what's the arabic word for "chutzpah"?

(new updates below)

Quoth Hamas, after innumerable terrorist attacks, underground infiltrations, and most recently the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel, "stop hitting us back!":

Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said ... "What our people want is clear: an immediate stop to all kinds of aggression, the end of the siege by all means, the opening of all border crossings, and international guarantees that the occupation will not renew this terrorist war again."

update 1: a related cartoon

update 2: the solution is obvious:

(Those who believe) that negotiations will solve these problems (in the Middle East) forget that our enemies want us dead or dominated, they don’t want a world at peace in which they will have to deal with real problems of governance. They are waging jihad, not diplomacy.

(T)hose people who fume at the very idea of challenging the Iranian regime are actually making a truly terrible war more likely, not less. Those few of us who believe that support for Iranian democratic dissidents could bring down the mullahs are almost universally scorned, and even accused of seeking war. It is just the opposite. The same accusations were directed against us when we supported Soviet dissidents, and called for regime change in Moscow. And yet the Soviet Empire came down. The Iranian regime is far weaker than the Soviet state. An overwhelming number of Iranians oppose the regime, and are dreaming of the day when we finally embrace their cause...

(I)t is impossible to address the Arab/Israeli conflict by itself, for the context is all wrong. Nobody in Gaza or the West Bank, nor in Amman or Cairo, can guarantee peace for Israel. Today, that decision rests in the hands of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Until there is a different government in Tehran, there cannot be peace between Arabs and Israelis, any more than there can be peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Lebanon.

update 3: Sane people everywhere should be offended by every bit of press coverage that calls "Israel defending itself" an "offensive".

update 4: Jungle Mom has more cartoons

well whaddya know!

i'm a trendsetter! haven't sold a track for several years...

hpy hollllllidays

Finished Christmas shopping tonight, and had to get some wrapping paper. I prefer geometric and/or simple designs, and try to avoid recognizable figures that might get cut in half. The store's selection of giftwrap with a snowy look included snowflakes designed with either 5 or 8 points - gah! (Those designers are a few bulbs short of a strand.)

So everybody's presents from me this year will be wrapped in poinsetta paper...

i can haz hokeystik?

algore say: y2k stole mah inkunveenyunt trooth!

(A volunteer team assessed) problems with US temperature data used for climate modeling. One of these people is Steve McIntyre, who operates the site climateaudit.org. While inspecting historical temperature graphs, he noticed a strange discontinuity, or "jump" in many locations, all occurring around the time of January, 2000.

These graphs were created by NASA's Reto Ruedy and James Hansen (who shot to fame when he accused the administration of trying to censor his views on climate change). Hansen refused to provide McKintyre with the algorithm used to generate graph data, so McKintyre reverse-engineered it. The result appeared to be a Y2K bug in the handling of the raw data.

McKintyre notified the pair of the bug; Ruedy replied and acknowledged the problem as an "oversight" that would be fixed in the next data refresh.

NASA has now silently released corrected figures, and the changes are truly astounding. The warmest year on record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. 1921 takes third. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before World War II. Anthony Watts has put the new data in chart form, along with a more detailed summary of the events.

The effect of the correction on global temperatures is minor (some 1-2% less warming than originally thought), but the effect on the U.S. global warming propaganda machine could be huge. Then again - maybe not. I strongly suspect this story will receive little to no attention from the mainstream media.

no news is good news

Global Warming is to Climate Change as Inflation is to _______ ?

men of lawlessness

Secular and Christian prophets agree...

Torchlight, via Gates of Vienna:

What you are witnessing now is the eclipse of evil over the light of civilization. The streets are filled with those who wish to plunge your nation into the abyss of anarchy and regress into tribalism. The question of how the whimsical nature of these beasts can potentially usurp 3,000 plus years of prosperity and proud heritage is a difficult one but must not be avoided. Furthermore, the question of which way to go, and how best to maintain order deserves an immediate answer.

“Our democracy is destroying itself because it abused the rights of freedom and equality, because it taught the citizens to consider insolence a right, lawlessness as freedom, the audacity of words as equality and anarchy as bliss….” — Isocrates (436-338BC)

Insolence, lawlessness, anarchy, and the perceived right to destroy the work and successes of fellow men are indeed not freedoms but instead crimes of the worst nature. Equality never meant to enshrine the Marxist ideology that when one man suffers, all must follow suit.

Paul, via Bible Gateway:

...Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for (that day will not come) until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God... For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

to republicans, on popularity

This article reminds me of a joke my dad used to tell, that went something like this:

"There was a man who happened to live near the Potomac when the Civil War started. He had friends on both sides and wanted to remain neutral. To symbolize his neutrality, he decided to wear a Confederate coat and yankee pants. When the battle neared his house, the yankees shot at his arms and the Confederates shot at his legs."

bad predictions

bogus, we know

bogus, we hope

next time, ask

but hopefully there won't be a "next time" where the "media were heavily invested in getting Obama coronated so actually investigating him was out of the question.":

There are at least seven questions Obama's team needs to answer, and answer soon, if their inauguration is to avoid the odor of corruption.

1 - Did you communicate directly or indirectly with Blagojevich about picking your replacement in the U.S. Senate?

2 - Why didn't you or someone on your team correct your close adviser David Axelrod when he said you had spoken to Blagojevich about picking your replacement?

3 - When did you learn the investigation involved Blagojevich's alleged efforts to 'sell' your Senate seat, or of the governor's impending arrest?

4 - Did you or anyone close to you contact the FBI or U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald about Blagojevich's alleged efforts to sell your Senate seat to the highest bidder?

5 - Did federal investigators interview you or anyone close to you in the investigation?

6 - When did you and Blagojevich last speak and about what?

7 - Do you regret supporting Blagojevich?

guest posting

at local malcontent:

"too close for comfort"
"potty mouth"

Chicago S.O.P.

Gates of Vienna:

So the governor’s office was offering to sell Obama’s vacant seat for the right price. It sounds like standard operating procedure for the Chicago political machine. But Barack Obama is the child and beneficiary of that same machine. Who bought his chance at a Senate seat for him? And what price was paid for it?

Illinois Senate seat: $? million
U.S. Presidency: $600 million
Media supression of relevant questions: $$$billions
Turning the White House into Uncle Dem's Cabin: priceless

meme across the red river

For a short time surrounding his upcoming nuptials, the "Malcontent" in this blogger's name temporarily means "short of content". So i've been asked to help provide some content, and i hope you find it not too "mal" ;)

But i'm having a little trouble coming up with a new idea, so here's my continuation of this meme found at his site:

read it here

Do you remember your first favorite song? If so, what was it?
not really. it was probably a hymn. "jeremiah was a bullfrog" was the first rock song i ever heard.

What do you refuse to eat?
"seafood with legs": squid, octopus, crab, lobster, crawdad...

Have you ever injected any kind of drug before?
very very no.

Do amusement park rides make you sick?
they didn't back when i rode them - they might today.

Who is your favorite Star Wars character?
han solo. definitely not the muppet-based characters: yoda, ewoks, etc.

What kind of cheese do you put on your sandwiches?
cheddar with salami, swiss with other lunchmeats.

What was the first thing you ever learned how to cook?
macaroni & cheese. skinner elbows & velveeta, not that nasty box-o-chemicals.

Did you ever collect beanie babies?
very very no.

When was the last time you got a haircut?
buzzed last month.

Have you ever been to a bachelor/bachelorette party?
two extremely tame ones.

Where are you most ticklish on your body?
probably feet.

Have you ever bailed anyone out of jail?
no.

What’s the last board game you played?
does 'cranium' or 'balderdash' count? if not, i don't know.

Do you still own any VHS tapes?
a few tapes, but currently no player.

Do you shop at JC Penney’s ever?
on rare occasion.

If there was a real Jurassic Park, would you visit it?
i might fly over it if they don't bring back pterodactyls.

Do you ever read the newspaper?
newspapers are the best argument for tree conservation.

Do you eat your mac & cheese with a fork or a spoon?
usually fork, unless i hadn't run the dishwasher for a while.

Is there any medicine/pill you take everyday?
two, to remain unnamed.

How many 20 dollar bills do you have on you right now?
this minute, none.

Would you do meth if it was legalized?
and again, very very no.

Are you afraid others will judge you, reading your answers to survey questions?
these questions? not much.

Do you think Obama will be assassinated?
unlikely.

Have you ever made out with someone and then never saw them again?
immediately afterwards? no. i haven't seen my first girlfriend since we broke up (via phone, not my idea), does that count?

Do you drink egg nog?
if someone offers it, and it's non-alcoholic, maybe.

What are you wearing?
all black, as usual.

more fakes?

This could be a much bigger story than Rathergate:

Barack Hussein Obama's birth certificate may be forged.

Stay tuned.

A Blogger's Lament

O! That a blog
Were as an untended lawn,
Whose fecund vegetation flourisheth
Though its proprietor languisheth in disinterest.

Woe! That a blog
Is as an untended houseplant,
That withereth hastily whilst
Its author neglecteth it for mere moments.

Thanksgiving

Psalm 107
(Young's Literal Translation)

1 Give ye thanks to Jehovah, For good, for to the age [is] His kindness:

2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say, Whom He redeemed from the hand of an adversary.

3 And from the lands hath gathered them, From east and from west, From north, and from the sea.

4 They wandered in a wilderness, in a desert by the way, A city of habitation they have not found.

5 Hungry - yea - thirsty, Their soul in them becometh feeble,

6 And they cry unto Jehovah in their adversity, From their distress He delivereth them,

7 And causeth them to tread in a right way, To go unto a city of habitation.

8 They confess to Jehovah His kindness, And His wonders to the sons of men.

9 For He hath satisfied a longing soul, And a hungry soul hath filled [with] goodness.

10 Inhabitants of dark places and death-shade, Prisoners of affliction and of iron,

11 Because they changed the saying of God, And the counsel of the Most High despised.

12 And He humbleth with labour their heart, They have been feeble, and there is no helper.

13 And they cry unto Jehovah in their adversity, From their distresses He saveth them.

14 He bringeth them out from the dark place, And death-shade, And their bands He draweth away.

15 They confess to Jehovah His kindness, And His wonders to the sons of men.

16 For He hath broken doors of brass, And bars of iron He hath cut.

17 Fools, by means of their transgression, And by their iniquities, afflict themselves.

18 All food doth their soul abominate, And they come nigh unto the gates of death,

19 And cry unto Jehovah in their adversity, From their distresses He saveth them,

20 He sendeth His word and healeth them, And delivereth from their destructions.

21 They confess to Jehovah His kindness, And His wonders to the sons of men,

22 And they sacrifice sacrifices of thanksgiving, And recount His works with singing.

23 Those going down [to] the sea in ships, Doing business in many waters,

24 They have seen the works of Jehovah, And His wonders in the deep.

25 And He saith, and appointeth a tempest, And it lifteth up its billows,

26 They go up [to] the heavens, they go down [to] the depths, Their soul in evil is melted.

27 They reel to and fro, and move as a drunkard, And all their wisdom is swallowed up.

28 And they cry to Jehovah in their adversity, And from their distresses He bringeth them out.

29 He establisheth a whirlwind to a calm, And hushed are their billows.

30 And they rejoice because they are quiet, And He leadeth them to the haven of their desire.

31 They confess to Jehovah His kindness, And His wonders to the sons of men,

32 And they exalt Him in the assembly of the people, And in the seat of the elders praise Him.

33 He maketh rivers become a wilderness, And fountains of waters become dry land.

34 A fruitful land becometh a barren place, For the wickedness of its inhabitants.

35 He maketh a wilderness become a pool of water, And a dry land become fountains of waters.

36 And He causeth the hungry to dwell there, And they prepare a city of habitation.

37 And they sow fields, and plant vineyards, And they make fruits of increase.

38 And He blesseth them, and they multiply exceedingly, And their cattle He doth not diminish.

39 And they are diminished, and bow down, By restraint, evil, and sorrow.

40 He is pouring contempt upon nobles, And causeth them to wander in vacancy - no way.

41 And setteth on high the needy from affliction, And placeth families as a flock.

42 The upright do see and rejoice, And all perversity hath shut her mouth.

43 Who [is] wise, and observeth these? They understand the kind acts of Jehovah!

(you may find other versions in previous years)

for the person who has everything

you could buy them a submarine.

in debasement

where modern art lies:

"It’s not the humanism that ruined art, it was humanism that divorced itself from the possibility of transcendence. Which would be bad enough if it hadn’t decided to splash around in the gutters as well."

spreading it thick

in theory and in practice

slim pickins

sorry about the lack of posts. have had a small project ongoing here, then found out saturday that a friend (younger than me) had a stroke. according to him, he's doing "much better than he has any right to be", but he does have a stretch of rehab coming up.

so (as if you need any hint from me), just keep reading 'the usual suspects' in my sidebar, including but not limited to:

Viewpoint
Bleat
ScrappleFace
Varifrank
No Oil For Pacifists
Steyn Online

...and most importantly, find some time for the Author of life, online or otherwise.

money, power, etc.

the news, in lyric form:

everybody wants to rule the world

i want it all, and i want it now

money, it's a gas

everybody's crazy

tonight's editorial: one way or another

dc talk

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."

politely stating the obvious

update: Wry Mouth wrote these five posts about Proposition 8.

In reference to the whiners still fighting California's Proposition 8, one anonymous viewer responded:

"The folks on the other side of this issue have always painted themselves as the most tolerant, wanting to embrace diversity and it just seems like their conduct is not consistent with that picture."

"Hypocrisy from the left?!? Inconceivable!?!" <\vizzinivoice>

stumbled upon

bears & donkeys

thugocracy

A majority of voters have apparently forgotten the history of the thirties, and have thus doomed us all to repeat it.

transfer of wealth

retirement plans kept equal by hatchet, ax, and saw.

several thousand rpm

spins Jefferson...

to voters, on unemployment

see what happens when you vote for the national socialist party?

The Age Of Incompetence

(This one will stay top-posted for a while. Scroll down for updates.)

With an insincere apology to the Fifth Dimension, I present "The Age Of Incompetence":

---

When the loon is in the White House
And Pelosi's allowed to Speak
Then peace becomes impossible
False hopes enslave the weak.

This is the dawning of the age of Incompetence
The age of Incompetence
Incompetence!
Incompetence!

Slogans without understanding
Sycophants and lust abounding
Doubleplusgood media derisions
Gilded history revisions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's obliteration
Incompetence!
Incompetence!

Empty suit is in the White House,
And commies on the Hill.
Common sense has left the planet
And real achievers foot the bill.

This is the dawning of the age of Incompetence
The age of Incompetence
Incompetence!
Incompetence!

Gary Coleman comes to mind

"Call me an optimist, but I like to think when America's breadlines erupt into riots it will be because of our shared starvation, not the differences in our color."

Tolerance Strikes Again!

Families hit hardest!

big brother my eye!

Cincinnati voters poke the nanny state in the eye:

On Tuesday, voters in Cincinnati, Ohio made it clear that photo enforcement is not welcome in the city. A majority of voters approved an amendment to the city charter prohibiting local officials from ever installing either red light cameras or speed cameras. Referendum co-sponsor Josh Weitzman hopes his coalition’s victory inspires other cities. “This election is further proof that people do not want to have traffic cameras,” Weitzman told the Newspaper.com. “Politicians in cities across the country need to take note of this if they plan on getting re-elected.” Cincinnati city council members had been trying for the past four years to install the devices that promised to generate between $2m and $12m in annual revenue. Advocates were stopped in 2005 when former Mayor Charlie Luken vetoed a camera ordinance saying, “Let’s be honest with the public — we didn’t think about this until we came up with a budget problem.”

A diverse group of political activists from all ends of the political spectrum banded together to form the “We Demand a Vote” coalition to stop the idea. Members include regional chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Republican Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party and others. The group received more than 10k signatures on a petition to put the subject of cameras on the ballot before the devices even had a chance to issue a single ticket. Political leaders quickly backed off their support of cameras after seeing public opinion on the matter.

I hope that mood catches on everywhere. We live in America, not Oceania.

after taking a deep breath

My actual prediction for the next four years is that it will get at least Carter-bad, maybe FDR-bad but not Stalin-bad. Economy down, wars up, malaise way up after the first year.

The worst part of the electorate's foolish decision is that America's enemies, primarily Iran and the Islamofascists, will likely expand Jihad with apparent (as far as earthly strength is reckoned) impunity. Perhaps we can make it through without too many mushroom clouds.

sore winners

NewsWeak whines:

Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill.

Notably absent from the article is any hint of outrage at the OVER ONE-HALF BILLION DOLLARS with which Obama and his backers purchased the presidency.

upsides of the election

Blacks have forever given up the right to claim "the man" is keeping them down.

Whites can now demand reparations for the decades they suffered unfair taxation under the lost war on poverty.

No more pollution from American coal.

It will be costly, but our enslavement under the Democrats' control should prove once and for all that their policies are morally and intellectually bankrupt failures.

The media will be blamed for their complicity in destroying America.

The end of the world may be much sooner than previously thought. Islam will probably start Armageddon before Obama gets unpacked in the White House, since they have nothing to fear from an Obama-led American military. (As an added bonus, nuclear winter will solve global warming.)

Tina Fey returns to the obscurity of SNL.

Illegal immigration will decrease drastically as Mexicans realize they might as well stay in their own corrupt socialist country instead of exchanging it for another one.

(This list may be updated as I think of more. The reader is free to guess which of these I am or am not serious about.)

Green Pastures and Wry Mouth see other upsides, as does Discerning Texan:

This election is going to be a "coming of age" moment for a lot of people. They say, "Be careful what you wish for" and a lot of people got their wish yesterday. And now they're bound to be disappointed.

I think Obama is going to turn out to be the worst president since Carter, and for the same reason: good intentions do not guarantee good results. Idealists often stub their toes on the wayward rocks of reality, and fall on their faces. And the world doesn't respond to benign behavior benignly.

But there's another reason why: Obama has been hiding his light under a basket. A lot of people bought a pig in a poke today, and now they're going to find out what they bought. Obama isn't what most of them think he is. The intoxication of the cult will wear off, leaving a monumental hangover...

this will be a "coming of age" moment is that now Obama and the Democrats have to put up or shut up. Obama got elected by making himself a blank slate, with vapid promises about "hope" and "change" -- but now he actually has to do something. Now he has to reveal his true agenda. And with the Democrats also having a majority in both chambers of Congress, now the Democrats really have to lead. And they're not going to do a very good job of it. It's going to be amusing to watch. And the people who fell for the demagoguery will learn an invaluable lesson.

read the rest

Mythbusters

Viewpoint:

It's both remarkable and encouraging that a nation with our history can elect an African-American to the presidency. For that we can rejoice. It's just too bad that it happened to be this particular African-American who has broken the barrier.

Obama's victory was a triumph of intuition over knowledge, emotion over reason, race over qualification, style over substance, hope over plausibility, and youth over experience. Perhaps now Michelle Obama can at long last be proud of her country.

Last night's result has buried several myths about the American people: First, that they're generally moderate to conservative and, secondly, that they're corporately wise...

Another myth this election should have exploded but probably didn't is the myth of racist America. Obama is our next president because whites voted for him in large numbers. Even those who voted against him did so because of his ideas rather than his race. There may have been a fraction of the anti-Obama vote that was inspired by race, but it was small and insignificant. Indeed, there's at least was much evidence during this campaign of racism in the black community as there is among whites.

Read the rest.

question authority

remember, dissent is still the highest form of patriotism.

a darker view

doc russia is not optimistic:

So, what will happen if (Obama) wins? Well, the first thing you may expect is that (since) the media has already made its deal with the devil by not vetting Obama, that they will have no choice but to continue to act as his propaganda machine lest they be forced to admit that he was not all they cracked him up to be when the wheels start coming off the wagon... and they most certainly will...

Once such a disastrous ideology starts getting enacted into policy, you will start seeing people go John Galt... "going John Galt" is basically refusing to allow yourself to be punished for achieving. This is done by withdrawing your contribution to society in the form of taxes, by producing less, and thusly getting taxed less...

We will see exactly the same kind of wall-to-wall spin coverage of the Obama presidency that we have seen in his campaign. Gaffes will be edited out, statements will be resubmitted, the original never being published. We will also see more of what we have already seen with dissent. If you question him, you will be attacked. It was Obama who approached Joe the plumber, and Joe spoke his mind. For daring to question Authority, Obama's agents started digging through his past in order to assassinate the man in an attempt to undermine his question which revealed, in an unguarded moment that he was, in fact, a Marxist. Whenever the media or the citizenry question Obama, you will see the agents of Obama set to work against them in a manner reminiscent of secret police. They will dig through your past in order to find something to punish you with. Failing that, the IRS will be directed to audit you. We will see Obama use the levers of power in a future presidency because we have already seen him use it in his present campaign for presidency.

This is how Stalin held power. He gained control of the levers of power, and then used them against both political opponents and allies who were starting to outshine him. He persecuted his opposition with the tools of the State, and eliminated the inconvenient in his own party to the point where there were none to hold him in check...

Texas will again reconsider the question of secession. The media will not pay attention, just as they did with Clinton, because to admit that the policies of their favorite politician are leading to the breakup of the union is to admit that they were wrong in his ability to unite America, and that while Bush was hated, you did not see California thinking about seccession. Whether Texas has the legal right is neither clear nor of consequence. Since Texans believe that they have the right, for all intents and purposes, they do. Period. Any efforts, legal or otherwise, to restrict what they see as a right will be seen as Tyranny, and opposed by violence which will preclude the state of Texas as being a member of the union since it will only see the relationship as an occupied republic. Sorry, but that is the way Texas views things, and there is no way to reverse it other than to persuade us by logic that we want to be part of the union, or that we have no right to secede. Good luck with that. Most Yankees I meet simply cannot comprehend this Texas state of mind. It is beyond them. Kind of like describing colors to the blind. Alaska may follow suit...

Four years of economic stagnation and civil unrest will probably be too much for even the combined forces of the media to peddle to the public as a golden age of Obama. Even if Texas does not secede, and he is thrown out of office, it will take decades to reverse the damage...

Still, we vote, because resistance is never futile. If Obama wins, and things get as bad as I suspect they will, then I will go John Galt. I will look at the jobs as a physician which give me the greatest return per hour for working, and then work only enough hours that I stay just under the threshold of punishment. I will oppose Obama's Marxist policies at every step, and will never let the public forget that he came to power by vote fraud, and Chicago style intimidation. If things get really bad, then I will support Texas in seceding from the union.

As long as you are prepared to go all the way, resistance is never futile. They will invest energy in silencing you that they will never have returned. Getting you out of the way will only incur cost, and never benefit. As long as the state never benefits from your subjugation, you will never be subjugated. So, while things look bleak, I will approach this with the same resilience that has held men fast in dark times. I will fight while there is no hope, and resist while there is no respite. I will do this as long as I may draw breath in the hope that someday, there will be a crack in the enemy's defenses, and I will be able to fight my way to final victory.

McGehee isn't happy either

before the aftermath

remember this

on redistribution of wealth

Overheard in reference to Obama's financial plans: "Robin Hood redistributed wealth too, and the Industrial Revolution was delayed by several hundred years because of it."

Some things I've noticed

Liberals always value feelings over facts.

Liberals prize freedom of speech until you say something they don't like.

Liberals will tell you to think for yourself, unless you think differently from them.

Liberals value their individuality, despite how utterly identical their core beliefs are.

putting words in obama's mouth

and this time it rings true:

“Sarah Palin tried to tell you that I’m a socialist, but you wouldn’t listen. Instead the media viciously ridiculed a woman who has actual executive experience, the highest popularity rating of any U.S. governor, a demonstrated track record of fiscal responsibility, and a personal story of hard work, determination, grace under fire and success that I think represents the ultimate expression of feminist ideals. But the liberal feminists came out of the closet and all but admitted they didn’t really want a woman in the executive branch, they wanted a liberal. And so here I am — Jane Fonda with a baritone voice and a buzz cut.”

read the rest.

death and taxes

in one convenient package.

forget the bear market

the donkey market is worse:

Unlike Barack Obama, the stock market has learned a thing or two from history’s mistakes. Five major policy errors helped turn the 1929 downturn into a full-blown Depression lasting over ten years, and Barack Obama has promised to repeat all five of these. No wonder investors are running for the doors.

read the rest.

the amazing race

Mark Steyn:

This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama's burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn't really need to spend a dime given the wall-to-wall media adoration. And tonight Chris Matthews' doctors announced that his leg tingle has metastasized leaving his entire body like a vibrating cellphone whose ringtone is locked on "I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy." And yet an old cranky broke loser is within two or three points of the King of the World. Strange.

A Modern Paraphrase

----------------

After a request to post this video (but before I actually watched it), I was inspired to update Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech to suit modern conditions. Many parts remain as-is.

----------------

Two score and five years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the "I Have A Dream" speech in our nation's capitol. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Hyphenated-Americans who had been poisoned by the fruit of white liberal guilt. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But forty-five years later, these Hyphenated-Americans are still not free. Forty-five years later, the life of the Hyphenated-American is still sadly crippled by the manacles of affirmative action and the chains of reverse racism. Forty-five years later, the Hyphenated-American lives behind a facade of material prosperity, yet drowns in a vast ocean of spiritual poverty. Forty-five years later, the Hyphenated-American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in this great land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, regardless of color, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that the Democratic Party has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens-of-hyphen are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, the Democratic Party has given the Hyphenated-American people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to be lulled into laziness by the drone of demagoguery. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of the welfare state to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of socialism to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. These ongoing seasons of the Hyphenated-American's perpetual discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Two thousand and eight is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Hyphenated-American needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the Democratic Party continues to enslave the Hyphenated-American on its socialist plantation. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Hyphenated-American understands that the many rights he has been granted come with responsibilities. The hammer of truth will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. Let us not advance our cause through race-baiting and finger-pointing. Let us not swear allegiance to false hopes and false religions. Let us not seek to demand those reparations to which we have no birthright and which no one now living owes.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our legitimate complaints to snowball into illegitimate greed. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The personality cults of irreverent "reverends" which have engulfed the Hyphenated-American community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Hyphenated-American believes the demagoguery of the Democrats. We can never be satisfied as long as every single one of our achievements are held suspect due to the spectre of affirmative action. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Hyphenated-American's basic mobility is from a physical ghetto to a welfare ghetto. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are murdered in the womb by abortion clinics that target the poor. We can never be satisfied as long as our community is robbed of its dignity by the voices of violent rappers and illiterate gangstas. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Hyphenated-American in Florida is too ignorant to properly use a ballot box and a Hyphenated-American in New York mindlessly votes in lockstep with vapid drug-addled celebrities. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the lies of the left which enslave your mind. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. But remember that America is a nation of laws, and do not claim that your suffering is unjust if you have broken those laws. Some of you have come to this shining city by illegal ways, by land, sea, or air. You have no rights as citizens here until you enter it by the straight and narrow, yet even in that situation you are still safer in this city on a hill than you would be in the same situation virtually anywhere else on earth.

Go back to California, go back to Chicago, go back to Massachusetts, go back to New York, go back to the slums and ghettos surrounding our nation's capitol, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day the sons of blue states and the sons of red states will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Massachusetts, a state suffering under excessive taxation, sweltering in the reek of lesser Kennedys, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that our children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, in the House of Representatives, with its closet racists, with its Speaker weaving words to ensnare all Americans; one day right there in Congress, our elected officials can ignore party affiliation to do what is good, what is right, what is just for our great land.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to blue states with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to silence the yammering yahoos of the media-infotainment-complex so that we may all sing the beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the great spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Seussonomics

I do not like that bailout plan
I do not like it, Uncle Sam:

Dr. Seuss and the bailout plan

By Bryan Fischer

Uncle Sam & Congress-man
By Joy Hubbard, Bryan Fischer and Debbie Fischer, with apologies to Dr. Seuss

That Uncle Sam!
That Congress-man!
We do not like your bailout plan!
We do not like your taxing plan!
Should we pay so stocks don't tank?
Should we pay for Barney Frank?
We should not pay so stocks won't tank.
We should not pay for greedy banks.
We do not like your bailout plan,
We should not pay it, Congress-man.
Mr. Paulson made a call
For a plan to soak us all.
Could you, would you Mr. Bush,
Could you, would you push, push, push?
We should not pay you, Mr. Bush,
So Mae won't fall upon her tush.
We should not pay you, AIG,
Though you ask on bended knee.
We should not pay you, Freddie Mac,
Just to lighten up your pack.
We should not pay for any bank,
Even one that's in the tank.
We should not pay for umpteen years
Just because the market fears.
We do not like your bailout plan.
We do not like it, Uncle Sam.
We should not pay you, Mr. Raines,
You, the source of all our pains.
Franklin Raines don't give a hoot,
He got a golden parachute.
We should not pay you, Mr. Dodd,
You should not get a big fat wad.
We should not pay you, Speaker Nan,
When you have dumped us in the can.
We should not pay this big old tax
For people who ignored the facts.
You said the rules were just a joke
And now the banks are just flat broke.
They loaned to those who cannot pay
And backed it up with Fannie Mae.
You set it up for them to fail,
Then said to us, "Your turn to bail!"
Could you, would you, Street of Wall,
Support a plan to soak us all?
Our kids will pay for ninety years
Just to calm your self-made fears.
We do not like your bailout plan,
We do not like it, Uncle Sam.
We should not pay for all those acts
When you ignored the credit facts.
The CRA made this bind
Now we get kicked in the behind.
Sub-prime loans — what a crock!
And you wonder why we balk!
You made some new accounting laws
And we got bit by shark-like jaws.
Mark to market — what a joke!
Now our banks begin to croak.
Sarbanes-Oxley gored us all
And now you make us take the fall.
We do not like your bailout plan,
We do not like it, Congress-man.
We do not like your bailout plan.
We do not like it, Uncle Sam.
You loaded it with lots of pork,
And cranked us all with lots of torque.
Arrows, rum and big fast cars
Why not add a trip to Mars?
We pay our debts with little thanks,
Now we're paying foreign banks!
We pay our debts and you don't care —
You make us pay — that's hardly fair!
The Golden State is next in line,
The bucks they want are yours and mine.
You think our money grows on trees?
You have us begging on our knees.
And now we see through mire and murk
That the plan won't even work.
Adam Smith says "Not, Not, Not!"
While Karl Marx just laughs a lot.
Could you, would you Messiah Man,
Go along with this bad plan?
Could you, would you, John McCain
Go along with all this pain?
It's sad your votes we can't ignore,
So what to do, November 4?

© Bryan Fischer

relatively relative

relativism is self-refuting:

1. All truth is relative
1. If all truth is relative, then the statement "All truth is relative" would be absolutely true. If it is absolutely true, then not all things are relative and the statement that "All truth is relative" is false.
2. There are no absolute truths
1. The statement "There are no absolute truths" is an absolute statement which is supposed to be true. Therefore it is an absolute truth and "There are no absolute truths" is false.
2. If there are no absolute truths, then you cannot believe anything absolutely at all, including that there are no absolute truths. Therefore, nothing could be really true for you - including relativism.

read the rest.

it's wabbit se... it's duck se... it's election season!

...and just in time for halloween.

read 'em all:

• locust
• impeachment
• torture
• groupthink
• monster

best quote:

And now these same people want to put a marxist in the White House and increase the power of Congress. Oh yes, that will help, thanks for that guys. Good Work Kids!, 7,000 years of western civilization completly undone in one generation and its all to be replaced with a governmental system that incorporates the social dynamism found in "Lord of the Flies" and fiscal soundness that's found in each and every PBS pledgebreak.

scariest quote:

"You're shocked that the market is going down? Really? I'm shocked that its holding up as well as it is. You understand when a politician says that he wants to 'spread the wealth' that what he is going to do is confiscate your wealth and give it to other people. You understand that, right? Confiscate...Your...Wealth! Your home, your property, your 401k, your bank accounts, your stocks and bonds, your health accounts - all are in the process of becoming the property of 'the state'. All of it. Thats what "spread the wealth" actually means, it means CONFISCATE and then "distribute along party lines'. This is no longer about this tax rate or that tax rate or what party has a better plan to grow the economy, its about the Government of the United States - all three branches of it - that is now actively and aggressively pursuing and acting on a plan to confiscate private wealth (your wealth) and punish those who create it (you).

When I look at the market, I can't help but think that the Democrats misunderstood the chant 'drill baby drill' from a rallying cry for more oil into a rallying cry for drilling the whole idea of markets into the ground. People keep asking 'when the housing market will come back?' but they dont seem to understand that there is no housing market anymore. There is no up, no down. No gain, no loss. With no up and down, no loss or gain, then what is it? That is not a market, that - is a morgue. That is just a small sample of what is happening to each and every market in the United States. And incredibly, this destruction is entirely by design. By destroying your faith in markets, that faith can be supplated by a newly-found faith in government. This is their plan, their design, and they will sell it you by promising to remove all uncertainty and volatility from the market (It's for your own good dontcha know!). What they dont say is that by removing all uncertainty then there is no 'market'. The market has now been replaced by the 'committee'. A committee that is chaired by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, The Media and Barack Obama.

You ever heard of Richard Matheson? He wrote some pretty good science fiction back in the day, lots of Twilight Zone Episodes and a whole host of short stories back in the 50's and 60's. He's most remembered for one short story that's been made into a movie about a half a dozen times. It's called "I AM LEGEND". It's the story of the last man on earth after a plague wipes out most of the population. What parts of the population the plague doesn't wipe out, becomes transformed into what can best be described as 'vampires'. Most people know that narrative of the story, but most every filmed version and most retelling of the story forget is the main point of the story. The point is this; When you live on a planet where humans are normal and vampires are the monsters, that's something we understand. What Matheson's story forces the reader to come to grips with is the opposite, that when you live on a world where the vampires are the normal, then you, as the last remaining human, have become the monster.

This is what we conservatives and libertarians have become. With the plague of 'fairness' now loose in the ecosystem of public ideas and discourse, we have become the monster. They are working to destroy our nest (the markets) and after that is destroyed, they will come for us."

stand up while you can

Spartacus 2008:

Remember, Obama came to (Joe the plumber's) house. Joe just asked Obama a question and for that, they took his job. The Press and the media hounded this man out of the life he made for himself and his son.

All he did was ask a question. He didn't insult him, throw a pie, call him names or any of the things that the Bush administration has to deal with every day for the past eight years, he just asked a question.

If they can do this to him before the election, what will they do to you afterwards? If they have no shame, if they have no "checks and balances" on their power, if the media (who normally report such an abuse of the electorate as an abuse) are the ones that are actually perpetrating the crime, what makes you think it will all go away after the election?

Stand with Joe. Stand up while you still can.

But be careful, instead of firing you, Obama's thugs may shoot your house or beat you up.

(update: the beating turned out to be a hoax. the litany of fraud, intimidation, and other assaults are as real as ever.)

to lefists, on divisiveness

I must refrain from specifics, but during my Austin trip I heard someone make the claim that the Republicans were being hateful and divisive.

I offer this evidence for your perusal:

Allegations of death threats to Obama at Palin rally were unfounded.

Leftists attacked buses carrying Republicans.

Sarah Palin's e-mail hacked by leftist.

Kos' leftist commentors rejoice at the cancer and death of Tony Snow.

BDS is an epidemic at my workplace.

The Democratic machine rigs elections by any means necessary.

Despite claims to the contrary, Obama, his wife, mother, father, mentor, former pastor, benefactor, teacher, and numerous supporters hate America and everything that makes America great.

And even were none of this true, the Democratic Party platform endorses socialist policies which would destroy America if implemented. Division will - by definition - occur between America's patriots and America's enemies.

suicide

After several years of declines, the US suicide rate has increased since the Democrats regained control of Congress.

Coincidence? Yes. Just reporting the facts as fairly as the MSM, when they associate bad news with Republicans and dissociate the same news from Democrats.

Colin Powell

What a racist.

(according to dnc policy, that's the only possible rationale to vote for or against someone, right?)

In Austin this weekend

Maker Faire

update: the fair itself was very cool. the hippie-freakshow vibe from some of the attendees, not so much. the slavish adherence to non-conformity, complete intolerance of the 'intolerant', etc., and more body piercings and weedwacker haircuts than i ever want to see again.

"how rigged is it?"

Triton Unleashed:

"Let's see...

We've got Mickey Mouse taking part in our oh-so-wonderful democratic process.

We've got senior citizens getting into scuffles because of improperly marked ballots.

We've got teenagers who have managed to turn voting into a part-time job.

And at the center of it all, we've got ACORN and you-know-who.

Conclusion: this election is so rigged it could pass as a clipper ship."

I hope the change changes

Viewpoint: we can't take much more of this kind of change.

George Bush has been in office for just under eight years. For the first of them the economy was pretty good. For example, a little over one year ago:

• Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high
• Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon
• The unemployment rate was 4.5%
• The DOW hit a record 14,000+
• Americans were buying new cars, taking cruises, overseas vacations overseas, etc.

But we wanted change. So, in 2006 we voted in a Democratic Congress. Since then:

• Consumer confidence has plummeted
• Gasoline rose to over $4 a gallon
• Unemployment rose to 6.1% (a 10% increase)
• Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 trillion dollars and prices are still dropping
• 1% of American homes are in foreclosure
• The DOW is below 8500. $2.5 trillion dollasrs has evaporated from stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investment portfolios

The president has no control over any of this. Only Congress could have done anything to prevent it but Congress has been preoccupied with trying to find Bush administration officials that they can put in jail.

In 2006 America voted for change and we got it.

Now Barack Obama promises that he is going to deliver real change.

Just how much more change can we stand?

And speaking of hockey-stick graphs, it looks like we should be battling global socialism rather than global warming.

to voters, on obama

update 2: also read this extensive list of quotes.

Molten Thought has many links to stories proving that neither B. Hussein Obama nor Joe Biden should be president:

ACORN is committing voter fraud on their behalf, and uses taxpayer funds to do so.

Obama's memoirs were written by a known terrorist, and he has many ties to communist organizations.

Obama's henchmen deny freedom of speech to dissenters, and suppress evidence of his corruption.

update 1: The Jawa Report ties the loose ends together.

One interaction with one old communist isn't particularly troubling. A handful of sporadic interactions with a handful of radical left-wingers may not be particularly troubling. But a lifelong pattern of extended associations and alliances with scores of fringe, America-hating radicals is very, very troubling indeed. Just to be clear:

• It's not just that Barack Obama's father was a Marxist economist or that his mother Stanley came from radical far-left roots.
• It's not just that Obama's childhood mentor Frank Marshall Davis was a famous communist poet.
• It's not just that Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor, counselor and spiritual mentor of 20 years is a racist, America-hating radical.
• It's not just that Michael Phleger, Obama's other spiritual mentor is every bit as extreme as Wright.
• It's not just that his wife Michelle has never been really that proud of America, or that she thinks this country is "mean".
• It's not just that Obama refused to wear a flag, or that he refused to salute it during the national anthem.
• It's not just that Obama's political and financial benefactor William Ayers is an unrepentant radical socialist terrorist.
• It's not just that Bernadine Dohrn regrets that she didn't kill more people back in the 1960s.
• It's not just that Alice Palmer, Obama's political mentor in Chicago, was a communist propagandist.
• It's not just that Obama was a member of the radical socialist New Party or that he ran as a candidate for public office under their far-left platform.
• It's not just that Obama was an agitator, trainer and attorney for the corrupt and radical-left ACORN.

None of these facts, by itself, tells you that much about Barack Obama. A reasonable person should, however, be able to look at this motley crew of left-wing communists and America-haters, realize that Barack Obama's rolodex is a veritable Who's Who of American Socialism, be very, very disturbed by that fact and ask some very probing questions about WHO Barack Obama is, WHAT he believes, and WHY this gang of radical America-haters considers Barack Obama such a good friend.

forget globalization

interstellar interest rates are funnier.

BDS -> PDS

If you thought '68 was bad, look (if you dare) at this disgusting lineup of hate from the '08 "peaceloving" party.

Hasta la vista, Vista

Via Computer World:

Microsoft has extended the availability of Windows XP on new PCs by six months, the company confirmed today.

Computer makers that "downgrade" machines from Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate to Windows XP Professional will be able to obtain media for the latter through the end of July 2009, a Microsoft spokeswoman said Friday.

The new date is a change in policy. Previously, Microsoft had planned to halt XP Professional media shipments to major computer makers after Jan. 31, 2009...

It's also possible that XP will be widely available long after July 31, 2009. "Downgrade rights do not expire," Microsoft's spokeswoman said Friday.

The longer availability puts Microsoft in an unusual position; the new time line will make it possible for users to purchase XP-powered PCs through next July, just months before Microsoft plans to roll out Windows 7, the successor to Vista.

The best part is this quote, which lies somewhere between doubleplus ungood and the memory hole:

"As more customers make the move to Windows Vista, we want to make sure that they are making that transition with confidence and that it is as smooth as possible. Providing downgrade media for a few more months is part of that commitment."

Which would be like saying something along these lines 40 years ago: "As more komrades are movink to glorious East Berlin, das Party are vantink to make schure they are make transition smoothski. Allowink them remain in korrupt West Berlin for few more months ist part of das kommitment."

;)

Tonight's "News"

Years ago, a telemarketer offered me a "free prize", which only cost $14.95 shipping. Before declining the offer, I repeated back her statements in hope that she would notice the logical disconnect. The conversation proceeded something like this:

"So this thing is free?"
"Yes sir."
"But it costs $14.95."
"Yes sir."
"I thought you said it was free?"
"It is sir."
"How can it be free if I have to pay $14.95 to get it?"
"It's free but you do have to pay to receive it."
etc... for a few minutes (I was bored that day)

Polite, yes. Sensible, not so much.


Tonight's local news gave me that same sense of disbelief, when these two back-to-back stories were presented without any apparent sense of irony:

• Troopergate report says that Sarah Palin abused power as governor.
• Biden says that Republican ads linking B. Hussein Obama with terrorist William Ayers are unfair.

?!?!?

Also, as part of their fair and balanced reporting, these political headlines were somehow missing:

• Ohio Democratic Secretary of State violated federal election laws.
• Voter fraud favoring B. Hussein Obama runs rampant.
• Democrat Barney Frank's "partner" was Fannie Mae executive.
• Joe Biden lied 14 times during the vice-presidential debate.
• There is strong evidence that Democrats have engineered crisis after crisis in order to regain power.
  

I'm shocked - shocked! - that those headlines were omitted...

"The only thing we have to fear is...

535 amateur economists with unrestricted power to fiddle around with our economy."

An American Carol

review update: Unless a) you are easily offended by David Zucker's "Airplane"-&-"Police Squad"-type humor, or b) a card-carrying leftist, go see An American Carol*.

It's above-average for the spoof movie genre, with plenty of slapstick, lowbrow puns, and lots of (often deserved) stereotyping. There were a very few jokes that fell flat**, and it used the "A _____ Carol" premise that was probably cliche when Dickens wrote it. But it's definitely worth seeing for its pro-American stance, and even a few really touching moments.

During one slight break in the action, it occurred to me that this movie succeeded in a way that Frasier (another Kelsey Grammer role) succeeded - by catering to both high-brow and low-brow tastes simultaneously. While everybody was laughing at the parody of Moor.. er, Malone's gluttony, lechery, etc., the observant were rewarded with lots of inside jokes and subtle digs. For instance, and almost in passing, when the know-it-all windbag Malone tried to insult the spirit of JFK by saying "For a minute there you sounded like Ronald Reagan", JFK responded "Thanks".

On a scale of one to ten, it's really good. Go see it. If you've already seen it, see it again.

* and/or buy it when it comes out on DVD - there's lots of extras to catch going on in the background.

** including the one after the credits, which I reeeeeeally wish I hadn't stayed for.

p.s. I don't really like country music either, but that's okay here ;)

p.p.s. That was just the first part of a good day.

----------------------

original post: This looks promising:

"The American spirit is celebrated in the outrageous and totally irreverent comedy An American Carol from David Zucker, the master of movie satire... (In the movie, a cynical anti-American) filmmaker sets out on a crusade to abolish the 4th of July holiday. He is visited by three spirits who take him on a hilarious journey in an attempt to show him the true meaning of America."

...if it's not a double-whammy.

Opens this weekend - Oct 3rd.

buried by other news 2

snow on mars

debate-able

Steyn: Palin - change you can believe in; Biden - not so much:

A lot of the grandees in the post-debate analysis reviewed the lyrics and missed the music. Whereas, I would wager, a big chunk of uncommitted voters out in TV land listened to Governor Palin, and liked the tune they were hearing. If you’re one of those coastal feminists who despise Alaska’s sweetheart as a chillbilly breeder whose knowledge of foreign policy is as full of holes as the last moose to make the mistake of strolling past her deck, Thursday night’s folksy performance isn’t going to change your view. But, if your contempt for her wasn’t already chiseled in granite, she came over as genuine, confident, and different...

I hadn’t seen her for awhile, not since the halfwits at the McCain campaign walled her up in the witness protection program and permitted visitations only by selected poobahs of the Metamucil networks...

If I’d been in charge of “coaching” Governor Palin, I’d take her out back, and set up the various Obama policy platforms as cardboard elk, lurking in the protective undergrowth of the mainstream media but still eminently hittable to a crack shot...

Senator Biden was glib and fluent and in command of the facts — if by “in command of the facts” you mean “talks complete blithering balderdash and hogwash.” He flatly declared that Obama never said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions. But, on Debate Night, the official Obama website was still boasting that he would meet Ahmadinejad “without preconditions”. He said America spends more in a month in Iraq than it’s spent in seven years in Afghanistan. Er, America has spent over $700 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. It’s spending about $10 billion a month in Iraq. But no matter...

Sarah, at her best, sounded like the citizen-politician this country’s Founders intended. She hasn’t voted 397 times against this or that in the U.S. Senate, because she’s been running a state, and a town, and a commercial fishing operation. She’s a doer, not a talker, which is why so many of my fellow professional talkers disdain her. When Regular Joe Six-Pack Bluecollar Biden tried to match her on the Main Street cred, it rang slightly wacky...

In a conventional presidential environment, Bidenesque fake authenticity would be enough. Up against Sarah Palin’s authentic authenticity, I’m not so sure. All I know is that the McCain campaign should have her out on the road and doing every interview she can over this final month.

that sure worked out

i guess congress just didn't throw enough money at the problem :P

flying cars?

feh!:

I'm tired of people trotting out the cliched quip of "Where's my flying car?" whenever they talk about the future not living up to expectations. And I got to say, what's the big deal about flying cars? The future is certainly living up to my expectations without them. I carry over 7k songs around in my pocket in something smaller than a pack of cigarettes - that's every CD I've bought since 1985. I talk for free every other day to my buddy George Mann in the UK, on a "videophone" called Skype, and I read all my news off the same screen, and the pictures next to the columns of words all move. If I want to know the complete lyrics to a song that's rattling around in my head and I can only remember three or four words, I can call it up within 30 seconds on something called "Google"..., and just about anything else I need to know too. And I never get lost because my car, which admittedly doesn't fly, plots out all my guidance routes and then tells me where to go. It also tells me when it needs service and when the air pressure in my tires gets low. My television records things it thinks I might like without being asked, and it forwards them to my laptop. There's an International Space Station over my head right now. Meanwhile, when they aren't trying to sell me my next communicator, there are hard-&-software billionaires falling over themselves to commericialize space tourism.

buried by other news

Sept 28 2008: Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.

to atheists, on allegations of Biblical contradictions

I wish this article had been around during an earlier discussion:

Many people have the impression that the Bible is simply an outdated book of fairytales and contradictions. We are told that biblical stories are fine for children, and perhaps they even contain some moral value. “But, surely” says the critic, “such stories cannot be taken seriously in our modern age of science and technology.”

After all, the Bible speaks of floating ax-heads, the sun apparently going backwards, a universe created in six days, an earth that has pillars and corners, people walking on water, light before the sun, a talking snake, a talking donkey, dragons, and a senior citizen taking two of every animal on a big boat! On the surface, these things may seem absurd, particularly to those unfamiliar with the Christian worldview. But to make matters even worse, it is alleged that the Bible contains contradictions. That is, the Bible seems to say one thing in one place, and then the opposite in another. Which are we to believe? Obviously, two contradictory statements cannot both be true...


(many good points follow, then a great one i hadn't heard before)


Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this claim (of Biblical contradictions) is that it actually backfires on the critic. The reason is this: only if the Bible is true, would contradictions be unacceptable! Most people simply assume the law of non-contradiction; they take it for granted that a contradiction cannot be true. But have you ever stopped to think about why a contradiction cannot be true?

According to the Bible, all truth is in God (Colossians 2:3; Proverbs 1:7), and God cannot deny (go against) Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). So, it makes sense that truth cannot go against itself. Since the sovereign, eternal God is constantly upholding the entire universe by His power (Hebrews 1:3), the Christian expects that no contradiction could possibly happen anywhere in the universe at any time. The universal, unchanging law of non-contradiction stems from God’s self-consistent nature.

But, apart from the Bible, how could we know that contradictions are always false? We could only say that they have been false in our experience. But our experiences are very limited, and no one has experienced the future. So, if someone claimed that he or she has finally discovered a true contradiction, the non-Christian has no basis for dismissing such a claim. Only in a biblical worldview can we know that contradictions are always false; only the Christian has a basis for the law of non-contradiction.

The Bible tells us that all knowledge comes from God (Colossians 2:3), and when we reject biblical principles, we are reduced to foolishness (Proverbs 1:7). We see this demonstrated in the critic who tries to use God’s laws of logic to disprove the Bible. Such an attempt can only fail. The law of non-contradiction is a biblical principle. Therefore, whenever anyone uses that law as a basis for what is possible, they are tacitly assuming that the Bible is true. The critic of the Bible must use biblical principles in order to argue against the Bible. In order for his argument to be meaningful, it would have to be wrong.

on the black monday

final update count: 23

1) Fox News Commentary, ~2:45pm Monday:

"It seems to me that the markets are taking the worst dives when the politicians are talking, then they recover when the politicians shut up."

2) via Dustbury:

"Rather than use the $700 billion (or whatever...) to bail out failing banks, why not take that money and pay off the mortgages of every single American who makes under $1 million a year?

THAT would stimulate your economy, right there. If my mortgage were paid off, we would immediately start building a big carriage house/garage with an apartment above it. I’d also buy a Wii."

3) via Vodkapundit:

Free markets didn’t get us into this mess, and so it seems unlikely that they’d react quickly enough to get us out of it. Especially given the political climate of the last, oh, century. Washington and markets have been in bed together since at least the time of Teddy Roosevelt. And the offspring have turned out even uglier than predicted.

4) Thaddeus (McCotter?) on Fox News, ~3:45 Monday:

"There are two things that can happen when artificial deadlines are set on legislation during a crisis: either bad laws are proposed which do not become law, or bad laws are proposed which do become law."

5) Belmont Club: read it all.

6) Varifrank 1, John Galt Lives!:

Shocking Poli-sci students the around the world -- American taxpayers refuse to continue fund banks that give out bad loans!

(First question of the day) - Why Nancy Can't Count?

Second question of the day - "Hey, if this is such bad news, why do I feel so good"

7) Varifrank 2, Saturday worries:

Tonight I found myself thinking that the fate of 8 billion people around the world rests in the hands of 100 people in the Senate and 440 in the House and there probably isnt 10 of them that any of us would not find ourselves not immediately repulsed from and in dire need of a shower afterwards, if we simply shook their hands.

Worse, its in these law school rejects, half-wit pseudointellectuals and failed businessmen which comprise the whole of the body of the federal legislature, each of whom hates the other more than the man next to them; that the world is hoping that they will all work together to create a solution...

I honestly have more anxiety tonight than I have had at any point since September 11th 2001. I have to sit here quietly and hope that congress essentially nationalizes the banking industry, this is supposed to be the upside. This is supposed to be the good news. The alternative is we go into another depression. Gee, thats some sort of choice we got there, slow death by strangulation or all at once with poison...

And it all happened because someone said that it should be as easy to buy a house as it was to rent an apartment and then set about passing legislation to see that the entire banking system of the world could be made worthless because people with no basic economic common sense or credit rating were given more money than they even begin to handle. Then they passed legislation to make sure that no one was penalized for foreclosure or bankruptcy. Did they do it on purpose? Did they set about to wreck the joint when they went down this route? Or was it all just an accident?

8) This WSJ article could inspire me make a movie "Bonnie, Clyde, Fannie, & Mae".

9) One week later shows that the veto-wielding Bush didn't show up (and didn't have to).

10) Oliver Kamm:

I'm not going to defend the bankers and I certainly favour strong regulation. Moreover, Sarkozy's remarks are patently more sensible than those of - to take a random example - a Holocaust-denying millenarian with a doctorate in traffic management. But they are still platitudes. The financial crisis is not due to an absence of regulation - it derives rather from bad economic policy allied to bad regulation...

In short, we are not seeing the crumbling of capitalism. We've seen scandalous behaviour by some bankers, who packaged good assets up with dubious ones and sold them on to investors who didn't understand those risks. We've seen incompetence by ratings agencies that misvalued those financial instruments. And we've seen an inherent problem of what economists call asymmetric information within financial markets. But the most fundamental weaknesses have been in policy - in economic management and in regulation. There is no painless route out of the mess we're in; but the mess is not intrinsic to the Western financial system and could have been avoided. Policymakers will learn from the experience.

That may sound a feeble conclusion, but the lesson will be important in future financial crises. Recall that the 1987 stock market crash did not lead to recession, let alone anything comparable to the Great Depression, because central bankers - unlike their counterparts after the 1929 crash - flooded the financial system with liquidity. Financial capitalism - more accurately, the system of voluntary exchange - is a resilient arrangement because its practitioners and regulators learn from past mistakes. The same will be true of this crisis, bad though it is, and bad as it will get.

11) Anchoress on Pelosi's re-barks:

First off - all the headlines are blaming the House Republicans for killing the bill - that is wholly predictable of the press - but it was The Pelosi’s own Democrats who backed away from the bill and kept it from passing. The Democrats could have done this on their own, and did not. If the bailout bill was everything good they said it was - and it was apparently good enough for the fearless leader Obama to claim all the credit for it - then Pelosi-the-Vicious should have had her usual lockstep results from her crew; she did not have that.

Increasingly Vicious Pelosi reminds me of the chihuahua that used to sit on my neighbor’s porch and snarl at everyone in her rhinestone collar. We children used to wonder what it would be like to just walk up to that creature and boot her in the *** - to send her sailing across the road. But none of us had the nerve, or the stomach, to kick a dog.

The woman is incompetent, petty and unworthy of her high office. She should be made to step down.

12) IBD summary: read it all.

13) What hath the fear industry wrought?

There isn't any recession. The latest figures show that we clearly were not in one as of midsummer, whether you use the rule-of-thumb definition - two consecutive quarters of GDP shrinkage - or the looser concept of a sustained and significant economic decline.

The economy shrank marginally (-0.2%) in the fourth quarter of 2007, but otherwise it's been growing steadily for years. In the most recent quarter it grew at a vigorous 3.3%... The OECD has just raised its forecast of U.S. growth for the full year from 1.2% to 1.8%... the fastest growth of all the G-7 countries.

So if we're not in a recession, why does everyone think we're in one? Partly it's because in a global economy, it's possible to produce economic growth that many people don't feel...

A more profound reason that people believe we are in a recession can't be found in the GDP tables at all. It's in their minds, what psychologist and author Judith M. Bardwick calls the psychological recession - "an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures."

The No. 1 cause, she says, is not falling incomes - most people's incomes aren't falling - but rather people's worry about job security, "the mother lode of anxiety poisoning their view of reality." Even if they keep their jobs, they know that benefits may well be cut. Then add the lack of confidence in financial institutions and market swoons that have eaten into investors' portfolios.

What's so insidious about it, she says, is that "as people try to gain some sense of having control through knowledge, they increase their fears and sense of vulnerability by seeking out and therefore exaggerating the bad news. In this way the psychological recession is self-fulfilling."

So the feeling of vulnerability trumps the statistics. After all, not only is the economy growing, but the unemployment rate, now 6.1%, is still not high by historical standards (after the 1990--91 recession it hit 7.8%, and after the 1982 recession it hit 10.8%). Yet it doesn't matter... If I'm afraid that my sky may be falling, then the sky itself is falling.

(read this related scrappleface article)

14) Random thought:

(inner pessimist) My company's stock has lost a third of its value.

(inner optimist) My company's stock is having a 33%-off sale. Better buy some now!

15) Sabotage, a la october surprise?

Is it too hard to believe that (washington democrats) would stoop to sabotaging the market to win the election? Its revolting, but the more I think about it, the more evidence I see. And trust me, its not something I want to see. I've spent the afternoon trying to figure out why Nancy Pelosi acted the way she did with this vote... sometimes the best way to kill a bill is to make it so distasteful that even its supporters wont vote for it... You can flap your arms and say you tried real hard, but what the President said he wanted to do is going down in flames. It's going down in flames not because it isn't actually necessary but because some people want to see Bush lose...

Since 2006, Democrat leadership in the legislature have demonstrably:

1. Tried sabotage the American Military so that it would be seen to lose in Iraq.

2. Deny Americans access to their own oil.

3. Destroy the American Financial System. They spent three months telling us we were dead certain in a recession earlier this year. We weren't. What they seem to have learned is that they needed to go
further in the effort to scare... you.

4. Do we all remember Senator Chuck Schumer and his role the Indymac bank failure? I'm wondering how many bank failures have started because of "whispering campaigns". How many banks were shorted because of an engineered effort to cause the bank to crash?

To what benefit? None of this to benefits America or the American People. Its not as part of an idealogical dispute, but purely to benefit the Democrats.

I cannot get past the idea that the Democrats have engineered this whole scene...

16) The Gingrich Plan?

Gingrich did have a suggestion on Fox tonight that would almost instantly free up the markets before these beasts consider another bill: the Secretary of the Treasury can experiment with relaxing the spectacularly stupid Mark to Market accounting scheme. Gingrich thinks he should do it tomorrow morning, because it would work and because Congress could not do a damn thing about it. Gingrich issued this challenge to Paulson and Cox: just try it for two weeks. If it works--if it frees up the world's credit as most people believe it will--then keep it in place. If the markets continue to tank, then you can always reinstate the (arcane and divorced from reality) rules.

But if the markets do heat up, the Republicans are in a much stronger position to demand what they want in any bailout bill--and the Dems would really be walking the plank to do something stupid without them.

17) Vodkapundit:

It’s one of those strange paradoxes of the modern economy. When things go (down), everybody flocks to the dollar — even when the (problem) began right here in the US... Why? Because despite all our problems, we still have the freest, most dynamic economy in our weight class — which means we might be the first to get into trouble, but we’ll go in less deep and stay in for a shorter time.

18) Cry fraud and let loose the hounds of investigation.

19) Observation: Yesterday's slide - up to the second coverage. Today's rebound - not so much.

20) Another good one from Scrappleface.

21) Following the first post - Monday's Fox News Commentary:

"It seems to me that the markets are taking the worst dives when the politicians are talking, then they recover when the politicians shut up."

Congress on holiday = major rebound. Someone should tell Pelosi et.al. to "talk to the hand".

22) ex AIG head turns down $22M severance package. That's nice.

23) because dipsticks vote. lemmings too.