of young people throwing bricks at ducks in a canal, and if you live in Britain, keep your mouth shut, or you might end up behind bars. It does not matter if you are 73-years-old. I had not seen the term "yob" before, so I looked it up on Wicipedia. It refers to a band of thugs.

Via The Last of the Few

This Morning's Sunrise

I enjoy waking up to get a glimpse of what is to come. Click on the images to see the goats having their breakfast.

In A Bind

The Democratic candidates are in a bind. According to this well reasoned post by Tigerhawk, the Dems cannot even express hope for an American victory in Iraq, without offending their base!

We Are In A Hole. Who Will Get Us Out?

The media is all abuzz today about a "stimulus package" President Bush wants Congress to pass. At the same time, today Glenn Beck interviewed David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. Mr. Walker is the man who keeps the books for our country. Mr. Walker describes our country's fiscal situation in very scary terms.

According to Mr. Walker, we have 34 trillion dolllars more promised just in Medicare than we have revenue available to pay for it. Before Congress passed the Medicare prescription bill the hole was "only" 20 trillion dollars. 75% of our country's debt is owned by foreigners! In 1950 there were sixteen workers for every one Social Security recipient. Soon that number will be two workers for every one recipient!

According to Mr. Walker, this issue of fiscal responsibility is going to have to rise to the top of issues debated once we get to the general election. I think he is right, and I think the President and the Fed chairman are now proposing a short term band-aid that will not begin to deal with the hole we are in.

Update: Larry Kudlow comments on Bush's moves here.

More Finger-Waving

via HILLARYNEEDSAVACATION

Insurgents

Not a week goes by without Bill Clinton saying something idiotic. This time it is this remark:

In this case the establishment organization is with him and the insurgents are with her," Clinton said in his speech. He then asked for a show of hands from about 50 precinct captains in the audience and challenged them to stand up to the union's leadership.

Insurgents? Does it not occur to him that "insurgents" is the word the press uses to describe the people who are killing our soldiers and innocent civilians in Iraq? Does he really want to romanticize that word and apply it to those who are supporting Hillary Clinton? I guess he does. The man has no class. As I have said before, every time this jackass opens his mouth, Hillary drops five more percentage points in the polls.

And, what about the Clintons love affair with unions? Now he is for the individual worker, and not the unions? The Clintons are upset that the culinary union in Nevada is urging workers to support Obama.

Via Tammy Bruce

Tonight's Sunset

Be sure to click on the image to get a better view of the mountains.

Burglar Strikes Out

Here's a story about a fourteen-year-old boy who knows how to swing a bat.
Via The Drudge Report

The Republican The Media Loves

There is a local talk show host in Denver who absolutely loves John McCain, even though the host is strongly anti-illegal immigration and McCain was an author of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill. McCain really knows how to win over the press. He gives them access, lets down his guard, puts his feet up and shoots the breeze with them. He also loves to espouse liberal positions on everything from global warming to tax cuts to the gang of fourteen on judges to campaign finance reform, which also endears him to the media. Fortunately, people who vote in primaries and caucuses tend to be a bit better informed than the average voter, and McCain does not stand a chance with informed Republican voters.

Another Item You Will Probably Not See In Your Local Paper

A company in Massachusets has announced that it has developed five human embryonic stem cell lines without destroying any embryos. Here is the story.

WORCESTER, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACTC - News) together with colleagues announced today the development of five human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines without the destruction of embryos. These new results have the potential to end the ethical debate surrounding the use of embryos to derive stem cells. In fact, the NIH report to the President refers to this technology as one of the viable alternatives to the destruction of embryos.The new method will be published today in the journal Cell Stem Cells, published by Cell Press. The peer-reviewed technique was initially carried out by ACT scientists under the direction of Robert Lanza, M.D., and then independently replicated by scientists on the West Coast. Single cells were removed from the embryos using a technique similar to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The biopsied embryos continued to develop normally and were then frozen. The cells that were removed were cultured utilizing a proprietary methodology that recreates the optimal developmental environment, which substantially improved the efficiency of deriving stem cells to rates comparable to using the traditional approach of deriving stem cells from the inner cell mass of a whole blastocyst stage embryo. The stem cells were genetically normal and differentiated into cell types of all three germ layers of the body, including blood cells, neurons, heart cells, cartilage, and other cell types of potentially therapeutic significance.

“This is a working technology that exists here and now,” said Robert Lanza, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Advanced Cell Technology and senior author of the paper. “It could be used to increase the number of stem cell lines available to federal researchers immediately. We could send these cells out to researchers tomorrow. If the White House approves this new methodology, researchers could effectively double or triple the number of stem cell lines available within a few months. Too many needless deaths continue to occur while this research is being held up. I hope the President will act now and approve these stem cell lines quickly.”

The paper published today also addresses several other important issues. First, the stem cells were derived without culturing multiple cells from each embryo together, and at efficiency levels similar to that reported for conventional stem cell derivation techniques using blastocysts. Second, it addresses ethical objections that the derivation system required co-culture with hESCs from other embryos that were destroyed. The current study demonstrates that hESC co-culture is not an essential part of the derivation procedure. The stem cell lines generated in the present study appear to have the same characteristics as other hESC lines, including expression of the same markers of pluripotency, self-renewing capacity, genetic stability, and ability to differentiate into derivatives of all three germ layers of the body.

“We are excited that our new method for generating human embryonic stem cell lines without the destruction of embryos has been accepted for inclusion by such a prestigious publication,” said William M. Caldwell IV, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology. “This new approach addresses the President Bush’s ethical concerns. We are hopeful that the NIH will consider this new approach for federal funding. We believe that such consideration reflects the desire of the American people to bring therapies derived from stem cell research to patients with few or no alternatives.”

Via Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

I Doubt If We'll Hear Much About This From Hillary or Obama

The Democrats want us to have a forty cent per gallon increase in federal taxes. Additionally, they also want us to be charged a fee for entering the highway during rush hours. Sounds like a winning election strategy to me!

"The Bonfire of the Multicultural Vanities"

David Brooks writes an excellent article here about identity politics. Here are some of the points I found to be most profound.

Both Clinton and Obama have eagerly donned the mantle of identity politics. A Clinton victory wouldn’t just be a victory for one woman, it would be a victory for little girls everywhere. An Obama victory would be about completing the dream, keeping the dream alive, and so on.

Fair enough. The problem is that both the feminist movement Clinton rides and the civil rights rhetoric Obama uses were constructed at a time when the enemy was the reactionary white male establishment. Today, they are not facing the white male establishment. They are facing each other.

All the rhetorical devices that have been a staple of identity politics are now being exploited by the Clinton and Obama campaigns against each other. They are competing to play the victim. They are both accusing each other of insensitivity. They are both deliberately misinterpreting each other’s comments in order to somehow imply that the other is morally retrograde.

All the habits of verbal thuggery that have long been used against critics of affirmative action, like Ward Connerly and Thomas Sowell, and critics of the radical feminism, like Christina Hoff Sommers, are now being turned inward by the Democratic front-runners.

Clinton’s fallback position is that neither she nor Obama should be judged as representatives of their out-groups. They should be judged as individuals.

But the entire theory of identity politics was that we are not mere individuals. We carry the perspectives of our group consciousness. Our social roles and loyalties are defined by race and gender. It’s a black or female thing. You wouldn’t understand.

What we have here is worthy of a Tom Wolfe novel: the bonfire of the multicultural vanities. The Clintons are hitting Obama with everything they’ve got. The Obama subordinates are twisting every critique into a racial outrage in an effort to make all criticism morally off-limits. Obama’s campaign drew up a memo delineating all of the Clintons’ supposed racial outrages. Bill Clinton is frantically touring black radio stations to repair any wounds.

This is the logical extreme of the identity politics that as been floating around this country for decades. Every revolution devours its offspring, and it seems the multicultural one does, too.

This dispute is going to be settled by the rising, and so far ignored, minority group. For all the current fighting, it’ll be Latinos who end up determining who gets the nomination.

At last, a bridge to the 21st century.

Ouch!

A man walked into a store and demanded cigarettes and money.

The clerk put the cash in a bag and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge.

Police say surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants. The clerk wasn't injured.

A short time later, police found Derrick Kosch, 25, at a home with a gunshot wound to his right testicle and lower left leg. He was expected to have surgery at a hospital.

Via Blue Crab Boulevard

Our Money

I just listened to a radio interview with Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. He pointed out that all of the Republican candidates are on record favoring continuance of the Bush tax cuts for the next ten years. All of the Democrat candidates are opposed. What are we talking about in terms of dollars? Our choice, according to Mr. Norquist, is a two trillion dollar tax increase if the Democrats are elected versus a two trillion dollar tax decrease if the Republicans are elected. Gosh, that's a hard one. I just can't decide.

Tonight's Sunset: Purple Mountain Majesty

If you click on the photo you can see much of the front range of the Rockies southwest of Denver.

This Morning's Sunrise

This morning was one of those days where the entire sky was showing color. This is actually a view to the west. Big weather change coming tonight with an arctic cold front.

How Political Correctness Destroyed Britain

Before he died on January 2, 2008, George Macdonald Fraser penned this piece about political correctness, and its effect on a once proud and powerful nation.

Via Gates of Vienna

"They Felt An Inevitable Attraction"

British twins who had been separated at birth learned they were related only after they became husband and wife! They had been adopted by separate families and "met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction." Full story here.
Via boing boing

Did Christ Tell Us To Ask The Government to Do His Work?

Fred Thompson differs with former Governor Huckabee regarding the role of government. In a thought-provoking blog post at Reformed Chicks Babbling Michele McGinty asks some great questions.

Tribute To Our Military Families

This video features actual military families associated with the 101st Airborne from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.


Via Blue Star Chronicles

Now They Want To Control Our Themostats!

Have you heard about the latest from California? Here is the story from the New York Times.

California Seeks Thermostat Control
By FELICITY BARRINGER
SAN FRANCISCO — The conceit in the 1960s show “The Outer Limits” was that outside forces had taken control of your television set.

Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages.

The proposed rules are contained in a document circulated by the California Energy Commission, which for more than three decades has set state energy efficiency standards for home appliances, like water heaters, air conditioners and refrigerators. The changes would allow utilities to adjust customers’ preset temperatures when the price of electricity is soaring. Customers could override the utilities’ suggested temperatures. But in emergencies, the utilities could override customers’ wishes.

Final approval is expected next month.

Via Finestkind Clinic and fish market

Which Party Has The Stomach To Take On Radical Islam?

From Investors Business Daily: a comparison of the two political parties regarding the threat from radical Islam.

War On Terror: If the New Hampshire debates settled anything, it's which party has the stomach to take on radical Islam. The Democrats couldn't even identify the enemy. Not once. Really.
We scanned the transcripts of Saturday's debates hosted by ABC News and tallied up the references to Islamic terrorism. The rhetorical divide between Democrats and Republicans on that score alone — ignoring the yawning gaps in policy — is stunning.

None of the four Democrat presidential candidates — despite running for an office that demands they lead the ongoing global war against Islamic extremists — could bring himself or herself to define the enemy we face as Islamic.

Their combined references to "Islam" or "Islamic" totaled zero — even though moderator Charles Gibson prompted them with a question about "Islamic radicals" threatening the U.S. with nuclear terrorism.

But Democrats refused to go there. Out of respect for their constituency, there was a complete blackout regarding Islamic jihad.

Instead, Hillary Clinton defined the enemy generically as "stateless terrorists," while Barack Hussein Obama complained about the "politics of fear" that he thinks accurately defining the enemy has created.

John Edwards, meanwhile, continued to wage his own personal jihad against a phantom enemy of "irresponsible" corporations — from pharmaceutical and insurance companies to oil giants and multinational corporations.

Republicans, on the other hand, called the enemy by its proper name.

The candidates referred to terrorists and terrorism as "Islamic," while also citing radical "Islam" as the problem, no less than 22 times. For example:

• Rudy Giuliani argued the U.S. must stay "on offense against Islamic terrorism."

• Mike Huckabee said the source of the threat we face is from the "radical Islamic faith." "This is an Islamic problem," he said. "This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamofascism problem."

Huckabee elaborated: "They are prompted by the fact that they must establish a worldwide caliphate that has nothing to do with us other than we live and breathe, and their intention is to destroy us."

• John McCain warned that "the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists."

• Mitt Romney said the "philosophy of radical jihadism says, 'We want to kill.' "

• Fred Thompson asserted, "We are in a global war with radical Islam. They declared war on us a long, long time ago. We took note, really, for the first time on Sept. 11, 2001."...

Via Jihad Watch

When Hollywood Didn't Hate America

Via the superb Captain"s Quarters blog

"The Silence Is Becoming Deafening"

Did you notice that we dropped 40 tons of bombs on AlQaeda Iraq (AQI) this week? A Muslim news source, Muslim World News, also reported this week that "the Iraqi Interior Ministry formed a unit recently dedicated to attacking AQI and will shortly take out the entire structure (via AJ Strata)." Ed Morrisey in Captain's Quarters writes about the irony that there has not been a mention of this important development in either the New York Times or the Washington Post. As Ed says, "The silence is becoming deafening."

Would This Have Been Possible Without The Surge?

"The Iraqi National Assembly has passed one of the two most critical benchmarks that the American government had pressed for Baghdad to adopt, the de-Baathification reform that will allow Sunnis to once again enter government jobs." Read the whole story at Captain's Quarters.

"A Nixonian Reflex Steeped In Toxic Gender Bias"

Camille Paglia, writing in Salon, says she will vote for Hillary Clinton if she is the Democratic nominee. However, here are some paragraphs from the piece that I selected, because I think they are important observations.

"But Hillary herself, with her thin, spotty record, tangled psychological baggage, and maundering blowhard of a husband, is also a mighty big roll of the dice. She is a brittle, relentless manipulator with few stable core values who shuffles through useful personalities like a card shark (”Cue the tears!”). Forget all her little gold crosses: Hillary’s real god is political expediency. Do Americans truly want this hard-bitten Machiavellian back in the White House? Day one will just be more of the same."

"Hillary's feckless, loutish brothers (who are kept at arm's length by her operation) took the brunt of Hugh Rodham's abuse in their genteel but claustrophobic home. Hillary is the barracuda who fought for dominance at their expense. Flashes of that ruthless old family drama have come out repeatedly in this campaign, as when Hillary could barely conceal her sneers at her fellow debaters onstage -- the wimpy, cringing brothers at the dinner table."

"Hillary's willingness to tolerate Bill's compulsive philandering is a function of her general contempt for men. She distrusts them and feels morally superior to them. Following the pattern of her long-suffering mother, she thinks it is her mission to endure every insult and personal degradation for a higher cause -- which, unlike her self-sacrificing mother, she identifies with her near-messianic personal ambition."

"Hillary's disdain for masculinity fits right into the classic feminazi package, which is why Hillary acts on Gloria Steinem like catnip. Steinem's fawning, gaseous New York Times op-ed about her pal Hillary this week speaks volumes about the snobby clubbiness and reactionary sentimentality of the fossilized feminist establishment, which has blessedly fallen off the cultural map in the 21st century. History will judge Steinem and company very severely for their ethically obtuse indifference to the stream of working-class women and female subordinates whom Bill Clinton sexually harassed and abused, enabled by look-the-other-way and trash-the-victims Hillary."

"Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary's default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. It's a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias. How will that play in the Muslim world?"

Via BLOGS OF WAR

Moron

What would you call a man who drove at an excessive speed into a mailbox, then into a house, and had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system?
Via Sense of Events

Priorities in The War Against the Islamofascists

What should be our priority in the war against Islamic fascists? This piece suggests it should be Pakistan, not Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran.

The Bush administration's nightmare scenario -- the convergence of terrorism and nuclear weapons -- is happening right now, and in Pakistan, not in Iraq or Iran. Yet as recently as Dec. 11, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, speaking to the House Armed Services Committee with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, hardly mentioned Pakistan, and characterized Afghanistan as second in priority to Iraq.

It is critical that the Bush administration put Pakistan and Afghanistan where they should have been for the past six years: at the top of this country's security agenda. The most fitting memorial to Bhutto would be to recognize that the battle for a democratic Pakistan is the centerpiece of the global fight against terrorism.

Via The Right Coast

This Guy Is Lucky Still To Be Alive!

Go here for some hilarious laughter!
Via The Right Coast

This Morning's Sunrise

Grumpy Old Men

Today a man was coming out to give us a bid on cleaning our carpets. Despite his fancy GPS system, he got very lost. He called me several times. Each time I patiently gave him directions. I could tell he was getting very frustrated. Then, he said something that just cracked me up. He said, "I can tell that you are not used to talking to people who are not very intelligent!" I was completely taken aback. I assured him that I was not in the least bit upset with him, and apologized if I came across that way.

He accepted my apology, then went on and on about this durn GPS system being a waste of money. When he got to our house, I saw that he was a very large man, who looked like he was in his late seventies. When he left I told him that I hoped he would be able to enjoy the scenery on the way back to the city. However, he told me that would not be possible, because he still had seven more houses to visit, and he was now two hours late, due to that durn GPS.

My guess is that he tried retirement, but the wife made him get the heck back out of the house, because of his grumpiness.

Fiscal Responsibility?

I just heard on the "news" that some of Rudi Giuliani's staff are going to be working without pay for the next month. I guess that means he is practicing fiscal responsibility. Somehow, though, I like better the fact that Romney is dipping into his own multi-million dollar fortune to pay his staff. Giuliani has also made multi-millions since 9-11-2001. Why can't he dip into that fortune for a month until the Florida primary?

Update:FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog summarizes the fiscal situation of GOP candidates:

All of the GOP campaigns, except for Ron Paul (recently), have lagged behind the Democrats this year and have struggled financially.

On the GOP side, McCain is broke and floated a $3 million loan to keep his campaign going. Romney has contributed over $17 million (not counting the last quarter 2007) in his own wealth to fund the campaign and has gone dark (pulled campaign ads) every where except Michigan. Thompson is broke. Huckabee has never been prolific in his fundraising.

Good news is not on the horizon for any of the GOP candidates regarding campaign coffers.

But, what does this mean for the Giuliani campaign?

Probably not much since Florida and Super Tuesday are bunched so close together in the campaign calendar. If Rudy wins, he is flush with new cash. If he loses

Who Is Kidding Whom?

Hillary Clinton refuses to debate on Fox News. Fox News is accused of being part of the vast right wing conspiracy. Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp. Guess who Rupert Murdoch is supporting for President? Yep, Hillary Clinton. Here's Thomas Edsell in the Huffington Post last July:

In her most recent filing at the FEC, Hillary Clinton reported two large donations from the very top of the Fox corporate structure.

On June 5, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, gave her presidential bid $2,300. A few weeks later, his son, James R. Murdoch, chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting in London, gave $3,400. Altogether, NewsCorp/Fox executives gave at least $40,000 to the Clinton campaign.

In July 2006, the elder Murdoch hosted a fundraiser for Clinton's Senate re-election campaign, raising many eyebrows among Democrats. The Financial Times, which first disclosed the event, noted that Murdoch was a part of the "vast right wing conspiracy" named by Hillary Clinton as determined to destroy her husband's presidency.

She explained her willingness then to accept Murdoch's support to the FT: "He's my constituent and I'm very gratified that he thinks I'm doing a good job."

Asked about the Murdoch contributions to Clinton's presidential bid, Howard Wolfson, director of communications, said he had no comment.

Might As Well Try It

I think I will invite Denver Broncos' Coach Mike Shanahan over to watch our goats. The four white/brown boar goats have developed an incredibly effective defense against the sweet little brown boar goat named Gigi. The three females form a "v," and then the big old male, Lightning, backs it up. The "v" moves as Gigi moves toward the food.

This morning, however, while that was happening, a flock of birds came in behind Lightning, and while all the goats were selfishly trying to keep newcomer Gigi from getting her breakfast, the birds swooped in and ate the grain. Gigi saw this, and moved around the end. When the other goats turned to keep the birds away from the grain, Gigi moved in to the perimeter of the hay, and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, with only the butts of the other goats facing her.

So, the best way to beat a "v" defense is to come around the end, and wait for the defense to get distracted by a flock of birds. But really, what are the chances of that happening? The Broncos are desperate. What does Coach Shanahan have to lose? I guarantee the "v," unless of course, Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, figures out that thing about the birds.

Thomas Sewell on Demagoguery

"By far the best presentation as a candidate, among all the candidates in both parties, is that of Barack Obama. But if he actually believes even half of the irresponsible nonsense he talks, he would be an utter disaster in the White House.

Among the Democrats, the choice between John Edwards and Barack Obama depends on whether you prefer glib demagoguery in its plain vanilla form or spiced with a little style and color.

The choice between both of them and Hillary Clinton depends on whether you prefer male or female demagoguery."
Thomas Sewell quoted in the Sisu blog.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama continues to do very well. He is certainly an eloquent speaker. He claims to want to do something about genocide, but brags that he has always opposed the war in Iraq, and has consistently voted not to fund our troops there. How many million people would Saddam Hussein have had to kill before Obama would have considered it to be genocide?

I would love it if this nation could be united under the leadership of a man who happens to have had a black father. What does this man believe? What would be the principles upon which he takes a stand? Will those principles make America stronger, or weaker?

Gun Control

Butte, Montana, November 5, 2007

"Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23 and Enrico Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11-year-old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two-story home. It seems the two crooks never learned two things: they were in Montana, and Patricia had been a clayshooting champion since she was nine.

Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father's room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.

Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor, only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old's knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals.

When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street, where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.

It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he took from another home-invasion robbery. That victim, 50-year-old David Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab wounds to the chest."

From the High Plains Rider January 2008.
Update! Julie at A Work in Progress checked out this story, and found that it is false. I should have checked it, too, because I read it in a local newspaper that is quite popular out here on the high plains, but as far as I know, it is not known for Pulitzer Prize winning journalism.