Thank God… a Sign of Spring!
Victor David Hanson-A New America in a New World Order
If the goal of the present American administration is to turn the United States into something envisioned on university campuses, the editorial page of the New York Times, and breezy synopses on NPR, then it is right on schedule.
Some thoughts from Keith Hennessey:
The numbers are terrifying. That terror comes not from big new proposals, but from whistling past the graveyard of unsustainable current law.
What has changed is that we used to say this was a long-term problem. The financial crisis, economic recession, and the President’s policies have eliminated this small amount of breathing room. This graph makes clear that the long-term problem begins now.
The Game is Afoot. At Stake? Self-Government
The sumo wrestlers have now entered the ring. They may still be circling one another warily, but the fundamental nature of the contest–the terms of the fight that will last until election day 2012–are now clear. Republicans intend to do their duty, cutting spending dramatically, trusting to the American people to demonstrate the character and maturity to accept any sacrifices the budget reductions entail. President Obama intends, by contrast, to mislead voters, attempting to persuade them that–despite federal spending at the highest levels of GDP since the Second World War–the federal government can still shower largesse upon its favored constituencies.
Republicans see the American people as fundamentally virtuous, self-reliant, and capable of sacrifice and restraint. Barack Obama sees the American people as foolish, dependent, gullible, and infantilized.
They can’t both be right.
We shall see.
Obama budget: Life is short, eat dessert first
If a motto summed up the Obama presidency, it might be, “Life is short. Eat dessert first.” His policies are all about self-indulgence in the present, to be paid for with either long-run economic decline, or painful sacrifices by future generations.
His recent budget proposal, which contains a mix of real spending increases and mostly imaginary “cuts,” is a case in point. It pretends to cut spending and the deficit, but its “cuts” are slated to occur largely in the distant future (and thus may never happen), while its increases kick in almost immediately. It is so dishonest that it has drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
Tea Party moxie and the shellacking notwithstanding, the GOP establishment remains reluctant to highlight Obama’s radicalism. I understand the reasons for this, and they are by no means trivial. While Obama’s policies are opposed by many, he remains personally popular. It seems disrespectful to attribute an ideology to the president that he himself won’t own up to. Words like “radical,” much less “socialist,” sound impolite. Yet, without defining the president in a way that happens to be not only politically advantageous, but true, I doubt Obama can be stopped. Telling the truth about this president is how we shellacked him to begin with.
How about freezing spending until these unspent funds are used or not raising the debt ceiling until the money in the basement is used or returned? How much of that $703 billion fiscal elephant in the room could be used to lower the world’s highest corporate tax burden?
We don’t know how much going over these “unobligated balances” might accomplish, but if we’re serious about going after spending, we should and we must. As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois liked to say, a few billion here and a few billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money — our money.
Shut the federal government down.
We have a president — who surrounded himself with the very nincompoops who gave us the economic catastrophe of 2008 — now refusing to cut the budget.
Shut her down.
Women, children and minorities will be hurt?
Blame Barack Obama.
He spent the welfare money on trips to Hawaii, political paybacks and a $787 billion stimulus that pushed the unemployment rate past 10%.
You Are The “Suckers” Democrats Have Been Waiting For
Cue Democrats and Liberal Media Screaming In 3… 2…
The Ultimate Rube Self-Identifies
As Andrew’s bete noire would say, how’s that Hopey-Changey stuff working out for you?
Democrat Wants Pentagon to Stop NASCAR Sponsorship
But funding NPR is just hunky-dory, right Betty?
In other news just to show that the US isn’t the only country that has screwed the pooch…European Sovereign Debt Crisis Deepening – Risk of Contagion And Bond Market Crash, And Why Rising Rates Mean Gold Strength
Germany Needs to Contribute More to European Bailout Fund; EFSF Agreement in Doubt? At What Point will German Citizens Revolt?
How Inflation Could Be 66% Higher Than the Fed Reports Anyone who lives in The Real World™ already knows how.
The PPI including food and energy came at 0.8%, in line with expectations, and a decline from the previous 1.1%. Ex food and energy, Producer Prices jumped from 0.2% to 0.5%, and over 100% higher than expectations of 0.2%. Somehow, food PPI increased by just 0.3%, the lowest since August, and once again making one wonder which Department of Truth is more unbelievable: ours or the Chinese.
All in all, seemingly impossible amounts of money are being created, which means seemingly impossible amounts of inflation, which means seemingly impossible amounts of capital gains from buying gold and silver rising in price, which seemingly explains why I am seemingly always saying, “Whee! This investing stuff is easy!”
Bahrain is a high-stakes bellwether
The grievances of Bahrain’s protest movement are longstanding and their demands simple: a new constitution that reflects the rights of the Shia majority, the release of all political prisoners, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary and a halt to the granting of Bahraini citizenship to boost the Sunni population.
At this stage, opposition groups are not demanding the ruling Sunni monarchy be replaced.
Bahrain is a country of 500,000 people, but the stakes could not be higher. The emirate hosts the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet and is a leading banking and commercial centre.
Most importantly, the battle taking place between the two branches of Islam is reflected in what is happening in Iraq, in Lebanon and what could happen in the oil-rich eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia.
Where Bahrain goes, others could follow.
How’s this for a “high stakes bellweather”?
This is not the $104 brent crude you are looking for. Ignore everything and just BTFWW3.
- Gold Remembers It Is A “Flight To Safety”
- Another Look At Inflation: Cotton Up 44% YTD – One Percent Per Day Look at where Cotton is grown to understand why.
- 5 Reasons Investors Are Going Crazy For Farmland
Hundreds of demonstrators demanding change in Libya and the overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi clashed with police and security forces today as protests continued to sweep through the Middle East.
At least 38 people are said to have been hurt as protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs fought with police, who fired rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas in the city of Benghazi, 600 miles east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
The protests are the worst so far to hit a country that has been ruled unchallenged for 40-years by Colonel Gaddafi – and sparked immediate orchestrated counter demonstrations by government supporters.
Leftist groups do know they would be right up there on the hit list once a caliphate is established, right?
All you will hear about this out of the Obama White House is *crickets chirping* because Obama and Ahmadinejad are BFF’s-Breaking: Iranian Regime Announces Opposition Leaders Will Stand Trial For Sedition
“Tonight, two Iranian warships are meant to pass through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea and reach Syria, something that has not happened in many years,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a Jerusalem speech distributed by his office.
“To my regret, the international community is not showing readiness to deal with the recurring Iranian provocations. The international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations.”
They must have gotten the green light from Obama after their summit with Obama’s Code Pink emissaries in Egypt…Hezbollah Says Ready For Another War With Israel
Egyptian Islamist Group That Carried out Waves of Terror Attacks During 1990s Makes First Public Appearance in 20 Years…
The group’s most prominent leader, Assem Abdel Maged, declared that Gamaa Islamiya took part in and protected the revolt since its first day.
Islam’s Spiritual ‘Dear Abby’-The Voice of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
He is a hypermarket of dogma, dispensing advice on subjects ranging from mother’s milk to suicide bombing. But few have as much influence on Sunni Muslims as the Muslim televangelist Youssef al-Qaradawi. He says what the Muslim Brotherhood in Egpyt thinks — and he provides clues to how they might act.
Human Rights Watch Appoints Terrorist (and “Human Rights Activist”) to Middle East Advisory Board
HRW, of course, rests much of its criticism of Israel on “international law,” or at least its dubious interpretation thereof and of the relevant facts. Let’s note, meanwhile, that terrorist bombings of the sort that the PFLP has been guilty of for decades are against international law.
Where does that leave HRW’s vaunted concern for international law?
Middle East crisis: Yemen the early favourite to fall next
Paddy Power odds – next country to topple leader:
15/8 Yemen
9/4 Jordan
7/2 Algeria
7/2 Morocco
8/1 Bahrain
12/1 Iran
16/1 Libya
16/1 Sudan
16/1 Iraq
20/1 Saudi Arabia
20/1 Syria
A dispatch from the SmartDiplomacy™ department: Argentina Holds Confiscated U.S. Air Force Cargo
Relations between Argentina and the U.S. have deteriorated rapidly since U.S. President Barack Obama said in January that he would visit El Salvador, Brazil and Chile next month, skipping Argentina.
Argentine officials reportedly considered Mr. Obama’s decision an affront, especially after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez in December blocked a bid by some South American nations to formally condemn U.S. policy amid the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables scandal.
We No Longer Need To Ask “What Did Obama Know About Egypt And When Did He Know It”
Regardless, one thing is becoming clear: The Obama administration dropped the ball on Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East despite having received detailed warnings about trouble to come.
Any private money that loses $1 trillion a year — wait, no private company could possibly do that. But when a private company loses money, it cuts costs or it will soon cease to exist. One cost is labor. Getting laid off on Christmas Eve (as happened once to me) sucks.
But Boehner is most correct. We’re broke. We cannot afford to keep everyone on the payroll.
At a time when the president has unveiled an up-yours budget that cuts nothing, at a time when Egypt is in turmoil, and at a time when the Patriot Act is up for renewal, we get panties bunched up at CNN and MSNBC over Boehner telling it like it is.
The stench of fear emanating out of Obama and the Democrats is so thick you need a machete to cut through it…Empty seats: Obama snubs Issa on witnesses for stimulus hearing Go over and read Ulsterman’s “White House Insider” series to understand why Obama fears Issa and why they are so desperate to destroy him.
WHO Lives in a House Like This?
Can you imagine the horror of living in a country where -in a headlong rush to correct long-standing injustices overnight- almost unchecked power is forked-over to an anti-democratic communist who admires the Soviet Union… a narcissist and vengeful racist control-freak who’s economically clueless…dangerous… and unqualified for the job…?
Watch out Wisconsin- the Purple Shirts™ have hit the ground. Read each article!
- SEIU, teachers’ unions attempt state hijacking over cuts
- Union thugs scream at “Hosni Walker/”Mubarak of the Midwest;” striking teachers tote students to protest
- Ground Report from Wisconsin: Governor Scott Walker and the “Budget Fix” bill
The budget committee votes on this bill tomorrow. If it passes, and there are riots, or teacher and worker walk outs, sick outs, or whatever, I kind of wish the Governor would go PATCO on them, and fire everyone. If it doesn’t pass, and there are mass layoffs, I wonder if those who aren’t laid off will feel bad that their colleagues lost their jobs because they weren’t willing to give up a little bit. It will be a wild day at the Capitol tomorrow!
In related news…Chicago SEIU Local Leaders Probed for Terror Links
It’s not every day that an American labor union gets investigated for possible ties to two of the world’s most lethal terrorist organizations. But Chicago’s Service Employees International Union Local 73 isn’t an everyday union. Last September 24, FBI agents raided residences in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan of more than a dozen radical activists in an effort to connect them to the Hamas (Gaza and the West Bank) and FARC (Colombia) guerrilla movements. Two of the occupants were SEIU Local 73 chief steward and executive board member Joe Iosbaker and former local board member-steward Tom Burke. Neither they nor anyone else has been arrested. But as the case unfolds, questions have arisen over the extent of involvement, if any, by the Chicago-based radical network that nurtured President Obama’s political ambitions from the Nineties onward.
I remember something a friend told me — a friend who, 15 years ago, was fighting for school choice. When the teacher-union lawyers entered the courtroom, “I could practically smell the sulfur coming off them.”
Illinois Postpones $3.7 Billion Bond Sale
As another day passes, we get another confirmation that that racist, unpatriotic, communist traitor Meredith Whitney is absolutely right in claiming that US states are beyond rescue. Illinois, which was supposed to deny all the naysayers, by successfully issuing $3.7 billion in bonds and purchase a few months of breathing space for its insolvent pension funds, courtesy of an underwriting syndicate that includes Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Sachs & Co and Loop Capital Markets on Thursday, has just announced this, uh, isn’t going to happen.
Jim Chanos Has Been Sounding the Municipal-Bond Alarm for Like Two Years
“The muni-bond business is a huge generator for New York City. Lots of wealthy, retired New Yorkers live on their muni bonds. Look, basically these states are all broke, and they’re financing themselves at 2 or 3 percent, because people think that they’ll never miss an interest payment. And I’m not sure going forward if that’s true. It was true in the past, but if it comes down to firing firemen and policemen or not paying your bond holders, many of whom are rich people, I’m beginning to think that politically there will be a tipping point where screwing the bond holder might not be an imprudent thing to do. It’s very interesting when I talk about this what happens: I will get almost angry questions from people about muni debt. They can’t believe that their New York bonds or California bonds are going to go in the tank. And I keep saying, ‘You’re lending to broke entities.’ The states are particularly egregious. It’s going to hit the federal government, too, but not for ten or twenty years, because the retirement age for the feds is much later. If you calculate the budget deficit as a corporation would —[Ed: Needless to say this never happened.]—by including the present value of all the new liabilities you have, for retired people, the real deficit, is 5 trillion dollars. Somehow, somewhere there’s a default coming.”
The Ten Poorest US Cities… and Why
Einstein once said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’.
Detroit Will PAY You To Take One Of These 100 Abandoned Homes
Progressives See Racism Where It Isn’t, Ignore It Where It Exists
Grasping at straws and eager to cover up their recent calls to lynch a black Supreme Court Justice and their refusal to condemn a recent Alternet article wherein Herman Cain was called, among other slurs, a “monkey,” progs have chosen to call the James Hudnall/Batton Lash cartoon “racist” and refuse to condemn the aforementioned.
I won’t even call this latest stunt by the left a “double standard” because for it to be a double standard, there must be something comparable on the right which there simply is not. On one hand you have a cartoon mocking the hypocrisy of the First Lady’s remarks while eating food listed on the White House menu of Super Bowl choices; on the other you have a progressive mob – not one, not two, but many – calling for the lynching of Justice Clarence Thomas and slurring Herman Cain in a progressive, Tides-funded web publication. Apparently the hypocrisy of the First Lady is off limits because she’s … a woman, thus sexist? Black, thus racist? Exempting her for either is inherently sexist and racist.
But apparently calling for lynchings of, and naming blacks who happen to be conservatives is OK to Lawrence O’Donnell.
Speaking of racists…Democrat Dallas County Commissioner Tells Citizens: “All of You Are White. Go to Hell!”…
As Price stood to leave, he looked at Turner and the five other citizens who addressed the court. Price said to them, “All of you are white. Go to hell!”
Price repeated “go to hell” three more times. An unknown member of the audience said, “You should be ashamed!”
“I’m not ashamed!” Price answered. “I’m not ashamed! Go to hell!”
Florida GOP Gov. Rick Scott Sends $2.4 Billion Reserved to Build High-Speed Rail Back to Obama…
“Rather than investing in a high-risk rail project we should be focusing on improving our ports, rail and highway infrastructure”
Countdown to Janet Incompetano saying “Nothing to see here, move along” in 3…..2…..1….
We counted at least a dozen armed men in the back of the truck. The vehicle travels down the bridge toward the U.S. Customs checkpoint. Its driver makes a U-turn just before reaching the lines of cars there. It then starts back south toward Mexico. The men pull over and search a vehicle for a few minutes then resume their trek south. The presumed soldiers then cross back over the boundary toward Mexico.
An unruly passenger who was removed from an Amtrak train later made a threat that led to the train’s evacuation, an Amtrak official said Tuesday.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Hussein Abdi Hassan, 24, was removed from the train in Browning shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday.
While being interviewed by authorities, the Minnesota man “somehow threatened the safety of the train,” he said.
Ol’ Janet wants to do everything she can to keep the flow of Illegal Democrats, criminals, murderers, child molesters and Islamofascists strong: DHS Budget: Napolitano Doesn’t Intend To Secure A Single Additional Mile Of US-Mexico Border
The 3311-page document released by Napolitano–”Congressional Budget Justification: FY 2012″–also says DHS does not intend to add a single additional Border Patrolmen in fiscal year 2012, after adding 859 this year. Nor, the document says, does DHS intend to deploy a single additional Border Patrol agent to either the U.S.-Mexico or U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2012, capping Border Patrol deployments at the two borders at this year’s level.
DHS declares it has established “effective control” of a mile of the U.S. border “when the appropriate mix of personnel, equipment, technology and tactical infrastructure has been deployed to reasonably ensure that when an attempted illegal entry is detected, the Border Patrol has the ability to identify, classify and respond to bring the attempted illegal entry to a satisfactory law enforcement resolution.”
Less than half the U.S.-Mexico border secured: report
The GAO, which is the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, noted that only 129 of those miles, or 15 percent, were classified as “controlled” — the highest level for detecting and arresting intruders.
Agent Terry’s murder: 3 suspects arrested will not be charged
Now, exactly two months after Terry’s murder, Nine On Your Side has learned through sources close to the case, three of the suspects will plead guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges and are expected to be released and deported within the next several days.
Two US Immigration Agents Shot in Mexico; One Dead
Utah Death Threats Against Officials
So who exactly is this United Front for Immigration Reform? Ladies Logic digs further and finds an apparent connection between them and Casa Aztlan of the “Aztlan” Movement. Why the Aztecs would be interested in “retaking” Utah, given that they never lived that far north, is not clear.
A Legal Manual for an Apocalyptic New York
So this month, an official state legal manual was published in New York to serve as a guide for judges and lawyers who could face grim questions in another terrorist attack, a major radiological or chemical contamination or a widespread epidemic.
Quarantines. The closing of businesses. Mass evacuations. Warrantless searches of homes. The slaughter of infected animals and the seizing of property. When laws can be suspended and whether infectious people can be isolated against their will or subjected to mandatory treatment. It is all there, in dry legalese, in the manual, published by the state court system and the state bar association.
What are they so afraid of? I thought Obama was supposed to be the “lightbringer” who would bring peace to the world, heal everyone of their ills, everyone would get their own Unicorn that farted glitter and shat Skittles and lower the level of the oceans, yadda, yadda, yadda. Could it be that The Real World™ has managed to breach that rainbow and Unicorn filled alternet universe known as the “reality-based community” so that even the largest of ObamaKool-Aid junkies are beginning to grasp the peril we are facing-a situation that they have done the most to create?
The suicidal march towards socialism continues unabated.
Millions To Pay Off The Deficit, But Not One Cent For Obamacare
Here’s my position on that: Under no circumstances imaginable should the Republicans in the House approve of one thin dime for the implementation of any part of Obamacare. Even if Nancy Pelosi walks onto the House floor with a gun and demands that Republicans vote for the funding or else, my attitude is, “Take the bullet.”
Obamacare would destroy the quality of health care in this country, cause an explosion of costs, lead to rationing, death panels, and taxpayer funding of abortion. So, when it comes to Obamacare, it’s either victory or political death for the GOP.
Obamacare’s individual mandate is a dangerous new federal power
Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine that I tell you 100 things that you may not do tomorrow. For example, you cannot run on a treadmill, eat broccoli, buy a car, and 97 other things. While your liberty would be restricted, there would still be an infinite number of things you may still do.
Now suppose I tell you 100 things that you must do tomorrow. You must run on a treadmill, eat broccoli, buy a car, and 97 other things. These 100 mandates could potentially occupy all your time and consume all your financial resources.
You can see why economic mandates such as the individual mandate in Obamacare are so much more onerous than either economic regulations or prohibitions, and why so dangerous an unwritten congressional power should not be implied.
The Left’s attempt to Delegitimize the Supreme Court
The Left is doing its best to destroy those institutions which it opposes. This is not about the rule of law. It is about power and privilege. Intimidation, threats, deception and blackmail are the order of the day. We saw that with the passage of the health care bill on a scale that will keep the historians busy for decades. The Left wants tame courts and the ability to venue shop for them in order to pass any old thing they want. The use of executive orders and the regulation process are part and parcel of this process.
The system has been abused almost to the breaking point. Now one of the last unquestioned institutions has come under assault. Where do we go from here?
Always remember that the Democratic party is the Party of Lawyers-Obama won’t abandon the trial lawyers
Ultimately, Obama will embrace any malpractice reform that does not stop the gravy from flowing to plaintiffs’ lawyers at the expense of health care consumers. That’s why trial lawyers give 98 percent of their contributions to Democrats.
IRS Needs 1,054 New Agents for Obamacare Including 81 to Enforce Racist Tanning Spa Tax
Super Nanny: First Lady of Junk Science Michelle Obama
The other other Michele — GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann, who spoke out yesterday on the Laura Ingraham show, agrees with me about Big Mother’s Big Bosom campaign, as does fellow right-thinking mom Sarah Palin: It’s all about control, baby. Always is.
Oh, and watch out, world: The First Lady Food Cop is going global.
“If Nixon had announced he was going to start the ‘Nixon channel’ and said they were only going to put up stuff he approved of, people would have said, ‘Oh my God, this is like Communist Russian state media,’” said David Perlmutter, director of the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
His agency is an outdated relic of the Victrola era.
Get rid of it.
Copps has too much time, too much money and too much power.
He is a danger. De-fund him.
It is not him, it is the FCC.
This is a fine example of the “real journalism” FCC commish Copps wants to see more of:
- Liberal Scumbag’s Reaction to Lara Logan Being Raped: “No Sympathy For Her, She Was a Major War Monger” . . . Update: Rosen Resigns Under Pressure From NYU!
- Nir Rosen, “Journalist” and NYU Fellow Who Delighted in Lara Logan’s Rape, Tenders His Resignation, Which Is Immediately Accepted
Guy was getting his yucks over a gang-rape because he was still angry about Logan once saying nice things about US troops’ protecting Iraqi citizens (and her assertion they were saving lives). Overall, checking out old clips, her reportage and take seem to be what we’d call “standard liberal” (although I have to say her defense of the media for reporting the “bad news” in Iraq and not the “good news” was more sensible than most), so Nir Rosen was basically attacking a fellow liberal journalist who’d been raped over one or two off-message reports. She deviated from The Narrative once or twice, and that’s enough to call her a war-monger
In related news…After Sexual Assault & Beating… CBS Reporter Logan Learns That Political Correctness Is a Killer
Her liberal belief system almost got her killed on Friday. This talented reporter will never be the same.
George Soros’s money at work…Think Progress Makes a Martyr Out of Brad Friedman, While Censoring Any Mention of His Business Partner, Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin
The left has been covering up Kimberlin for years. Friedman himself is deathly afraid that people will learn about Kimberlin’s past — so much so that he censors mention of Kimberlin in his comments. For my efforts in shining the spotlight on this violent and dishonest man, Kimberlin has threatened to sue me, and has written numerous letters to my bosses at my office, accusing me of stalking him and the like. It is guaranteed that this post, which makes a legitimate point about a site’s censoring of important information on a topic of public interest, will lead to another e-mail to my boss.
So be it.
His goal is to shut me up.
That’s not going to happen.
Maybe Think Progress will bury the truth about Brett Kimberlin.
I won’t.
If you don’t know about Think Progress you really, really should….
Dissecting Shirley Sherrod’s Complaint Against Andrew Breitbart
Madam Pigford’s Nutty Lawsuit Against Breitbart Includes Prayer for Cash
For the record… Sherrods’ New Communities Incorporated was paid some $13 million, the largest amount awarded to any organization, out of a $1 billion paid out in Pigford settlements scandal.
Great News! Obama to Impose New Fees on Energy Companies Who Can’t Drill Anyway
Go back for a moment and read those two emphasized sections again. So the federal government is not issuing any new permits to speak of. But if you have an oil lease that you’re not producing on – because you don’t have a permit – we’re going to impose new fees to pay for the EPA to investigate whether or not you should get a permit. This is an olive branch to our energy companies? Perhaps if you fashioned the branch into a club.
“Say… nice oil rig ya got there. Be a real shame if anything happened to it.”
In related news…Seahawk Drilling: Obama’s War on Energy Claims Another Victim
Less than 500 thrown out of work? That’s peanuts by Obama standards. He was willing to knowingly kick 23,000 into the ranks of the unemployed with his Gulf drilling moratorium.
At least the Moonbat Messiah is keeping one promise. He did say before the election that he would cause energy prices to skyrocket. Yet for reasons beyond my comprehension people voted for him anyway.
As if ‘Hide the Decline’ Never Enters the Debate
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, Tim Blair notes:
The European Union’s energy commissioner Gunter Oettinger points out something so basic and true that it routinely eludes our political-environmental superiors:
We need industry in Europe, we need industry in the U.K., and industry means CO2 emissions.
Of course, to our greener pals the premise of that argument – “we need industry” – is false.
Just ask the JournoList’s favorite president.
Related: “Today, six years ago, the Kyoto Protocols, intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, came into force. I’ll bet dollars to donuts that no country has followed its commitment. That’s good, but also a cautionary tale about the validity of international agreements built on unicorns and pixie dust.”
Oh, yeah! Everyone loves a sanctimonious, self righteous snitch, LOL!-Mayor Bloomberg Urges New Yorkers to Enforce His Smoking Ban Instead of the Police…
The more Sarah Palin seems unelectable, the more electable she may actually be. The media blitzkrieg launched against Palin may be interpreted not as a sign of her unfitness for office but precisely as a measure of her eligibility. As I’ve written elsewhere, “Palin’s electability can be reckoned as an inverse function of the virulent campaign intent on her delegitimation. … The greater the fury … she is met with, the greater the likelihood that she poses a genuine threat. One does not raise a mallet to crush an ant.” Conversely, the beatification of Obama by the same leftist media is an infallible indication that they are arguing in partibus infidelium. Indeed, the media is almost always inversely reliable, providing an ironic touchstone for the facts of any matter. Just cross out and write in the opposite and we can be confident of a more accurate approximation to the truth.
Thus we are told that Palin’s “national negatives” are too high for her to be regarded as a viable candidate. But this is to forget that such “negatives” are mainly the result of a coordinated media assault whose effect can be mitigated with time, intelligent pushback and increased exposure on the ground. Presence can counter image and word of mouth can triumph over print. Negatives can be neutralized and even turned into positives. Harry Truman’s whistle-stop tour through the American heartland enabled him to upstage a heavily-favored Tom Dewey in 1948. The cries of “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” which became his campaign theme, can translate in the present context as “Give ‘em Hell, Sarah,” if she takes her show on the road.
Thoughts about the missing Egyptian artifacts
The narrative has long been in place: For centuries, the predatory West raped the ancient world — Egypt, Greece, the Fertile Crescent, Persia — of her culture. Greedy treasure hunters and archeologists stole her mummies, her statuary, her carvings, her jewels and her wall paintings. Their museums gained world renown because of these ill-gotten gains, while the countries of origin moldered, deprived not only of their natural riches, but also of their historic legacy. With the end of colonialism after World War II, the situation started righting itself, as now-properly abashed Western countries began returning these stolen treasures to their true homes.
The actual story is a bit different. The cultures that had created those treasures had long vanished by the time the Western collectors showed up and started sniffing around. Where once had been glory, now was abysmal poverty. More than that, there was a profound disinterest in the past. The citizens of Egypt, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, etc., cared nothing for the treasures beneath their feet. Those that they couldn’t see, they forgot; those that they could see, they recycled. They broke down ancient structures and used their stones to build their homes; they melted down ancient jewelry, and refashioned the gold in modern design. The Egyptian mummies to which thieves had easy access had long since vanished — some within days of being interred — especially since their wrappings made good paper and, for centuries, their dust was thought to have curative powers.
What made these remnants of the past valuable was the interest the West had in the ancient world’s past. To the Middle East, they were raw material; to the Westerners, things of beauty and wonder.
