Theft by Government

a must-read

book meme

i'm not big on memes, but i don't have anything else to post at the moment. via jungle hut

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (for school)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (started, haven't finished)
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (for school)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (first three)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (for school)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (for school)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (for school)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Odd list. "Lolita" and "Bridget Jones’s Diary" made it, but not "Tom Sawyer" or "The Fountainhead"? And phphphffft to "The Da Vinci Crock"...

Living Free, pt. 2

The Tenth Amendment - It's not just for New Hampshire. At least 8, or as many as 22 states are starting to resist Obama's power grab.

what if they gave a tea party

...and everybody came? i hope to attend my local one, and behave in a manner worthy of the original.

bumped: here's a list of other gatherings

now that's saying something

Even Reuters is stunned how "Obama brings back era of big government":

"This is nothing short of a sober, honest assessment of where our country stands and a tough, realistic plan to get our budget in line with our priorities," said Senator John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 candidate for president.

Another quote was somehow missing from the story:

"Sober?!? Honest?!? REALISTIC?!?!? HA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HAHA HA HA HA HA!!!!!" said every sane person within earshot.

Powerline responds

Obama expects a deficit for the current year of $1.75 trillion. By way of context, that is around three times the largest deficit the country has ever experienced with a Republican Congress. Obama says it is a budget that reflects "hard choices," but of course that is silly. The administration has made no hard choices at all; it has simply opened the floodgates and spent money in nearly every possible way, to the tune of $3.7 trillion, an amount that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

sowing, reaping, chickens roosting...

via dustbury:

For the children of the Baby Boomers, there is a special delight in watching the world economy shake itself to pieces like a two-dollar pram at this particular moment. Our elders, who bought prosperity and nice pensions at our expense and pulled the ripcords on their "Freedom 55" parachutes without leaving any behind in the passenger cabin, are getting it in the neck just when they thought a secure old age, with money for travel and expensive pastimes, was a safe bet. I'm willing to watch my meagre savings suffer from market turmoil in exchange for contemplating the dilemma of those who are now between 55 and 65.

These are people who started their working lives at a time when labour unions were strong, taxpayers outnumbered retirees nearly 10 to one, housing was as cheap as borscht and the basic personal exemption covered most of a living wage. They congratulated themselves on building an elaborate "social safety net" at the expense of their children. Their great numbers have allowed their preferences and superstitions to dominate culture and media. They're the ones who burned through tonnes of pot and then launched a War on Drugs when they grew bored with it; they drove mighty-bowelled (Camaros and BelAires) in their youth, and only started worrying about the environment when they no longer needed a capacious backseat to fornicate in; they espoused and took full advantage of sexual liberation, but were safely hors de combat by the time AIDS reared its head. The first time I see one shopping for dog food, I doubt I'll be able to suppress a laugh.

As for the younger crowd, it is a quite distinct pleasure to watch their panic and uncertainty. The actually existing danger is not too great, but no one born after about 1980 has much practical experience of severe recession, any more than a 40-year-old knows what a depression looks like. The worst economic event within the memory of the '80s-born will have been the popping of the tech bubble -- a trivial speed bump compared to the conditions of stagflation and wretchedness that became accepted as the norm in the '70s. There is a certain cohort there whose defining traumas are personal, not economic; they're children of the age of divorce and the double-income household. If you're my age, you might know what it was like to go to school in worn-out, humiliatingly generic shoes. If you were born just a bit later you probably had new Nikes every six months -- but you also may have only seen your father every six months.

I don't wish these younger people ill, and I don't believe that the suffering which lies ahead for some of them is character-building. From what I've seen of folks who remember the Depression -- lest they be left out of this salvo of rude intergenerational abuse -- privation mostly breeds bitterness and fear. But the lesson that economic growth is a contingent accomplishment is one that every generation must learn. Why are young people so vulnerable to preposterous political ideas? Why is it the young, most egregiously, who romanticize poverty, cultural backwardness and unspoiled nature?

It's because they regard sound money, good jobs and the benefits of the consumer society as unstated axioms; they have no sense that these things must be perpetually fought for, and can be lost in the blink of an eye. Well, they'll know now. And the knowledge will serve them.

The bad part of this "turmoil" is that many honorable people, both inside and outside the boomer demographic, will suffer in the whirlwind sown by others.

in response to obama's speech,

atlas keeps shrugging

update: do you notice any patterns?

Live Free Or Die

New Hampshire: leading by example. Let us pray that the second option named in their motto does not become necessary.

HCR 6 – AS INTRODUCED

2009 SESSION

09-0274

09/01

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 6

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

SPONSORS: Rep. Itse, Rock 9; Rep. Ingbretson, Graf 5; Rep. Comerford, Rock 9; Sen. Denley, Dist 3

COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs

ANALYSIS

This house concurrent resolution affirms States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

09-0274

09/01

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled; and

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 2, Article 1 declares that the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province of New Hampshire, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other, to form themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body-politic, or State, by the name of The State of New Hampshire; and

Whereas the State of New Hampshire when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, “First That it be Explicitly declared that all Powers not expressly & particularly Delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several States to be, by them Exercised;” and

Whereas the other States that included recommendations, to wit Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia, included an identical or similar recommended change; and

Whereas these recommended changes were incorporated as the ninth amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and the tenth amendment, the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people, to the Constitution for the United States of America; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, -- delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress; and

That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” therefore all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory; and

That it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people;” and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated, rather than the use be destroyed. And thus also they guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same. And that in addition to this general principle and express declaration, another and more special provision has been made by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press:” thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch, that whatever violated either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others, and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals. That, therefore, all acts of Congress of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force; and

That the construction applied by the General Government (as is evidenced by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress a power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” and “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof,” goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution: that words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument: that the proceedings of the General Government under color of these articles, will be a fit and necessary subject of revisal and correction; and

That a committee of conference and correspondence be appointed, which shall have as its charge to communicate the preceding resolutions to the Legislatures of the several States; to assure them that this State continues in the same esteem of their friendship and union which it has manifested from that moment at which a common danger first suggested a common union: that it considers union, for specified national purposes, and particularly to those specified in their federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and prosperity of all the States: that faithful to that compact, according to the plain intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation: that it does also believe, that to take from the States all the powers of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these States; and that therefore this State is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated, and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth: that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the General Government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non foederis), to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this State, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States, has wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it, Congress being not a party, but merely the creature of the compact, and subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom, and for whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified: that if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them: that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism -- free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go. In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this State does therefore call on its co-States for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment unaltered to limited government, whether general or particular. And that the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they will concur with this State in considering acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration that that compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these States, of all powers whatsoever: that they will view this as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the General Government, with a power assumed to bind the States, not merely as the cases made federal, (casus foederis,) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent: that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and of no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing that neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised within their respective territories; and

That the said committee be authorized to communicate by writing or personal conferences, at any times or places whatever, with any person or person who may be appointed by any one or more co-States to correspond or confer with them; and that they lay their proceedings before the next session of the General Court; and

That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually. Any future government of the United States of America shall require ratification of three quarters of the States seeking to form a government of the United States of America and shall not be binding upon any State not seeking to form such a government; and

That copies of this resolution be transmitted by the house clerk to the President of the United States, each member of the United States Congress, and the presiding officers of each State’s legislature.

(bolds original, italics mine)

p.s. Implied in Section 2 of the Texas Constitution, "Don't Mess With Texas" applies to more than just litter.

All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.

p.p.s. speaking of delegating powers to foreigners...

p.p.p.s. and abuse of delegated powers...

mortgage crisis

inherited = helped create

MBVD

I like these quotes in this site's headlines, for "foreign and domestic policy":

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property‹either as a child, a wife, or a concubine‹must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science‹the science against which it had vainly struggled‹the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome." ~~ Sir Winston Churchill

and

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves. ~~ Abraham Lincoln

Dire Warning

update: Welcome readers from Local Malcontent, Jungle Hut, Jawa Report, and Director Blue!

---

A case of the pot telling the kettle to be careful...

"Obama warns mayors not to waste stimulus money"

Here's my attempt at a scrapplefacing of the linked article:

WASHINGTON – Invoking his own shameful name, President Hussein warned the nation's mayors on Friday that he will "call them out" if they waste the money from his pork-bloated stimulus plan as much as he has.

"Big Brother is watching," Hussein told a gathering of mayors at the Formerly Caucasian House. "They need this pork to work. They know they will see the money that they've stolen from honest workers flushed down a socialist sinkhole of government waste, bureaucratic inefficiency, and Democratic fraud."

In the days since the Formerly Caucasian House and the Anti-progress came to terms on the $787 billion economic package, the political focus has shifted to pretending that it will work. Hussein has staked his reputation not just on the promise of 500 million jobs created, but also on a pledge to never let the public see where the money actually went.

His budget shaman this week released a 25,000-word document that hides completely how Hussein's Credenza, quangos, crooks and local mafiosos will squander spending. It is a system meant to obfuscate reports so they can safely be displayed on the administration's new propaganda site, poverty-is-recovery.gov.

Using his imperial pulpit, Hussein demanded servility, from his cronies in local government as well as his own secret police. He said the new legislation gives him unlimited power to "waste the taxpayers' money with more capriciousness and impunity than ever," and that he will use them.

"If a federal agency proposes a project that will waste that money, I will not hesitate to endorse it, and crush any opposition to it," he said. "I want everyone here to be on notice that if a local government does the same, I will crush those enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women!!!"

Okseekleen Mayor Danny Maize, who leads the U.S. Conclave of Mayors, said he welcomed Hussein's warning. Sweating profusely on the Formerly Caucasian House driveway, Maize said "We have plenty of constituents who will be weeping long before the president's reign of terror ends".

Mayors of both parties said they appreciated the subpoena to meet with Hussein, Vice President Time Bidin, and a handful of Credenza minions. They cautioned, though, not to speak, or even think, wrong thoughts against President Hussein. When the President arrived at their meeting, the mayors greeted him in unison, saying "It's a good stimulus, Barry. That was some tasty pork that you made there."

The economic plan will inject a sudden boost of cash into unnecessary bridges, reeducation camps, utopian pipe-dreams, and suicide-assistance programs. Beyond new spending, it aims to depress taxpayers through a package of bloodletting, extended unemployment, and euthanasia. The cost will be added to a growing budget deficit, as usual.

Hussein said "Our glorious leaders have been making a victorious advance under the banner of Hussein. Thanks to the Stalin-based politics pursued by our Party, the revolutionary Democratic forces have been incomparably strengthened, the defence line of the homeland consolidated and a great change effected in the revolution and construction. By dint of Party politics we have smashed the anti-PORK, anti-socialist machinations of the old republic step by step, defended the country and the revolution and exalted the dignity and prestige of socialist Amerika in the eyes of the world."

The president did not specify how he would call out one of his own agencies or a local government about efficiency or usefulness, but tar and feather stocks jumped 2619% on speculation immediately after the announcement.

where are they now,

those who howled against the privacy invasion of the patriot act?

a frank discussion about race

the other reason that "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race" is that some of us know that:

1. all men are created equal,
2. race should no longer be an issue to anyone, and
3. the only people who keep "playing the race card" are racists trying to score political points.

i have a dream that someday the word "race" will be as obsolete as "nihilarian" and "snollygoster".

p.s. and "reparations"

bust the trust

monopolies, including those in health care, are bad for everyone

history repe.. history repe.. history repe..

yoda via eratosthenes: "Told you I did. Reckless is he. Now, matters are worse."

Things went bad under Hoover, then FDR took over and made them much worse, while blaming things on his predecessor…

Things went bad under Nixon/Ford, then Carter took over and made them much worse, while blaming things on his predecessor…

Things went bad under George W. Bush, then Obama took over. He’s blaming anything & everything bad, on FaPoBuAd, the Failed Policies of the Bush Administration.

The collection of outspoken folks who think things are about to get better — or will simply stay the same, not getting any worse — is limited to paid spokesmen, punch-drunk newspaper editors, democrat-party hucksters, drunks and druggies who haven’t woken up from January 20 just yet, and nameless-faceless speechwriters. Everyone else is in agreement with Yoda…including history herself.

Not always so difficult to see, the future is.

Things got bad under Hindenburg, too...

new link

dustbury linked to a post at director blue, and reading that and other posts there inspired me to add the site to my blogroll.

holes
obamanopoly
scary trek
foreign history
domestic history

and many more

she should'a been president

oops... i meant vice-president... right...

"The governor recognizes that some form of economic stimulus is necessary, but not the bill that passed the Congress Friday. She has advocated for a package that includes federal spending for infrastructure, tax breaks for individuals and small businesses, and measures to address the housing situation. The governor believes the current legislation is too large and is not sufficiently focused on these objectives.

While the congressional majority rejected their efforts, Gov. Palin appreciates Murkowski’s and Young’s attempt to jump-start the American economy without saddling states with operating budget expenditures that can’t be sustained or increasing the national debt to an alarming degree."

totally unimportant

my criteria for a good nascar race, including today's daytona 500, are:

1) everybody in attendance is safe and uninjured,

2) ford wins,

3) hendrick drivers, primarily jeff gordon, do not win.

i care more about point one and less about the other two every year...

sick again

not strep this time, nausea and headaches

:P$$$

overheard from the future

"...and that, kids, is how earth got its ring."

dateline palo alto

iowahawk: scientists discover world's largest number

An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integer that surpasses any previously known value "by a totally mindblowing ****load." Project director Yujin Xiao of Stanford University said the theoretical number, dubbed a "stimulus," could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and Chicago asphalt contracting.

"Unlike previous large numbers like the Googleplex or the Bazillionty, the Stimulus has no static numerical definition," said Xiao. "It keeps growing and growing, compounding factorially, eating up all zeros in its path. It moves freely across Cartesian dimensions and has the power to make any other number irrational."

Jean-Luc Brossard, a researcher with the European consortium CERN, said the number is so staggeringly large that it is difficult for even mathematicians to grasp, let alone lay people.

"The number itself is incomprehensible by human minds, and can only be theoretically understood in a fractional parallel universe which we refer to as the DC dimension," said Brossard. "The best way to understand a stimulus is to imagine a dollar sign followed by a packed string of hexidecimal nanodigits, wound into a triple helix, woven into a dodecahedron, and stacked on top of one another...

"The exciting news is that with more powerful computers and drugs, we believe we are on the verge of discovering an even larger number, which we refer to as a 'stimulusconferencebill,'" said Xiao. "Speaker Pelosi has already promised us the funding."

here are a couple more of iowahawk's hilarious but profane posts.

teh pledj!

teh idiossey!

teh hobos!

back from the memory hole

who was it that caused this financial crisis?

lolbama

stimyaluss: ur doin it rong

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update 1: when i wrote this, i had no knowledge of the imao series of the same name.

update 2: a related quote via house of eratosthenes: "There are two kinds of people in the electorate: 1. People who remember how horrible the Jimmy Carter years were. 2. People who are about to find out."

war is peace, freedom is slavery,...

neglect is care.

...it's a real orwell-shrugged world these days :P

the beards are back in town

or, i was bearded* when bearded wasn't cool.

* and/or lazy 8^)>

go read

updated:

three
from
varifrank,

two from
viewpoint,

and one via jawa report

news summary

in one sentence

baconbaconbaconbacon I SMELL BACON!!

two summaries of obama's "lipsticked pig":

The stimulus bill was a bridge too far, an overplayed hand, ten pounds of manure in a five-pound bag. The legislation’s primary duty was never to stimulate the economy, but to stimulate the growth of government, the scope of the state.

By spending hundreds of billions on things that have absolutely nothing to do with providing an immediate stimulus for the economy, Democrats hoped to make a down payment on their dream government. The billions for student aid, expanded welfare and health-care benefits, and bailouts for profligate state governments; the hundreds of millions for better museums and prettier government buildings; and the millions for smoking-cessation programs and bee insurance aren't just items on crapulent Democrats’ wish list. The budget bloating was deliberate.

and

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction.

It's the essential fraud of rushing through a bill in which the normal rules (committee hearings, finding revenue to pay for the programs) are suspended on the grounds that a national emergency requires an immediate job-creating stimulus -- and then throwing into it hundreds of billions that have nothing to do with stimulus, that Congress's own budget office says won't be spent until 2011 and beyond, and that are little more than the back-scratching, special-interest, lobby-driven parochialism that Obama (claimed he) came to Washington to abolish.

read the rest

hope for change?

yes we can!

words mean things

but in some cases, we just have no idea what they mean...

see also, numbers

my pet hope

obama reads to kids in the middle of a crisis, too.

heh, indeed

two good ones in a murky pond:

"lipstick on a pig"

"you might be a taliban"

the inaugural address

in

parallel

and

perpendicular