A man of character and good humor

This Saturday anyone who has ever been a fan of Denver Broncos football, or who appreciates people of good humor and impeccable character, will want to hear the speech given by Shannon Sharpe as he is inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
If you want to read a sweet story, please go here to read what Denver Post sportswriter Mike Klis wrote today about Shannon, who was raised by his grandmother in this
cinder block home with concrete floors in rural Georgia. His grandmother died this month in the nursing home where she had worked while raising her own nine children and Shannon and his brother and sister. Shannon has been determined never to embarrass his grandmother. Now he is sure she will be listening to his speech Saturday, and most of it will be about his grandmother. What a wonderful man of character and good humor.

No one should be surprised.

Ann Althouse is reporting that tens of thousands of Egyptians poured out into Tahir Square today chanting "Islamic, Islamic, neither secular nor liberal." I am rereading Mark Stein's marvelous book America Alone. Mark writes much about the rising political power of Islam throughout the world. I highly recommend the book.

"First tentative steps toward fiscal sanity"

Jennifer Rubin is reporting in the Washington Post that a deal has been agreed to in Washington. The president gets a deal through 2012, the House gets one trillion in cuts up front, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gets his bipartisan commission to recommend another 1.8 trillion in cuts. Nothing yet on paper.

Crowder on bailouts

Via Instapundit

"The first genuine political victory for the economic wing of the Tea Party"

Contrary to the impression we get from the lame stream media, David Harsanyi writes here that Washington is actually working "a lot better than it used to." By that he means that since the White House and both Houses of Congress are no longer controlled by one party, we are actually seeing vigorous debate and critical thinking about how to solve the nation's fiscal problems that were created by Congress and the White House when one party marched us right off the "ideological cliff."

"Those we call political extremists are often just extremely crazy."

Right-of-center Cal Thomas and left-of-center Froma Harrop both have important things to say about Anders Breivik. Thomas points out that police and journalists are calling him a "Christian fundamentalist," although these same groups never refer to Islamic terrorists as "Muslim fundamentalists," for fear of angering Islamists. Thomas also points out that Norway forbids civilians from carrying concealed weapons, or owning automatic weapons, unless they are gun collectors. I remember that at Columbine High School here in Colorado, and at Virginia Tech, the campuses were "gun free zones."

Harrop also criticizes those in the media who call Breivik a "right-winger." She is irritated by the media's need to put this into a political framework and ask irrelevant questions such as "What did he want?" There are legitimate debaters on both the right and the left who are concerned about multi-culturalism and immigration issues, and to put this insane man in the middle of those debates does both sides a disservice and "distorts the views" of sane people who have similar concerns.

"Evil incarnate"

Bret Stephens takes a stab at pinpointing what is Anders Breivik in today's Wall Street Journal. Obviously, Breivik is neither Christian nor conservative, as lame stream media writers have hastened to paint him. Stephens says Breivik's worldview is "fundamentally geared toward hastening an apocalypse." Here are some quotes from Stephens piece today:

In a superb new book, "Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of Millennial Experience," Boston University's Richard Landes notes just how pervasive this kind of impulse has been throughout history and across cultures, and how much its many strains—Christian, Marxist, Islamist, Nazi, environmentalist and so on—have in common. Breivik, Mr. Landes says, was of a piece: "Like many active cataclysmic apocalypticists, he believed that the socio-political world is in huge tension, like tectonic plates about to crack, and if he can set off a small explosion in the right place it will unleash far greater forces." In this sense, Mr. Landes adds, "the thing he resembles most is the people he hates."

What it is is millennarian: the belief that all manner of redemptive possibilities lie on just the other side of a crucible of unspeakable chaos and suffering. At his arrest, Breivik called his acts "atrocious but necessary." Stalin and other Marxists so despised by Breivik might have said the same thing about party purges or the liquidation of the kulaks.

These are the politics that have largely defined our age and which conservatives have, for the most part, been foremost in opposing. To attempt to tar them with Breivik's name is worse than a slur; it's a concession to a killer with pretensions of intellectual sophistication. And it's a misunderstanding of what he was all about.

Norway, Europe and probably the U.S. will now have anxious debates about xenophobia, populism and the rise of neofascism. These are worthy topics, but they are incidental to understanding what happened on Friday. What we witnessed was the irruption of an impulse—more psychological than political—that defines a broader swath of the ideological spectrum than most people would care to acknowledge. As for Breivik, there ought to be no question as to what he is: evil incarnate

She is lookin out for her man!

Now here is a woman who deserves every penny of her elderly husband's billions! Someone attempts to throw a foam-pie in Rupert Murdoch's face, but his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, in the pink jacket and black skirt, lands a right cross, while another woman and a man join her in blocking the attempt!

Is this threat being ignored?

The mass murder of innocent people in Oslo brings the threat of individual terrorists back onto the front pages. But David Sirota writes here of "a more systemic threat of terrorists or foreign governments exploiting our economy's penchant for job-offshoring. How? By using our corresponding reliance on imports to stitch security-compromising technology into our society's central IT nervous system."

As the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reported, they could mean "kill switches" secretly implanted in Pentagon systems that control our arsenal. Or they could mean new back doors that allow Chinese military hackers to again breach Defense Department computer networks, as they did in 2007.

Sirota is a lefty, so I don't go all the way down the road with his conclusions, but I am glad he is writing about this subject, because it is a threat to our national security.

Our Creator wants our left brain to know what our right brain is up to!

Over at One Cosmos, Dr. Bob writes about unity.

"A healthy mind seeks unity above all else. It is what the mind does and what it is for. It can also, of course, analyze into parts, but always for the purpose of synthesizing things into a higher and more complex unity. Only a psychotic person prefers to live in a hopelessly sundered world of bizarre and irreconcilable fragments."

"The other day, a fellow named Rush Limbaugh made an astute observation, suggesting that the reason Obama is reduced to such a stuttering prick (to quote Tommy DeVito) when off the teleprompter, is that he is a deeply divided person, either consciously or unconsciously (and undoubtedly both, in our opinion). He is the polar opposite of, say, Ronald Reagan, who always knew what he thought and could answer any question, for it was simply a matter of returning to well thought-out first principles and applying them to the problem in question. Very scientific, if you will. (What he could do about these principles was, of course, constrained by certain realities such as a liberal congress dedicated to expansion of the state.)"

The "responsibility deficit"

John Andrews writes here that "Deficits abound, but it’s ultimately the responsibility deficit that will sink us unless we get a grip. Its symptoms are everywhere – in dishonest pension promises, in sanctimonious politicians with zippers down, in an Obamacare law that embeds big business and big labor with big government, waivers the connected, dehumanizes the patient, cooks the books, and calls it reform."

Summer reading

Betrayal was written by Linda Chavez in 2004. It documents the outrageous political power amassed by public employee unions from 1995 to the present. Workers have been betrayed by their union bosses, according to Chavez, because workers' dues have primarily gone to support the Democratic Party, not to do traditional union stuff like collective bargaining, contract negotiations, and grievance resolution. Things have only gotten worse since the election of Barack Obama.

RUSH was written by Todd Bucholz this year. It is witty and thought-provoking. Buchholz challenges the commonly preached ways that individuals find happiness. He is for competition, capitalism, "the pursuit of love, new knowledge, wealth and status," and risk-taking. "The contented do not grow smarter, they grow moss."

Cooling off

I still think this would be better than what my dog does: plop himself down on top of marigolds, petunias and other garden flowers!
via Finestkind Clinic and fishmarket

"Just another day"

via Julie at A Work in Progress

Not living up to his billing

Jennifer Rubin adds her voice to those who see through the Obama myth.

Unstoppable?

via Invincible Armor

"Overly enthusiastic screening"

Do you think your free expression of views on the web will not be used against you in employment interviews? Think again!

The practice of demogaguery

No one sees through Barack Obama better than Victor Davis Hanson. Historian Hanson gives us a history of demagoguery, then shows how Mr. Obama implements five tried and true tactics used by demagogues throughout history.

1) The use of an incendiary, but otherwise unimportant, example to whip up anger against the so-called establishment classes

Why mention “alligators and moats,” or claim that doctors wantonly lop off limbs and rip out tonsils, or accuse jet-setting corporate grandees of draining the federal Treasury at the expense of “kids’ scholarships”? The president knows full well that the American-Mexican border is only one-third fenced and the influx of illegal aliens is still considerable. He must appreciate that the vast majority of doctors, in this age of promiscuous malpractice suits, do not insist on dangerous and unnecessary surgeries to gouge the patient. And corporate depreciation schedules for personal aircraft reflect a minuscule cost to the Treasury, one analogous perhaps to the tab for personal jet aircraft for those in federal and state government. If the president cannot adduce cogent arguments to oppose increased oil exploration, then he turns to ridiculous anecdotes about the importance of inflating tires, tuning up cars, and trading in 8-mpg clunkers.

2) The demagogic rejection of demagoguery

Recently the president called for a civil, respectful tone among the parties negotiating the looming debt crisis — a sort of prep for tarring his Republican opponents as holding a “gun” to the “head” of his supporters. In fact, for most of Barack Obama’s career we have seen violent similes packaged with Sermon on the Mount forbearance: Divisive language like “bring a gun to a knife fight,” “get in their face,” and “make them sit in the back seat” is always juxtaposed with lofty appeals for no more red-state/blue-state rancor — in a style right out of the best of the fourth-century Athenian demagogues.

In classical times this technique was known as praeteritio and paralipsis — deploring the very sort of tropes that you are about to embrace. Obama adds a concrete manifestation to his rhetoric: damning “fat cat” bankers and then playing golf more than any other modern president as he courts Wall Street, or deriding private jets but using his own presidential jets to junket the first family to Costa del Sol, Vail, and Martha’s Vineyard.

3) The evocation of anonymous straw men, sometimes referred to as “some” or “they”

In the Manichean world of Barack Obama there are all sorts of such demons, mostly unnamed, who insist on extremist politics — while the president soberly and judiciously splits the difference between these fantasy poles. So for the last three years we have heard, but been offered few details, about the perils of both neo-con interventionists and reactionary isolationists, of both profligate big spenders and throw-grandma-over-the-cliff misers, of both socialist single-payer advocates and heartless laissez-faire insurers who shut emergency-room doors to the indigent in extremis — always with the wise Barack Obama plopping down in the middle, trying, for the sake of all the people, to hold onto the golden mean between these artificially constructed zealots.

4) First-person nausea

The demagogue, in messianic fashion, sees himself as a lone crusader taking on special interests, again always on behalf of “the people.” Almost everything is personalized in these cosmic struggles. So, ad nauseam, we hear of the narcissistic “I,” “my,” “mine,” etc., as if the executive branch is but one man of genius and compassion, set against existential challenges and demonic enemies everywhere.

5) Inconsistency of position, predicated on the (always changing) perception of 51 percent majority opinion

At various times, Barack Obama has lashed out at those who wished to refuse to raise the debt limit, although as a senator that is just how he voted. He deplored the polluting effects of big money in campaigns, only to raise more Wall Street cash than anyone else in presidential history — as he became the first candidate to reject the public financing of general-election presidential campaigns and the limitations on fundraising that such four-decade-old laws entailed. He once decried the very idea of not applying the War Powers Act that as president he has completely ignored. He insisted that drilling and increased supply had little effect on oil-price stability — but maintained that releasing a small amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve most surely would. The once-demonized Bush protocols — Guantanamo, tribunals, renditions, intercepts, wiretaps, Predators, Iraq, preventive detention — have been embraced or indeed expanded.

There is never a systematic agenda, a defined foreign policy. Instead, amid a fuzzy ideology of hope and change and spread the wealth, almost any position can be embraced one day and summarily rejected the next — no new taxes in December 2010, lots of them in June 2011; shovel-ready stimulus is once essential, but soon proves not so shovel-ready after all; new federal healthcare is mandatory, but so are 1,400 exemptions from it — depending on perceptions of what might win over a majority.

What impresses about Barack Obama is his ability to take an ancient art, refine it with an Ivy League veneer, and become a new, cool version of the old Cleon.

©2011 Victor Davis Hanson

Via Geckofeeder

Wisconsin leads the way

From obesity to anorexia?

A clear majority of American adults are overweight or obese. Magazines and newspapers cover the problem daily. The First Lady is making its prevention one of her chief causes.

Now, however, with Princess Kate gracing the covers of nearly all the magazines, will we turn our attention to the opposite phenomena? Kate, down to 95 pounds, is pregnant. Will her self-starvation lead to a malnourished infant? Here she is talking with actress Nicole Kidman, who is certainly not overweight.

Do we have the gumption to manage our employees?

Here is a reprint of a column written in 1985 that clearly identifies 545 people directly, legally, morally responsible for our nation's difficulties. The only thing I would add is that we the people elect them, except for the nine Supreme Court Justices.

"Raising farm costs by killing bats"

Have you ever thought about the importance of bats sweeping the night sky for bugs that prey on the vegetables and fruits we eat? Neither have I. Here is a blog post telling about how thousands of bats are being killed by wind turbines.

Star Spangled Banner

On the Fourth of July I sent people over to Andy's Place to watch this. Now I have decided I want it on my blog, too. There are some rough spots we all have trouble with, but toward the end there are some absolutely beautiful contributions from these fine soldiers serving in Iraq.

From the viewpoint of a part-time cashier

If I had any money to invest, here are some companies I would think would be attractive. Unilever (Axe products: they have completely cornered the market of young males). They also sell Dove products and Vaseline, among many other products. Hershey not only sells Hershey bars, but also Reese's and Kit Kats. Mars (M&Ms). Pepperidge Farms (Goldfish crackers). Wrigleys (gum). Living Essentials has a patent pending on 5 Hour Energy. Pepsi and Coke would have to be considered. Cadbury, not only for their chocolates; they also sell Trident gum.

The Finkler Question

I am still enjoying immensely Howard Jacobson's book The Finkler Question. One of the themes of the book is Jews who are ashamed to be identified with Israel. One of the main characters, Samuel Finkler, is asked by a group of Jews in the entertainment industries and in academics to be the leader of a group called ASHamed Jews.

The humor is brilliant. Most Jews identify themselves with the Democratic Party, and with people like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. They need an outlet to let the world know they are ashamed to be identified with Israel's aggressive self-defense.

Another outstanding feature of Jacobson's writing is the dialogue between characters. A person says something, and then the other person repeats some of the words used by the other character, and takes the conversation in a different direction, putting a new emphasis on the words. I am going to try this out in interactions with people.

Disconnect

TL in Exile writes here about "the lifeblood of the nation."

"Fast and Spurious"

Confused about Operations Fast and Furious and Gunwalker? Mark Steyn explains what happened:

"United States taxpayers were picking up the tab for Mexican drug lords’ weaponry in order that the ATF could identify high-up gun-traffickers. But, as it turns out, these high-up gun-traffickers were already known to other agencies — FBI, DEA, and other big-spending acronyms in the great fetid ooze of federal alphabet soup in which this republic is drowning. And, indeed, some of those high-ups are said to have been paid informants for those various federal agencies. So, in case you’re wondering why Obama’s second annual Recovery Summer is a wee bit sluggish at your end, relax: Stimulus dollars went to fund one federal agency to buy guns for the paid informants of another federal agency to funnel to foreign criminals in order that the first federal agency might identify the paid informants of the second federal agency."

Doug Ross says we need a federal prosecutor.

S.I.E.U. intimidation tactics exposed

We have all read about S.E.I.U.'s influence on the Obama presidency. Now a catering company has sued S.I.E.U. and in the discovery process of the lawsuit, the court has asked S.I.E.U. to produce its manual for intimidation of American businesses. Read about it here.

Sounds of Silence

As the mullahs and Ahmadinejad sprint forward to join the nuclear club, the response from the Obama regime has been, and continues to be silence.

Are they all hypocrites?

Back in 2006 there was a vote in the United States Senate on raising the debt ceiling. It passed 52 to 48. All Democrats, including Senator Obama from Illinois, voted against raising the debt ceiling when George W. Bush was President.

Marco Rubio on the greatness of America

A word of encouragement

"The True Cornerstone has been set. Build."

Declaring victory on behalf of their leader

Is this the "Kloppy Gambit" gone national?

Daring to challenge, daring to unite

Are you a three percenter?

Cisco cams

HP and Cisco systems are combining to ship one-half million surveillance cameras to keep watch on the citizens of Chongqing, China.

Antichrist?

Michele Bachmann officially left her church shortly before announcing for the Presidency. The church was affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which has come under criticism from some Catholics for its views on the papacy, an institution that the denomination calls the Antichrist.

Good move, Michele!

Feet, fork, fingers, sleep, stress, and love

Dr. David Katz blogs here about six things we can do to ensure good health.

I agree.

This blogger says "the prospect of Obama achieving a Supreme Court majority and shaping American life for decades beyond his own disastrous presidency should be at the forefront of Americans’ concerns as the 2012 election approaches."

Your Sunday quiz

via iOwntheWorld

Perry's priorities

Last week Texas Governor Rick Perry resisted efforts by the White House and UN to prevent the execution of this man, who admitted raping and murdering a sixteen-year-old Texas girl.

Hickenlooper: a weather vane?

Colorado's Democrat Governor John Hickenlooper says in an interview with Politico that Obama will have a "very hard" time winning Colorado in 2012.

Default on the narrative!

Jon Caldera suggests that we lower the debt ceiling!

Germany turns to coal and natural gas.

Germany has decided to scuttle nuclear energy by 2022, and plans to use climate fund cash to build up coal and natural gas plants! Why? Because they are experiencing burgeoning electricity demand due to their "still powerful manufacturing economy dependent upon exports."

Do you think he could take on Obama?

Florida Representative Allen West is interviewed about the important issues facing America. "That's why the 2012 election is so important!"

“Of such deals, are Tea Parties born.’’

Jeff Jacoby reminds us that in five and one-half months the 100-watt incandescent light bulb will no longer be legally sold in the United States. The law outlawing the sale of incandescent light bulbs that are used in 85% of American homes was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007. Jacoby explains here why it is an example of "unadulterated crony capitalism."

Three reasons the debt debate is malarky

Who is responsible for our eating habits?

Does "healthy food" (fruits and vegetables) have to be so expensive? David Sirota doesn't think so. In fact, he blames "the ultimate elitists: agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians they own." Sirota alleges that these corporations use "public monies to protect private profit." "Lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses' specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to "choose" the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support."

For example, Sirota points out that the federal government has poured over 50 billion dollars into the corn industry over the last decade. "Corn, of course, is processed into the junk-food staple, corn syrup, and feeds the livestock which produces meat."

I am sure there is truth in Sirota's words. But what responsibility does the individual consumer have? Do we really have to choose the french fries and Coke, the chips and donuts?

Working part-time as a Wal-Mart cashier, I notice that Hispanics of all income levels still buy large quantities of Roma Tomatoes, mangos and jalapeno peppers. People from India now living in the U.S. buy large quantities of other vegetables. Stores that survive cater to the preferences of their customers. No one is "forcing" me to buy junk food. That is a choice, folks.

West and Rubio?

I spoke with a guy today (a scientist). He was telling me that there is a movement to draft Colonel Allen West and Representative Marco Rubio to run as GOP presidential and vice presidential candidates respectively. We could, and probably will, do much worse!

Forgetful?

Memo to the guy who left his opened package of condoms on a shelf at Wal-Mart: I am sure that the toy department was the apppropriate place, size wise, for you to leave it, but next time could you please stop at the cash register and pay for them before leaving the store? Just sayin.

The numbers may be going down slightly, but...

Michael Barone writes here that there is a new reality on the immigration front: Mexicans are staying home. People here illegally, 60% of whom are Mexicans, are now estimated at 11.2 million (2010 numbers), down from the 2007 peak of 12 million, and about the same as 2005 numbers. Barone believes the 2011 numbers are even lower.

Still, 11.2 million is hardly "staying home," is it? It is still a huge negative impact on our health, welfare, food stamps, law enforcement, and education costs.

The left ecstatic, the right embarrassed?

People at The Wall Street Journal and Fox News must be embarrassed to read the allegations of phone-hacking by their sister publication in England, News of the World, owned by News Corp., which also owns Fox and the Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is another who cannot be enjoying the negative publicity. However, the left must be ecstatic, given their hatred of Fox News, which has soundly beaten its rivals in cable news audience ratings. So far nine people have been arrested in England, and the F.B.I. is beginning an investigation in America.

Questions on my mind today

Are we reliable witnesses to our own history? To the extent that we are only able to remember what was done to us, and not what we ourselves have done, I think the answer is no.
How do we rectify the disparity? Do we go around asking everyone we know to tell us how they see us? That might be painful.

Are we persons who always puts ourselves in the most flattering light when we review what has happened to us?

Are we aware of God's presence throughout our day? If so, do we pray that His will be done through us, and ask for His guidance? Do we humble ourselves, ask forgiveness, and forgive others as He has forgiven us?

9.2

This blogger thinks about this scene from Animal House every time a new unemployment number comes out. This week it was 9.2%. Furthermore, he suggests that when Obama does his military service, as suggested for the fraternity members in Animal House, he should volunteer to go to Libya.

Cats summarize all the Harry Potter movies

I have not seen any of the Harry Potter movies. Now I don't have to; these cats have just summarized them for us in one minute.
via Neatorama

By land, sea, air, and the virtual world!

Politico is reporting that 24,000 files were stolen from the Pentagon by a "foreign government" in a "single intrusion" in March. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn said that the theft included "our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols.”

Why do I love this story so much?

Bank of America filed foreclosure papers on a couple who had paid cash for their home! The matter went to court and the homeowners proved their case. The judge ordered Bank of America to pay the homeowners' legal fees. Five months later those fees had still not been paid, so the attorney for the homeowners asked the sheriff to seize the bank's assets. Read the whole story here!
Via Redneck Peril

How Russians handle Somali pirates

What is it with us? Why are we fascinated by pirates? Is it similar to our fascination with mobsters when the Godfather movies came out? Why do corporations pay huge ransoms to these criminals?

Apparently the Russians do not share our fascination with pirates. This video shows Russian Navy Commandos taking over a pirate ship after pirates had taken a Russian oil tanker. They handcuffed the pirates to their ship, and blew it up.

Here is more on the story from the blog Bloviating Zeppelin:

The soldiers freed their compatriots and the tanker. The Russian Navy Commandos moved the pirates back to their own (pirate) ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives and then they left the ship and
exploded it with all remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it. The commandos sank the pirate ship along with the pirates and without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. That is, they used the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the
rescuing ship can decide what to do with the pirates. Usually, they were hanged.

"Bow in humility to rise up in courage.”

Very true, is it not?

Keeping your composure

A woman in a supermarket is following a grandfather and his badly behaved 3 year-old grandson.

It’s obvious to her that he has his hands full with the child screaming for sweets in the sweet aisle, biscuits in the biscuit aisle; and for fruit, cereal and pop in the other aisles.

Meanwhile, Granddad is working his way around, saying in a controlled voice, “Easy, William, we won’t be long, easy, boy.”

Another outburst, and she hears the granddad calmly say, “It’s okay, William, just a couple more minutes, and we’ll be out of here. Hang in there, boy.”

At the checkout, the little terror is throwing items out of the cart, and Granddad says again in a controlled voice, “William, William, relax buddy, don’t get upset. We’ll be home in five minutes; stay cool, William.”

Very impressed, the woman goes outside where the grandfather is loading his groceries and the boy into the car.

She said to the elderly gentleman, “It’s none of my business, but you were amazing in there. I don’t know how you did it. That whole time, you kept your composure, and no matter how loud and disruptive he got, you just calmly kept saying things would be okay. William is very lucky to have you as his grandpa.”

“Thanks,” said the grandfather, “but I’m William . . . the little s**t’s name is Kevin.”
Via Mostly Cajun, All American, and Opinionated

No shame

Obama to CBS: "I can't guarantee Social Security checks, veterans checks, disability checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out.”

Remember, I control what comments get published.

This is from the blog Caption This. Any thoughts?

Rendezvous

For the last time, the US Space Shuttle has approached the International Space Station (ISS)

Will they find that she did it beyond reasonable doubt?

This woman is accused of doing something very, very evil.

Maybe you should find someone else to heckle!

In surfing the blogosphere today I found this You Tube video of Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, punching a heckler in the jaw in 2002, when Aldrin was 72-years-old.
Via Neptunus Lex

"An abiding sense of underachievement"

Do you have "an abiding sense of underachievement?" Does that explain to some degree our devotion to sports teams? When sports stars suffer the humiliation of defeat and thereby capitulate to the "gods of failure," does that therefore enable each of us in our devotion to them to locate our own sense of underachievement by identifying with theirs?

The quotes are from The Finkler Question by Jacobson. One of the characters in the story, the one who is serially unsuccessful with women, gets mugged...by a woman. He awakens the next morning to "an alien sensation of near cheerfulness" because he suffered a "palpable loss of the theft of actual possessions," as opposed to his usual feeling of a "nagging consciousness of something having gone missing."

Here are some other gems from The Finkler Question.
" beautiful unshaven nose-ringed charity worker with whom he was destined to be happy...or, unhappy; it didn't matter which, so long as it was destined."

"I could use the company, but I can't go through the pain of getting it!"

"At a certain age, men begin to shrink; but yet, it is precisely the same age when their trousers become too short for them! Explain that!"

"We're talking about (raising taxes) in 2013 and the out years."

A new one: "Operation Castaway"

Now we are learning of the possibility that a new scandal may be unfolding concerning arms trafficking to criminal gangs in Honduras. Three members of the House of Representatives have sent the following letter to the Director of I.C.E.:
July 12, 2011

The Honorable John Morton
Director
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Department of Homeland Security
500 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20536

Dear Director Morton:

We are concerned about recent reports that suggest similarities between “Operation Castaway,” a firearms trafficking investigation led by the Tampa Field Offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and “Operation Fast and Furious,” an ATF program that provided firearms to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Specifically, reports indicate that firearms under “Operation Castaway” may have been provided to dangerous criminal gangs in Honduras, including MS-13.

If true, these reports raise serious questions about the leadership of the ICE and ATF Tampa Field Offices. We support ICE’s efforts to disrupt criminal syndicates that traffic in firearms, drugs, and other illicit substances. However, when those efforts serve to fuel the operations of criminal enterprises through the provision of firearms, they must be stopped and those responsible must be held accountable. In an effort to address this issue, we would appreciate your response to the following questions.

1. What role did ICE agents and leadership play in “Operation Castaway?”

2. Can you confirm whether “Operation Castaway” included a gun walking scheme that allowed weapons to be trafficked to Honduras? If so, have any of these firearms ended up in the possession of the notorious MS-13 gang?

3. How many guns have been allowed to pass into Honduras and how many have since been accounted for?

4. Were these weapons subject to any special monitoring processes once they left the United States?

5. Is “Operation Castaway” still ongoing? If so, are you, in coordination with the ATF, planning to terminate the program?


We find it extremely troubling that the United States government would willfully allow weapons to be acquired by dangerous criminal and drug trafficking organizations, in direct contravention of our strategic and national interests. We look forward to receiving your responses to these questions in a timely manner.

Sincerely,

Gus Bilirakis, U.S. Representative, Florida, 9th District

Michael McCaul, U.S. Representative, Texas, 10th District

Candice Miller, U.S. Representative, Michigan, 10th District
Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

"Gunwalker," "Fast and Furious," explained

The Gunwalker Scandal Made Simple

There are five key accusations against ATF and DOJ made by ATF whistleblowers and other sources within FedGov:
1. That they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners.
2. That they allowed or even assisted in those guns crossing the U.S. border into Mexico to "boost the numbers" of American civilian market firearms seized in Mexico and thereby provide the justification for more firearm restrictions on American citizens and more power and money for ATF.
3. That they intentionally kept Mexican authorities in the dark about the operation, even over objections of their own agents.
4. That weapons that the ATF let "walk" to Mexico were involved in the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata, as well as at least hundreds of Mexican citizens.
5. That at least since the death of Brian Terry on 14 December, the Obama administration is engaged in a full-press cover-up of the facts behind what has come to be known as the "Gunwalker Scandal."
Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

It is now hitting the fan, folks

Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Charles Grassley, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary, have, on July 11, 2011 sent this letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, naming twelve current and former members of the Department of Justice who were "unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program." Therefore it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials. As such, please provide all records relating to communications between and among the following individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious:
1. David Ogden, Former Deputy Attorney General;

2. Gary Grindler, Officer of the Attorney General and former Acting Deputy Attorney General;

3. James Cole, Deputy Attorney General;

4. Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General;

5. Kenneth Blanco, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

6. Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

7. John Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

8. Matt Axelrod, Associate Deputy Attorney General;

9. Ed Siskel, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General;

10. Brad Smith, Office of the Deputy Attorney General;

11. Kevin Carwhile, Section Chief, Capitol Case Unit; and

12. Joseph Cooley, Criminal Fraud Section.

These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production.

Please provide this information no later than July 18, 2011, at noon. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley's office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa's Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. I look forward to receiving your response.
Via Sipsey Street Irregulars

What have we learned?

Vincent Carroll used to write columns for the Rocky Mountain News. When that paper ceased to operate, The Denver Post did a wise thing; they hired Carroll, whose views always seem to me to be in line with common sense.

Today Carroll asks if the Obama we have seen this week is for real; pretending to want to do something about our debt, while only five months ago offering up a budget that the Congressional Budget Office said would double our debt in ten years.

Carroll's conclusion: "Now we're supposed to believe he's a born-again deficit hawk and budget cutter without peer in either party. If American voters are ready to buy that, then they've learned nothing from the past 30 months."

Kitten versus Pitbull

Via Classical Values

What do you look for in a book?

When I go to the library I like to browse and read book jacket covers to see if a book might have some relevance to my current situation or interests. This week I decided to try a book called The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. Among other qualities, such as "the wisdom and humanity of maturity," the cover said it was funny. I like funny. The older I get, the more I cherish laughter. The book is about three men, two of whom are widowers, and one is so unsuccessful with women, he qualifies as an honorary third widower!

For example, he goes to church one day and sees a woman lighting candles and making the sign of the cross. Of course, he immediately falls in love with her, and assumes she is distraught and in need of his protection. Later, at his house, she confesses that she is "a bit of an arsonist," but assures him that she has no intentions of burning down the church, but just that she is "turned on by flames." The next morning he awakens to two realizations: one, that she is gone; and two, that his sheets are on fire! The way the author tells this story just made me explode with laughter for at least five minutes.

The book on the 2008 election campagns

I finally finished reading Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, the definitive book chronicling the 2008 presidential election campaigns. There is much more about the Democrat campaigns than the Republican campaigns. Obama and the Clintons took up most of the space. It was fun for a news junkie like myself to remember all the most newsworthy events of the primaries and campaigns. The book certainly held my attention unwaiveringly. One cannot help but conclude that the authors were more in tune with the Democrats than they were the Republicans. I think they were probably closer to sources within the Democrat inner circles than they were to Republican sources. Still, there is an amazing amount of inside stuff, reflecting a great deal of hard work by the authors in getting accurate accounts of what happened.

We are slipping.

We are spending more than we take in.

Via The New Editor

How do you charge your mobile phone in Africa?

via Sense of Events

Head of the ATF turns whistleblower

The Head of the ATF has appeared before the committee with his own lawyer. Read all about it here.

The biggest cover-up since Watergate?

Here is an excerpt from a speech given by Attorney General Holder in Mexico on April 2, 2009.

Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion.

Flopping Aces has some strong words for Holder:

Holder now has subjective memory loss and denies any knowledge of “Gun Runner” AKA “Fast and Furious”. Supposedly, the illegal operation was set up straw men to buy military weapons for Mexican drug cartels and trace the guns back to Mexico to make apprehensions, money was even given to the straw men to buy the weapons. There was no tracking of the weapons or apprehensions of suspects. It is logical to assume that the real intent was to provide the weaponry on the border to invoke chaos and provide reasons for invoking tighter gun control laws. The weapons were used in Mexico in countless murders and in the murder of two federal agents in the US. Again it has become very convenient for Holder to forget all about operation “Gun Runner”; especially, now that he is implicated in the murder of two federal agents on the border by approving the operation that provided the weaponry that killed the agents while insisting that federal border agents fire bean bag bullets at drug runners and murderers.

And these final words from Flopping Aces: "We are now recovering the weapons at crime scenes along with the bodies of victims."

HotAirPundit: Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Speaks Out Over Operation Fast and Furious...

HotAirPundit: Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Speaks Out Over Operati...: "'This is unacceptable...This is insanity that our own government has given guns to criminals and this isn't going to be the end of it'

"America has a do-over in 2012."

Here are Sarah Palin's thoughts on the importance of tackling our debt.

If wind farms blow the earth off its orbit...

From the Onion

In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

"A mini-movie in blackboard form" telling the truth about global warming and climate change

via Watts Up With That?

Steyn: Our pitchforks are misdirected.

Mark Steyn opines that it is time for us to re-aim our pitch forks. He writes here about the fact that the federal government used stimulus funding to buy guns from Arizona gun shops for known criminals to funnel to Mexican drug cartels. But Steyn wonders if the Obama administration might have had another goal in mind: "to plant the evidence that the increasing lawlessness on the southern border is the fault of the gun industry and the Second Amendment, and thereby advance its ideological agenda of ever greater gun control."

Can we call it what it is?

The meeting on the budget this afternoon is a scam. Why? Take a look at this picture from the Larry Kudlow blog. Spending is not going to decrease, no matter whose plan gets adopted.

"Bullying is cowardice exploiting opportunity"

Greg Gutfeld supports Glenn Beck here. It seems some liberal New Yorkers deliberately dumped wine on the Beck family when they attended an outdoor event in Manhatten.

Will the media ever cover this story?

John Hinderaker at the POWERLINE blog wonders what will Eric Holder say if ever he is asked to testify about stimulus funds being used to run guns into Mexico to drug gangs there. Cartoonist Michael Ramiriez envisions this scenario.

Coming July 15: Are you going to watch it?

"Bloody perversion of the medical profession"

Michelle Malkin posts here about Dr. Jihad. She details the long list of doctors who have been and are still involved in murderous jihad. The latest: "Our homeland-security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that “human bombs” may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives."

Texting and video games must be making our children brilliant!

Dr. Helen Smith blogs here about grades inflation and standards deflation. Here is the sentence that blew me away: "In 2006, UCLA received 47,317 applications, of which nearly 21,000 had GPAs of 4.0--or above." No wonder my stepsons are choosing careers in truck-driving and mechanics!

Obesity and overweight adults and children

The latest nationwide study of obesity ranks Colorado first; that is, we are the "skinniest of the increasingly fat." Yet, the combined rate for those obese or overweight here in Colorado is 56%! Colorado's low rate of obesity in this year's report would have made us the fattest state in 1995!

On the other hand, Colorado's rate of growth of childhood obesity is one of the worst in the nation!

C'mon people; what is the problem? Why are we doing this to ourselves?

CFL bulbs: better or worse for the environment?

A blogger decides to thank Al Gore for ruining her marriage:

So, thanks, Al Gore. Thanks for ruining my marriage. When my baby is born with mercury poisoning, we‘ll be sure to name one of its heads after you. Because of you and your fearless activism, I’ve decided to replace all the light fixtures in the house with little brass lamps that burn polar bear blubber; and for heat, I’m going to get one of those generators that’s powered by powerful surges of indignation.

Read the whole thing here.
via Instapundit

McCotter enters the GOP race

Thaddeus McCotter is the latest person to declare himself in the Republican presidential race. Here are two videos and more information about him. I like his sense of humor. He declares himself to be a "country lawyer from Detroit." That's funny! Apparently he regularly goes on Greg Guttfeld's Red Eye show on Fox.

You cannot watch this with dry eyes!

Via The House of Zathras

Atlanta: 78% of schools have teachers or principals who cheat on standardized tests!

178 teachers and principals in Atlanta have been caught cheating: altering the tests taken by their pupils in order to make the school district look like they are doing a good job! The Christian Science Monitor asks if they should be jailed. Invincible Armor says, "Yes!"
Update: On July 17, 2011 this story finally hit page 10A of the Denver Post. Why are bloggers ten days ahead of the lame stream media?

Obama gets endorsements for 2012

Endorsements for Obama's reelection are starting to come in fast and furious. On Independence Day he got the support of the NEA, the powerful teachers union. Now he also got the endorsement of the Communist Party USA. Its leader, Sam Webb, says "Millions who have to be at the core of this party still operate under the umbrella of the Democratic Party." Though I am sure Obama is grateful for the support, he probably will not brag openly about it, and the media surely will not ask him about it.
via Geckofeeder

Well, at least this will sell books.

Apparently next week a Boston Globe reporter's book on Barack Obama's father will assert that Barack's father told immigration authorities Barack's mother was making arrangements with the Salvation Army to put Barack up for adoption. Robert Gibbs and Ann Dunham's uncle denied that there was any truth to the story. The book's author wonders if Barack's father made up the story to appease immigration officials who were concerned about the father's "playboy lifestyle."
Via Legally Kidnapped.

Imagine that!

An agnostic admonishes Christians to practice what they say they believe.

"Not proven"

Alan Dershowitz explains here why the system worked in the Casey Anthony trial. "In a murder trial, the state, with all of its power, accuses an individual of being the perpetrator of a dastardly act against a victim. The state must prove that accusation by admissible evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Even if it is "likely" or "probable" that a defendant committed the murder, he must be acquitted, because neither likely nor probable satisfies the daunting standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

"A civil trial, on the other hand, seeks justice for the victim. In such a case, the victim sues the alleged perpetrator and need only prove liability by a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, if it is more likely than not that a defendant was the killer, he is found liable, though he cannot be found guilty on that lesser standard."

I agree with Dershowitz that the Scottish system's verdict of "not proven" might be better than the American system's misleading term "not guilty."

USA Military History in 4 minutes

via Big Hollywood

A song to take your breath away

via Primordial Slack

Coping

Why do old people have to be rigid and grouchy, and young people wild and crazy? I realize that these stereotypes do not always have to apply, but there is enough truth in them that I often ponder these subjects.

Another observation that seems to ring true quite often: young people are fascinated by technology and are confident users of it; old people seem clueless, and get easily frustrated and overwhelmed by it.

Yet, young people are more likely to turn to addictions when they feel inadequate to deal with life's challenges and frustrations.

"The state did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt."

Instapundit says the moral of the story is "Don't talk to the cops!"

A rousing speech on the Fourth of July

Rush Limbaugh speaks at Joplin, Missouri Fourth of July event. Is he considering a presidential run?

Are diet drinks and artificial sweeteners making you fat?

Diet drinks and artificial sweeteners have been found to trigger the appetite and cause weight gain. "They may also damage brain cells involved in feelings of fullness, while the lack of real sugar could also stop us from feeling full." Read more here.
Via Finestkind Clinic and fish market

They risked all.

Rush Limbaugh's father wrote a beautiful history of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Here is one paragraph:

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

Read the whole thing here.

Stick with the cuts!

Via The Burning Platform

Who wrote Dreams from My Father?

Did Bill Ayres write Dreams from My Father? Here are two videos that come to that conclusion.

Britain: The way forward

Looking Spoon brings us the results of a poll taken in Britain:

Krauthammer on Obama's tax-raising ideas:

"He himself, as we just heard, said you can’t reduce the deficit to the levels we need without raising revenues. Then he talks about the [tax break for] corporate jets, which he mentioned not once but six times.

I did the math on this. If you collect the corporate jet tax every year for the next 5,000 years, you will cover one year of the debt that Obama has run up. One year.

To put it another way, if you started collecting that tax at the time of John the Baptist and you collected it every year — first in shekels and now in dollars — you wouldn’t be halfway to covering one year of the amount of debt that Obama has run up.

As for the other one, he mentions again and again, the oil depreciation tax break — if you collect that one for 700 years, you won’t cover a year of Obama deficits.

And then here’s my favorite. I worked it out in the car on the way here. If you collect the corporate jets and the oil tax together — get all the bad guys and the fat cats at once — and you collect it for 100 years, it covers the amount of debt Obama added… in February!

And he pretends that he’s the serious adult at the table."

Via Brutally Honest

A plan to keep the heat off Obama

Innominatus reveals Obama's strategy for improving in the polls. As usual, it involves a hapless Joe Biden, and some junk.

Ye Olde New York Times

Manhatten Infidel imagines what the New York Times might have said on July 5, 1776 about the writings of this man.

Let's not forget July 4, 1863!

Yes, July 4, 1976 is certainly a significant date in our nation's history. But, let's not forget July 4, 1863:

In 1863, the Siege of Vicksburg ran from May 18 – July 4 and the Battle of Gettysburg occurred over July 1-3. On July 4th, 1863, the fall of Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi slicing the Confederacy in two. On July 4th 1863, Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia were in full retreat from Pennsylvania having received a savage mauling. From that point on, the Confederacy lost all hope of foreign intervention and any chance of winning the war.

Via Chicago Boyz

Sometimes it helps to get a visual

Via Doug Ross

Which direction are we going?

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Calvin Coolidge had this to say:
"It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions."

Life just isn't fair.

Now here is a young man who learned about social justice somewhere in his education. A 21-year-old inmate of a jail in Michigan is demanding in a five-page handwritten lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit that inmates be able to possess erotic/pornographic materials along with personal televisions, video game consoles and radios.

Pay attention to what he does, not to what he says

According to NATO's African Command spokesperson, since March 1, American planes have flown 3,475 sorties over Libya. Of those, 801 were strike sorties, 132 of which actually dropped ordnance. The ordnance usually includes anti-radiation missiles.

Man, I'd hate to see what we could do in a situation defined as "hostilities!"

Now this is a "flash mob" we can all appreciate!

This is absolutely wonderful.

Thanks to RADIOVICEONLINE for posting it.

"Dropout losers like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg"

Thanks to the blogger at Winds of Change for posting this commencement speech by Conan O'Brien.
Here is some of the wisdom imparted to the Dartmouth graduates by O'Brien:

"It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention."

"Disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality."

"Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen."

Pretending...

Is Al Qaeda our number-one security problem? Or is our "number one security problem the alliance between Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Iraqi insurgents, supported by the Turkish regime." If this is the case, then why is our government not explaining this to us?

Here's to the Hawkeye state!

After reading and viewing Mark Halperin's recent appraisal of Barack Obama, I decided to read his book Game Change. From the book I learned that Hillary Clinton spent 29 million dollars in Iowa to try to win the presidential primary there. 29 million dollars for 70,000 votes, placing her third, behind John Edwards.

I am so proud to say I spent my first seventeen years in Iowa!

This almost revives my faith in Hollywood!

Wow! This 2002 presentation by a group of Hollywood stars reciting Jefferson's rationale for a Declaration of Independece is something I had never seen. Thanks to zenpundit for posting it

The soul lives forever; but, where?

Have we forgotten our souls? This blogger thinks so:

As a culture, we’ve forgotten the soul. And women, who are privileged to carry more than one soul at a time, have betrayed their purpose in not standing up to men and reminding them of this fact. But, if one does not believe in the soul, it’s a very easy thing to forget – and to bury.

"Unalienable rights," "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

On Declaring Independence:


“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ...

We, therefore … do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States …

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”



— The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, In Congress, July 4, 1776
Via the Center for Individual Freedom

Happy Fourth of July!

Please go to Andy's Place to view a very creative video by people in the US Army singing the Star Spangled Banner.

They are teaching our kids?

Our nations teachers are meeting in Chicago. I am sure they will be emphasizing the importance of critical thinking, thoughtfully examining all aspects of issues before making decisions and attempting solutions.

What? They are going to vote today to endorse Obama's 2012 re-election bid? But they don't even know who Obama's opponent will be!

The government's take is more than Wal-Mart's!

Here is something I have never thought about. Do you realize that Wal-Mart's profit to shareholders is about half or less than half of what the government gets per item sold? Wal-Mart's profit is 3.6 percent of sales. In our area that is less than one-half of what the government gets per item sold.

Obama's record

Peter Wehner writes here that Obama's economy has achieved these results:

An unemployment rate of 9.1 percent;
28 straight months of unemployment being above 8 percent, a post-World War II record;
Chronic unemployment worse than during the Great Depression (about 6.2 million Americans, 45.1 percent of all unemployed workers in this country, have been jobless for more than six months);
A nation in which 2.5 million fewer people are employed than when the president was sworn in and which has seen only 600,000 jobs created during our two-year “recovery”;
A housing crisis that has recently entered a double dip and is now worse than the Great Depression;
A record $1.65 trillion deficit this year;
A record $14.3 trillion debt;
First quarter growth in 2011 of only 1.8 percent;
A presidency in which real annual growth in GDP averages 1.5 percent, just barely above what it was during the decade of the Great Depression (1.3 percent); and
Gas prices roughly doubled what they were when Obama took office.

Kids fined $500 for operating a lemonade stand without a permit!

"Winning the war of ideas and developing the ability to explain..."

Fred Thompson is writing here about ideas, elections, and, well, here is an excerpt:

Suppose Republicans win next year because we are “not the other guys.” Then what? Winning is necessary but not sufficient to save our country from fiscal disaster. Two years later the Democrats will still be offering free stuff and the postponement of pain. We can’t win the several subsequent elections that will be necessary to put us on the right path unless we win the war of ideas and develop the ability to explain why restraint and reform are necessary and that fostering a nation of free people, free markets, and the rule of law is not only morally just and right but is the only way to sustainable growth and prosperity. Otherwise, we become participants in our own demise, for the sake of short-term political expedience.

Is ignorance a virtue?

Want to read about economic ignorance? Hypocrisy? Robert Tracinski seems to understand why Obama has the market cornered on those two phenomena. Here is just one paragraph:

Consider Obama's background. He grew up among leftists, his childhood mentors were outright communists, and he then went off to academia, where he spent his formative years in an environment where business and profit-making are looked down upon as ugly, dirty, rapacious, immoral. Is it any mystery why he doesn't know about business or economics? Asking him to study the economics of the free market is like asking one of the old New England Puritans to thumb through a manual on sex education. Why immerse oneself in a subject that is so unseemly? Why make a study of how to be immoral?>

Read the whole thing here.

Questions

What kinds of adversity could you endure? How would it change you? When does our time run out for getting things right in our lives, in our relationships? If we reach that point, what do we do? Stop trying? Try one more time? Turn to addictions? Rely on your own abilities and your faith in God? Withdraw? Embrace new challenges with your God-given abilities?

These are a few of the questions that come to mind as I am still reading Against Medical Advice by James Patterson and Hal Friedman. It is about Mr. Friedman's son Cory and his battle with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, as told through Cory's eyes.

Doctors tried all kinds of medicines in all kinds of doses, to no avail. Cory becomes addicted to alcohol and nicotine, and engages in some behaviors that might endanger himself or others. Desperate, his parents enroll him in a wilderness program in Wyoming. Snow and below zero temperatures greet him there. The "camp" staff tell Cory that he will be discharged when he successfully completes the program, not until then. Cory focuses all his attention on what he must do to survive in those harsh conditions, and he comes to realize that he is doing so without the "help" of meds, alcohol, or nicotine; that he has the ability within himself to succeed, even though the tics have not stopped. He successfully completes the program. That's where I am in the reading of the book.

"Jihadi in the sky with virgins"

Someone who was close to John Lennon says that Lennon would have voted for Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter. In appreciation for Mr.Lennon's newly revealed conservatism, Iowahawk has re-written some of Lennon's tunes.

Absurdity defined!

North Korea is now President of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament!

Will Kagan recuse herself?

Ed Morrisey reports at Hot Air that 49 members of the US House of Representatives have asked for an investigation of her involvement in the crafting of Obamacare, which is now in three appellate courts, and surely onward to the Supreme Court from there.

Tourette Syndrome

From reading Patterson's and Friedman's Against Medical Advice, I am pondering what causes Tourette Syndrome. I wonder if it is an example of how Satan attacks individuals and families. Victims say, "this is not me!" The compulsions sometimes involve uttering words or acting in a way that the sufferer knows is inappropriate, but the person cannot stop himself or herself from the word or action.

Go ahead and laugh at me for thinking this. Do you have a more convincing explanation? My heart goes out to individuals and families faced with the challenges presented by Tourette Syndrome.