Weinermandius
I read a hyperlink from a Twitter sage
Who said: “A vast and trunkless dick of stone
Stands in an archive. Near it on the page,
Half sunk, a shattered screencap lies, whose tone
And wrinkled pecs and leer of middle age
Tell that its subject kept that poontang rapt
Who yet discuss, in coed Facebook throngs,
The man who chased them and his hand that fapped.
And on the EXIF these words appear:
`My name is Weinermandius, Dong of Dongs:
Look on my junk, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal bulge, manscaped and bare,
The lonely intertubes stretch far away.”
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Via American Digest)
As a side note here is one of the best recitals of Shelley’s “Ozymandias” that I have heard-Ben Kingsley: Ozymandias (1996). An interesting thing about it is that the bank which made this series of commercials is now a ‘colossal wreck’. Another commercial in this series consists of my absolutely favorite recital of the last part of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”. Every time I read it now I hear Sir John’s voice…
Quotes of the Day:
- “Apologizing to Bill Clinton for a sexual wrongdoing is a little like getting caught robbing a bank and having to explain yourself to John Dillinger.”-Doug Powers from You Know You Did Something Wrong When You’re Apologizing to Bill Clinton
- “Weiner isn’t resigning, and it isn’t hard to see why. The last thing a man in his position wants to do is spend more time with his family.”-James Taranto from The Second Time as Farce
Today’s must reads:
- Vanderleun: The Ship of State
The thing is under the boat.The crew suspects as much but can’t know for sure exactly where it is. They won’t know where Leviathan is until it rises, inevitable and unstoppable, from the deep directly beneath them.
Can you feel it lurking just under the surface? I can and I think you can as well. The Greeks knew it as “Nemesis.” Melville’s Ahab knew it as “thou damned whale” and he struck at it from Hell’s heart. Unperturbed it gathered him up and took him down. Then it took the boat and after that the ship. All save one followed. The whale beneath the surface of America’s life is still there and all signs point to its breaching soon. Exactly where and exactly how are still unknown, but soon.
I feel the thing beneath the boat and I think others of my fellow citizens in ever growing millions feel it as well. We do not feel good about it and what it augers for the near and far future.
I write this essay with a heavy heart.
I’ve always considered myself an ardent advocate for education. But a recent rally staged by teachers and students in favor of school funding forced me to reluctantly acknowledge an awful truth:
We have to destroy education in order to save it.
Japan and the softly glowing world…
- JNN Live Video Feed (No delay)
- TEPCO Live Video Feed (30 second delay)
- BBC
- NHK in English(Live feed in upper right corner)
- Telegraph of London
- Kyodo Wire
- Japan Times
- Asahi Shimbun
- The Daily Yomuri
- Japan Today
- ImTranslator – Online Translator, Dictionary, TTS add on for Firefox (It comes in handy)
- Japanese government list of nationwide radioactivity concentration
- Japan Geigermap
- Ibaraki Prefecture Geiger Counter Readings
- US National Radiation Map (updated every minute)
- Via Soylent Green: Radiation Exposure in Daily Life
- Radiation Dose Chart
- Radiation Converter
- ZeroHedge commenter Max2205′s excellent post about radioactivity including a list of radioactive elements and their half lives.
- Donations to the American Red Cross that are being designated to Japanese Earthquake relief are already getting to the folks in Japan and are most helpful.
Nothing to see here, move along…Nowhere to Run: Hot radioactive particles in Seattle at 50 percent of levels seen in Tokyo — Latches onto lung tissue (VIDEO)
Those who have been reading this blog and others and have been paying attention have known that the Japanese government has been planning to abandon Tokyo and move the government to Osaka or Nagoya. I can’t imagine why…“A sign that a grave contamination is in progress in Tokyo” — 2,300 Bq/kg of radiation detected in soil near plant in Koto Ward
Nuclear fuel has melted through base of Fukushima plant
The nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has melted through the base of the pressure vessels and is pooling in the outer containment vessels, according to a report by the Japanese government.
When the Fukushima Meltdown Hits Groundwater
When that molten mass of self-sustaining nuclear material gets to the water table it won’t simply cool down. It will explode–not a nuclear explosion, but probably enough to involve the rest of the reactors and fuel rods at the facility.
Pouring concreteon a critical reactor makes no sense — it will simply explode and release more radioactive particulate matter. The concrete will melt and the problem will get worse. Chernobyl was different — a critical reactor exploded and stopped the reaction. At Fukushima, the reactor cores are still melting down. The ONLY way to stop that is to detonate a ~10 kiloton fission device inside each reactor containment vessel and hope to vaporize the cores. That’s probably a bad solution.
A nuclear meltdown is a self-sustaining reaction. Nothing can stop it except stopping the reaction. And that would require a nuclear weapon. In fact, it would require one in each containment vessel to merely stop what is going on now. But it will be messy.
Just In: Power Outage in Reactors 1 and 2 at Fukushima I Nuke Plant, Nitrogen Injection Stopped
Fukushima Update: Power Back On in Reactors 1 and 2
Fukushima II (Not I) Nuke Plant Wants to Dump 3,000 Tons of Water into the Ocean
Did you even know that there was water in the basement of Fukushima II (“Daini”)? And that water needs to be treated to remove the radioactive materials?
TEPCO fears that the power supply equipment in the basements may degrade from the salt water from tsunami, but if they have been sitting in the salt water for nearly 3 months, they are practically worthless, I would assume.
Again, a brilliant design by GE, having the power supply in the basement in a nuclear power plant right by the ocean in an earthquake/tsunami-prone country.
Fukushima II’s Contaminated Water: Cobalt-60, Cesium-134, Cesium-137
Gov’t considering more evacuations from areas where radiation is “unusually high”
Radiation in Tokyo: It’s Already a Secondary Radiation Contamination in Koto-Ku
Parents urge Tokyo to rethink radiation monitoring
Heartbreaking evacuations as Fukushima’s nuclear fallout spreads
Not Just Cancer: “How Low Doses Of Radiation Can Cause Heart Disease And Stroke”
On the bright side you will be able to find your tea cup in the dark…One Shizuoka Tea Tested 679 Becquerels/Kg Cesium in the Final Product
Now we are getting the ‘unexpected and surprising’ treatment out of the MSM about Japan…Japan’s economy shrinks more than forecast
Um….how is Japan’s economy supposed to do anything but drop like a rock when they only have 1/2 of the power generating capacity they had before the earthquake? What are businesses and factories supposed to operate on, Unicorn farts and Skittles? Japan’s Nuclear Power Shortages Poised to Spread
Japan’s electricity shortages may be intensified over the coming months by a wide-scale unofficial shutdown of nuclear power plants across the country.
Even utilities not directly affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have chosen not to restart reactors that happened to be undergoing regular maintenance at the time of the Fukushima Daiichi accident due to objections and concerns raised by local governments. Reactors that have since been shut for previously scheduled maintenance face similar obstacles.
As a result, only 17 of Japan’s 54 reactors now are operating—merely a third of the country’s total nuclear-generating capacity
All 54 of Japan’s nuclear reactors may be closed by next April
IMF urges Japan to triple sales tax to steady finances
World News:
U.N. Agreement Should Have All Gun Owners Up In Arms
While the terms have yet to be made public, if passed by the U.N. and ratified by our Senate, it will almost certainly force the U.S. to:
- Enact tougher licensing requirements, creating additional bureaucratic red tape for legal firearms ownership.
- Confiscate and destroy all “unauthorized” civilian firearms (exempting those owned by our government of course).
- Ban the trade, sale and private ownership of all semi-automatic weapons (any that have magazines even though they still operate in the same one trigger pull – one single “bang” manner as revolvers, a simple fact the ant-gun media never seem to grasp).
- Create an international gun registry, clearly setting the stage for full-scale gun confiscation.
- In short, overriding our national sovereignty, and in the process, providing license for the federal government to assert preemptive powers over state regulatory powers guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment in addition to our Second Amendment rights.
Have no doubt that this plan is very real, with strong Obama administration support. In January 2010 the U.S. joined 152 other countries in endorsing a U.N. Arms Treaty Resolution that will establish a 2012 conference to draft a blueprint for enactment. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to push for Senate ratification.
Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton has cautioned gun owners to take this initiative seriously, stating that the U.N. “is trying to act as though this is really just a treaty about international arms trade between nation states, but there is no doubt that the real agenda here is domestic firearms control.”
The Rise of the Post-American Empires
The Utopians visualize a world administered through international law. Numberless UN covenants on human rights have been signed on to by the worst offenders, without any internal changes taking place. And why would they. The “international community” has only two major enforcement mechanisms, trade sanctions and armed invasion. The former leverages Western economic power, the latter Western military power. Subtract the West and even these limited enforcement mechanisms fall away.
It’s not that Pakistan, China and Russia couldn’t agree on a set of sanctions or send in their own troops in blue UN helmets. But their goal wouldn’t be peacekeeping, it would be colonization. Subtract the West and the current facade of international law would be reduced to Lebensraum campaigns traded back and forth by world powers in conference rooms. A new era of colonialism would take place under the blue flag of the UN and with the sanction of international law. Its security council would become a loose alliance of rival hegemonies, Chinese, Russian, Islamic, Bolivarian, trading territory to each other’s “peacekeeping” troops. The UN would finally become a global Hitler-Stalin pact. And everyone else would be Poland.
That is the face of the Post-American world. Either empire building or a new dark age. Or both. Take your pick.
10 Tipping Points Which Could Potentially Plunge The World Into A Horrific Economic Nightmare
OPEC won’t raise production levels
Get ready for higher gas prices. The push to get higher production from OPEC ran into “unexpected” resistance as the oil-production cartel’s meeting turned into a bickering mess.
Experts criticize bungled German E. coli inquiry
Outside health experts and German lawmakers roundly criticized Germany on Tuesday for a bungled investigation into the world’s deadliest E. coli outbreak, saying the infections should have been spotted much sooner.
Many experts have been surprised, even shocked, at lapses in the German inquiry, and some say the culprit food may never be known.
Weeks after the outbreak began on May 2, German officials are still looking for its cause. Spanish cucumbers were initially blamed, then ruled out after tests showed they had a different strain of E. coli. On Sunday, investigators pointed the finger at German sprouts, only to backtrack a day later when initial tests were negative. The sprouts are still being tested.
The EURUSD chart looks like an EKG
Details Of €120 Billion Greek Bailout Send EURUSD Higher
German Federal Constitutional Court To Challenge Greek Bailout, Claims Action Is Unconstitutional
The Real Reason for the European Bailout
It is quite reasonable to describe what happened as an indirect bailout of domestic banks dressed up as a bailout of the Mediterranean nations.
Europe: the Break-Up is About to Begin
Is France’s Banque Postale Cutting Its ATM Withdrawal Limit By Up To 50%
Naturally if confirmed, this would not be a good sign as pertains to the bank’s current liquidity situation: traditionally cutting the withdrawal cap is an indication of a substantial cash on hand scarcity.
Blow Out Party for a Relationship of Waning Importance
US President Barack Obama pulled out all the stops for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to the US this week. But despite the pomp and the Medal of Freedom for Merkel, the visit couldn’t hide the fact that the trans-Atlantic relationship isn’t what it once was.
A Classic Technical Signal: China Breaks Down
China’s stock market has broken a long-term flag to the downside. Look out below.
China’s SAFE Warns Excessive Dollar Holdings Risky, Promptly Retracts Statement
For the nth time, China let loose that “excessive” holdings of US dollars are risky because “Washington could pursue a policy to weaken the dollar, a senior currency regulator said in comments published on a website that briefly pushed the dollar lower.” Oddly this time, the statement which came from Guan Tao of China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) which is the entity responsible for managing the country’s $3+ trillion in USD FX holdings, was promptly retracted, following an announcement by Tao to Reuters “that the comments had been made in private academic discussions and represented his personal view only.” In other words this is an identical episode to the one when the BOC’s Mark Carney told “a private circle” that the US is going to hell in a handbasket. While the announcement briefly pushed the dollar lower, is the take home message that everyone is secretly hating America, while in public keeping a rosy appearance? The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.
All one has to do is look at who Obama and the Democrats BFF’s are, his beliefs, statements and actions and the answer to this question is ‘yes’….Is the US deliberately harming Israeli covert ops in Iran?
Of course not. Amadinejad is one of Obama’s and his radical leftie buddies like Code Pink’s BFF…Former Diplomat, Admiral See U.S. Strike Against Iran as Unlikely
Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood And Salafists To Form Electoral Coalition; Goal Is Islamic State
Ahmadinejad’s long lost twin brother?
Palestinians: No Negotiations Unless Israel Accepts Obama’s Suicide Plan
Report: Harper Government To Prosecute Canadians Who Participate In Next Gaza Flotilla…
Compare this to America, where a ship flying US colors will participate and is actually named after Obama.
Syrian reports suggest divisions in security forces
Syrian government vows bloody retaliation against town where police were killed
Saleh’s Wounds ‘Worse Than Thought’
Obama Regime Steps Up Covert War In Yemen…
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Iraq and still not a peep out of the anti-war left.
“Arab Spring” = Clusterf**k
In Saudi Arabia, Royal Funds Buy Peace for Now
Saudi Arabia: Islamic Morality Police “Break Spell” Put On Maid…
The Wahhabi Kingdom is always good for some comic relief.
‘The day after Iran’s first nuclear test is a normal day’
This strange, hypothetical, article, which first appeared on April 24, hammers home again and again the message that an Iranian nuclear test will not lead to disaster. On the contrary, life will go as before except that Iranians will feel better about themselves.
The news commotion will not knock life in Iran off balance. Civil servants will punch in at work on time as always, while some will be late as always. …The day after the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians but in the eyes of some of us there will be a new sparkle. A sparkle of national pride and strength.
This has the look of a kite being flown, but for whom? It could be intended to get Iranians used to the idea of a nuclear test, and less fearful of international reaction. It could be a gesture of defiance to the world by hardline elements – according to independent experts, Gerdab is run by the Revolutionary Guards’ cyber defence command, which is presumably still smarting from the Stuxnet attack. Opposition websites describe it as an enforcement tool for the regime, identifying and threatening independent bloggers inside Iran.
The article comes during a period when Tehran’s official stance is particularly defiant and assertive, announcing today that it will triple its production of 20% enriched uranium and shift it to the underground Fordow site, near Qom.
Angry Iran complain to FIFA after women’s team banned from playing due to Islamic kit
Somalia: Al-Shabaab Arrests 15 Women For Raising Their Voices During Wedding Party…
They also arrested 1o teenage boys for playing the “un-Islamic” game of soccer.
Europe and Australia’s “multiculturalism” has become an invitation to brutal Muslim rapists
Female Muslim activist: Legalize purchase of non-Muslim POW’s as sex slaves
A Massive Cache Of Weapons Was Just Seized In Mexico
Teenager survives being tortured, shot… and hanged from bridge
A teenager with a gunshot wound and signs of torture was found hanging over a motorway with a dead body strung up next to him.
The body of a third man was found below the bridge on the busy road in what appears to have been a hit by a drug cartel.
Witnesses told police that a group of gunmen got out of a vehicle and threw the men over the side of a bridge at around 10am, stopping traffic along one of the busiest routes in Mexico’s third largest city, Monterrey.
US News:
Heat wave hits Minnesota; Duluth cool near Lake Superior
‘Unprecedented’ Summerlong Flood Threatens Missouri River Dams and Levees
I lived in the “Land of the Six Dams” long enough to know that the situation brought up in this article is a distinct possibility…The looming Missouri dam flood
Downstream, Garrison Dam never has had to use its floodgates since the dam was constructed 50 years ago. By mid-June, the corps plans to dump water equal to a good-sized river. The same is true for Oahe Dam, the next one downstream. Since the reservoirs are nearly full, the corps has no choice.
Effective flood control from six large dams is no longer an option. As a corps representative said, “It now moves us into uncharted territory.”
We must all pose a question of national significance to the corps: What if Fort Peck Dam should fail?
Here is a likely scenario: Garrison, Oahe and three other downstream earthen dams would have to catch and hold a massive amount of water, an area covering nearly 250 square miles 100 feet deep. But earthen dams, when overtopped with floodwater, do not stand. They break and erode away, usually within an hour. All are full.
There is a possibility a failure of Fort Peck Dam could lead to a domino-like collapse of all five downstream dams. It probably would wreck every bridge, highway, pipeline and power line and split the heartland of the nation, leaving a gap 1,500 miles wide. Countless sewage treatment plants, toxic waste sites and even Superfund sites would be flushed downstream. The death toll and blow to our economy would be ghastly.
Info Links:
Summer snow in Hawaii, high on Mauna Kea
$61.6 TRILLION
That’s the amount the U.S. government currently owes in unfunded mandates. That’s a whopping $534,000 per household
Are You Better Off Than You Were 4 Years Ago?
The Coming Economic Hell For American Families
This country has rejected the ancient wisdom that was passed down to us and we have rejected the principles of our founding fathers. We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world and yet somehow we expected that everything would turn out okay.
Well, everything is not going to turn out okay.
All of this debt is going to come down on us like a ton of bricks and the U.S. economy is going to continue to fall apart. Millions of American families are going to lose their jobs and their homes.
Economic hell is coming.
You better get ready.
Decline and fall of the American empire
The economic powerhouse of the 20th century emerged stronger from the Depression. But faced with cultural decay, structural weaknesses and reliance on finance, can the US do it again?
Obama: American People Are Too “Skittish” To Realize The Economy Is In Recovery
Hear that you serfs? You’re all too stupid to know how good you all have it under Obama. Don’t you all notice how much better off you all are? Yeah – me neither.
Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot….Obama: Budget Cuts Dishonor US History
Yes, “living within your means,” fiscal responsibility and a nation devoid of crony capitalism is an affront to American ideals. Additionally, if we don’t go deeper into debt for union paybacks and global warming shams poorly disguised as energy policies, everybody could end up on food stamps! Wait, nevermind.
Keep in mind this is from the president who doesn’t worryabout a double dip recession — to do so would no doubt dishonor the Founders.
If something isn’t done fairly quickly, in a few years we might be staring at utter ruin — but at least we’ll be able to say, “Wow, President Obama honored the hell out of this place!”
Obama Has Gone Way Beyond Spending the “Bush Economy Inheritance” Cop-Out
On a sidebar, while the media is humming over a rise back to 9% unemployment it is actually… sh-h-h-h! … closer to 20%, and has been for awhile. (It’s like the old fear back in the post-WWII era where folks said the government would never admit there were “aliens” visiting Earth because it would completely trash the human psyche… or something.) As fate would have it, the somewhat alien-looking James Carville warns all this unemployment will be a deal-breaker for Obama in the 2012 election… and is warning of riots. Oh, and he shouldn’t count on the youth vote either, dude.
Hopefully The Gipper will bite Obama in the arse in 2012: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Why Isn’t the National Debt a Sexy Story?
Imagine if the media had devoted the same amount of ink and airtime to the recent Peterson Foundation fiscal summit. Six think tanks — from the right, left and center — put forward proposals for solving America’s debt crisis. It was an unprecedented moment with a wide array of ideas. It’s not a one-day story; these proposals should be discussed and debated in perpetuity.
After all, when in our country’s history have these issues been more relevant?
Now here is something that is truly ‘unexpected’-Dick Durbin throwing Obama under the bus. Methinks that the Democrats have finally begun to realize that Obama is going down and they don’t want to go down with him…Durbin: This Is Obama’s Economy Now
More ‘unexpected”’! Al Franken on Obama: ‘In Two Years He May Not Be the President’
Here is another thing that qualifies as ‘unexpected’, not because of the poll results but because CNN did not bury it or try to ‘BLAME BOOOOOSH!™… CNN: Nearly Half of Americans Expect Another ‘Great Depression’ in Next 12 Months
Lovely…First the gubmint borrows money from the Chinese to give to the Obama’s buddies the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and now he wants to bail out the freaking GREEKS! Obama Wants American Taxpayers to Bail Out Greek Politicians and Dig the Debt Hole even Deeper
If U.S. bails out Greece now, who will bail us out later?
Imagine two alcoholics sitting on a bench. Bill complains that he’s out of booze and has no cash to buy any more. “Hey, no problem, friend, I’ve got a fifth of Old Crow here,” Jack says. “That’s great because, man, I need it right now,” Bill pleads. “There’s just one thing. We’ve both got to do something about our serious drinking problem and I’m going to help us lick it,” Jack responds. “Oh, and how do you propose to do that,” Bill demands, as his shaky hand reaches for the booze. “I’ll share this bottle with you now, but we have to promise we’ll cut back our drinking, starting tomorrow,” Jack explains. “Sure, anything you say, Jack. First thing tomorrow morning. Now gimme that bottle,” Bill shouts. Addiction experts know the end of that story too well — Jack and Bill go on drinking. They’re feeding their addiction today and promising to deal with it tomorrow.
A similar scene can be seen right now on the world stage. Imagine that President Obama is Jack, Greece is Bill, and the fifth of Old Crow is a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, paid for by the United States, Germany, France and other European nations who fear the economic consequences of a Greek default. Just as in the imaginary scene on the bench, Obama has offered Greece another “drink,” the next installment payment on the $160 billion bailout package approved last year by the IMF. The U.S. share of the Greek bailout will be approximately 18 percent of the total loan. Whatever the amount, it merely staves off the withdrawal pain of austerity that Greeks — whose welfare-state government has for several decades been on a deficit-spending binge — must endure sooner or later, and which their government agreed to implement in return for the IMF help.
But, just as Jack didn’t mention to Bill that he borrowed the Old Crow from somebody else (who he promised to repay), the United States must borrow from others to fund Obama’s $1.3 trillion annual deficit. And the U.S. national debt of $14.3 trillion dwarfs the estimated $500 billion owed by Greece. Indeed, the total of all U.S. government unfunded obligations exceeds $61 trillion, according to USA Today. So any aid from the United States to Greece via the IMF will be with funds that first must be borrowed from China or somebody else.
Hope and Change™! Every month since Obama was elected the federal government has been running at a deficit…Feds notch up 32nd straight monthly deficit
Here It Comes: Obama Considering Another Fiscal Stimulus
It just never changes:
- OBAMA AIDES SAID TO DISCUSS EMPLOYER PAYROLL TAX BREAK
- PAYROLL TAX BREAK FOR EMPLOYERS AMONG IDEAS TO BOOST HIRING
- ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING MEASURES AS RECOVERY SLOWS
Bolded bullets aside, good luck passing another fiscal stimulus Dear President when you can’t even issue debt without stealing money from government retirees.
Obama: What Say To Another Short Term Payroll Tax Break?
What Democrats do not get is that short term measures like this do not inspire confidence in the private sector. What they want is stability from government, or as much stability as possible. They are not going to hire when they are unsure as to what the government will do, especially since Obama has specifically stated he will not sign legislation reauthorizing the current tax rates (hopefully, it won’t be his call in 2013). They are unsure as to what ObamaCare will do. They are unsure as to the way government will act towards them (think Boeing). And the general uncertainty in the economy will not spur them to hire more employees.
Good thing unemployment hasn’t “risen unexpectedly.”
If only someone had told us before the 2008 election that Team Obama would be so clueless as to how business works.
Daily economic briefings disappear from Obama’s White House schedule
Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his own first daily briefing reporters that Obama asked for the daily economic briefing, described then as comparable to the daily intelligence briefing the president gets every morning.
“The president asked that this be added every day to his schedule,” Gibbs said at the time. Gibbs added that Obama believed it is “important that each day he receive the most up to date information as it relates to the economy.”
But at some point, the daily economic briefings stopped showing up on Obama’s daily schedule.
Obama’s egghead economic saboteurs
American Economy Quickly Nearing Perfection
Frankly, I’m not sure if America can survive the level of economic perfection that the president, Kerry, McCaskill, Zakaria, Friedman and other members of the Professional Left long for, but between now and November of 2012, we may well find out.
Obama’s Failure to Fill Economic Posts Is an Unforced Error
The Economy Is Worse Than You Think
The economy will continue to suffer until there is a coherent and favorable economic policy. That means bringing long-term deficits under control without raising marginal tax rates—by cutting government outlays and by limiting the tax expenditures that substitute for direct government spending. It means lower tax rates on businesses and individuals to spur entrepreneurship and investment. And it means reforming Social Security and Medicare to protect the living standards of future retirees while limiting the cost to future taxpayers.
All of these things are doable. But the Obama administration has not done them and shows no inclination to do them in the future.
We Knew That: “Stimulus Has Been Totally Discredited”
The Fed’s economics is voodoo magic
We anxiously await a conclusion, but only two potential outcomes are before us: one, doing the opposite of what we did last time works, in which case economics is proven voodoo magic or Q2E makes the Wiemar inflation of 1920′s Germany look like a day in the park.
Who’s for hoping on voodoo magic?
Details of 200,000 Citigroup card holders stolen by hackers after major cyber attack
Jim Rogers: “Bernanke Is A Disaster” Who Will “Bring QE Back”
Stocks Close Down For 6th Consecutive Day: Longest Red Streak Since February 2009, Just Before QE1
Nokia’s Crumbling Biz Cuts TI’s Outlook
There is that word ‘unexpectedly’ again…New jobless claims unexpectedly rise
MSM Continues To Spin Jobless Claims As “Unexpectedly” Increasing…
Why is it always “unexpected?” If it happens time and time again it should be expected.
It’s always mystifying to these ivory-tower ideologues when their beloved pet theories get knocked on their ass by the real world.
Pic of the Day: How Bad Is The Employment Picture Really Is
You have to go all the way back to the Great Depression to find another chart this, err… depressing. Thank Obama next November by including him in the chart. In fact, thanks every Democrat on the ballot.
As America sinks deeper and deeper into debt — each U.S. household is now more than $500,000 in hock — President Obama is laser-focused on jobs. The only problem is that those jobs are overseas.
As Michelle Malkin points out, Obama “has stopped receiving daily economic briefings that were once treated with the same emergency status as national security briefings.”
Daily economic briefings have apparently lost out to a record number of rounds of golf (71 in only two-and-a-half years), pick-up basketball, fund-raising (Obama’s handlers hope to raise a billion dollars in propaganda money) and gourmet dinners.
April Wholesale Inventories And Sales Another Miss
Walter Russell Mead: Fanniegate: Gamechanger For The GOP?
The Tea Party WMD stockpile is currently stored in book form: Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon. By Gretchen Morgenson, one of America’s best business journalists who is currently at The New York Times, and noted financial analyst Joshua Rosner, Reckless Endangerment gives the best available account of how the growing chaos in the mortgage and personal finance markets and the rampant bundling of dubious loans into exotically toxic securities plunged the world, and millions of American families, into the gravest financial crisis since World War Two. It is gripping reading as well, and its explanations are clear enough that readers without any background in finance will have no trouble following the plot. The villains? An unholy alliance between Wall Street, the Democratic establishment, community organizing groups like ACORN and La Raza, and politicians like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Henry Cisneros. (Frank got a cushy job for a lover, Pelosi got a job and layoff protection for a son, Cisneros apparently got a license to mint money bilking Mexican-Americans of their life savings in cheesy housing developments.)
It’s the Autonomous Private Sector Demand, Stupid
It’s becoming increasingly more apparent that the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party, their media allies, and their political supporters do not seem to grasp that autonomous real private sector demand is the only driver of real, sustainable economic growth, which in turn, creates wealth.
Not government spending. Not that part of the private sector directly dependent on the government (like ‘green’ technology, etc.). Not that part of the private sector partially dependent on the government (the rent seekers like those found in the accounting, banking, legal, lobbying industries, etc.).
It’s autonomous real private sector demand. Nothing else.
The Nation’s Employment Picture: Who’s Working and Who’s Not.
The entire public education workforce: teachers, principals, administrators and support workers grew by more than 137,000 employees during the recession. 27 states had fewer students in 20090 than in 2008 by 16 of those states hired more teachers.
Per-pupil spending rose 2.6 percent, and spending on salaries and benefits rose 2.3 percent. The average per-pupil spending was $10,499, with more than 25 states spending more than $10,000 per student.
“It’s an odd enterprise that reacts to fewer clients by hiring more employees” says the author of this piece. But then education is an odd enterprise. Who would think that the students best prepared for college study would be those educated at home?
Will There Actually Be Real Regulatory Reform? Don’t Bet On It.
Of course, the ever-gullible Darlene Superville at the Associated Press is swallowing the White House line….
“President Barack Obama plans to create a special advisory council to recommend ways to boost the economic outlook and quality of life for the estimated 60 million people who live in rural areas of the U.S., a White House official said. The official asked not to be identified in order to speak freely
Obama Touts Restaurant As Being Saved By Chrysler Bailout . . . Promptly Goes Out Of Business
The curse of Obama strikes again.
Of course they want higher gas taxes, they are owned by the Democrat unions. Besides, how else are they going to sell all those shoddily made, over priced coal fueled fire hazard Volts and Cruzes with the randomly falling off steering wheels that they have rotting on the sales lots? I have a bit of news for GM-I know people who have always bought GM vehicles that will never buy another one after Obama and the unions took GM over and they have held true to their word. I can honestly say that I won’t ever buy a GM vehicle-I had one back in the 1970’s and it was the biggest POS I have ever owned. GM chief pushing for higher gas taxes
“You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas,” Akerson said.
“People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans.”
Obama’s EPA Regulations Will Cost Coal Industry $200 Billion & Cause Electricity Rates to Skyrocket
In January 2008 Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Businesses would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that cost onto consumers.”
And, today it was reported that Obama’s energy plans will cause electricity rates to necessarily skyrocket…
Just as he promised.
Obama Admin. Spending over $17 Million Exploring Market for Carbon Credits
The administration is determined to force a demand, much like the CEO of Government Motors wants to artificially create a market for hybrid vehicles — and can afford to do so thanks to taxpayer money. The last time carbon trading was tried in the US, the resulting ups, downs and ultimate flat-lining resembled a graph that could very well represent Anthony Weiner’s political career
In classic doublespeak, the Department of Energy explains that outlawing incandescent bulbs will “empower consumers with lighting choices.” Unless your choice is to buy the light bulb the government doesn’t like. If Republicans can’t understand the appeal of sparing Americans from the light bulb police, what are they good for?
The Obama administration will find some way of shutting this down, too. I wonder what ‘endangered species’ they will pull out of their a$$ to do so? Exxon makes major oil discovery in Gulf
Michael Barone: Free market, not government policies, drives energy boom
While government’s ethanol subsidies and renewable requirements have made little difference, the private sector’s hydraulic fracking has increased our energy supply and reduced our dependence on dicey Middle Eastern oil.
This kicks back against the efforts of government under the Obama administration to restrict energy supply. The administration has shut down much offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (even though Obama cheered Petrobras’ drilling off the shore of Brazil) and has been denying permits for oil drilling in Alaska that is needed to keep the pipeline pumping. This on top of environmental groups’ successful attempts to prevent drilling on the desolate tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The State Department has even been stalling on approving the Keystone pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. Environmental groups object to drilling techniques Canada allows.
It’s unclear why we should feel called on to second-guess the internal regulations of a competent and environmentally-conscious nation like Canada. And it’s incomprehensible why we should want to keep out a plentiful supply of oil from a dependable and friendly neighbor.
Space politics makes strange bedfellows
These words were music to the ears of both the Competitive Space Task Force (full disclosure: of which I am chairman) and Tea Party in Space, a Florida-based group that promotes a vigorous but fiscally responsible space program (something exactly the opposite of what those who make space policy on the Hill seem to want). Hence, Monday’s press release lauding the two senators’ action.
Interestingly and ironically, it sets up a potential battle in the upper chamber over space policy, in which the Democratic senators from California are fighting for a competitive approach (in the interest, of course, of their own home state contractor), against a “conservative” Republican senator from Utah who insists on a wasteful, sole-source pork-based one in the interest of his state.
Which all goes to show (as we’ve seen for the last year and a half) that space policy is truly non-partisan, and non-ideological, and it is driven primarily by rent seeking, not a desire to open up space to humanity. As long as space policy remains unimportant, it will continue to be subject to the petty politics of those whose states and districts benefit from the jobs created, even as wealth is destroyed. But the good news is that this may delay things sufficiently long that an expensive, unnecessary rocket never gets built at all.
By any means necessary.
DOJ, Diversity, and Low Expectations
The purpose of civil rights laws is to remove racial considerations from the selection process, and civil service exams were created to ensure that candidates are hired for government jobs on merit and not on political patronage or personal favor. The government has subverted the process in favor of one where “diversity,” not fairness or merit, has become the highest principle.
Texas agency: Authorities take gunfire on border
U.S. Border Patrol referred questions to the DPS, which used its elite team of Texas Rangers Recon agents in the attempted drug seizure.
It is not the first time shots have been exchanged along the Texas-Mexico border. Since January of last year, DPS has tracked at least a dozen incidents of shots being fired from Mexico and into Texas, with U.S. officers shooting back in some cases.
New Mexico rancher murdered by illegal alien
This couldn’t be true because Barry and Big Sis keep telling us that the border is secure, right! Wrong!
Dr. David Mandy: Special Needs Son Harassed by TSA at Detroit Metropolitan Airport
There is plenty of reason to believe that these “quick spikes” in insulin response contribute to the formation of Type II diabetes – insulin resistance. Over the years repeated insults of this sort would be reasonably expected to dull the response mechanism, and thus lead to higher blood sugar levels. That’s bad.
But has anyone in the mainstream dietary press talked about this? Oh hell no. We can’t possibly anger The Agriculture Department, especially when a huge percentage of that cornis turned into the “robofood” called “High Fructose Corn Syrup.”
That’s an engineered calorie source that is designed to mimic sugar in “sweetness.” It’s used because it’s cheaper than cane sugar. It contains a mixture of fructose and glucose, and importantly while the glucose in the mixture produces an immediate insulin response by the pancreas the fructose does not. Why is this important? Primarily because the “satisfied” feeling (that deters further eating) is stimulated via two pathways: fat in the gut and high insulin levels in the blood. Without that response you do not feel “full” and thus although you’ve taken in calories in the form of fructose there’s no bodily response to that consumption that tells you to stop eating.
Worse, this stuff is in damn near everything nowdays.
Fifty years ago, it wasn’t in anything; it appeared in the United States, more or less, in 1975
Obama Department of Education SWAT Teams Raid Home and Hold Residents Captive (Video)
It’s an Obama world…
Department of Education SWAT Teams are raiding homes and holding residents captive for 6 hours.
Dept. of Education Has SWAT Team Raid Home Over Student Loan Default
If the government calls in a SWAT team because of a few dollars owed for student loans, what do you think they’ll do if you do not obey the Obamacare law to the letter?
In a related story, the US Department of Education has a new logo:
Dept. of Education SWAT Raid Update: Not for a Student Loan, DoE Says
This will certainly come as a relief to Millennial deadbeats, but the notion that “bribery, fraud, and embezzlement of federal student aid funds” is all it takes to get a paramilitary squad to bang down your door at 6 a.m, handcuff you in your boxers, and throw your three pre-teen children into the back seat of a squad car, all in the service of a warrant aimed at someone who no longer lives in your home, is frankly every bit as terrifying.
Unless and until we hear that this “criminal investigation” involves some kind of imminent threat of violence, there will be no margin of excuse for it, only new opportunities for bureaucrats and commentators to demonstrate that they are perfectly content living in and even contributing to a police state.
The Obamacare Lawsuit: From the Courtroom in Atlanta
Eleventh Circuit Skeptical of Obamacare?
Waiving Obamacare: HHS never had authority to issue exemptions
Why does this not surprise me? This administration has made no secret of its willingness to legislate through the executive branch. But this example exudes a special irony: The executive branch has to improperly legislate to undo — not extend – the legislative branch’s unwieldy legislation.
It’s all made worse, of course, by the way in which HHS has granted the waivers — with little to no transparency and with every appearance of political favoritism. But one congressman seeks to change that. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), along with 31 of his Congressional colleagues, recently sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to request clarifications about the waiver application and grant process.
“It is sheer hypocrisy to say that this is about healthcare ‘equality,’ but still grant special privilege exemptions to labor unions and businesses,” Huelskamp said in a news release. “Evidence continues to flow forth that these waivers are sometimes about who you know, as a multitude of them have been granted to labor unions that have supported the president or to businesses that are in former Speaker Pelosi’s district. This entire waiver process screams of political favoritism and is an abomination to the democratic process, to the concept of equality under the law, and to individual freedom and liberty.”
Death Without Dignity in Socialist Hospital
Nurses casually stepped over a patient as he lay dying on a hospital floor.
Peter Thompson, 41, was left in a corridor for ten hours before someone noticed he had passed away.
In a final act of indignity, hospital auxiliaries pulled his lifeless body across the floor in a manner his family described as like ‘dragging a dead animal’.
Thompson’s death was determined by a coroner to be “wholly preventable.”
An inquest heard that the father-of-one, who had consumed a cocktail of drink and drugs, could have been saved had he received emergency treatment.
The hospital’s accident and emergency department was just 200 yards away.
Not to worry. The State has agreed to compensation for Thompson’s family, courtesy of British taxpayers. All better now.
No one in their right mind would want their health in the hands of government bureaucrats.
Twenty-Four Percent on Same Page as Obama
Twenty percent of Americans suffer from mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. By a less than remarkable coincidence, those calling themselves liberal also account for 20% of the population. So how is it that an alarming 24% actually agree with Barack Hussein Obama’s political views?
Over coffee and bagels, sub sandwiches and pizza — which Brown called “the diet of an organizer” — the recruits shared personal stories, flipped through glossy official instruction manuals and studied up on the Obama’s first term with a game of “POTUS Accomplishments Jeopardy.”
I’ll take Miserable Failure for $200, Alex!
On the upside, one of these zombies is already used to losing.
Sam Polstein, 20, a junior at the University of Wisconsin, said he was inspired to become an organizer after witnessing the union protests in Madison earlier this year.
“It was kind of a big moment in my life,” he said. “It didn’t really inspire me to work toward some particular policy goal as much as it inspired me towards a motivation to work harder for families and workers in general.”
White House/Obama email information collection — it’s getting weird
Keep in mind that the White House website is a publicly funded site, so you’re paying to assist the Obamas as they build a database. Just be grateful, that (presumably) you’re not being put on the enemy’s list.
Clueless Obama: ‘Is Cleveland Still Rooting Against Miami?’
Debunking the Democrats’ Israel Counter-Offensive
For decades, Jewish Republicans pined after another Ronald Reagan who would match the record 39 percent of the Jewish vote the GOP won in 1980. But they were looking at the problem through the wrong end of the telescope. For all of Reagan’s virtues, it was the presence of Jimmy Carter on the ballot that year that motivated so many Jews to vote Republican. Next year and for the first time since 1980, the Republicans will have another Democrat with a less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward the Jewish state to run against. Obama will still win the majority of Jewish support in 2012 but his presence on the ballot ensures that the Democratic share of the Jewish presidential vote will plummet. Anyone who thinks speeches and op-eds from the likes of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is enough to prevent this is dreaming.
Jim Crow was a Democrat. Jim Crow laws were enacted by Democrats. Democrats enslaved black people and to this day want to enslave everyone the state to be ruled over by a few elites. Democrats fought to maintain segregation and filibustered the Civil Rights Act. Democrats are responsible for failed urban government schools attached to welfare state hellholes where minorities are forced to live. But with all that in tow, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz insists that it is the GOP – the party that was formed specifically to end slavery – that wants to literally (her words) drag us back to Democrat Jim Crow
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Literally Says the Opposite of What She Means
Don’t you hate it when people use the word “literally” to mean literally the opposite of literally? One of the worst offenders against the English language in this regard is the Chairmoonbat of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. CNS News extracts a few examples from her hyperbolic ravings:
Wasserman Schultz … recently backed off her accusation that Republicans “want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws.”
In an interview on Sunday, she also said Republicans “are literally just throwing a barrier in the way of someone who is trying to exercise their right to vote [by taking measures to prevent voter fraud].”
She clarified the comment.
“Jim Crow was the wrong analogy to use,” Wasserman Schultz told CNN.
2012 Dem Strategy: Republicans Hate Women
Hey, ladies, you know the Democrats are simply attempting to play you for chumps, right?
#weinerquiddick
Andrew Breitbart on Huma’s Pregnancy: This Information Was a PR Attempt and a Ploy (Video)
Andrew is right about this… But the left is going to eviscerate him for saying it anyway. After all, how could he say this about a woman whose husband had been sending lewd emails to strange women the entire first year of their marriage?
This story just keeps on getting weirder and weirder…Weiner’s Sexting Partner Writes Letter Of Apology To His Wife
ANOTHER Weiner sextee emerges – and this time she’s a svelte blonde PE teacher who he called ‘sugar’
The problem is that Weiner could have survived as a laughingstock, but he might not survive making the entire liberal establishment look like fools.
That is what has happened here. A great deal of the liberal blogosphere has runny layers of egg splattered all over their faces. They’ve spent the past week trying to concoct elaborate explanations for how Weiner could somehow be innocent in all of this, or howling that everyone should stop laughing at Weiner and focus on hating Andrew Breitbart instead. Many rhetorical bullets have been fired at many digital messengers. There are lefty blogs which have done little else since the scandal erupted, other than try to shut down Weinergate by manufacturing excuses, and attacking the people who didn’t buy them.
A lot of rank-and-file liberal readers have eagerly announced their willingness to consume Weiner’s pap about how the scandal is a “distraction” designed to prevent him from “doing the work of the American people.” At the same time, the Democrat political establishment has been trying to close ranks around Weiner. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, in particular, has been tirelessly dispensing Weiner spin.
Those people all look like colossal fools today. Many a lefty blog will spend the rest of this week furiously deleting the angry posts they threw up in Weiner’s defense. The sheer magnitude of the damage to their credibility, and self-respect, might dissolve the last of Weiner’s political viability… and if his seat does go Republican, people like Wasserman-Schultz could be right behind him.
Final Weiner pic leaks onto the Internet; Update: DCCC official calls for Weiner’s resignation
“Politisite is hearing one source close to the Congressman that Weiner will resign by the end of the day or early Thursday.”
WEINER RELEASES STATEMENT: Admits Explicit Naked Photo Is Him
Oh My … The Weiners Have A Bun In The Oven?
Hope they can muster up the sauce to keep the marriage together after today’s latest Weiner photo (“Don’t look, Ethel!”). But Weiner is beginning to look burnt as democrats begin to pile-on and demand he resign. One less pork barrel hotdog in the Congress would be no great loss …
Andrea Peyser: “She is so out of here.”
Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner is about to discover that his wife, Huma Abedin, is not a thing like her longtime boss, Hillary Clinton.
Stand by your man?
Hah.
Weiner & wife Huma worlds apart
Kinky Congressman Anthony Weiner conducted several of his steamy online sessions while his better half was out of the country, records show.
As the “body woman” to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huma Abedin is tasked with accompanying the former first lady on diplomatic globetrotting missions.
Weiner, it seems, uses the timing of her foreign affairs to pursue domestic ones online.
For instance, last month, while Abedin and Clinton were in Rome meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Weiner was chatting up Texas nursing student Meagan Broussard.
Flashback: Weiner’s Web of Lies
Spirit Airlines Announces Weiner Sale: ‘Fares Too HARD to Resist’
Can’t Feminists Be Hypocrites?
The left defends Anthony Weiner by pretending not to stand for anything.
“This is an unlovely party filled with unlovely people, as America’s about to find out once the Obama pixie dust wears off.” – Michael Walsh, Election night 2008.
As we now know, Michael Walsh was right on election night 2008, and given what he now says about the modern Left I’d have to say that he’s nailed the situation once again, this time using Anthony Weiner as a poster boy of the modern Left.
In his combination of unctuousness, mendacity, mock-reasonableness, petulance, bullying, hypocrisy, overweening arrogance, brazen aggression, self-pity, victimhood, and bogus moral preening, it’s hard to beat Congressman Anthony Weiner. He’s the perfect face of the modern American Left in all its glorious pathology; why anyone takes these people seriously is utterly beyond me, so transparent are they. And yet for some, their sweet nothings continue to resonate.
The private citizens of Queens voted to make Anthony Weiner a public citizen and their Representative. They assumed he would show judgment not for himself alone but for them and their interests.
Instead, he has shattered his ability to serve their interests. In an age of aggressive computer hacking, he also put himself at risk of blackmail by criminals or adversaries. His week of fantastic lies proved how vulnerable he or any public figure is to selling out his integrity to save himself from humiliation.
Anthony Weiner now joins a disturbing list of elected officials in our time who’ve lost any sense of self-discipline. If there are others out there wandering in the confused ethers that trapped Anthony Weiner, we have a request: Get out now. Spare the rest of us.
Dumb as a New York Democrat…Is Weiner’s The Dumbest District In America?
Voters in Rep. Anthony Weiner’s home district in Brooklyn and Queens shook their heads in disbelief about the news that Weiner tearfully admitted to posting lewd photos of himself to women online. But most said Monday he would — and should — politically survive, saying they had voted for him before and would again.
No wonder Weiner won’t resign. He knows if he just lets things settle down, he’ll be reelected again and then he can move on to running for mayor of New York. Bully and liar are not the best of personal traits. But maybe that’s what it takes to lead the stupid.
Even a sleazebag like Harry Reid wants nothing to do with the disgraced Anthony Weiner.
Heh: Rangel Now Giving Weiner Advice
If he was a conservative, he would have resigned
Anthony Weiner coached woman to lie
For Third Night In A Row MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Calls On Weiner To Resign..
When even brain-dead liberal hacks like Special Ed are calling on Weiner to resign you know the end is near.
Aww: Matt Damon Hasn’t Given Up on Weiner
It’s all about fighting for the working class or something. Is there anything these degenerate Democrats can do that might give others pause as to whether they’re really worth supporting? Will hero of the working class Matt Damon think twice if it’s discovered Anthony Weiner was texting his junk to underage girls?
The NFL: Higher Moral Standards than Congress
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Lybia:
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia:
Scumbags…Wisconsin protesters disrupt a Special Olympics ceremony!
Quite aside from the unbelievable rudeness, how can the protesters be so blind about their own public relations?
Wisconsin Liberals = Westboro Baptist Church
The disgusting Westboro Baptist Church shows up at the funerals of American soldiers holding signs that say Thank God For Dead Soldiers. They do this for a specific reason, to garner attention for themselves at the expense of others. They don’t care how it is perceived. They don’t care that it’s poor taste. They want to be seen and heard, all other considerations be damned no matter how sensitive the event.
Wisconsin liberals and union supporters recently adopted this same strategy. They decided to protest Governor Scott Walker by disrupting a celebration of the Special Olympics. Talk about crossing the line of good taste. Why didn’t they just show up with signs that said Thank God For Dead Retards?
Looks like Obama has thrown Trumka under the bus and he ain’t happy about it….AFL-CIO chief amplifies warning to Democrats
Trumka said unions want “an independent labor movement” that doesn’t support just one political party or candidate. Labor has often been unhappy with its traditional allies in the Democratic Party, and Trumka said friends of unions in Congress have often paid little heed to workers’ needs.
“For too long, we have been left after Election Day holding a canceled check waving it about — ‘Remember us? Remember us? Remember us?’ — asking someone to pay a little attention to us. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a snootful of that s–t,” Trumka said to cheers.
Dude, Like, What’s the Constitution, Anyway?
Maybe this is obvious, but shouldn’t a responsible and informed citizenship be one of the goals of public education?
No. . . Really? 66% Of People Say Private Workers Work Harder
Wait. . . what. . . are you telling me that private workers are not sitting around drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee and eating cheap breakfast sandwiches on the side of the road everywhere I go?
In Other News…
If she keeps going on like this, I’m going to start to believe the kids are rentals.
A sentimental service in a cynical society — our Navy
Our cynicism is also built into our disposable culture. Historically, one of America’s sterling virtues has been that, unlike more ancient cultures on other continents, she is forward looking. Nevertheless, up until recently, even as they were excited about the future, Americans still revered the past, which they saw as necessary underpinning for their endeavors. American traditions also bound together a disparate population, one that arrived on our shores from all corners of the earth.
In the last generation, however, America has turned on her past with a vengeance. Yesterday isn’t simply the past, its an embarrassment, whether in politics, pop culture, or education. If the ideas aren’t of this moment, they are of no moment. Too often, tradition isn’t something we honor, it’s something we ridicule.
True sentiment — that which taps into our higher and refined feelings, and that looks upon the past as a source of strength, not embarrassment — is hard to find in a society that mass produces crocodile tears for fun and profit, while sneering at that which came before. I, however, had the great pleasure of attending an event that was indeed a sentimental journey, not into bathos and coarse confessions, but into the realm of bravery, loyalty and tradition (and, as is the case when all true emotions get tapped, lots of laughter). On June 4th, I attended the 14th annual Battle of Midway Celebration, held to honor the living and the dead who fought at that important battle sixty-nine years ago.
How Delta supports the troops…by nickle-and-diming them on bag fees
I still give all the credit to the folks at WXIA 11 Alive in Atlanta who pursued this matter and I hope they continue to pursue it until Delta realizes that the military doesn’t fly First Class, especially on unit moves like this one.
Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Governor Palin Leads the 2012 Primary Race (Update: The Numbers)
Fox News Poll: Giuliani Does Best Against Obama In Head-To-Head Matchup…
New Whispers of Perry 2012 Bid
If Bachmann is smart she will dump Rollins pronto. She isn’t winning any friends with his behavior…
Hey, Ed Rollins? If you want to pipe up with the emotional restraint of a menstrual 15-year-old girl about every snit you’re feeling coming on, let me suggest you peruse http://www.blogspot.com.
And keep your campaign clean of such excitable utterances. What is this, a bid for the coveted Andrew Sullivan endorsement?
This is horrifically stupid. I am not on Team Palin but if I were part of someone’s campaign I would not be deliberately alienating Palin supporters, who alreadyare alienated and feel betrayed by a party which increasingly refuses to take their preferred candidate seriously.
I think this is read not just as a snub of Palin, which would be one thing, but as a snub of Palin supporters — primary voters — on a personal level, a rejection of them and their own values, which is, of course, intenselypersonal.
And Rollins, and this other unnamed aide, just told them all they could go to hell and he didn’t have any regard whatsoever for their beliefs or opinions.
Was I wrong yesterday, maybe? Could it be that there’s actually some deep, deep, deepstrategy here by which antagonizing Palin voters — many of whom would surely back Bachmann if Palin doesn’t run — is actually a good move for Team Michele?
Or is Geraghty right that Rollins is just a self-destructive loudmouth?
I find it rather interesting that I am seeing more and more stories of this kind out of the Obamaworshiping MSM and Democrats like James Carville. I have a couple ideas as to why they are doing this but will refrain from expressing them until further observation shows a distinct path…What are the chances the U.S. economy could eventually trigger violence in our country?
Mobs rule: another history lesson liberals ain’t gonna like
18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating
Third Poll In Three Weeks Shows Majority of Americans, Young Adults Say Abortion Is Morally Wrong…
The left last seen sticking their fingers in their ears saying, “nah, nah, nah, I don’t hear you, nah, nah, nah.”
No wonder she’s considered one of the fastest rising Democratic stars.
Alabama governor signs nation’s toughest immigration law
CME threatens to bolt from Illinois over taxes
NYC NAACP President Accuses Pro-Charter School Parent of ‘Doing the Business of Slave Masters’
Anyone who’s been around New York a long time knows all about the odious Hazel Dukes, a hack’s hack who help run OTB into the ground during the abysmal Dinkins administration. A vile, unrepentant racist, Dukes these days is the New York NAACP President, a reward for her years for outrageous behavior, apparently. She’s now taken it upon herself to stridently deny parents and children the right to attend charter schools, preferring they remain in the failed public school system.
Privatize New Jersey’s stupid stake in public broadcasting?Yes please thank you.
You want a quote? You got a quote:
We are looking forward to this new partnership, which we think will serve the people of New Jersey extraordinarily well,” Christie said. “It also meets our goal of making sure government is out of the broadcasting business. In my view that should have ended with the Soviet Union. It’s ending here in New Jersey a little later than the fall of the wall in Berlin, but we’re getting there.”
It’s unfair to talk like that and then not run. It’s a GOP-tease.
The fountain was activated just last month and features a sculpture of a whale’s tail with water spilling over it, which visitors are encouraged to run through.
Now city officials are concerned that children playing in the water could get a nasty surprise.
City Councillor Michael Buscetto claimed police and fire fighters have been called after people washed and urinated in the fountain. Some people who cut themselves also used the water to clean up.
But the final straw came this week when someone defecated in the fountain, causing the city to turn off the water.
‘It’s sad. It’s two steps forward and three steps backward. There are people in the city who don’t care, and they need to be dealt with,’ Mr Buscetto said at a New London City Council meeting this week
‘Borderline riot’ at Alabama Adventure theme park sends police in, park guests out
Felix Torres, who was visiting the park today with his son, described it as a “borderline riot.” He witnessed at least eight different fights, including chair throwing in the water park, and at least three people taken out of the park on gurneys, he said. “Every time we turned around, there was a fight,” Torres said.
L.A. Police Commission votes to kill red-light camera program
ReasonTV: 3 Reasons Not to Fund Art with Taxes (& Yes, There’s a Weiner Connection!)
There are a whole slew of things not to be funded by taxpayer $$$ because it leads to those taxpayer dollars being used to lobby for more taxpayer dollars and leads to a culture of entitlement, but yeah – that includes this as well:
A few weeks back, Hollywood movie stars and groups such as the Creative Coalition stormed Washington, D.C. to lobby for increased taxpayer funding of the arts. Most memorably, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey told Hardball’s Chris Matthew that Abraham Lincoln was a huge theater fan who “understood that he needed the arts to replenish his soul.” (Not surprisingly, Spacey didn’t mention where Lincoln was assassinated or the profession of his killer). …
Top teaching hospitals fall from grace with high infection rates
Casey Anthony cries and looks away as photos of Caylee’s duct-taped skull are shown in court
Nobody Loves Larry the Cable Guy
Why do I not feel any hope when watching Glenn (Beck), and loadsof it when I was watching Larry?
***
I think it’s because Glenn, shows off…Glenn. Larry, shows us…ourselves, and our history. Yeah, I know, Glenn teaches us that too, but Larry lets the American people tell us. and it just sticks more. Larry praises EVERYTHING good about America, down to its last greasy spoonful of corn dogs at the Texas State Fair. He is showing us why we should try to preserve it. He gives us stuff we know is there, but forget. Yes, Larry is doing something that no other person is doing. Sure, it’s been done before, but not by oneof us. It was always by some elite, who looks down on the American people as some kind of bug to be examined.
***
Larry is the working man. He is taking us all on a trip around America and showing us…ourselves. The families, the businesses, and the true American spirit that is still out there. He follows people around in their jobs. While watching his show today, I learned how to catch a croc, how to ice fish, how they make fireworks, and how at some hospital in America, the black janitors SING to the patients, and the little newborn babies when they’re leaving.
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
Ann Coulter Lectures The View on Violence at the Tea Parties… All Committed By Liberals (Video)
The media continues to not get bias. They do not get that when they routinely only treat half of the population of the country as inhuman animals beneath respect — respect, shit, beneath simple acknowledgement — they are projecting over and over and over again that only they and their like-minded liberal buddies matter.
Well to hell with you. Your repellent suggestion that half the nation are some kind of lumpenproletariat too crude and embarrassing to as so much as mention in polite company is more disgusting than anything Anthony Weiner’s done in the last month.
At least people notice what Anthony Weiner did. What you do, every day, is so common that people — even the ones you insult and disregard — hardly even notice it any more.
CNN Anchor: Hey – Isn’t the Tea Party the Modern Version of Hitler’s Followers?
I came in just as the media began doing a few walk-backs about just how many bodies might be buried under the Texas Murder Lawn.
I put my chips on “hoax” and began making fun of them, although, actually, I jumped the gun, too. I mean, if this turned out real… well, a lot of these tweets would have looked rather ugly and callous.
But it was a hoax. My psychic powers divined that this other psychic was a fraud, unlike me.
Someone said “Maybe they had inside information that this was legit.” Well, I think it’s more likely that they had hopesthey were about to get some awesome footage of body excavations.
Hat tip to @allahpundit, who put me in the mind of joking when he asked, “Wait, the media didn’t bother confirming there were 30 children’s bodies buried here before reporting that?”
WeinerGate’s Collateral Damage: Howard Kurtz
Ed Schultz to Moonbat Guests: ‘You People are in Denial!’
Comedy gold. When Ed Schultz, a guy who just slithered back to TV after calling Laura Ingraham a slut, sounds like the most sane person on the panel, the left has a huge problem on their hands.
That is not a typo.
White Sox Manager Sends Advice to Marxist Supporting Idiot Sean Penn
On Sunday, he wrote another fluff piece for the Huffington Post praising Marxist leader Hugo Chavez while urging America to withdraw its recently imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela.
Ozzie Guillen is from Venezuela and knows better.
Bill Maher, thinks America is stupid. What can we say to him?
1. It takes one to know one. 2. You may be right, we may be crazy, you’re proof. 3. You may be right because you think Obama is bright and so do too many others. 4. Your poor mother…can we send her something?
HuffPo Nutcase Alec Baldwin May Run for NYC Mayor Now That Weiner Is Cooked
Far left nutcase and Huffington Post contributor Alec Baldwin is reportedly considering a run for mayor of New York City now that Rep. Anthony Weiner’s image has been tarnished.
Baldwin would be a perfect fit.
The far left democrat is arrogant enough to believe that Americans have forgotten about his own troubled past including his abusive remarks to his young daughter.
Change! Chicago Rapper: Obama ‘The Biggest Terrorist’
“My fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama in the United States of America. I’m trying to fight the terrorism that’s actually causing the other forms of terrorism. You know, the root cause of terrorism is the stuff the U.S. government allows to happen. The foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists.”
Doesn’t he realizes it’s Bush’s fault? Meanwhile, while angry rappers lash out at Obama, even pasty white guys are chiming in.
And it’s not the only shots the president has taken this week. Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty stopped through Chicago Tuesday and said Obama “needs to go to rehab” in reference to the economic recovery.
Elsewhere in the disorganized community that is Chicago we’ve got teen gangs running wild. But oh no, now some are concerned that Mayor Emanuel’s promised crackdown on the former Obama supporters is racial profiling.
Global Warmening:
The Earth Is Full, And We Need A Happiness-Driven Growth Model….DERP?
We will realize, he predicts, that the consumer-driven growth model is broken and we have to move to a more happiness-driven growth model, based on people working less and owning less. “How many people,” Gilding asks, “lie on their death bed and say, ‘I wish I had worked harder or built more shareholder value,’ and how many say, ‘I wish I had gone to more ballgames, read more books to my kids, taken more walks?’ To do that, you need a growth model based on giving people more time to enjoy life, but with less stuff.”
While that’s a nice sentiment, I fail to see how that solves the problem. Obviously, Friedman either chickened out in calling for population reduction, like so many other climahysterics and extreme environmentalists do, or it was edited out.
Oh, BTW
Ann and Thomas Friedman live in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. The July 2006 issue of Washingtonian reported that they own “a palatial 11,400-square-foot (1,060 m2) house, currently valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club.” Friedman is paid $50,000 per speaking engagement.
He has two daughters: Orly Friedman (b. 1985) and Natalie Friedman (b. 1988). Friedman joined The New York Times in 1981 and has won 3 Pulitzer Prizes since. Friedman has dedicated many of his published works to his daughters.
So, he’s using way more than his “fair share” of resources in his palatial McMansion, and has added to the Earth’s population. Tsk, tsk.
Australia Considering Awarding Carbon Credits To People Who Kill Camels…
The Sock Drawer:
A dispatch from the Penguin Pool at the Edinburgh Zoo: The older chicks are now starting to run around to explore (and to get in trouble!). Occasionally you will see feeding chases and what appears to be a chick ‘spaz out’ (this video is of King penguin chicks doing the ‘spaz out’, I couldn’t find one of Gentoo’s but they do the same thing). The ‘spaz out’ is it’s way of exercising the muscles that it will need to swim and survive as an adult. Some of the chicks are almost as big as the adults, you can tell which ones are chicks because they don’t have their ‘white bonnets’ on their heads yet. The chicks seem to be the most active in the afternoon (morning US time)…Penguin Chicks Weigh-in!
Sun Unleashes ‘Spectacular’ & Powerful Eruption
About That Coronal Mass Ejection
Underwater ‘Rivers’ Discovered on Ocean Floor
Something Wonderful: American Dream By Emily Louise Smith
A very interesting read about something I hadn’t really thought of before…BASEBALL; The Plans No One Wants to Use
Although there has never been a tragedy in major league sports that caused a league to implement a so-called disaster plan, such contingencies do exist. The bus accident early yesterday morning involving the California Angels brought these contingency plans into focus.
Major league baseball has had a disaster plan in place since 1965. Other leagues were spurred to develop their own plans after a plane crash in 1970 that killed 38 members of the Marshall University football team along with a number of the squad’s coaches.
In all the major sports, if several players are disabled or killed the team is expected to supplement its roster by bringing up minor leaguers or acquiring other players. But in a wide-scale tragedy, each of the other teams in the league would provide players for the disabled franchise.
Why the hell would Trump want to be President when he has a plane that makes Air Force One look like an old School Bus converted into a camper? Donald Trump unveils new $100 million power plane
More Umbria: Come on, show me something really old
iOS 5 beta jailbroken in less than 24 hours
‘fhxGH5h’ Ain’t Close To Being A Safe Password Anymore
The diving bell and the spider: How creepy crawly is able to live its entire life underwater
Aaron Rome suspended four games for his hit on Nathan Horton
1,500 Horsepower Natural Gas Supercar is All-American
U.S. pilots do crazy flybys too
Perhaps not wanting to be left out of the good times being displayed by their Argentinean counterparts, someone just uploaded a compilation video of US Air Force pilots purportedly in Afghanistan and Iraq trying some close shaves of their own. DUCK!
When measuring how insane a flyby is there are a few factors to consider beyond just distance from the ground. There’s type of aircraft (in this case F-16s), where they’re doing it, and just how much crap they’ll take from their commander if the video is ever leaked (assuming the commander isn’t the one doing it).
By these measures, these guys are both skilled and a little nuts.
