French President Sarkozy takes a hard line with Bush against a nuclear armed Iran.
Italy sends troops into the streets to quell crime. This is another step in Europe's disintegration caused by demographic upheaval. The long-term solution is to curb immigration to assimilatible levels and have babies.
Recognizing that Americans are cutting back on oil, Saudis raise production to record levels to help keep prices down.
British conservatives push for referendum on new EU treaty after Ireland rejects. What a crazy idea. Letting the people vote for the their government. Very unusual in Europe.
Foxnews hires Huckabee as a political commentator. That gives him a platform to start his 2012 campaign.
McCain blasts Court decision extending habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees, granting prisoners of war that right for the first time in history. This will be a good issue for McCain in the election.
Obama considers world tour to capitalize on his international popularity. This will backfire. He's running for the president of the US, and US voters don't want our presidents sucking up to the rest of the world.
Because our government has injected itself into every business decision in the country, and because Microsoft knows how to take advantage of that, the Google, Yahoo deal is likely to face regulatory hurdles. This is what happens when you let government have power it was never intended to have.
Proof-positive that our representatives are not dumb, just self-serving. Because the government-run Senate commissary provides such terrible food and service at such an expensive price that it loses money every year, even Democrats want to privatize it. When our representatives are the recipients of government services, they understand that government sucks and that the private sector can do anything more effectively for less money. But Diane Feinstein doesn't want better services for less money and the thriving economy that goes along with it for Americans, just for senators - like her.
The list of Barack Obama's friends suggest he's involved in traditional favor factory politics that we condemn wherever we find it, except with Obama.
Democrats are trying to kill Washington D.C.'s school voucher program that saves 2,000 kids from D.C.'s failed government school system each year. Of course. Democrats want everybody to be uneducated because that's what the teachers unions want. That's why they attack any non-government school (except the private schools they send their own kids to).
Study claims street signs are more dangerous than not having them because of distractions.
2 new Democrat congressmen recognize the Democrat's budget is an increased burden on the middle class. Republicans getting defeated by Democrats like these could work out for the country. The problem is, this kind of altruism is crushed in favor of self-serving partisan politics in the corruption factory of Washington. It's practically a certainty these guys will either be corrupted or washed out.
The Democrats' minimum wage, besides being a tool to exclude poor minorities from entry level jobs, is also a hand-out to unions which make significantly more than market rate because of indexing, costing taxpayers huge amounts of money because of legal requirements to pay the higher wage in Davis-Bacon.
Obama wants to raise payroll taxes for those earning over $250,000. What benefit would those people receive for their tax increase? The very foundation of taxation is that those taxed are supposed to be taxed for services they receive. Walter Williams has a related column comparing our tax system to slavery since we work for over 3 months for the government with no recourse to that money.
Charles Krauthammer lists the accomplishments of the Iraqis and their government denied by Obama and Democrats who fail to acknowledge we are winning the war in Iraq. Maliki sends Iraqi forces into Amara to take on more Shiite militiamen.
Ann Coulter calls Bush a great president because we haven't been attacked in 7 years, Iraq is being transformed into a functioning democracy, and al Qaeda is being eradicated around the globe. That's a great accomplishment, but fighting terrorism isn't even our biggest issue. China and Russia are our biggest foreign policy problems, and Bush has empowered both while weakening us. Domestic issues are our biggest problems: the crushing size of government number 1, our punishing tax code another, the disastrous state of our schools another, and illegal immigration another. Our existential threats are domestic, not external, and Bush has made them dramatically worse.
Thomas Sowell provides the details behind the story about the rising suicide rate among recent veterans. That suicide rate is still lower than the rate for similar ages in the general population.
Zimbabwean tyrant Mugabe proclaims his party will start a civil war if they lose the election. Secret documents describe the plan of intimidation, abduction, and murder in order win the election.
John Stossel highlights the entitlement crisis and welcomes a plan, an insufficient plan but a plan nevertheless, by one congressman, who is being ignored.
Here's a blast from the past. A 1993 NYTimes article describing how earth's natural climate processes can cause rapid changes in global temperatures, up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit in a couple of decades, during interglacial periods which we're in now. The interesting fact is how stable our climate is this period compared to past interglacial periods. Of course, we all know that that honest reporting of climate has been drowned by subsequent climate alarmism.
Democrat congressman introduces legislation to create 1,000 new visas just for models. That's typical Democrat support for the common man, not pandering to elites.
Nice chart shows analysis of policies of Republicans versus Democrats on gas prices. There aren't too many differences between the 2 parties, but their positions on oil is a big one.
We can expect crime to go up in Seattle, specifically on city property, because Seattle is banning all guns on city property.
Using GPS tracking devices to fight truancy. Kids don't need to be well educated to beat this system.
Kosovo becomes self-ruling.
Drilling in ANWR and the coasts, creating new refineries, and extracting oil shale is winning campaign issue, but McCain doesn't support it. Bob Barr should make hay with this issue.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Free kibbles
Washington D.C. police abandon their unconstitutional police state check-points after 8 D.C. citizens are shot in 1 night. Freedom is always the right answer, never tyranny. Lift the gun ban, and the violence will drop dramatically.
Government considers cracking down on speculators. Can't have people making investments and earning a profits, now can we? More regulation means a worse economy. Government is driving all this speculation. If it wants to stop it, it should extract itself from the private sector.
Terrorists break out all the prisoners including 400 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's main prison.
Irish voters reject strengthening the EU. Why should they? Ireland has the most thriving economy in Europe because of low tax rates. Why would they surrender power to the EU which would drag them down? In this go round, only the political elites managed to cut the people out of the process in every country except Ireland because this power grab has been rejected by French and Dutch voters before. Cato welcomes the result from the only country which employed the democratic process.
Europeans are buying up US companies. Including Anheuser-Busch. Government will "explore every option" to stop this. Really? How lowering taxes and reducing the size and scope of government so Americans can richer and by European companies? I doubt they'll explore that option.
Inflation jumps in May. Who'd have guessed? This inflation statistic is rigged. They cut out the most inflationary things you have to buy like gasoline.
The Weather Channel founder asks Al Gore where is the global warming? I'm sure he doesn't really expect an answer.
Reason describes FCC corruption.
Obama is smart to avoid town hall meetings with McCain.
Ron Paul steals the show at the Texas Republican convention. Cato says 10 to 20% of the electorate are libertarians. That's not a very accurate count. And let's not forget all the libertarian non-voters who have been driven out of the system by the 2 parties.
NBA commissioner Stern says NBA officials don't manipulate games. What's he supposed to say? Did you expect him to admit it? Of course officials manipulate games. Everybody knows of the "Jordan rules". Manipulating games is the part and parcel of being an NBA official. They make calls that favor the home team. They make calls that favor the stars. They make calls that favor extending play-off series. And they make calls that favor large market teams.
Complex molecules that are building blocks of life found in asteroid. This implies life may be common in the galaxy and the universe.
Tim Russert dies of heart attack at work. Wow. He was one of the most fair, hard on everybody, interviewers out there.
Government considers cracking down on speculators. Can't have people making investments and earning a profits, now can we? More regulation means a worse economy. Government is driving all this speculation. If it wants to stop it, it should extract itself from the private sector.
Terrorists break out all the prisoners including 400 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's main prison.
Irish voters reject strengthening the EU. Why should they? Ireland has the most thriving economy in Europe because of low tax rates. Why would they surrender power to the EU which would drag them down? In this go round, only the political elites managed to cut the people out of the process in every country except Ireland because this power grab has been rejected by French and Dutch voters before. Cato welcomes the result from the only country which employed the democratic process.
Europeans are buying up US companies. Including Anheuser-Busch. Government will "explore every option" to stop this. Really? How lowering taxes and reducing the size and scope of government so Americans can richer and by European companies? I doubt they'll explore that option.
Inflation jumps in May. Who'd have guessed? This inflation statistic is rigged. They cut out the most inflationary things you have to buy like gasoline.
The Weather Channel founder asks Al Gore where is the global warming? I'm sure he doesn't really expect an answer.
Reason describes FCC corruption.
Obama is smart to avoid town hall meetings with McCain.
Ron Paul steals the show at the Texas Republican convention. Cato says 10 to 20% of the electorate are libertarians. That's not a very accurate count. And let's not forget all the libertarian non-voters who have been driven out of the system by the 2 parties.
NBA commissioner Stern says NBA officials don't manipulate games. What's he supposed to say? Did you expect him to admit it? Of course officials manipulate games. Everybody knows of the "Jordan rules". Manipulating games is the part and parcel of being an NBA official. They make calls that favor the home team. They make calls that favor the stars. They make calls that favor extending play-off series. And they make calls that favor large market teams.
Complex molecules that are building blocks of life found in asteroid. This implies life may be common in the galaxy and the universe.
Tim Russert dies of heart attack at work. Wow. He was one of the most fair, hard on everybody, interviewers out there.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Free kibbles
UK extends time it can hold terrorist suspects without charges to 42 days. MP quits in protest.
Supreme Court rules Guantanamo detainees can challenge their detention in US courts. That's what Bush gets for getting the courts involved with tribunals. He should have just held them without trial like prisoners of war have always been held.
Mugabe's government continues its political assault on the opposition and plans to charge a high-ranking official of the opposition with treason. Mugabe's militia cut one hand and both feet off wife of opposition leader then burn her alive. Government confiscates US food aid and hands it out at Mugabe rally. Why aren't liberals calling for us to invade Zimbabwe?
Obama's VP vetter quits over his ties to subprime mortgage crisis. The aristocrats are dropping like flies because they're all corrupt.
Unicorn deer in Italy.
US life expectancy passes 78.
The sorry state of free speech outside of the US.
It's good to see somebody holding the global warming frauds accountable - real estate developers sue Greenpeace over it's alarmism which hurt property values.
Breakdown of who owns oil companies. Pension plans and mutual funds. That's who windfall profits taxes will hurt directly. They'll hurt all of us indirectly.
Excellent essay highlights one of the biggests frustrations of dealing with collectivists of any kind - they purposely misrepresent government as society. Then they paint anybody who is against government doing something as not compassionate. The only way collectivists can make headway in a debate is by misrepresenting free market advocates. If you're against socialized medicine, you don't care about health care for the poor, etc. That's crap.
Minimum wage is keeping teenagers from finding summer jobs. Who would have guessed? Most of the recent increase in jobless rates is among teens and minorities - i.e. minimum wage jobs.
A college professor tries teaching high school. This is what the government take-over of schools by liberals has created. When are we going to wake up and put government back in its box so we can excel as individuals and a society?
Cell phones make popcorn pop. Or the heater under the table. I want to try this now.
Republicans blame Democrats for high oil prices. That's accurate, by why didn't Republicans take care of this when they controlled both houses and the presidency for 6 years? They were too busy doubling the size of the Dept. of Education and creating new, unsustainable entitlements in the grand tradition of big-government liberals.
I agree with Dick Morris that Hillary is just waiting for Barack Obama to get exposed on something between now and the convention so she can sweep in and save the party and take the nomination. What's up with Obama and the birth certificate? What's he hiding? It would be interesting if he had legally changed his name from something American sounding to Barack Hussein Obama. Everybody used to call him Barry. Maybe that's because it's his real name.
The economies of right to work states grow faster than the economies of forced unionization states. That's no surprise. No wonder Democrats want to get rid of private ballots (Democrats would just as soon get rid of all votes by peasants in favor of intimidation tactics) in favor of card checks to unionize.
Church tries to use the power of government to ban sports at the same time as church.
Gun-owners want open carry. Absolutely. Concealed carry makes it harder to get your gun and is by definition an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms.
Cato understand there's nothing compassionate about welfare, and unemployment benefits increase unemployment.
Supreme Court rules Guantanamo detainees can challenge their detention in US courts. That's what Bush gets for getting the courts involved with tribunals. He should have just held them without trial like prisoners of war have always been held.
Mugabe's government continues its political assault on the opposition and plans to charge a high-ranking official of the opposition with treason. Mugabe's militia cut one hand and both feet off wife of opposition leader then burn her alive. Government confiscates US food aid and hands it out at Mugabe rally. Why aren't liberals calling for us to invade Zimbabwe?
Obama's VP vetter quits over his ties to subprime mortgage crisis. The aristocrats are dropping like flies because they're all corrupt.
Unicorn deer in Italy.
US life expectancy passes 78.
The sorry state of free speech outside of the US.
It's good to see somebody holding the global warming frauds accountable - real estate developers sue Greenpeace over it's alarmism which hurt property values.
Breakdown of who owns oil companies. Pension plans and mutual funds. That's who windfall profits taxes will hurt directly. They'll hurt all of us indirectly.
Excellent essay highlights one of the biggests frustrations of dealing with collectivists of any kind - they purposely misrepresent government as society. Then they paint anybody who is against government doing something as not compassionate. The only way collectivists can make headway in a debate is by misrepresenting free market advocates. If you're against socialized medicine, you don't care about health care for the poor, etc. That's crap.
Minimum wage is keeping teenagers from finding summer jobs. Who would have guessed? Most of the recent increase in jobless rates is among teens and minorities - i.e. minimum wage jobs.
A college professor tries teaching high school. This is what the government take-over of schools by liberals has created. When are we going to wake up and put government back in its box so we can excel as individuals and a society?
Cell phones make popcorn pop. Or the heater under the table. I want to try this now.
Republicans blame Democrats for high oil prices. That's accurate, by why didn't Republicans take care of this when they controlled both houses and the presidency for 6 years? They were too busy doubling the size of the Dept. of Education and creating new, unsustainable entitlements in the grand tradition of big-government liberals.
I agree with Dick Morris that Hillary is just waiting for Barack Obama to get exposed on something between now and the convention so she can sweep in and save the party and take the nomination. What's up with Obama and the birth certificate? What's he hiding? It would be interesting if he had legally changed his name from something American sounding to Barack Hussein Obama. Everybody used to call him Barry. Maybe that's because it's his real name.
The economies of right to work states grow faster than the economies of forced unionization states. That's no surprise. No wonder Democrats want to get rid of private ballots (Democrats would just as soon get rid of all votes by peasants in favor of intimidation tactics) in favor of card checks to unionize.
Church tries to use the power of government to ban sports at the same time as church.
Gun-owners want open carry. Absolutely. Concealed carry makes it harder to get your gun and is by definition an infringement on the right to keep and bear arms.
Cato understand there's nothing compassionate about welfare, and unemployment benefits increase unemployment.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Free kibbles
Pakistan condemns US air strike which killed 11 soldiers, but the US claims Taliban were firing on them from that position. It sounds like Pakistan soldiers are covering for Taliban.
Corn prices hit new record.
These people are nuts. Ask any climate scientist if we understand earth's climate, and they will universally tell you no. Yet some idiots are proposing we make dramatic changes to engineer our climate. That's like trying to build Hoover dam without understanding the properties of the bedrock, concrete and water. This global warming fraud is going kill millions as it is, but if idiots like this get their way, it will kill billions.
Who does Katie Couric think she's fooling when she says Clinton received the most negative coverage she's ever seen? Doesn't she watch her own news? I can easily believe she's just that stupid.
Liberals had to look long and hard to find one person who will have a problem voting because of the voter ID laws.
Apparently the Clintons don't think anything of informing the public they're a favor factory, with tit-for-tat being the normal mode of business. They're advertising that they're for sale to the highest bidder, principle be damned. It's twisted how much Clinton and Bush focus on loyalty instead of competence.
The Republican party made a big mistake excluding Ron Paul from the convention. The mainstream media wants him to pull votes from McCain, so they'll cover his parallel convention. That's why Paul is getting more coverage now than he did during the campaign.
This quote about 1.3 million people making a living off Ebay from McCain doesn't sound very misleading to me. If this is what this guy calls misleading, he must spend all day everyday pointing out Obama's lies. But he doesn't.
McCain sticks his foot in his mouth again on Iraq. Of course it matter when our troops come home. We want them home, victorious, ASAP.
US launches gamma-ray space telescope. NASA plans to send probe into solar atmosphere for a 7 year mission. Wow!
Here's another example of how our government is facilitating the collapse of America - Abu Dhabi purchases Chrysler building with money we sent them for oil, that should have been kept in America buying oil from Americans.
Anybody who watches the NBA knows the officiating is rigged. Corrupt officiating is ingrained in the NBA character. We all know that home teams get the calls. We all know that stars get the calls. They used to call them Jordan rules. That's corruption. And we all know that just a couple of bad calls can and very often do turn the output of the game the way the NBA wants it. Almost ever NBA playoff game comes down to a call or a no-call that favors the larger market team. Officials deciding the results of close NBA games is ubiquitous. That's why the NBA is still number 3.
Corn prices hit new record.
These people are nuts. Ask any climate scientist if we understand earth's climate, and they will universally tell you no. Yet some idiots are proposing we make dramatic changes to engineer our climate. That's like trying to build Hoover dam without understanding the properties of the bedrock, concrete and water. This global warming fraud is going kill millions as it is, but if idiots like this get their way, it will kill billions.
Who does Katie Couric think she's fooling when she says Clinton received the most negative coverage she's ever seen? Doesn't she watch her own news? I can easily believe she's just that stupid.
Liberals had to look long and hard to find one person who will have a problem voting because of the voter ID laws.
Apparently the Clintons don't think anything of informing the public they're a favor factory, with tit-for-tat being the normal mode of business. They're advertising that they're for sale to the highest bidder, principle be damned. It's twisted how much Clinton and Bush focus on loyalty instead of competence.
The Republican party made a big mistake excluding Ron Paul from the convention. The mainstream media wants him to pull votes from McCain, so they'll cover his parallel convention. That's why Paul is getting more coverage now than he did during the campaign.
This quote about 1.3 million people making a living off Ebay from McCain doesn't sound very misleading to me. If this is what this guy calls misleading, he must spend all day everyday pointing out Obama's lies. But he doesn't.
McCain sticks his foot in his mouth again on Iraq. Of course it matter when our troops come home. We want them home, victorious, ASAP.
US launches gamma-ray space telescope. NASA plans to send probe into solar atmosphere for a 7 year mission. Wow!
Here's another example of how our government is facilitating the collapse of America - Abu Dhabi purchases Chrysler building with money we sent them for oil, that should have been kept in America buying oil from Americans.
Anybody who watches the NBA knows the officiating is rigged. Corrupt officiating is ingrained in the NBA character. We all know that home teams get the calls. We all know that stars get the calls. They used to call them Jordan rules. That's corruption. And we all know that just a couple of bad calls can and very often do turn the output of the game the way the NBA wants it. Almost ever NBA playoff game comes down to a call or a no-call that favors the larger market team. Officials deciding the results of close NBA games is ubiquitous. That's why the NBA is still number 3.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Free kibbles
The BBC reports that $26 billion was lost to war profiteering in Iraq, making it possibly the biggest profiteering scandal in history.
Bush and EU negotiate tougher sanctions on Iran.
Reports that the US fired a missile into Pakistan. Let's hope this one got Osama bin Laden.
Social Security debit cards are like a gift card from taxpayers. Isn't that sweet. Except that money is being taken from taxpayers by force at unsustainable levels and is going to cause the collapse of the US.
Seeing that US consumption has dropped, the Saudis increase oil production to lower prices.
I'm glad to see ISPs will block child porn sites. They should have done it without government interference.
Good for Republicans for blocking windfall profits taxes on oil companies. It's about time they did something that wasn't socialist. Too bad they didn't promote free markets instead of government power the 6 years they were in power.
Obama's VP selection guru was immersed in the sub-prime meltdown.
McCain wants low corporate income taxes (if low taxes is good for corporations, then they're good for individuals too, and if low income taxes are good for corporations and people, no income taxes are best - adopt the FairTax) but he wants to shareholders to approve CEO pay. I like that idea, but why does government have to enforce it? Why don't shareholders demand approval for CEO pay? I love the irony: "Everyone else could choose a vastly less complicated system with two tax rates and a generous standard deduction." Generous standard deduction. According to government aristocrats like McCain, government is being generous when it allows us to keep some of our own money before it starts taking it from us by force.
It's an exaggeration to say open source killed the tool development business. It's fair to say that many tools have become commodities, and those commodities have been taken over by open source, but there's still room for great, new tools developed and sold for profit.
Quantum entanglement to be tested between earth and ISS.
Archaeologists in Jordan unearth first church - dating from 33AD.
Brian Williams tells grads that the US is broken and they must fix it. But he doesn't tell them why it's broken - big government - and he promotes the ideals of collectivism that are what is breaking the country. This is what passes for unbiased in modern journalism.
1 in 4 New Yorkers has herpes! That tells you something is very rotten in New York.
Solar cycle 24 is still a no-show. The face of the sun is "dead." Not encouraging. The earth's biosphere is thriving thanks to warming and CO2. And the Marxists and government are going to put an end to the thriving biosphere and retard human development both. Same story from Financial Times.
Cato provides the numbers that show most of what Obama is saying about the economy under Bush is a lie, and provides a resource for Obama to fact check.
Cato says E-verify would make life harder on employers and workers and would expand to intrude into every aspect of our lives. True. We should just demand employers check 2 IDs for employees, a picture ID and a birth certificate. Every job I've ever had required that. It's not a hassle to anybody, you just show your IDs. We don't need any big, intrusive government to plan to insure employers hire legal workers.
Cato explains that the new state and local ordinances against illegal immigration highlight the Federal government's abdication of its responsibility to control immigration, creating waste.
Cato explains that Tom Delay is a big part of the reason Republicans are getting their clocks cleaned by Democrats.
Pushy parents force school to have 25 Snow Whites and no secondary characters in play in Japan.
Bush and EU negotiate tougher sanctions on Iran.
Reports that the US fired a missile into Pakistan. Let's hope this one got Osama bin Laden.
Social Security debit cards are like a gift card from taxpayers. Isn't that sweet. Except that money is being taken from taxpayers by force at unsustainable levels and is going to cause the collapse of the US.
Seeing that US consumption has dropped, the Saudis increase oil production to lower prices.
I'm glad to see ISPs will block child porn sites. They should have done it without government interference.
Good for Republicans for blocking windfall profits taxes on oil companies. It's about time they did something that wasn't socialist. Too bad they didn't promote free markets instead of government power the 6 years they were in power.
Obama's VP selection guru was immersed in the sub-prime meltdown.
McCain wants low corporate income taxes (if low taxes is good for corporations, then they're good for individuals too, and if low income taxes are good for corporations and people, no income taxes are best - adopt the FairTax) but he wants to shareholders to approve CEO pay. I like that idea, but why does government have to enforce it? Why don't shareholders demand approval for CEO pay? I love the irony: "Everyone else could choose a vastly less complicated system with two tax rates and a generous standard deduction." Generous standard deduction. According to government aristocrats like McCain, government is being generous when it allows us to keep some of our own money before it starts taking it from us by force.
It's an exaggeration to say open source killed the tool development business. It's fair to say that many tools have become commodities, and those commodities have been taken over by open source, but there's still room for great, new tools developed and sold for profit.
Quantum entanglement to be tested between earth and ISS.
Archaeologists in Jordan unearth first church - dating from 33AD.
Brian Williams tells grads that the US is broken and they must fix it. But he doesn't tell them why it's broken - big government - and he promotes the ideals of collectivism that are what is breaking the country. This is what passes for unbiased in modern journalism.
1 in 4 New Yorkers has herpes! That tells you something is very rotten in New York.
Solar cycle 24 is still a no-show. The face of the sun is "dead." Not encouraging. The earth's biosphere is thriving thanks to warming and CO2. And the Marxists and government are going to put an end to the thriving biosphere and retard human development both. Same story from Financial Times.
Cato provides the numbers that show most of what Obama is saying about the economy under Bush is a lie, and provides a resource for Obama to fact check.
Cato says E-verify would make life harder on employers and workers and would expand to intrude into every aspect of our lives. True. We should just demand employers check 2 IDs for employees, a picture ID and a birth certificate. Every job I've ever had required that. It's not a hassle to anybody, you just show your IDs. We don't need any big, intrusive government to plan to insure employers hire legal workers.
Cato explains that the new state and local ordinances against illegal immigration highlight the Federal government's abdication of its responsibility to control immigration, creating waste.
Cato explains that Tom Delay is a big part of the reason Republicans are getting their clocks cleaned by Democrats.
Pushy parents force school to have 25 Snow Whites and no secondary characters in play in Japan.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Free kibbles
Iran is concerned US plans to use Iraq as a base to attack. It's pretty obvious Bush wants to use Iraq at least as a base to deter, and maybe attack, Iran. Poland to pull out of Iraq. They're walking away from a chance to participate in success.
Mexico requests US aid to fight drug gangs. Here we are again, funding both sides of a war. We fund the Mexican drug cartels through our war on terror and we fund the Mexican government to fight them.
Republican Congressional Committee Treasurer accused of embezzling $500,000. It's just another day in the corruption factory.
Democrats are upset the war bill helps Iraqis and ignores Katrina victims. Hello? It's a war bill, not a hurricane assistance bill. The US is not an insurance company anyway. If Katrina victims can't afford to rebuild, it's their own fault. It's not taxpayers' responsibility to rebuild for people. That's a personal responsibility.
Clinton suspends candidacy. Full speech.
Obama needs to change his policies toward Pakistan and the war on terror, but I don't think Musharraf is a good messenger.
McCain adviser explains that an Obama presidency is more of a continuation of Bush's policies because Obama will continue (accelerate) Bush's horrible spending and fiscal irresponsibility. This is a good move to present McCain as a fiscal reformer.
Phoenix lander has trouble testing first soil sample, possibly because the sample is too clumped.
George Will explains that anybody who voted for a senator or congressman who voted against drilling in ANWR and off the coasts (like Obama, McCain, and Clinton and hundreds more) is disqualified from complaining about gas prices. We voted for these idiots, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves for our plight.
Democrats stick $1.6 billion earmark for plaintiff's lawyers into energy legislation, incentivizing more class action lawsuits.
Democrats claim that voter fraud isn't a problem, but this sample study shows it most certainly is a problem as 300 dead people recently voted in Connecticut and thousands more are registered. Officials can wave their hands and claim clerical errors, but somebody voted for that dead person. That's fraud, period. That's why we need voter ID laws to protect law-abiding voters.
Another elected official who doesn't bother to pay her mortgage. I'm sure he's waiting for the Federal bail out.
Abortion is probably the most divisive issue in America, yet our government forces taxpayers to pay for abortions. And Planned Parenthood is making a profit. That's just nuts. People who want abortions can pay for themselves, or they can be paid for by donations from people who support abortion on demand.
Senate Minority Leader McConnell shuts down Senate because Democrats have stalled progress on judges.
Top Clinton adviser Mark Penn blames Hillary's loss on lack of money. I guess that's how the Clintons congratulate and support Obama. Maybe Obama raised more money because more people supported him.
Mark Steyn pens another gem about how Obama wants to remake the greatest nation in the world along lines of the not so great nations. The press is downright hilarious with how it's handling Obama's nomination. They've already declared him the winner in Nov, and the guy could barely win the Democrat nomination when running against a return to the most corrupt administration in our lives and probably ever. Even Democrats didn't like this guy. Just the press and the Marxist wing.
It's about time that Bernanke and the Bush administration started caring about the value of the dollar. Bernanke's statements that the Fed is finally going to honor it's primary charge and control inflation, and his recognition that the devaluation of the dollar is the cause of that inflation is great news for Americans. By taking action to appreciate the dollar, the oil bubble should burst and food prices should drop, because both have been driven up by the devaluation of the dollar. This could have a significant impact on the election. I find Kudlow's faith in McCain a little odd though.
Mexico requests US aid to fight drug gangs. Here we are again, funding both sides of a war. We fund the Mexican drug cartels through our war on terror and we fund the Mexican government to fight them.
Republican Congressional Committee Treasurer accused of embezzling $500,000. It's just another day in the corruption factory.
Democrats are upset the war bill helps Iraqis and ignores Katrina victims. Hello? It's a war bill, not a hurricane assistance bill. The US is not an insurance company anyway. If Katrina victims can't afford to rebuild, it's their own fault. It's not taxpayers' responsibility to rebuild for people. That's a personal responsibility.
Clinton suspends candidacy. Full speech.
Obama needs to change his policies toward Pakistan and the war on terror, but I don't think Musharraf is a good messenger.
McCain adviser explains that an Obama presidency is more of a continuation of Bush's policies because Obama will continue (accelerate) Bush's horrible spending and fiscal irresponsibility. This is a good move to present McCain as a fiscal reformer.
Phoenix lander has trouble testing first soil sample, possibly because the sample is too clumped.
George Will explains that anybody who voted for a senator or congressman who voted against drilling in ANWR and off the coasts (like Obama, McCain, and Clinton and hundreds more) is disqualified from complaining about gas prices. We voted for these idiots, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves for our plight.
Democrats stick $1.6 billion earmark for plaintiff's lawyers into energy legislation, incentivizing more class action lawsuits.
Democrats claim that voter fraud isn't a problem, but this sample study shows it most certainly is a problem as 300 dead people recently voted in Connecticut and thousands more are registered. Officials can wave their hands and claim clerical errors, but somebody voted for that dead person. That's fraud, period. That's why we need voter ID laws to protect law-abiding voters.
Another elected official who doesn't bother to pay her mortgage. I'm sure he's waiting for the Federal bail out.
Abortion is probably the most divisive issue in America, yet our government forces taxpayers to pay for abortions. And Planned Parenthood is making a profit. That's just nuts. People who want abortions can pay for themselves, or they can be paid for by donations from people who support abortion on demand.
Senate Minority Leader McConnell shuts down Senate because Democrats have stalled progress on judges.
Top Clinton adviser Mark Penn blames Hillary's loss on lack of money. I guess that's how the Clintons congratulate and support Obama. Maybe Obama raised more money because more people supported him.
Mark Steyn pens another gem about how Obama wants to remake the greatest nation in the world along lines of the not so great nations. The press is downright hilarious with how it's handling Obama's nomination. They've already declared him the winner in Nov, and the guy could barely win the Democrat nomination when running against a return to the most corrupt administration in our lives and probably ever. Even Democrats didn't like this guy. Just the press and the Marxist wing.
It's about time that Bernanke and the Bush administration started caring about the value of the dollar. Bernanke's statements that the Fed is finally going to honor it's primary charge and control inflation, and his recognition that the devaluation of the dollar is the cause of that inflation is great news for Americans. By taking action to appreciate the dollar, the oil bubble should burst and food prices should drop, because both have been driven up by the devaluation of the dollar. This could have a significant impact on the election. I find Kudlow's faith in McCain a little odd though.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Free kibbles
Oil prices spark "serious concern". Yeah, right. I'll believe Congress is seriously concerned when they get rid of the ban on drilling in ANWR and off the coasts. I think Democrats are enjoying these high prices all the way to the polls, so nothing will be done until November at the earliest.
Article claims US is holding $20 billion of Iraq's money and freedom from Saddam era sanctions hostage to pressure Iraq into a security deal that would leave US troops in Iraq for a long time. This sounds like something the Bush administration would do, and it's crap. Let's win this war and bring our troops home.
Mugabe's government taxes foreign newspapers and arrests another opposition leader.
Cuba approves taxpayer funded sex change operations. That's the model Democrats want us to follow.
Democrat senator introduces bill to amend Constitution to abolish electoral college. Yikes. Haven't we trivialized politics enough? Haven't we empowered incumbents enough? I wouldn't be at all surprised if this passes Congress, but they'll have to bribe states to get 3/4 to pass it since it will give all the power to California, New York, and Texas.
I'd like to see McCain (and Obama) on Mars. Anywhere but running for president.
Windows SP3 makes routers crash.
This doesn't sound like a study. It sounds like a pseudo-scientific construct to attack conservatives. The ingrained bias that pre-determined the results are apparent in this quote:
Best Buy assures couple in Cincinnati they will destroy their hard drive with all their personal information, but the drive ends up in at a flea market in Chicago. That's because Best Buy lied. They make money off of reselling the drives. Of course Best Buy shouldn't lie, and of course Best Buy should never had done that given their statement, but the people were idiots. Why was the personal information on the drive anyway? Why didn't they erase (really erase) the information themselves? Best Buy should be liable for damages if anything happens.
The 2008 Darwin awards.
Article claims US is holding $20 billion of Iraq's money and freedom from Saddam era sanctions hostage to pressure Iraq into a security deal that would leave US troops in Iraq for a long time. This sounds like something the Bush administration would do, and it's crap. Let's win this war and bring our troops home.
Mugabe's government taxes foreign newspapers and arrests another opposition leader.
Cuba approves taxpayer funded sex change operations. That's the model Democrats want us to follow.
Democrat senator introduces bill to amend Constitution to abolish electoral college. Yikes. Haven't we trivialized politics enough? Haven't we empowered incumbents enough? I wouldn't be at all surprised if this passes Congress, but they'll have to bribe states to get 3/4 to pass it since it will give all the power to California, New York, and Texas.
I'd like to see McCain (and Obama) on Mars. Anywhere but running for president.
Windows SP3 makes routers crash.
This doesn't sound like a study. It sounds like a pseudo-scientific construct to attack conservatives. The ingrained bias that pre-determined the results are apparent in this quote:
"This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes,"It sounds a lot like Obama's San Francisco "cling" comment. I guess that clingy stuff is a article of faith in explaining conservatives to other liberals.
Best Buy assures couple in Cincinnati they will destroy their hard drive with all their personal information, but the drive ends up in at a flea market in Chicago. That's because Best Buy lied. They make money off of reselling the drives. Of course Best Buy shouldn't lie, and of course Best Buy should never had done that given their statement, but the people were idiots. Why was the personal information on the drive anyway? Why didn't they erase (really erase) the information themselves? Best Buy should be liable for damages if anything happens.
The 2008 Darwin awards.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Setting a price floor on gasoline
Charles Krauthammer revisits his plan to set a price floor on gasoline - wanting to use it as a sort of magic wand to change American behavior and fight global warming.
Mr. Krauthammer is full of self-righteousness, but his plan wouldn't helped cut greenhouse gases anyway - it would have increased them.
If government had artificially inflated the price of gasoline, oil suppliers somewhere in the chain would have raised the price to meet the floor, negating the tax. It would have cut demand in the US, but the higher prices would have signaled investors to increase supply. We would have ended up with surpluses of oil. That surplus would have been sold in the international market, driving down the price world-wide, increasing consumption world-wide.
Sure, the US would have produced less CO2, but production by the rest of the world would have increased more than US production decreased. The government wouldn't have collected any taxes. It so easy for elitists to think they can wave a magic wand and change the laws of economics. All they can do is pervert the laws to detriment of everybody.
Quit trying to use the power of government to change our behavior, Mr. Krauthammer. This bogus idea is pure socialism.
Mr. Krauthammer is full of self-righteousness, but his plan wouldn't helped cut greenhouse gases anyway - it would have increased them.
If government had artificially inflated the price of gasoline, oil suppliers somewhere in the chain would have raised the price to meet the floor, negating the tax. It would have cut demand in the US, but the higher prices would have signaled investors to increase supply. We would have ended up with surpluses of oil. That surplus would have been sold in the international market, driving down the price world-wide, increasing consumption world-wide.
Sure, the US would have produced less CO2, but production by the rest of the world would have increased more than US production decreased. The government wouldn't have collected any taxes. It so easy for elitists to think they can wave a magic wand and change the laws of economics. All they can do is pervert the laws to detriment of everybody.
Quit trying to use the power of government to change our behavior, Mr. Krauthammer. This bogus idea is pure socialism.
Free kibbles
Democrats fail to pass the huge government power grab called the Warner-Lieberman Climate Security Act by a large margin. That's only a temporary reprieve. They'll try again and keep trying until they pass it, then they'll never relinquish that power. If this bill and global warming are so important, how come only 84 senators voted on the bill? Seattle considers banning beach bonfires over global warming. This global warming scam is nothing but a reason for government to make unprecedented power grabs. John McCain waffles on the bill even though he supports cap and trade restrictions. So we're either getting bad leadership or no leadership. Great.
Britons are celebrating the reduction in wait times for hospital care to 18 weeks. That's over 4 months. That's the reduction. That's a big improvement for their socialized medicine. Britons are excited they only have to wait 18 weeks! Why in the world would be punish ourselves by adopting a similar, rotten plan? And the way Britain is improving their system is by moving to private companies doing the work. Yet liberals want to force the horrific model the Briton's are abandoning on us. Hospitals are canceling more difficult procedures in order to meet the 18 week requirement on the easier procedures. Socialized medicine is horrific on patients, and it's time liberals admitted it instead of making excuses for this inhumane treatment of people. Socialized medicine is ineffective, expensive, inhumane and immoral.
US missile test succeeds again. Don't tell Obama. He's going to cancel that program because it's wasteful. For Obama, protecting Americans from nuclear missiles is wasteful.
US unemployment rate is 5.5%. When Bill Clinton was president, that was heralded as a sign of his success. What changed? While the unemployment rate is fine historically, Cato explains that it's government's fault, the Fed and Congress, that we're losing jobs.
These Washington D.C. officials are drunk on power. I don't know about the laws in D.C., but what the police are doing would violate the kidnapping statute in Ohio. You cannot detain anybody against their will for any amount of time. These cops should be arrested and tried for kidnapping by another authority or by citizens arrest. I was just following orders is not a defense. Americans have to stand up and punish government officials for committing crimes.
Israel threatens to attack Iran to stop it's nuclear weapons program. Good for Israel. Because we've perverted the international community with security welfare, the international community is useless against Iran. In order to get the international community to agree to real sanctions, we first have to make them understand than Iran is a threat. We should stop all plans to put a missile shield in Europe. We should begin pulling our troops out of Europe. When Europe realizes it will have to do the work to defend itself, it will be open to negotiation on how to stop Iran, and then the EU can blossom onto the world stage as a mature, major power.
The world needs to spend 1% of its growth ($45 trillion over however many years) fighting climate change. I'm all for nuclear power plants - nuclear energy is cheaper than energy from oil now. Too bad the Marxists posing as environmentalists won't allow us to build them. I prefer the strategy of adapting to climate change anyway. Saying we're going to stop climate change is a lie.
Now Mugabe has banned the opposition from campaigning ahead of the run-off election. This is a joke, and Zimbabwe's neighbors and the international community are a joke for allowing this to continue. Yet liberals blame the west for Africa's problems.
Obama and Clinton have secret meeting. Obama may not be that bright, given his absurd gaffes, and he may be super-naive, but Obama isn't dumb enough to make Hillary his VP, is he? Surely he knows that the only thing the Clinton's want is the White House, and that they'll do anything to get it. With their sociopathic tendencies, they've never obeyed a law in their life when it wasn't in their interest. The main reason they've gotten away with everything they've gotten away with is liberals refused to believe they were sociopaths. Not any more. After this campaign, even liberals have seen the Clintons for what they are. I don't think Obama will put himself in a position where the only thing between the Clinton's and the White House is one of his heartbeats.
The press is angry because Obama ditched them. What a bunch of jerks. Doesn't Obama know they're king-makers, and the only reason he won was because they chose to make him the winner? How dare Obama meet with Clinton without bringing them along. In the age of McCain-Feingold, the press really is a king-maker. They're the only people who don't have absurd limits placed on their speech. But this is nothing more than a temper tantrum because they're still going to promote Obama and try to tear down McCain.
Clint Eastwood identifies himself as libertarian. Fun interview.
Of course fat people should pay more to fly. Anybody who can't fit comfortably in 1 seat should have to buy 2. That goes for any place, not just airplanes. The last Reds game I went to, I had to change seats because the guy next to me couldn't fit in his. That's not right.
Did we really need a secret study invading the privacy of those studied to tell us that people tend to stay close to home?
Baby survives abortion attempt. Talk about baggage.
Cato isn't happy with either the big-war-fighting faction or the counter-insurgency faction in the Pentagon. I don't know why we can't do both. Our military procurement bureaucracy is a wasteful bureaucracy like any other, and should be revamped completely. We need to encourage competition for military systems to get the price down. We should be able to develop and purchase leading edge weapons systems at much lower cost and use that cost savings to develop man-power intensive capabilities - keeping military expenditures flat over all.
Excellent history of the socialist and communist influence that saddled us with harmful farm subsidies.
Senators call for more regulation of the energy market. They've already regulated us into this energy crisis. How much more can we survive?
The WSJ explains that the reason liberals keep condemning and misstating the reasons for the Iraq war is because it's going so well. If they admit the present, their case against the war falls apart.
Excellent analysis of our untapped oil reserves and how Congress forbids us from tapping them.
Power British education adviser recommends Britain stop teaching "middle class" subjects like history, geography, and science in favor of civic duty and energy-savings. Good communists don't need to understand history, geography or science. They just have to do what the government says including save energy. This guy has already damaged British secondary schools. This curriculum sounds like the changes that we're making here in the US too. Like making students watch "An Inconvenient Truth". I guarantee you this guy is paid by taxpayers.
Al Gore has quite the financial stake in the global warming fraud, not to mention quite the cozy relationship with all sorts of government entities. Corporatism in action. I would love to see him charge with fraud and lose every penny he's conned out of investors.
Oil tops $139. If Congress opened up drilling in ANWR and offshore drilling, the price of oil would fall below $100 immediately. It would drop more of they reduced restrictions on nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants. The Democrats are trying to force America into a recession before Nov.
Ann Coulter points out that liberals screamed bloody murder about Al Gore winning the popular vote when it didn't matter because the law didn't care, but now that Hillary's claiming the popular vote, and she can make a great case for selecting the nominee based on popular vote since it's nothing but a Democrat party rule how the nominee is selected, and the party has already changed the rules to seat Michigan and Florida, liberals don't care about the popular vote. They make whatever argument advances their agenda at the moment. Principles, laws and rules are unimportant.
Victor Davis Hanson noticed 2 disturbing patterns in Obama's long list of disavowals and disassociations. First, he always makes the behavior about himself, highlighting his disturbing narcissism. Second, he always feign ignorance or accuses the other of changing since he started running for president, when it's obvious that Obama is the one who's public expression of his views are changing. Hanson also explains why Michelle Obama is no longer undermining Barack's campaign - she's been restricted to reading prepared statements.
It's amazing how little press Mark Steyn's trial in Canadian so-called human rights courts is getting.
Britons are celebrating the reduction in wait times for hospital care to 18 weeks. That's over 4 months. That's the reduction. That's a big improvement for their socialized medicine. Britons are excited they only have to wait 18 weeks! Why in the world would be punish ourselves by adopting a similar, rotten plan? And the way Britain is improving their system is by moving to private companies doing the work. Yet liberals want to force the horrific model the Briton's are abandoning on us. Hospitals are canceling more difficult procedures in order to meet the 18 week requirement on the easier procedures. Socialized medicine is horrific on patients, and it's time liberals admitted it instead of making excuses for this inhumane treatment of people. Socialized medicine is ineffective, expensive, inhumane and immoral.
US missile test succeeds again. Don't tell Obama. He's going to cancel that program because it's wasteful. For Obama, protecting Americans from nuclear missiles is wasteful.
US unemployment rate is 5.5%. When Bill Clinton was president, that was heralded as a sign of his success. What changed? While the unemployment rate is fine historically, Cato explains that it's government's fault, the Fed and Congress, that we're losing jobs.
These Washington D.C. officials are drunk on power. I don't know about the laws in D.C., but what the police are doing would violate the kidnapping statute in Ohio. You cannot detain anybody against their will for any amount of time. These cops should be arrested and tried for kidnapping by another authority or by citizens arrest. I was just following orders is not a defense. Americans have to stand up and punish government officials for committing crimes.
Police will ask motorists to show proof that they live in the area. If they do not have proof, drivers must explain whether they have a reason to be in the neighborhood, such as a doctor's appointment or a church visit.Everybody stopped should refuse to cooperate.
Police will only search cars if they observe the presence of guns or drugs, officials said. Anyone who does not cooperate will be arrested.
Israel threatens to attack Iran to stop it's nuclear weapons program. Good for Israel. Because we've perverted the international community with security welfare, the international community is useless against Iran. In order to get the international community to agree to real sanctions, we first have to make them understand than Iran is a threat. We should stop all plans to put a missile shield in Europe. We should begin pulling our troops out of Europe. When Europe realizes it will have to do the work to defend itself, it will be open to negotiation on how to stop Iran, and then the EU can blossom onto the world stage as a mature, major power.
The world needs to spend 1% of its growth ($45 trillion over however many years) fighting climate change. I'm all for nuclear power plants - nuclear energy is cheaper than energy from oil now. Too bad the Marxists posing as environmentalists won't allow us to build them. I prefer the strategy of adapting to climate change anyway. Saying we're going to stop climate change is a lie.
Now Mugabe has banned the opposition from campaigning ahead of the run-off election. This is a joke, and Zimbabwe's neighbors and the international community are a joke for allowing this to continue. Yet liberals blame the west for Africa's problems.
Obama and Clinton have secret meeting. Obama may not be that bright, given his absurd gaffes, and he may be super-naive, but Obama isn't dumb enough to make Hillary his VP, is he? Surely he knows that the only thing the Clinton's want is the White House, and that they'll do anything to get it. With their sociopathic tendencies, they've never obeyed a law in their life when it wasn't in their interest. The main reason they've gotten away with everything they've gotten away with is liberals refused to believe they were sociopaths. Not any more. After this campaign, even liberals have seen the Clintons for what they are. I don't think Obama will put himself in a position where the only thing between the Clinton's and the White House is one of his heartbeats.
The press is angry because Obama ditched them. What a bunch of jerks. Doesn't Obama know they're king-makers, and the only reason he won was because they chose to make him the winner? How dare Obama meet with Clinton without bringing them along. In the age of McCain-Feingold, the press really is a king-maker. They're the only people who don't have absurd limits placed on their speech. But this is nothing more than a temper tantrum because they're still going to promote Obama and try to tear down McCain.
Clint Eastwood identifies himself as libertarian. Fun interview.
Of course fat people should pay more to fly. Anybody who can't fit comfortably in 1 seat should have to buy 2. That goes for any place, not just airplanes. The last Reds game I went to, I had to change seats because the guy next to me couldn't fit in his. That's not right.
Did we really need a secret study invading the privacy of those studied to tell us that people tend to stay close to home?
Baby survives abortion attempt. Talk about baggage.
Cato isn't happy with either the big-war-fighting faction or the counter-insurgency faction in the Pentagon. I don't know why we can't do both. Our military procurement bureaucracy is a wasteful bureaucracy like any other, and should be revamped completely. We need to encourage competition for military systems to get the price down. We should be able to develop and purchase leading edge weapons systems at much lower cost and use that cost savings to develop man-power intensive capabilities - keeping military expenditures flat over all.
Excellent history of the socialist and communist influence that saddled us with harmful farm subsidies.
Senators call for more regulation of the energy market. They've already regulated us into this energy crisis. How much more can we survive?
The WSJ explains that the reason liberals keep condemning and misstating the reasons for the Iraq war is because it's going so well. If they admit the present, their case against the war falls apart.
Excellent analysis of our untapped oil reserves and how Congress forbids us from tapping them.
Power British education adviser recommends Britain stop teaching "middle class" subjects like history, geography, and science in favor of civic duty and energy-savings. Good communists don't need to understand history, geography or science. They just have to do what the government says including save energy. This guy has already damaged British secondary schools. This curriculum sounds like the changes that we're making here in the US too. Like making students watch "An Inconvenient Truth". I guarantee you this guy is paid by taxpayers.
Al Gore has quite the financial stake in the global warming fraud, not to mention quite the cozy relationship with all sorts of government entities. Corporatism in action. I would love to see him charge with fraud and lose every penny he's conned out of investors.
Oil tops $139. If Congress opened up drilling in ANWR and offshore drilling, the price of oil would fall below $100 immediately. It would drop more of they reduced restrictions on nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants. The Democrats are trying to force America into a recession before Nov.
Ann Coulter points out that liberals screamed bloody murder about Al Gore winning the popular vote when it didn't matter because the law didn't care, but now that Hillary's claiming the popular vote, and she can make a great case for selecting the nominee based on popular vote since it's nothing but a Democrat party rule how the nominee is selected, and the party has already changed the rules to seat Michigan and Florida, liberals don't care about the popular vote. They make whatever argument advances their agenda at the moment. Principles, laws and rules are unimportant.
Victor Davis Hanson noticed 2 disturbing patterns in Obama's long list of disavowals and disassociations. First, he always makes the behavior about himself, highlighting his disturbing narcissism. Second, he always feign ignorance or accuses the other of changing since he started running for president, when it's obvious that Obama is the one who's public expression of his views are changing. Hanson also explains why Michelle Obama is no longer undermining Barack's campaign - she's been restricted to reading prepared statements.
It's amazing how little press Mark Steyn's trial in Canadian so-called human rights courts is getting.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Free kibbles
Our transformation into the Soviet Union continues with Soviet-style police cordons in Washington D.C. The mayor thinks he has the power to order Americans to stay out of certain neighborhoods and to demand ID to enter certain neighborhoods. Your papers, comrade! The collapse of the US is going to be far more spectacular than the collapse of the Soviet Union was. All in the name of fighting crime created by the War on Drugs. Why is anybody surprised that a city that completely bans guns would be so swamped by crime?
Jury acquits first Marine tried for crimes at Haditha on all charges.
Home foreclosures set record in Q1.
I guess Gates' feud with the Air Force is bigger than he let on. The Air Force Chief of Staff resigned under threat of being fired.
Zimbabwe detains US and British diplomats for investigating political violence. This report says the diplomat convoy was attacked.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tries to turn his court proceeding into a circus, demands to defend himself.
Reason says 73% of Iraqis want us to leave. I don't believe it. Michael Yon, who's more embedded in Iraq than anybody in the press, says the Iraqis want us there. I don't know what poll Reason is referring to, but I think it's suspect. On the flip side, I'm sure the Iraqis do oppose a long-term US presence, and good for them. Maybe that's what the poll really asked. They are starting to stand up and take control of their country, and that was always the goal. The sooner they do it, the sooner we can bring our troops home victorious. And we can't forget, we're in Iraq for our security too. Cato advises President Bush to prepare Iraq for the withdrawal of US troops. Agreed. We should not enter any long term security deal that includes US troops based in Iraq.
This article on the conviction of Obama's close friend and associate Tony Rezko doesn't even mention Obama's name.
Obama tells DNC to stop overtly taking lobbyist money. I'm sure they'll still take lobbyists' money covertly like Obama.
Clinton will drop out of race Saturday. Clinton supporters switching to McCain.
Ron Paul Republicans are running for office.
For Thomas Sowell, this election comes down to which candidate will stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, so even though he considers these the worst 2 candidates since 1972, his choice is McCain.
These bystanders after a hit-and-run seem more confused than "having lost their moral compass" to me. I don't see anybody on a cell phone calling 911 though. The victim shouldn't be moved, so they can't do much. Sure, they should have stopped traffic, but I just think they were stunned.
NASA reports electrical disturbances in atmosphere before earthquakes may lead to accurate predictions. I wonder why this took so long to discover. We've heard stories for decades (or maybe millennia) about ball lightning and other electrical phenomena before earthquakes. We know that animals sense something before earthquakes.
Cato comes out for the US to help train and support Pakistani military for clear and hold operations, the same tactics employed by Gen. Petraeus in Iraq, in Pakistan.
Holy cow! Colorado's governor just signed a law making all restrooms and locker rooms open to all genders. What the heck? It sounds like it even applies to schools because they're public facilities, unless they're excluded. But why would they be excluded? This will have a frightening effect on women and especially girls in public. Women will no longer go to gyms or spend time in public if they might need to go to the bathroom because of perverts hanging out in the restrooms. Little boys will be following little girls into restrooms and leering at them. "Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars." This is the natural evolution of the GLBT movement that conservatives have been warning the country about. You can't legislate away human nature, especially the most fundamental nature of human existence - sex. This is what modern liberalism, which has taken over our government, has degenerated into. Pandora's box is open, and we're not going to like what it delivers to us.
Video of an IED blowing up in front of a military vehicle.
Good for Barney Frank for attempting to legalize small amounts of marijuana. It's not much, but you have to start somewhere.
Jury acquits first Marine tried for crimes at Haditha on all charges.
Home foreclosures set record in Q1.
I guess Gates' feud with the Air Force is bigger than he let on. The Air Force Chief of Staff resigned under threat of being fired.
Zimbabwe detains US and British diplomats for investigating political violence. This report says the diplomat convoy was attacked.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tries to turn his court proceeding into a circus, demands to defend himself.
Reason says 73% of Iraqis want us to leave. I don't believe it. Michael Yon, who's more embedded in Iraq than anybody in the press, says the Iraqis want us there. I don't know what poll Reason is referring to, but I think it's suspect. On the flip side, I'm sure the Iraqis do oppose a long-term US presence, and good for them. Maybe that's what the poll really asked. They are starting to stand up and take control of their country, and that was always the goal. The sooner they do it, the sooner we can bring our troops home victorious. And we can't forget, we're in Iraq for our security too. Cato advises President Bush to prepare Iraq for the withdrawal of US troops. Agreed. We should not enter any long term security deal that includes US troops based in Iraq.
This article on the conviction of Obama's close friend and associate Tony Rezko doesn't even mention Obama's name.
Obama tells DNC to stop overtly taking lobbyist money. I'm sure they'll still take lobbyists' money covertly like Obama.
Clinton will drop out of race Saturday. Clinton supporters switching to McCain.
Ron Paul Republicans are running for office.
For Thomas Sowell, this election comes down to which candidate will stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, so even though he considers these the worst 2 candidates since 1972, his choice is McCain.
These bystanders after a hit-and-run seem more confused than "having lost their moral compass" to me. I don't see anybody on a cell phone calling 911 though. The victim shouldn't be moved, so they can't do much. Sure, they should have stopped traffic, but I just think they were stunned.
NASA reports electrical disturbances in atmosphere before earthquakes may lead to accurate predictions. I wonder why this took so long to discover. We've heard stories for decades (or maybe millennia) about ball lightning and other electrical phenomena before earthquakes. We know that animals sense something before earthquakes.
Cato comes out for the US to help train and support Pakistani military for clear and hold operations, the same tactics employed by Gen. Petraeus in Iraq, in Pakistan.
Holy cow! Colorado's governor just signed a law making all restrooms and locker rooms open to all genders. What the heck? It sounds like it even applies to schools because they're public facilities, unless they're excluded. But why would they be excluded? This will have a frightening effect on women and especially girls in public. Women will no longer go to gyms or spend time in public if they might need to go to the bathroom because of perverts hanging out in the restrooms. Little boys will be following little girls into restrooms and leering at them. "Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars." This is the natural evolution of the GLBT movement that conservatives have been warning the country about. You can't legislate away human nature, especially the most fundamental nature of human existence - sex. This is what modern liberalism, which has taken over our government, has degenerated into. Pandora's box is open, and we're not going to like what it delivers to us.
Video of an IED blowing up in front of a military vehicle.
Good for Barney Frank for attempting to legalize small amounts of marijuana. It's not much, but you have to start somewhere.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Free kibbles
Congratulations to South Dakota for breaking the environmentalist's ban on new refineries in the US. I bet the feds step in and block this development.
Suicide bombing in Baghdad kills 15.
Mugabe has police detain opposition leader Tsvangirai, and he uses food to manipulate the election.
Who in the world would ever suggest Sudan has been at peace? I don't understand this lunacy of allowing armed groups to continue being armed and continue killing people. Peace comes through victory, not leaving warring factions armed and in power.
Economists fear 70s-style price-wage spiral. That's because government is repeating all the mistakes of the 70s.
Reason describes the dot.com crash of 2000, which is how it's supposed to work. The market corrects itself. There are winners and losers. Nothing for government to do here. The correction happens swiftly and everybody moves on. The same thing happened with the crash of '87. Reagan sat on the sidelines while the market swiftly corrected itself and rebounded. No big deal.
There's a race going on between developing green technology and green Marxism. If green Marxism wins the race, we all lose. If green technology wins the race, it will thwart green Marxism, but ultimately it will be a waste of resources because man-made CO2 has only a minuscule effect on climate. But perception drives innovation.
Obama clinches nomination, but Hillary refuses to concede, trying to force Obama to name her VP. She should be under a psychiatrist's care. 5 lucky breaks for Obama fails to mention that he was born 1/2 black. He would have been laughed out of the race if he had been white. With Obama's defenders crying racism every time he's criticized, this race will set back race relations in the US a generation at least.
Now that Obama has the nomination he's taking a hard line against Iran. Look for the chameleon to change his stripes to try and fool general election voters. A couple weeks ago he said Iran wasn't a big threat, but talking to a Jewish group, he calls it a grave threat. He's probably that most Americans don't pay any attention, so he can say one thing one day and another the next and get away with it.
Here is Barack Obama clearly staking out his position of unilateral disarmament. Unbelievable. No wonder our enemies support this guy. He's toast.
McCain is smart to challenge Obama to 10 townhall debates. Free format would be best. Obama would be smart to run and hide. McCain isn't a very good debater, but Obama's terrible, and his polices are terrible. Obama has to do everything he can in this campaign to hide his policies, his opinions, his experience, his character, and his associations from the American people in order to win. All he has going in his favor is he's 1/2 black, he can speak well, and Republicans spent the last 7 years earning the antipathy of the entire country. Cato says Obama's extreme leftism will be a liability.
Red wine may slow aging. I'll try a bottle a night and see if it works.
Do we need a news article to tell us that anti-bacterial wipes can create and spread super-bugs. That's what anti-bacterial soap and wipes do. Create super-bugs. They should be used very sparingly if at all.
Cato highlights the expense and waste of mass transit projects.
Suicide bombing in Baghdad kills 15.
Mugabe has police detain opposition leader Tsvangirai, and he uses food to manipulate the election.
Who in the world would ever suggest Sudan has been at peace? I don't understand this lunacy of allowing armed groups to continue being armed and continue killing people. Peace comes through victory, not leaving warring factions armed and in power.
Economists fear 70s-style price-wage spiral. That's because government is repeating all the mistakes of the 70s.
Reason describes the dot.com crash of 2000, which is how it's supposed to work. The market corrects itself. There are winners and losers. Nothing for government to do here. The correction happens swiftly and everybody moves on. The same thing happened with the crash of '87. Reagan sat on the sidelines while the market swiftly corrected itself and rebounded. No big deal.
There's a race going on between developing green technology and green Marxism. If green Marxism wins the race, we all lose. If green technology wins the race, it will thwart green Marxism, but ultimately it will be a waste of resources because man-made CO2 has only a minuscule effect on climate. But perception drives innovation.
Obama clinches nomination, but Hillary refuses to concede, trying to force Obama to name her VP. She should be under a psychiatrist's care. 5 lucky breaks for Obama fails to mention that he was born 1/2 black. He would have been laughed out of the race if he had been white. With Obama's defenders crying racism every time he's criticized, this race will set back race relations in the US a generation at least.
Now that Obama has the nomination he's taking a hard line against Iran. Look for the chameleon to change his stripes to try and fool general election voters. A couple weeks ago he said Iran wasn't a big threat, but talking to a Jewish group, he calls it a grave threat. He's probably that most Americans don't pay any attention, so he can say one thing one day and another the next and get away with it.
Here is Barack Obama clearly staking out his position of unilateral disarmament. Unbelievable. No wonder our enemies support this guy. He's toast.
McCain is smart to challenge Obama to 10 townhall debates. Free format would be best. Obama would be smart to run and hide. McCain isn't a very good debater, but Obama's terrible, and his polices are terrible. Obama has to do everything he can in this campaign to hide his policies, his opinions, his experience, his character, and his associations from the American people in order to win. All he has going in his favor is he's 1/2 black, he can speak well, and Republicans spent the last 7 years earning the antipathy of the entire country. Cato says Obama's extreme leftism will be a liability.
Red wine may slow aging. I'll try a bottle a night and see if it works.
Do we need a news article to tell us that anti-bacterial wipes can create and spread super-bugs. That's what anti-bacterial soap and wipes do. Create super-bugs. They should be used very sparingly if at all.
Cato highlights the expense and waste of mass transit projects.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Debate on fixing gas prices
There's a debate going on on Helium about fixing gas prices. I wrote this response.
I added this:
Unfortunately, Helium has a character minimum, and my response is too short. Too bad. I understand the need for a minimum standard, but it sure wasn't necessary to knock down this stupid idea to fix gas prices.
This question doesn't even make any sense. Market forces are natural laws. Government can't free people from them. All government can do is pervert them to the detriment of everybody.
Supply, demand, and prices are inexorably tied together. Prices are the signal that tell consumers how much to demand and tell producers how much to supply. If you artificially lower prices, consumers will buy more and producers will supply less. The inevitable result is shortages.
I doubt the person who wrote this article was around in the 70s, when Nixon and Carter tried just this approach. It's amazing how politicians let power go to their heads, and they think their power can overcome natural laws. I'm sure you can plenty of pictures of the gas lines we endured in the 70s. Do we really want to revisit price controls and windfall profits taxes after having experienced the 20% interest rates and inflation, gas lines, and stagflation of the 70s?
I hope not. You would have to be ignorant of both economics and history to support controlling gas prices.
I added this:
I understand the need for Helium to have some minimum character or word limit, but it sure wasn't necessary to knock down this horrible idea of fixing gas prices. I'll continue just to meet the requirement.
It's scary that Democrats are proposing the exact same policies that blew up on us in the 70s. Now I don't think for a minute that Democrats who have managed to get elected to Washington are ignorant of history or economics. Some of them may be blinded by ideology, but I think they're rare. I think those Democrats know their proposals for price fixing and windfall profits taxes will destroy our economy just like they did in the 70s. But they think voters are ignorant.
The scary part is they don't care about the consequences. Republicans don't care either. If they thought they could get re-elected by demagoguing oil companies and proposing price fixing and windfall profits taxes, Republicans would do the same thing. And that says a lot about us. We're fallen into the trap of allowing professional politicians, aristocrats as surely as those in King Henry's court, to rule us. They don't care about us. They don't care about the country. Like all aristocrats, all they care about is their own power.
But America was supposed to be different. America worked when it was different. We were never supposed to have an aristocracy - our representatives were supposed to be citizen-representatives, the best and the brightest drawn from the private sector to temporarily serve and sacrifice for the good of country, then return home to work in the same economy as their constituents. But when we allowed government to grow so big that our representatives no longer lived in their home districts or earned their living in the private sector, we created America's aristocracy.
A great thing about America is we don't need a revolution to remove them from power. We can vote them out of office. But we refuse. We re-elect incumbents 94% of the time. We elect Republicans and Democrats 100% of the time. And our Congress, by blocking drilling in the US, blocking nuclear, coal, and natural gas power plants, blocking new refineries, by subsidizing the oil companies and wasteful so-called alternative fuels, has created this energy crisis. And every other economic crisis in the US.
We have nobody to blame but ourselves for voting for these same 2 parties of aristocrats.
That's Not Reform
That's Not Reform
by Mark Luedtke
Boy, do we need big-time government reform in Ohio and the US, but having state government reform local governments is like having the fox reform the hen house. Government in America is supposed to be strongest at the local level, weaker at the state level, and weakest at the Federal level. But we've taken the heritage won for us by the Founding Fathers, the heritage that made America the greatest country in the world, and twisted it backwards. We need to reform our local governments, push reform up to our state governments, and push reform up to the Federal government. Freedom, prosperity, and government reform rise up from the grass-roots. Tyranny and poverty come down from the top.
While I was researching this essay, I discovered the Advance Northeast Ohio website. The website is running a poll asking if regional planning would accelerate economic growth. The answer is a resounding no - reducing taxes, government spending, and regulations would boost the economy - but only 5 voters including me voted no. 63 voted yes. 19 voted not sure, but it's worth a try.
This unscientific poll explains our government and economic problems in Ohio and the US. When a majority of citizens want to forgo free markets for central planning, forgo the ideals, institutions, and systems that made American great in favor of those that made the Soviet Union collapse, the result is titanic government and a faltering economy. And when big state government officials talk about reforming local government, they're really talking about a power grab by the most powerful professional politicians.
The Ohio legislature plans to create a panel on local government reform to investigate how best to reform local government to reduce taxes. This seems like a copy of an Indiana panel that just published its findings and prompted a proposal to restructure Cuyahoga County government. We can't know for sure what the Ohio panel will recommend, but since it will have 9 members, 3 each appointed by the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, and the governor, big-government officials all, smart money says it will be pretty similar to the nearly identical plans proposed by Indiana and Cuyahoga County.
The Cuyahoga County plan, proposed by Democrat Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan, is a monster power grab for Cuyahoga County commissioners. Under Hagan's plan, endorsed by Republican Speaker of the House Husted from Kettering, the people would surrender their power to elect the auditor, recorder, treasurer, coroner, engineer, and sheriff to the county commissioners. Those offices would be manned by powerful, new bureaucrats, unaccountable to the people. The commissioners see no reason to bother the people with electing their own government officials when they can be appointed by those same commissioners.
They're selling this plan as a cost savings, and since there's no cost savings associated with this aspect of the plan except the cost of ink on ballots, they also propose combining the offices of auditor, recorder, and treasurer, centralizing all handling of taxpayer money into one office. Not only don't the commissioners like the people deciding who runs their government, they don't like having checks and balances on the handling of the taxpayers' money. The commissioners want to reduce the people to mere money suppliers with no power except to coronate those same county commissioners proposing this plan who will control taxpayers' money and therefore their votes.
The Indiana plan is nearly identical, except it calls for replacing the 3 county commissioners with 1 county executive, and it calls for the elimination of the township level of government. This isn't reform. This is a historic power grab and a formula for nepotism, cronyism, single party rule, and massive corruption, consolidating power into the hands of a few, or 1, professional politicians. Richard Daley and Boss Tweed would be jealous. I guess the planners were afraid their power grab would be too transparent if they called for appointing prosecutors and judges too.
Of course the professional politicians love this plan. It boosts their power at our expense. That power will insure they never get voted out of office. Since politicians will sell this assault on political freedom as reform, and the majority of Ohioans vote to surrender their economic freedom to the government at every opportunity, voters will probably surrender. We lose. They win.
I hope my predictions are wrong because we need real reform, a return to limited government, and we have models of reform to follow. Ireland recently reduced its corporate tax rate to 12.5%, rocketed to third on the index of economic freedom, and its economy is soaring. Still remembering the devastation caused by big-government, eastern Europe adopted low, flat-tax rates and minimal bureaucracy and regulations, and their economies are thriving as a result. Meanwhile, US and western European economies flounder under the burden of big-government. Here in the US, Congress won't even debate the FairTax, the best tax reform plan in the world.
But we don't have to look that far for reform. Butler County recently lowered water rates by 10% and sewage rates by 15% by cutting 22 employees from their Environmental Services Dept. Citizens will suffer no reduction in service, so those jobs and that money were wasted. And don't worry about those lost jobs. The same private sector that paid for those wasteful government jobs will create valuable jobs from the savings. The real reform we need is just that easy.
Free kibbles
Fed auctions $75 billion to banks. The value of your dollars just dropped by a proportional amount. These banks have no incentive to change their holding to lending ratios to become more stable because of the Fed backstop.
The marketplace continues to adapt to high gas prices with GM planning to shut down 4 truck plants and drop the Hummer.
Families broken up by Texas authorities finally reunited. Good for them. Now, Texas, go about this the right way and make sure no more kids are abused in that sect.
Outgoing NATO general calls for more troops in Afghanistan.
Iraq is showing more independence, disagreeing with the US on future troop allocations. That's excellent. We wanted them to stand on their own 2 feet, and they may do it differently than we want or hope, but they're doing it.
Putin bans opponents from appearing on TV.
The other reason our immigration laws need fixed is so we don't deport refugees from the Soviet Union or anywhere else who came to America, learned the language, history and values, assimilated, and excelled. That's as dumb as inviting illegal immigrants to come and stay here by the millions.
Mugabe blocks aid to Zimbabwe, pretending Care was campaigning for the opposition. Anne Applebaum says Mugabe's appearance on vacation in Rome shows the futility of international diplomacy. Italy should never have allowed this crook to enter.
UN food crisis summit calls for reduced export controls. This is another version of the tragedy of the commons. Any one country can gain an advantage by increasing export controls relative to other countries. But when everybody does this, food prices go up for everybody.
More navies will fight piracy off Somalia.
Government is finally going to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
Student's love cognitive enhancement pills. But if they were baseball players taking steroids, we would demonize them.
The Politico explains that Drudge isn't conservative. No kidding. Drudge is about sensationalism and gossip, not ideology. But he still sets the agenda with his breaking stories and far-ranging scope.
Hillary Clinton is suddenly "open" to becoming Obama's VP. This would help Democrats a lot. Both camps would find it distasteful, but they'd still hold their noses and vote Obama.
Rumor of tape of Michelle Obama and Louis Farakhan ripping whitey. Obviously, this would be explosive if it was true, but the Machiavellian implications defy credibility. Is Hillary's meeting to discuss whether or not to drop this bomb? Could somebody really have this tape and sit on it this long? Is somebody just waiting for Obama to get the nod and drop it in the general election? It all seems very unlikely. It's not unlikely that Michelle Obama did it. It's just unlikely anybody is sitting on a tape.
In order to raise more money, McCain campaign creates legal loophole to get around McCain-Feingold campaign financing limits. These government aristocrats are absolutely shameless. They have no compunction whatsoever to follow the very same laws they write. Why we ever Congress to exempt themselves from the laws they pass, I'll never know. It just bred even worse behavior. Cato explains that campaign finance laws are invariably about limiting the speech of challengers and therefore empowering incumbents, not fighting corruption as they claim. That's pretty obvious.
Cato highlights the waste in the military procurement process.
Search for Titanic was cover for search of sunk US nuclear submarines.
Firefox to hit 20% market share.
Intel's Atom CPU uses little power.
This hair-brained lunatic wants to give government power to control our air. Apparently her myopia doesn't allow her to understand the consequences. Unfortunately, there's precedent for this - the FCC. If government is a trustee of the "public airwaves" then it seems logical that government is also the trustee of the "public air". This is very scary. Funny how she wants to use the courts because politicians won't act. The courts were supposed to be the weakest branch of government, but liberals want them to become the policy-making arm of government.
I would hope Gina Gershon has better taste than to hook up with Bill Clinton. She isn't as hard up as Monica Lewinsky and Bill's usual prey.
Pat Buchanan explains the history surrounding Munich in 1938 that defined appeasement. What he mentions only in passing is that Hitler was intending world war all along. The items on his list were ways to grow Germany's power on the road to world war. Chamberlain's error was in appeasing a madman, helping him gain power without expending any resources, instead of standing firm against Hitler.
Thomas Sowell reports that Barack Obama earmarked $325,000 to Father Pfleger, priest who just preached the racist rant at Obama's church. Obama and the media want us to think there's only a coincidental association between them, but here we have hard evidence that Obama's associations, downplayed as they are, carry over into his governing. We can expect Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger to play an important role in an Obama presidency as well.
Here's a remarkably accurate breakdown of the time spent doing web design.
Text of Ron Paul's speeches and statements in the House of Representatives.
The marketplace continues to adapt to high gas prices with GM planning to shut down 4 truck plants and drop the Hummer.
Families broken up by Texas authorities finally reunited. Good for them. Now, Texas, go about this the right way and make sure no more kids are abused in that sect.
Outgoing NATO general calls for more troops in Afghanistan.
Iraq is showing more independence, disagreeing with the US on future troop allocations. That's excellent. We wanted them to stand on their own 2 feet, and they may do it differently than we want or hope, but they're doing it.
Putin bans opponents from appearing on TV.
The other reason our immigration laws need fixed is so we don't deport refugees from the Soviet Union or anywhere else who came to America, learned the language, history and values, assimilated, and excelled. That's as dumb as inviting illegal immigrants to come and stay here by the millions.
Mugabe blocks aid to Zimbabwe, pretending Care was campaigning for the opposition. Anne Applebaum says Mugabe's appearance on vacation in Rome shows the futility of international diplomacy. Italy should never have allowed this crook to enter.
UN food crisis summit calls for reduced export controls. This is another version of the tragedy of the commons. Any one country can gain an advantage by increasing export controls relative to other countries. But when everybody does this, food prices go up for everybody.
More navies will fight piracy off Somalia.
Government is finally going to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.
Student's love cognitive enhancement pills. But if they were baseball players taking steroids, we would demonize them.
The Politico explains that Drudge isn't conservative. No kidding. Drudge is about sensationalism and gossip, not ideology. But he still sets the agenda with his breaking stories and far-ranging scope.
Hillary Clinton is suddenly "open" to becoming Obama's VP. This would help Democrats a lot. Both camps would find it distasteful, but they'd still hold their noses and vote Obama.
Rumor of tape of Michelle Obama and Louis Farakhan ripping whitey. Obviously, this would be explosive if it was true, but the Machiavellian implications defy credibility. Is Hillary's meeting to discuss whether or not to drop this bomb? Could somebody really have this tape and sit on it this long? Is somebody just waiting for Obama to get the nod and drop it in the general election? It all seems very unlikely. It's not unlikely that Michelle Obama did it. It's just unlikely anybody is sitting on a tape.
In order to raise more money, McCain campaign creates legal loophole to get around McCain-Feingold campaign financing limits. These government aristocrats are absolutely shameless. They have no compunction whatsoever to follow the very same laws they write. Why we ever Congress to exempt themselves from the laws they pass, I'll never know. It just bred even worse behavior. Cato explains that campaign finance laws are invariably about limiting the speech of challengers and therefore empowering incumbents, not fighting corruption as they claim. That's pretty obvious.
Cato highlights the waste in the military procurement process.
Search for Titanic was cover for search of sunk US nuclear submarines.
Firefox to hit 20% market share.
Intel's Atom CPU uses little power.
This hair-brained lunatic wants to give government power to control our air. Apparently her myopia doesn't allow her to understand the consequences. Unfortunately, there's precedent for this - the FCC. If government is a trustee of the "public airwaves" then it seems logical that government is also the trustee of the "public air". This is very scary. Funny how she wants to use the courts because politicians won't act. The courts were supposed to be the weakest branch of government, but liberals want them to become the policy-making arm of government.
I would hope Gina Gershon has better taste than to hook up with Bill Clinton. She isn't as hard up as Monica Lewinsky and Bill's usual prey.
Pat Buchanan explains the history surrounding Munich in 1938 that defined appeasement. What he mentions only in passing is that Hitler was intending world war all along. The items on his list were ways to grow Germany's power on the road to world war. Chamberlain's error was in appeasing a madman, helping him gain power without expending any resources, instead of standing firm against Hitler.
Thomas Sowell reports that Barack Obama earmarked $325,000 to Father Pfleger, priest who just preached the racist rant at Obama's church. Obama and the media want us to think there's only a coincidental association between them, but here we have hard evidence that Obama's associations, downplayed as they are, carry over into his governing. We can expect Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger to play an important role in an Obama presidency as well.
Here's a remarkably accurate breakdown of the time spent doing web design.
Text of Ron Paul's speeches and statements in the House of Representatives.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Free kibbles
Report claims US still conducting renditions and keeping detainees on ships. There are some numbers in this article that seem too high to make it credible, but the part of troops taking prisoners in Somalia on board US ships for transport rings true. We have to transport the foreign fighters somehow.
Because NATO is nothing more than US security welfare to Europe, and we're funding the Taliban with our misnamed war on drugs (it should be renamed war on Americans), Afghanistan violence is skyrocketing. Killing Taliban leaders won't stop them, though it will make them less effective, as long as the drug money keeps coming in and they have a safe haven in Pakistan.
Mexican drug gangs, funded by our misnamed war on drugs, (it should be renamed drug cartel, drug gang, and terrorist enrichment and empowerment program), kill Mexican mayor.
The Texas judge who started this whole mess by allowing the state to kidnap hundreds of children from their parents (I say kidnap because no evidence of abuse against nearly all the children was presented), finally respects the Texas Supreme Court order to return them.
US blogger in Singapore arrested for "insulting a public servant."
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has said "Israel will soon disappear" and other threats so many times now, I'm tired of reading them. I look forward to the day when we put this loon and his martyr-loving regime out of our misery.
Since the new Pakistani government chose to appease the terrorists, they blew up the Danish embassy in the capital.
Scalia thinks the Constitution means what it says, and it doesn't say to drive religion out of the public square.
Senator Kennedy to have brain surgery. If he comes back to the Senate, there will be no end to the lobotomy jokes. His surgery was successful. They didn't remove the entire tumor, they just reduced it so other therapies would have a better chance of success.
Looking for any strand to hold onto, Clinton claims popular vote lead because Florida and Michigan, which were unfair contests, were seated.
It looks like Hillary Clinton is finally calling it off. That jives with Bill's comments. Maybe Obama and Hillary finally worked out a deal.
Christopher Hitchens rips Scott McClellan in counterpoint to the high praise for Douglas Feith's new book, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism. Hitchens highlights how the press has completely ignored Feith's book, a well-written, well-sourced book by a true insider, in favor of McClellan's anti-Bush gossip.
Wii as a personal trainer. I don't think this will work with adults. I wonder how it will work with children.
Not only are conservatives more compassionate and charitable than liberals, study shows conservatives are more honest and moral than liberals too.
Nancy Pelosi credits Iran with the success of the surge, not US forces.
We've lost the freedom to bring souvenir rifle cartridges from vets to school. It used to be that students were encouraged to show and tell the stories of vets around Memorial Day. Now they get suspended.
Former al Qaeda commander testifies that his unit was funded by Saudi Arabia. While it seems pretty likely that Saudis are funding al Qaeda, why would anybody take this terrorist's word, unless it was the result of water-boarding.
ACLU sues Denver to discover what weapons the city is buying for security for the Democrat Convention. They're trying to make the convention less secure.
Obama is capitalizing on Che Guevara. That alone ought to disqualify him from office.
Mohammad is the most popular baby name in Milan.
They imprisoned the wrong people in this case. 13 year old girl seduces 2 men, claiming she was 18, and both men end up in jail. This is ridiculous. Men should not have to check IDs of women they sleep with. The law intended to stop predators, not imprison men who were fooled by under-age predators.
79 year old man who didn't pay for pie because forgot it among the rest of his groceries, ends up in jail.
Counterfeit Chinese drugs endanger Americans. That's no surprise. What I find striking about this article is the assumption that the government is at fault. It's not government's fault, it's the fault of the businesses. Instead of complaining, this CEO of Baxter, which bought these bad drugs from China, should have implemented a testing regimen insure their safety. Patients who suffered from these drugs should sue the pants off Baxter. But the reason this happens is government jumps in and makes the FDA responsible, creating moral hazard, and businesses love it because they don't have to spend the money to do the testing. Government makes them pass the buck figuratively, and they save more bucks literally. But of course government doesn't have the resources to inspect every product that comes into America, or every product made in America. It's ludicrous to think it can. Because of bad policy creating moral hazard, Americans end up sick and dead from bad drugs, toys, food, and everything else.
Robert Novak points out that Scott McClellan's Bush bashing book focuses on the Plame non-affair but ignores that Richard Armitage, who was not part of the White House at all, leaked Plame's identity. He suspects that McClellan had a liberal ghost-writer. I don't think McClellan has the capacity to write any book. He was stunningly inept.
An unofficial google sh. I like this.
Because NATO is nothing more than US security welfare to Europe, and we're funding the Taliban with our misnamed war on drugs (it should be renamed war on Americans), Afghanistan violence is skyrocketing. Killing Taliban leaders won't stop them, though it will make them less effective, as long as the drug money keeps coming in and they have a safe haven in Pakistan.
Mexican drug gangs, funded by our misnamed war on drugs, (it should be renamed drug cartel, drug gang, and terrorist enrichment and empowerment program), kill Mexican mayor.
The Texas judge who started this whole mess by allowing the state to kidnap hundreds of children from their parents (I say kidnap because no evidence of abuse against nearly all the children was presented), finally respects the Texas Supreme Court order to return them.
US blogger in Singapore arrested for "insulting a public servant."
Iranian President Ahmadinejad has said "Israel will soon disappear" and other threats so many times now, I'm tired of reading them. I look forward to the day when we put this loon and his martyr-loving regime out of our misery.
Since the new Pakistani government chose to appease the terrorists, they blew up the Danish embassy in the capital.
Scalia thinks the Constitution means what it says, and it doesn't say to drive religion out of the public square.
Senator Kennedy to have brain surgery. If he comes back to the Senate, there will be no end to the lobotomy jokes. His surgery was successful. They didn't remove the entire tumor, they just reduced it so other therapies would have a better chance of success.
Looking for any strand to hold onto, Clinton claims popular vote lead because Florida and Michigan, which were unfair contests, were seated.
It looks like Hillary Clinton is finally calling it off. That jives with Bill's comments. Maybe Obama and Hillary finally worked out a deal.
Christopher Hitchens rips Scott McClellan in counterpoint to the high praise for Douglas Feith's new book, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism. Hitchens highlights how the press has completely ignored Feith's book, a well-written, well-sourced book by a true insider, in favor of McClellan's anti-Bush gossip.
Wii as a personal trainer. I don't think this will work with adults. I wonder how it will work with children.
Not only are conservatives more compassionate and charitable than liberals, study shows conservatives are more honest and moral than liberals too.
Nancy Pelosi credits Iran with the success of the surge, not US forces.
We've lost the freedom to bring souvenir rifle cartridges from vets to school. It used to be that students were encouraged to show and tell the stories of vets around Memorial Day. Now they get suspended.
Former al Qaeda commander testifies that his unit was funded by Saudi Arabia. While it seems pretty likely that Saudis are funding al Qaeda, why would anybody take this terrorist's word, unless it was the result of water-boarding.
ACLU sues Denver to discover what weapons the city is buying for security for the Democrat Convention. They're trying to make the convention less secure.
Obama is capitalizing on Che Guevara. That alone ought to disqualify him from office.
Mohammad is the most popular baby name in Milan.
They imprisoned the wrong people in this case. 13 year old girl seduces 2 men, claiming she was 18, and both men end up in jail. This is ridiculous. Men should not have to check IDs of women they sleep with. The law intended to stop predators, not imprison men who were fooled by under-age predators.
79 year old man who didn't pay for pie because forgot it among the rest of his groceries, ends up in jail.
Counterfeit Chinese drugs endanger Americans. That's no surprise. What I find striking about this article is the assumption that the government is at fault. It's not government's fault, it's the fault of the businesses. Instead of complaining, this CEO of Baxter, which bought these bad drugs from China, should have implemented a testing regimen insure their safety. Patients who suffered from these drugs should sue the pants off Baxter. But the reason this happens is government jumps in and makes the FDA responsible, creating moral hazard, and businesses love it because they don't have to spend the money to do the testing. Government makes them pass the buck figuratively, and they save more bucks literally. But of course government doesn't have the resources to inspect every product that comes into America, or every product made in America. It's ludicrous to think it can. Because of bad policy creating moral hazard, Americans end up sick and dead from bad drugs, toys, food, and everything else.
Robert Novak points out that Scott McClellan's Bush bashing book focuses on the Plame non-affair but ignores that Richard Armitage, who was not part of the White House at all, leaked Plame's identity. He suspects that McClellan had a liberal ghost-writer. I don't think McClellan has the capacity to write any book. He was stunningly inept.
An unofficial google sh. I like this.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Free kibbles
Israel releases and deports Hezbollah spy in return for remains of Israeli soldiers killed in 2006 war.
Opposition leader detained in Zimbabwe for writing letter.
Expert panel of economists identifies solutions for the world's top 10 problems.
Florida and Michigan delegates get half votes. That's what Dean should have done in the first place and avoided all this rancor.
It's a smart, political move for Obama to quit his church, but what does it say about his character? Those people stood by him for 20 years, shared their most insane and hate-filled visions of the world with Obama, Obama embraced them, and they embraced each other. But as soon as the going got tough, Obama threw them under the bus. With friends like Obama... But this won't end the effect his church has on Obama. You can't just erase 20 years of dangerous radicalism as if it never happened, though I'm sure Obama is counting on the press to cover for him, and they will do their best. He tried to make it sound like he quit for the good of the church. This guy knows how to play, but because he took that approach, he didn't really separate himself.
Children are twice as likely to die before adulthood if they have a father over 45.
Congresswoman has a plan to let states determine if they want to drill off their coasts instead of the Federal government. The Marxist environmentalists won't like that. It's far easier for them to lobby just in Washington than in every state capital.
Despite Supreme Court ruling protecting our votes, Georgia Democrats sue over voter ID law. Every American can get an ID if they want to vote. Get over it.
The press is harder on McCain than Obama. They couldn't get any easier on Obama, and they won't, but they'll get a lot harder on McCain.
Government grants its citizens permission to hang clothes on clotheslines. What's wrong with this picture?
Author shows that higher food prices are directly related to ethanol subsidies and says the corn lobby and our government are committing crimes against humanity.
Article highlights the double-standard the press applies to gaffes by Democrats, especially black Democrats, and Republicans. If John McCain had made all the gaffes Obama has made, the press would have hounded him out of the election by now, and still by far the most publicized gaffes of the campaign are McCain's. 57 states? Did he just eat some ketchup? How do you make that mistake?
I don't think Thomas Sowell is going to win any debates by saying its OK for police to miss dozens of times when firing at a suspect. That might be acceptable for a layman, but we train police to handle these kinds of situations. And the more interesting point anyway is that if a group of laymen fired dozens of shots at a suspect and killed him, all those laymen would be imprisoned for manslaughter at least, and most likely murder. The law is supposed to be the same for everybody, but it's obviously not in this case.
Milton Friedman got it right when he said "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state." But this argument should be used as an argument against the welfare state, not illegal immigration. We have plenty of arguments against illegal immigration without it.
Ann Coulter has noticed that liberals enthusiastically compare Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and any other Republican to Hitler, but they get outraged when somebody compares Ahmadinejad to Hitler. Funny.
Charles Krauthammer mocks the global warming alarmists declaration that the debate about man-made global warming is over by pointing out that Newton's laws of mechanics stood for centuries before Einstein proved them wrong. If Newton's simple laws can be proven wrong after centuries, there's no way the effects of man-made CO2 on our complex climate system is settled after a couple decades. That's why there are no laws in science (laymen call them laws, not scientists), only theories.
Huey Long had a real chance to win a 3rd party candidacy. Can you imagine how bad off the world would be if that socialist had won? FDR did enough damage as it was.
George Will illustrates how the Warner-Lieberman Climate Security Act carbon cap and trade scheme is really a huge, socialist power grab and a hidden tax. Both parties love to use the language of free markets to camouflage their socialist plans.
Mark Steyn presents some stunning statistics to show how abortion is being used to wipe out women - not free them. This is scary. The unintended consequences of policy never cease to amaze me.
China's cyber-militia.
I always wondered how people typed these funky characters.
It looks like the retro-rockets of the Phoenix lander may have exposed ice directly under the lander.
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