worldwide passe

lileks, after the intro: "smug, politically-oriented crudity from someone not overtly political, delivered with the assumption we all share his “values” - boring."

the most muslim country?

i guess those other seven states must be 100% muslim to make up the difference...

forget the trees

if 80% of the country complains, and the media refuses to report it, does it make a sound?

helpful hints for motorcyclists

(This post is dedicated to all the Future Organ Donor Street Racing Club bikers I've had the misfortune to meet.)

If you want car drivers to treat motorcycle riders with respect,

• stop passing cars in the same lane where they are traveling, and
• stop driving between cars in adjacent lanes.

Otherwise we will interpret your ongoing demands to "share the road" to mean "you cars have to follow the rules but we bikes don't".

nobody wins this game

obamonopoly

have you driven a ford lately?

these things just reinforce my choice to remain a third generation "ford guy".

(yeah, i know the uaw mafia is strong there too, but i refuse to buy from a brand who built equipment used by the wrong side at pearl harbor.)

siberian cold blast

Finally, some truth in Pravda:

the American decent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed...

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather than the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their Constitutional rights...

Then their faith in God was destroyed*, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more than Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega-preachers were more than happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo-Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breathtaking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more than ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in sheer volume. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American Congress. Again, Congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less than two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper**...

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically-controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red*** as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

(typos and irrelevant braggadocio fixed)

* as always, there is a remnant, and there is a solution.

** i guess they, like our media, haven't heard about the tea party movement either.

*** and if you kiddies don't remember, pravda used to be a pro-communist rag.

compare and contrast

Molten Thought:

Let's compare the coverage of the shooting murder of an Army recuiter and attempted murder of another with the coverage of the shooting murder of abortionist George Tiller.

Anybody speculating that the recruiters were shot by a deranged member of the far Left?

Anybody waxing philosophical about how this discredits leftists opposed to military recruiting?

We don't even have to ask, do we?

the sky is still falling

Mark Steyn (again, and edited):

But what to worry about? Iranian nukes? Nah, that's just some racket cooked up by the Christian fundamentalist Bush and his Zionist buddies to give Halliburton a pretext to take over the Persian carpet industry. Worrying about nukes is so '80s. Back then it was just crazies like Reagan and Thatcher who had nukes, so you can understand why everyone was terrified. But now Kim Jong-Il and the ayatollahs have them, so we're all sophisticated and relaxed about it, like the French hearing that their president's acquired a couple more mistresses.

So what should we worry about? How about - stop me if you've heard this one before - "climate change"?

Every time I think the climate-change cult is about to peak, some "expert" ratchets up the insanity. I see that "scientists" are now proposing "to help wildlife relocate to places where they are not currently found" in order to help them avoid "climate change" before it happens. That's bound to work out well, isn't it? Most animals can figure out this stuff for themselves: I dined yesterday evening with a bear that's taken a yen to my bird-feeder and installs herself on my porch every day around supper time. And, if the animals aren't smart enough to cope, isn't that - what's the word again? - evolution? You know, the thing all the rational-type people are supposed to believe in...

and if those don't scare you enough, how about velociraptors?

theft by government

Mark Steyn:

"If you're a Yemeni jihadist whose lawyer is now Assistant Deputy Associate Deputy Assistant Attorney-General, you're entitled to the full protection of the U.S. Constitution. The rest of us have to take our chances."

read why

civility

it's a challenge for me too:

The last eight years were characterized by a viciousness that may have been unprecedented in most of our lifetimes, and though Republicans have, I honestly believe, treated President Obama with much greater respect than Democrats treated President Bush, it remains the case that with the advent of blogs, cable TV, and talk radio civility seems to have become an anachronism.

Some people... think that it's only those who suffer most from the kind of eye-gouging that occurs daily in the blogosphere and on the airwaves who call for civility. Civility, in this view, is the plea of those who hold to what Nietzsche called slave morality, the attempt by the weak to mitigate the harshness of their masters by foisting a moral system on them that would constrain their will to power. In other words, pleas for civility are the recourse of society's losers who don't want the strong to be all the time beating them up, but who are otherwise powerless to prevent it.

I think, though, that the opposite is true. Civility is a mark of strength. Calmness and courtesy are indicators of confidence in one's positions. Lies, insults, and rudeness are red flags hoisted by people who subliminally recognize that their arguments are inherently weak. The flimsiness of a point of view can often be measured by the level of shrillness and meanness with which it's presented. If one's ideas are compelling then he has nothing to fear by extending courtesy and respect to the other side...

Nevertheless, speaking just of conservatives, it's counter-productive of them to dress themselves in such uncomely rhetorical robes because it closes off any chance that their ideas, which are usually superior to those of the left, will get a hearing among the great mass of people who see themselves as neither conservative nor liberal, but who could potentially be swayed by compelling arguments humorously and irenically presented...

Nor can the left plead rhetorical chastity. Left-wing blogs are often stomach-turning in their vileness, and I can scarcely watch Chris Matthews on MSNBC who is, in my opinion, one of the rudest people on cable TV. And when it comes to sheer meanness Matthews' colleague Keith Olbermann is all that Dreher accuses Mark Levin of being, and worse.

It's hard to treat people with respect and dignity, of course, when they refuse the same courtesy to others, and it's easy to succumb to the temptation to call one's opponents names when they behave in ways that make the name appropriate. It's not always wrong, after all, to call a stupid idea stupid or to call a despicable human being despicable. Sometimes, when stakes are high and the battle hot some rhetoric and behavior are warranted which would not be otherwise, but incendiary language should be used sparingly and judiciously, never gratuitously.

as always, there's plenty more good reading at viewpoint.

now i get it

you know those little letters in parentheses next to a politician's name? apparently liberals misunderstand them to mean:

(R) - "right to criticize"
(I) - "i don't know"
(L) - "looney"
(D) - "don't dare criticize" or "defend despite the facts"

barrage

how can we swat all these bugs?

expired card

sorry jesse, we don't accept race cards any more.

stormtroopers

also sprach mark steyn:

For all that they're demonized as the ruthless shock troops of the Right, social conservatives have been extremely ineffective in advancing their causes politically. By contrast, the gay marriage thing is a campaign that ought to be taught in military staff colleges.

recovery

a t-shirt definitely not safe for my workplace

cain't we all jes' git along?

New post at News Through The Mirror

what's good for the moose is good for the squanderer

VDH puts the news through the mirror with President Palin’s First 100 Days:

And what’s this $50 mil for her inauguration gala? Since when do you fly in your favorite pizza-maker from across the country on our dime? Or send the presidential 747 for a spin over the Big Apple for a third-of-a-million-dollar joyride?...

Then she gives the Brits some unwatchable DVDs as a booby prize — as if she idled the old Yukon and ran into Target’s sale aisle. Did Sarah send Bristol into Wal-Mart back in Anchorage for that ‘engraved’ iPod for the queen? And what’s this don’t-bow-to-the-queen stuff, but curtsy for a Saudi sheik? Maybe that explains why she brags to Stephanopoulos about her ‘Muslim faith.’...

via snadrs

solomon's judgement it ain't

When both sides pretend to care so much, I wonder if either really do:

Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy

A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy would benefit from restarting chemotherapy over his parents' objections.

(the judge wrote) Daniel has only a "rudimentary understanding at best of the risks and benefits of chemotherapy... he does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently."

(the family's attorney said) "I feel it's a blow to families," he said. "It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us."

I seriously think the parents are being incredibly unwise with their child's health, but I would still stand with them against Nanny State & Big Brother.

three out of four bloggers

...have updated us on the interesting days they've had lately:

jungle mom
lileks
local malcontent

my attempt to parody the malcontent's parody would fail miserably, going something like this:

"upon my return from el worko anoche*, i found myself not doing too well. work has not been difficult, but monotonous because of the mind-numbing hypnosis of constantly seeing the world through a 16x9 glowing rectangle, which can inflame my wrist and eyes...

coming home, i microwaved some kibble and fell into fevered dreams. when i awoke, the dreams left, but the fever (and accompanying headache & weakness) didn't..."

* that's tex-mex for "work last night". apologies if it really means something else.

oh i wish

Obama antitrust crackdown to nail DNC, big unions:

"The Democratic National Committee and Big Labor are typical monopolies," said Christine A. Varney, head of the antitrust division at Justice. "The DNC controls at least two out three branches of government, and it recently raided a weaker competitor to steal a U.S. senator and thus to get a filibuster-proof monopoly..."

"The current recession gives dangerous incentive for large and dominating firms to engage in predatory behavior that harms citizens and weakens competition," Varney said. "This collusion for market dominance by the DNC makes Google, Microsoft and even the old Standard Oil look like bit players."

read the rest.

however you spell it

Have a Happy Lag BaOmer!

...the day on which we commemorate the passing of the famous sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi). Famous indeed. There isn't a chapter of the Mishna that does not contain a statement made by Rabbi Shimon...

Famous? ok...

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who lived in the 2nd century of the Common Era, (uh-oh) was the first to publicly teach the mystical (hmm) dimension of the Torah known as the "Kabbalah," (aha) and is the author of the basic work of Kabbalah, the Zohar. On the day of his passing, Rabbi Shimon instructed his disciples to mark the date as "the day of my joy."

(parentheses mine)

One commentor on Wikipedia asks:

When will we be as careful and joyous in the fulfillment of all the Creator's commandments before we are so extravagant in the observance of human innovations which are contrary to and annexed onto His Torah?

what theory?

I knew he was a madman before the election:

One person described the administration as the most shocking "end justifies the means" group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama as "the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet - and I knew Kissinger." Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration's tactic was to present what one described as a "madman theory of the presidency" in which the President is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way...

Tom Lauria disclosed to Judge Gonzalez that some Chrysler creditors had received death threats...

"Let me tell you it’s no fun standing on this side of the fence opposing the President of the United States. In fact, let me just say, people have asked me who I represent. That’s a moving target.

"I can tell you for sure that I represent one less investor today than I represented yesterday. One of my clients was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under the threat that the full force of the White House Press Corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight. That’s how hard it is to stand on this side of the fence."...

"(I)t's the Chicago Way, last year they only had building inspections, garbage collections and the like at their (ahem) disposal, this year they have the entire weight of the Federal Government behind them and if you expect me to believe for one minute that the guys who put Rod Blagojevich in office and supported him there are not playing games with power, I will double over laughing at your naivete."

slowdown

short week before mini vacation weekend. may not be posting til next monday - except this.

p.s. go read these

on governance and lost principles:

We can look at it as a game in which two sides compete for the prize of wielding power and garnering benefits for their team, or we can look at it as a moral calling to do what's in the best interests of the people of the United States.

on arrogance and lost compasses:

In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families.

and on tea and lost invitations.

he's just not that into news

AP policy: still trying to be the gatekeepers on the information superhighway.

pro-conservative obama?!?

On CNN, Obama said he wanted Souter's replacement to be someone who:

"has a sense of what's happening in the real world and recognizes that one of the roles of the courts is to protect people who don't have a voice."

May we assume that he's referring to Senate Republicans?

Maybe not... ;)

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," Obama said at a Planned Parenthood conference in 2007. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criterion by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

Noticeably absent from the list are the bitter, the religious, and the gun-clinging. Can anyone say "discrimination"?

The article also included this bit of doublespeak:

"Obama will pick someone who supports a woman's right to choose abortion and Roe v. Wade, but denied that that amounted to a litmus test."

Yeah right. Maybe he's using phenolphthalien?

swine flu symptoms

With yet another insincere apology to Jeff Foxworthy, you might have the swine flu:

• if you stutter when annoyed by Daffy Duck.
• if you want to drive a Harley to Fayetteville AR.
• if you demand that your office be rebuilt using hay or sticks.
• if you befriend spiders.
  
• if you run around house saying "bacon bacon bacon bacon bacon I SMELL BACON!!!".
• if porkbarrel spending suddenly appeals to you.
• if you crave Green Jellö.
  
• if it sounds like "achoink!" when you sneeze.
• if you suffer from lobophobia.
• if you want to herd sheep in Australia.
• if you enjoy mudbaths waaaaaaay too much.
  

p.s. you may want to check your b.h.o. infatuation symptoms as well.

old news

newspaper circulation stats are still getting worse (for their publishers)

i guess i'm a trendsetter on this front too - the last paper i subscribed to was the houston post, and i canceled it well before they folded (pun intended).

plumbing the depths

of napolitano's mistakes

yellow submarine

New post at News Through The Mirror

poster of the day?

more like poster of the year!

ratings slump

If things continue, he'll be even less popular than... Joe Biden (gasp!)

It's official: Barack Obama is the second most reviled newbie president of the last forty years. A gallup survey today published in the Washington Times shows Obama to have an approval rating of just 56 per cent. The only president to have performed worse than that at the end of his first 100 days in office was Bill Clinton...

Obama's low approval ratings, however, are all of his own making. He campaigned as a healing moderate who would take the US beyond partisan politics and restore the economy; instead he has terrified all those Americans who rightly abhor the idea of adopting European socialist, with the most sweeping advance of the progressive agenda and growth in the power of the state since the days of FDR's New Deal...

CONS:

1. Pantywaist, surrender-monkey, I-feel-your-pain, kowtowing to countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia means that America is no longer just hated in the Muslim world. Now, it is hated AND laughed at AND despised.

2. Swingeing green tax measures will destroy US industry, enrich Al Gore, delight Michael Moore while costing the average US family - in Cap and Trade alone - an extra $3,900 a year...

4. Universal healthcare program will cost US taxpayers at least $650 billion (expect this to expand, like builders' estimates by at least 100 per cent), giving a health service to match Britain's "Envy of the World": ie crowded, filthy, chaotic wards; long waiting lists; lower cancer survival rates; higher death toll; ever-growing expense; a service so bad you'll pay anything in private health insurance to avoid using it...

5. Economy showing no signs of recovery. Why should it? Obama's doing nothing to make it better.

6. US intelligence services rendered embarrassed, powerless and useless, thanks to "torture memos" peevishly released to discredit previous administration.

7. Proposed $2.4 TRILLION in new taxes will disincentivise even the most instinctively hard working Americans. Instead they will go on Atlas Shrugged style strike. Maybe they're right: it could be the only answer.

8. Galloping inflation caused by money printing. US to become next Zimbabwe, only without the elephants to poach and eat to stave off mass starvation.

9. Noises already made about "Right Wing Extremists" - ie war veterans, people with Ron Paul bumper stickers, anyone else who disagrees with any aspect of the progressive Obama program - suggests it won't be long before those 44 per cent (so far) of registered Obama-sceptics hear a midnight knock at the door.

10. Rules - lots and lots more oppressive, Euro-style nanny state style rules governing everything from how Americans dispose of their trash, to race relations to pet care to firearms ownership. It's for Society's good, you understand.

PROS:

1. Nice kids

2. Cute dog

3. The way he offed those 3 Somali pirates was pretty cool

4. Er....

wall street '09

New post at News Through The Mirror

NPR name

This meme doesn't quite work for me:

We’ve often wondered what it would be like to be one of them. A Nina Totenberg or a Renita Jablonski. (So) we came up with a system for creating our own NPR Names... You take your middle initial and insert it somewhere into your first name. Then you add on the smallest foreign town you’ve ever visited.

Problem is - my middle initial doesn't fit in any pronounceable way into my first name. Shuffling in a few of both names' letters though, it might be "Bredant El Porvenir"...

swine flu update

scrappleface has important info on the epidemic ;)

rightwingsparkle relinked

somehow, probably in one of my linklist rearrangements, the link to rightwingsparkle was deleted. this may have been due to thinking she had quit blogging, or mere oversight on my part. either way, she's still blogging, so go get caught up reading over there whydoncha?

the epidemic

New post at News Through The Mirror

gas guzzler

the audacity of carbon offsets!

pattern of perjury

New post at News Through The Mirror

oh rush

again, i agree with a lot of what rush limbaugh says, but this is an ignorant overstatement:

"Nobody's buying (hybrid cars). Nobody wants them! The manufacturers are making them in droves to satisfy Obama! Sorry for yelling. Nobody wants them!"

that kind of hyperbole reminds me of someone else i knew, when trying to state "i don't like (x)" would actually say "nobody likes (x)". his list of proclamations included:

• "nobody drives a saturn"
• "nobody eats at boston market"
• "nobody shops at sears"
• "nobody listens to classical music"

although there's a semi-valid point in the rant about political pressure to build them, claiming that "nobody's buying hybrid cars" is just absurd.

if nothing else, there's a huge market in san francisco and south austin...

arrrr!

obamerrr made a maerstake

travel tip

Paraguay has tough restrictions on bicyclists.

stop the killing

New post at News Through The Mirror

bootlicker obama

the end of the world as we know it, or just a brief glitch?

let them eat mudpies

so sayeth the protocols of the elders of un.

resistance is not futile

though it may seem that way in the face of faceless bureaucracy

abusive language

New post at News Through The Mirror

Earth Day

This post may be the only good thing to happen because of this year's Gaiamas.

Oh, and this.

...and maybe this.

News Through The Mirror

Based on some recent posts here, I've started another blog for more posts of that type. News Through The Mirror will contain news stories - edited just enough from the original to point out their absurdity. I will continue to post other things here, but keep those posts separate and include links from this site. (policy subject to change on a whim.) Some old posts that fit the criteria will be copied or moved there from here.

more news through the mirror

this one needs hardly any rewriting to make sense:

Most Americans 'Annoyed' By Perez Hilton's Obnoxious Mouth

The war of words between millions of Americans and some limp-wristed wanna-be started Sunday at the Miss USA competition, when Perez Hilton asked Miss California Carrie Prejean if more states should legalize same-sex marriage. Prejean stated her opinion that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

"When I first heard that sissy whine, I was shocked, because I thought having been from America, whose citizens mostly abhor same-sex "marriage", he shouldn't have even asked that question. There are various other ways he could have just shut up and still stayed true to himself without alienating millions of sensible people." said John Smith of Everytown, USA.

Smith went on to suggest one answer Perez Hilton might have used: "As a potential celebrity C-lister, it is my job not to be a politician but to be someone who entertains people."

Despite Hilton's tantrums to the contrary, Prejean knows her answer cost her the Miss USA crown, and that it was "very rude" for others to question her personal beliefs.

On NBC's "Today" show, Prejean stood by her answer, saying she had "spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God", knowing full well it would offend the Heterophobic-American community.

"When I heard it from him, I knew at that moment after I had answered the question, I knew that I was not going to win because of my answer," she continued. "It's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct. I'll gladly exchange the world's chintzy crown for a more enduring one later, anyway."

the prince and the pea

The Obamacle of DC sure makes a big deal about those teensy spending cuts.

We'd all do a lot better if the spending and cuts were much more equal.

(via snadrs)

repairs needed

Obama says the US has "lost its moral bearings" in interrogation policies. Let's hope his repair list also includes fixing our moral transmission, shocks, and radiator, among other things...

update - correction: apparently a commentor was malcontent with my phrasing, and rightly so. a better way to say this would be "let's have a better mechanic look at the moral bearings, as well as themoral transmission, shocks, and radiator, among other things..."

less taxing

another tax-simplification plan: proclaimed by the Obamacle of DC, explained by Mark Steyn.

Amid his scattershot pronouncements on everything from global nuclear disarmament to high-speed rail, President Obama said something almost interesting the other day. Decrying a “monstrous tax code that is far too complicated for most Americans to understand,” the Tax-Collector-in-Chief pledged: “I want every American to know that we will rewrite the tax code so that it puts your interests over any special interests.”

That shouldn’t be hard. A tax code that put my interests over any special interests would read: “How much did you earn last year? [Insert number here] thousand dollars? Hey, feel free to keep it. You know your interests better than we do!”

Okay, to be less absolutist about it, my interests include finding a road at the end of my drive every morning, and modern equipment for the (volunteer) fire department, and a functioning military to deter the many predators out there, and maybe one or two other things. But 95 percent of the rest is not just “special interests” but social engineering — a $400 tax credit for falling into line with Barack Obama and Susan Roesgen. That’s why these are Tea Parties — because the heart of the matter is the same question posed two-and-a-third centuries ago: Are Americans subjects or citizens? If the latter, then a benign sovereign should not be determining “your interests” and then announcing that he’s giving you a “tax credit” as your pocket money.

what is the solution?

In this post at The Jungle Hut (which reminds us how you can know a person by the company he keeps), some comments ask how we can be rid of the Obamanation stalking the world. This of course reminded me of a Bible verse i've referred to more than once: 2 Chronicles 7:14

"If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

These are comforting words, and they are as true now as the day they were spoken nearly 3,000 years ago. God will not fail His promise.

If...

Notice that this promise is not unilateral. Unlike some other promises, He did not promise to "heal their land" no matter what. The outcome is contingent on God's people doing four specific things:

• humbling themselves,
• praying,
• seeking His face,
• turning from their wicked ways.

If His people today follow these steps with true humility and repentance, I know that God "will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land". Probably not in any manner than we could have predicted, and definitely better than we could have imagined.

But...

The verse continues in a way not often quoted, especially in warm-fuzzy churches. God spells out what happens if His people do not follow him:

"But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel (My people) from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this temple is now so imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?' People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them — that is why he brought all this disaster on them.'"

These are very uncomfortable words to hear, but they are also as true now as they were 3,000 years ago, and God will not fail His promise. This part is not done from spite or vindictiveness. I suspect all of that causes Him more pain than it causes us, like a caring parent seeing his children jumping in front of traffic, using drugs, or playing russian roulette.


Let's not wait any longer to do our part, please?

red scare

has anyone noticed it's the 25th anniversary of 1984 this year?

a painful chapter

this is getting too easy...

WASHINGTON – Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said Thursday that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted.

Even as they exposed details of the Zimbabweization of America program, Obama offered the first definitive assurance that those CIA officials are in the clear, as long as their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time.

"We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history," the president said. "But nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past. Besides, I'm already writing a much darker and more painful chapter."

red plus blue suddenly equals purple

In a stunning reversal, Democrats admit the hypocrisy of eight years of insults against "Jesusland" and "flyover country", and perpetual (though unfulfilled) threats to move to Canada. Paraphrasing the linked article:

BERKELEY, California – Millions of moonbats insisted Thursday that their remarks about secession were not intended as an argument that California should leave the union, but Republicans still know that the eight-year leftist tantrums were anti-American.

Despite years of rabid rhetoric to the contrary, the Democrats are suddenly proposing a House resolution expressing "complete and total disagreement with any fringe element advocating the 'secession' of California or any other state from our one and indivisible Union." They offered no apology and did not back away from their earlier lunacy.

In their remarks, which were somehow aired despite opposition from The Associated Press, the moonbats said they didn't think California should secede despite extensive chatter about it on the Internet.

"Since The Almighty Obama has ascended unto the Capitol, we've changed our minds (sic) and decided this is a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it now that we have power. But if those rednecks continue to thumb their nose at the recently-re-patriotic, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Berkeley is a very unique place, and we're a ugly and smelly lot to boot."

"Talk of secession would be laughable if it weren't mentioned in a serious way," said former ambassador Sam Tieffer. State Sen. Ellis Rodney said "due to the socialist power grab, some issues should no longer be made legitimate, like they were before by all double-plus-good thinkers."

and now for something completely different

a boy whose clothes are too large

"communist" vs "nazi"

Here's an interesting discussion as to why the term "communist" is considered lees of an insult than the term "nazi" (read it all).

Given the amount the human suffering Communists have caused - 70 million killed in China, 20-30 million in the former Soviet Union, and almost one-third of all Cambodians; the decimation of Tibetan and Chinese culture; totalitarian enslavement of North Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russians; a generation deprived of human rights in Cuba; and much more -- why is "Communist" so much less a term of revulsion than "Nazi?"

There are Mao Restaurants in major cities in the Western world. Can one imagine Hitler Restaurants? Che Guevara T-shirts are ubiquitous, yet there are no Heinrich Himmler T-shirts...

2. Communism is based on lovely sounding theories; Nazism is based on heinous sounding theories. Intellectuals, among whom are the people who write history, are seduced by words -- so much so that deeds are deemed considerably less significant...

6. There is, simply put, widespread ignorance of communist atrocities compared to those of the Nazis. Whereas, both right and left loathe Nazism and teach its evil history, the left dominates the teaching profession, and therefore almost no one teaches communist atrocities...

Good luck getting the left to make that admission. The fact is that they deeply admire Stalin and Mao, Castro and Pol Pot. They envy the raw power these dictators wielded and the fact that they cloaked their tyranny in pretty words. That is the secret dream of the American and European left. To hold the kind of power that a communist tyrant like Stalin held but to cover the iron fist in the velvet glove of "serving the people" and similar talk.

same topic, less humor

obama's unholy war

The more illiberal a religion, the more liberals tend to like it. Western liberals who propose no place for God in the public square can usually be counted on to excuse non-western religions that impose a false and dangerous one upon it.

The explanation for this apparent contradiction goes beyond the childish and self-hating affinity of western liberals for all things non-western. The deeper reason is western liberalism's attachment to irrationality. Having ruptured a once-harmonious relationship between reason and religion in their own culture, western liberals can't seem to stop themselves from championing similar ruptures in alien ones.

By different routes of irrationality, western liberals and militant Muslims arrive at the same spot. Western liberals reach it by a distorted "reason" without faith, militant Muslims by a distorted "faith" without reason, with each imbalance producing its own culture of death: abortion and euthanasia in the west, jihad in the east.

An old-style liberal like Oriana Fallaci found it amazing that Enlightenment liberals could defend so enthusiastically the gross illiberal tendencies of militant Muslims and puzzled over how two seemingly different groups could turn up on the same side in debates. But it is not surprising if one considers their shared rejection of reason properly understood and the common enemy that rouses them -- a lingering Christianity in the west.

But, says the day-to-day watcher of politics, who cares? What does any of this have to do with Barack Obama's speech in Turkey earlier in the week? A lot, actually. Behind the speech is the above-mentioned phenomenon; it contained a deep sympathy for Islam that Obama would never extend to traditional Christianity.

As Obama gears up to abolish the conscience rights of Christian pro-lifers at American hospitals, as he uses executive orders to force Christians to finance abortions at home and abroad, as he places Christian opponents of gay marriage in the moral category of racists, he tells Turkey that "America is not and never will be at war with Islam" and accepts the moderation of Muslims without question.

Obama has in effect declared to Christians in America: either bring your understanding of Christianity into line with my liberalism or don't bother entering the public square. You want federal money? Well, then perform abortions, distribute condoms, hire homosexual activists, etc., etc. He would never dare talk to Muslims in those terms. He will give back ancestral swords to freed Muslims from Guantanamo Bay and hand forceps to Christian doctors.

If Muslims had to endure patronizing and lying secularist drivel from him like "Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values," they would riot.

extremists

update 2: I spoke too soon. Rick Perry is backing down already.

update 1: We're in good company. Texas governor Rick Perry supports HCR50, which reaffirms the Tenth Amendment.

---

via Nuke's (slightly edited)

"You might be a right wing extremist" if you:

• Were born in the South
• Believe that 9/11 was more serious than Watergate
• Think Clinton's impeachment was not about sex
  
• Wear an American flag in your lapel
• Speak and write perfect English, but no Spanish
• Own more than one Bible
• Believe that Jesus Christ means eternal life
• Support the rule of law and maintenance of law and order
• Want America’s borders secured
• Believe that Mexico is a foreign nation and Spanish a foreign language
• Thank God that the U.S. won both world wars
• Oppose affirmative action, abortion, same-sex marriage, and gun control
• Believe that fighting higher taxes is more patriotic than paying them
• Prefer “Patriot’s Tea” to Obama Kool-aid
• Doubt that Islam is really a “Religion of Peace”
• Believe that a baby Jew born to a virgin 2009 years ago saved mankind from sin
• Send out Christmas cards
• Attend a Christian church on occasions other than Christmas and Easter
• Sing the National Anthem with your hand over your heart
• Fly Old Glory on Flag Day and Independence Day
• Believe that preventing voter fraud is more important than empowering illegal aliens, felons, and the deceased with the vote
• Own a gun and ammunition
• Favor the death penalty for brutal killers, but oppose abortion of innocent fetuses
• Miss WF Buckley, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon
• Have voluntarily read the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and U.S. Constitution
• Believe that labor unions should be subjected to anti-trust laws
• Have never committed adultery or had gay sex
• Drive a car built by an American car company in America
• Dispute the belief that the economic meltdown was worth it in order to open home ownership to more people of color
• Believe that the U.S. should spend more money on national defense than on foreign aid
• Suspect that Nancy Pelosi is dumber than a pound of recycled botox, and that Barney Frank is a heterophobe
• Wonder why Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Jeremiah Wright are referred to as "Reverend"
  
• Mourn the 50 million fetuses that have been slaughtered since the Roe V. Wade ruling
• Are less concerned about trees and cows than the humans who work harvesting them
  
• Pay a tithe or make a donation to any organized religion
• Have never applied for food stamps or welfare
• Read the Wall Street Journal, George Will, Pat Buchanan, and Ann Coulter
• Listen to FOX News or Rush Limbaugh
• Dislike Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and other communist dictators
• Know the words to “God Bless America” by heart
• Like George Washington better than George Soros
  
• Argue that global warming is little more than hot air circulated by liberals for “green” profit
• Want the UN out of America and America out of the UN

humanitarian industries

paraphrasing this quote:

"Most schemes of humanitarianism may be stated as "A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D."

a.d.d.

via directorblue, obama's had a whole lot of distrac... oh look, pirates!

So many distractions, aren’t there? Only a week ago, the North Korean missile test was an “annoying distraction” from Barack Obama’s call for a world without nuclear weapons and his pledge that America would lead the way in disarming. And only a couple of days earlier the president insisted Iraq was a “distraction” — from what, I forget: The cooing press coverage of Michelle’s wardrobe? No doubt when the Iranians nuke Israel, that, too, will be an unwelcome distraction from the administration’s plans for federally subsidized daycare, just as Pearl Harbor was an annoying distraction from the New Deal, and the First World War was an annoying distraction from the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s dinner plans.

Tom Blumer of Newsbusters notes that in the last 30 days there have been some 2,500 stories featuring Obama and “distractions,” as opposed to about 800 “distractions” for Bush in his entire second term. The sub-headline of the Reuters story suggests the unprecedented pace at which the mountain of distractions is piling up: “First North Korea, Iran — now Somali pirates.”

Er, okay. So the North Korean test is a “distraction,” the Iranian nuclear program is a “distraction,” and the seizure of a U.S.-flagged vessel in international waters is a “distraction.” Maybe it would be easier just to have the official State Department maps reprinted with the Rest of the World relabeled “Distractions.”

read the rest

p.s. maybe these "distractions" are a good thing - as long as they keep obama from implementing his destructive socialist power grab.

taxing

although eliminating the i.r.s. would affect one family member's livelihood, using the fair tax or the flat tax would benefit us all greatly.

one question

"How is it that Barney Frank - who appears to be at the intersection of every legislative and regulatory failing of the mortgage system - isn't being investigated by every agency in the country?"

good start

The Texas Rangers are currently the only undefeated team in the American League.

the big picture

update: he also understands what the obama administration is all about:

In speech and deed the Obama faction has displayed its intention to overthrow the Constitution of the United States. The faction's claim to presidential power rests on an overt act of contempt for the authority of the U.S. Constitution...

The destruction of the private sector economy is well under way; along with denial of the effective basis for anything like private property...

The Obama faction's majority in the Congress has asserted a patently unconstitutional power to dole out voting privileges in the legislative branch of the U.S. government without regard to the Constitution's language restricting such voting privileges to states...

They aim to take steps that infringe the right to keep and bear arms explicitly protected by the Constitution's second amendment...

Obama apparently has no problem with legal appointees who advocate the absurd view that Islamic sharia law can be implemented in the United States despite its grotesque inconsistency with Constitutional provisions that forbid cruel and unusual punishment...

Faced with all this evidence that regime change is the goal of the Obama faction, conservatives whose understanding of the term includes support for our constitutional republic have been bucking the tide of slack-jawed adulation promoted by the Obama faction's media claque. We have been hard at work trying to awaken people to the fact that there's nothing "business as usual" about Obama faction's challenge to American freedom. It is nothing short of a politically implemented insurgency. Here and there it's meeting pockets of resistance on particular issues, with words and arguments mostly oblivious to its general significance. Not much further down the road (after the Census has been rigged and enough illegals added to the voters' rolls to swing any election), the political liberty for which so many Americans risked and gave their lives will be gone. I live in hope that as the true nature of their goal becomes obvious to more and more people, even some of those gulled by phony charisma and false claims of historic significance will realize that the loss of their participation in America's historically unique exercise of democratic, republican self-government is too much of a price to pay for guilt about racism. I live in hope that they didn't mean for their votes to end government of, by and for the people.

---

this time it's not king's x or kevin bacon, but alan keyes, writing about fair banking and fair elections.

the introduction to fair banking:

The first economic question therefore is not about the distribution of money (the false pretense of socialist and communist thinking) but about the mechanism for gathering it. Just as the income tax gathers money for government without regard to the choice of the people making it, the centralized banking system absorbs money from people that is then used (circulated in channels) without regard for choices they should make based on the actual circumstances of their lives. By disconnecting bankers' choices from the real life conditions of the people whose money they employ, the centralized banking system encourages the existence of the seemingly lucrative, but illusory assets whose corrupting weaknesses have caused its present crisis.

We're told that some banks and other financial institutions are too big to fail. But like a mass of cells growing in a way that burdens and harms the body (we call it a cancer), the question is, what allows the existence of something that continues to grow without regard for any contribution it makes to the real health and strength of the body (in this case the community or society in which it exists)? When the body must tax itself to exhaustion to maintain a tumor, we don't generally rush to rescue the tumor, or re-enforce the processes that encourage its growth.

the introduction to fair elections:

Though for the time being we still maintain the institutional semblance of constitutional self-government, the United States no longer has a political process consistent with its survival. This isn't a matter of structural features (two-party vs. multiparty, proportional vs. winner-take-all representation, regional vs. group representation and so forth.) Rather it has to do with what we understand to be the purpose of politics; the nature of citizenship in light of that purpose; and the means and methods most likely to produce actions consonant with good citizenship.

As things stand today, the only purpose of politics is to get elected. In order to get elected, you must get more votes than your opponents. The most efficient way to achieve this result is to find out what people want to see and hear, then fabricate and project an image that corresponds to their desire. The electoral process has become an information exchange between self-centered hedonists and self-promoting liars: people willing to expose their selfish desires choose from a menu of fictional satisfactions offered by candidates pursuing their own selfish ambitions. On Election Day the electorate selects the candidate whose fabricated image most effectively seduced their self-serving judgment.

it continues:

At the moment, this imaginary political process appears to serve the goal of establishing a system of global governance that will ultimately eliminate the need for the charade of representative institutions (or at least make it entirely optional.) From the oligarchic point of view, the advantage of such a global system lies in the concentration of sufficient power in the hands of a global elite to deter, co-opt or suppress opposition. This requires that a background network of globally minded elites becomes, in effect, the last remaining superpower, with no lesser power capable of standing alone against it. The American union has the wherewithal to be a lasting superpower, but on a national basis incompatible with the globalist principle of the New World Order...

Whatever his rhetoric, the policies being pursued by Barack Obama are intended to achieve this deflation of the relative power and cohesion of the United States.

His critics have been quick to see the destructive implications of his agenda, especially in the economic realm. But few if any have seen, or at any rate been willing to articulate, the purposeful intention behind it. The two party system effectually dampens any inclination toward such candor, since it represents an imaginary (or virtual) opposition of elements with no more real difference between them than two heads on the same body, or two eyes in the same head. However different they look, they move together and in the same direction. Though Democrats pretend to care deeply about the welfare of the people, Democrat policies increase the power of controlling elites with little net benefit for the people at large. Though Republicans pretend to care deeply about the liberty and opportunity available to individuals, their policies tend to increase the freedom of controlling elites, with little net benefit for individual liberty on the whole. The telltale sign of the agenda common to both parties is their actual indifference or hostility to the effects of programs and policies on the characteristics that are the essential bases of the people's ability to think and act for themselves: self-discipline, self-sufficiency and self-government.

Self-discipline clearly depends on the formation and encouragement of certain moral characteristics. Self-sufficiency requires economic approaches that preserve and enhance opportunities for individual income and wealth creation. Self-government demands political processes that depend on, and respond to individual initiative in the development and mobilization of representative political networks...

In their different ways, both the Democrat and Republican parties advance policies that promote mentalities and ways of life that directly attack or persistently erode one or another of these components of republican citizenship. The Democrats consistently champion undisciplined sexual lust. The Republicans routinely cater to the lust for money and material goods. Both alike agree to serve as masks for the unbridled lust for power. In the more general sense of the term, therefore, lust is the whole purpose of the political system they comprise. It represents the implementation of an Hobbesian vision of human nature as an endless effort to satisfy unquenchable desire, a tyranny of domineering passions, in which the appearance of choice simply registers the prevalent passion of the moment. But Thomas Hobbes reasoned logically to the conclusion that absolute despotism is the political system that corresponds to this vision. He would not be at all surprised to see that both major Parties to the politics of lust tacitly agree on a path that leads humanity under the yoke of global tyranny.

The American republic was not founded upon a simply Hobbesian concept of human nature. The American founders acted on an understanding (profoundly influenced by Christian and Biblical precepts) that saw natural right, rather than passion, as the ruler or measuring rod of choice. This different conception of nature leads to a different conception of choice. Rather than arising from the welter of competing passions, it reflects the possibility of deliberation, the process whereby one consciously chooses which passions shall be constrained, and to what degree. But such deliberation assumes a standpoint not subject to passionate forces, an eye in the storm of passion, free in some sense from its prevailing winds because it represents the point of origin from which passion itself derives substance, force and meaning. In the understanding articulated in the American Declaration of Independence, this is the standpoint of the Creator. The concept of right arising from the authority of the Creator assumes that this original position represents more than the sheer force of real existence. It represents an intention, an inwardly formed purpose that foresees, and at every moment constitutes, the destination of existing things. The assertion of right represents the presence of this intention in action, along with just the force needed to carry it out.

read all of both posts

i love lectures

Years ago,
I was lectured
by a supervisor
about the benefits
of positive thinking.
That person had
obsessive-compulsive disorder
and was addicted
to pornography.

Months ago,
I was lectured
by a supervisor
about proper computer
file naming and organization.
That person took
three years to learn
where files were
supposed to be saved
on the network,
and still often needs reminders.

Weeks ago,
I was lectured
by a policeman
to drive safer.
That person
drove over a
hundred miles per hour,
swerving between traffic,
to tell me this.

Days ago,
I was lectured
by a supervisor
about simplifying our files
for the end-user.
That person
never names
these files properly,
routinely changes them
to nonstandard settings,
and "organizes" them into
far too many subfolders.

I would wish that
people would think
before they speak,
but somebody would
probably lecture me about
how unreasonable that wish is.

coincidence?

fraters libertas notices:

Last week, it is announced that Notre Dame has invited President Obama to speak at their commencement and receive (an) honorary degree. Last night, the Fighting Irish hockey team--ranked #2 among sixteen teams in the NCAA tourney--gets shellacked by the sixteenth seed Bemidji State in a game where BSU reportedly "got all the bounces" (giving the Beavers their first even NCAA tourney win--one more than St. Cloud State). Just sayin'.

details here

let's postpone this ending

a scary story, via instapundit

pull over

swerving left

speaking truth to power

there's nothing i could add to the title or the article

poor decisions

Wearing sackcloth and ashes, Obama chastised himself and everyone who voted for him by saying “we cannot continue to excuse poor decisions”.

update: He also returned the $600 million he used to purchase the presidency, saying "We cannot give the appearance of using tax dollars to reward leaders who have done a poor job."

the alarm

keeps ringing

never forget

sorry, i just couldn't help contradicting my previous post.

forget globally

act locally

understand?

a random quote, out of the past, and out of context. dad recently found a little note in a little gideon's new testament in his book collection. it's handwritten, but we can't tell whose handwriting it is. it says:

"I know you believe you
understand what you think
I said, but I'm not sure
you realize that what you
heard is not what I meant."

Beck, Rush*, Thinking

*not the great rock band, that other guy.

There's an old pop-culture question that goes "are you an Elvis guy or a Beatles guy?" When conservatives eventually win the culture war, do you suppose people will start asking "are you a Rush guy or a Beck guy?"?

My answer would be "neither", leaning slightly towards Beck. While I agree with a lot of what both men have to say, it's because I have reached those conclusions for myself, and I dislike the "dittohead" bandwagon phenomenon, no matter which part of the political spectrum it's in.

VDH: pleas for sanity

go read them all:

Do No Harm
Turmoil
Flip Flops
Suggestion Box
Mad Men

power grab

dude, stop insulting orcs like that

;)

profiles in cowardice

"It is time to re-evaluate the words and actions of the war's opponents in the stark light of a history that proved them wrong."

On this sixth anniversary of America's invasion of Iraq, there is finally a consensus among supporters and opponents that we've won the war. The surge that Bush launched and Democrats opposed has been successful and, as a result, Iraq has become a Middle Eastern democracy, an anti-terrorist regime, and an American ally.

It would be hard to imagine a more remarkable turnabout or a more comprehensive repudiation of conventional political wisdom. Yet this has not led to a comparable reappraisal by critics of the war of their previous attacks, or to any mea culpas by Democrats who launched a scorched earth campaign against the president who led it, and continued it for five years while the war dragged on.

The Democratic attacks on the war described America's commander-in-chief as a liar who misled his country and sent American soldiers to die in a conflict that was unnecessary, illegal and unjust. This made prosecution of the war incalculably harder while strengthening the resolve of our enemies to defeat us.

(T)he Democrats' modus operandi seems to be to approve something and then, when it becomes politically expedient, to act as if they were opposed and outraged all along. This is what they did with corporate bonuses, for example, and its what they did with Bush and the Iraq war. No one will ever mistake these guys for profiles in political courage.

It's also interesting to me that ever since it became clear that the war was essentially over, that we had won, and that Bush had largely been vindicated, we've heard next to nothing about Iraq in our media. They don't want to remind people, I guess, how terribly wrong they were about it.

read the rest of both links

T38

Much has been said of the long service life of the B52, but there's another pentagenarian aircraft still in service. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the T38 Talon, the world's first and most produced supersonic trainer.

I remember watching T38s and T37s flying around our town on training flights out of the (now closed) Reese AFB. Some of those planes might have been piloted by the last Crown Prince of Iran.

bloodbath

unfortunately, algor is less easily sated than the mayan deities:

Back in 1500... the Aztecs figured the climate debate was over, and that if you wanted rain and sunshine and other such blessings, it was simple enough what you had to do – sacrifice 20,000 lives a year to the right gods.

In the year 2009, it's an equally sure thing in the minds of some that carbon in the atmosphere is going to fry us unless we put the welfare of millions on the line, and here is the latest on President Obama's plan – it could cost industry almost $2 trillion over an eight-year period.

That hefty sum to be paid out to a cap-and-trade carbon tax would snatch money from the pockets of consumers far more than rising oil prices did, hinder economic growth and instill other ways generate human misery, and all in the name of what?...

...carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, that it is crucial to life and that it is a "bit player" in the atmosphere... at least "90 percent of greenhouse warming is due to water vapor," and that the issue is whether the carbon dioxide will "substantially increase water's contribution" to causing something awful.

The evidence from measurements of all kinds is that it won't, said Happer, pointing out that "the current warming period began about 1800, at the end of the little ice age," when there wasn't a big increase in carbon dioxide.

It wasn't fossil fuels that did the warming deed – a good deed, by the way – and a war against these energy-producing, societal benefactors would therefore be as futile in controlling climate as slicing open bodies with a ceremonial knife and ripping out hearts.

revolting!

here's a much better way to spend april 15th

TOTUS

uhh got a pic 4 d http://michellemalkin.com/2009/03/23/fun-with-totus-teleprompter-of-the-united-states/ n like d malocaltent gimme wurdz 2 tipe on d blog makurz

sellers' remorse

when will it set in?

shocking!

Another great Michael Ramirez IBD cartoon

quote of the week?

quote of the year! via dustbury:

How come when I put my AmEx bill on my Visa, it’s stupid, but when the government does it, it’s stimulus?

insensitive remarks

who slipped this one in the teleprompter?

Leno asked Obama if the White House bowling alley had been replaced yet with a basketball court. Obama, who scored a 37 while bowling on the campaign trail and whose bowling skills became the butt of jokes, said that he had been practicing and recently bowled a game of 129.

“No, that’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said mockingly.

“It was like Special Olympics, or something,” Obama replied.

a better punchline would have been "it was like the kos kidz or something".

"Right"ing Wrongs

AP: US endorses UN gay rights text

"The United States supports the U.N.'s statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity and is pleased to join the other 66 U.N. member states who have declared their support of the statement," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

"The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world," Wood told reporters. "As such, we join with other supporters of this statement, and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora."

...and I will continue to remind the UN of the importance of respecting the human rights of Israel in all appropriate international fora.

Unpopular At Any Speed

Those wimpy hybrids don't survive market crashes well either.

...automakers believe they have little choice but to make more hybrids. Though car buyers are losing interest, politicians are pushing them as key to reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and limiting the global-warming gases that cars emit into the atmosphere.

In January, President Obama called on the industry to "thrive by building the cars of tomorrow" and prepare for federal and state regulations that could push average fuel economy above 40 miles per gallon by 2020.

"The automakers are in the situation of needing to pacify politicians that are in the position to bail them out with expensive fuel-efficient cars," said Rebecca Lindland, auto analyst with IHS Global Insight. "But shouldn't it be more about satisfying the needs of the American consumer?"

Silly Rebecca. The American consumer has no idea about what is really in his best interest. Only our overlords in Washington DC truly understand the complex issues of mass transportation, personal safety, economics, and environmental sustainability necessary to produce an automobile that perfectly satisfies the needs of the American consumer while simultaneously freeing us from dependence on foreign oil and saving the planet.

For years, liberals and environmentalists have been peddling conspiracy theories about "big" industry working to keep innovative, fuel-efficient automobiles off the market. But as this story clearly illustrates, the truth is that Americans prefer dependable, well-understood technology in their cars. They want cars that are not overly expensive to repair or maintain. They also prefer them to be big enough for comfort and to provide a reasonable amount of protection in a crash. Tiny exotic cars simply fail to live up to these basic requirements.

In other words, it will take nothing short of a catastrophe to force Americans to drive hybrid or electric automobiles in large numbers. And it seems most likely at this time that such a catastrophe will be the direct result of government planning, combined with good old government mismanagement and inefficiency.

If Americans don't buy these cars voluntarily, then how will American automakers recoup the billions of dollars that they have been forced to spend on their design, manufacture, and marketing? You guessed it -- more government bailouts and subsidies -- and government contracts to purchase the vehicles, since no one else wants them. It's not a stretch to imagine Ford and GM in five years, stuck on permanent Federal government life support, shackled by the regulations and restrictions attached to the money, building eco-weenie cars that only hippies, cheap Europeans, and government agencies will buy; while foreign automakers like Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, BMW, and Daimler take over the larger American consumer car market with dependable, safe, and efficient gasoline-powered automobiles.

All that being said, I'd consider buying an Aptera if and when its hybrid system proves itself... for fun, and in addition to a real car.

change!

hope it continues? yes we can!

JList?

JHivemind.

have some sense of perspective

Have you ever seen one of those charts that progressively compares the relative sizes of the planets to the sun to other stars, or the animation that zooms out from an atom to the known universe? These are even scarier.

outrage

every time you hear "outrage", "bonus", "aig", "madoff" in the news, remember where the outrage should really be directed:

We should be outraged that congress irresponsibly wrote the TARP legislation in such a way as to put no restrictions on how the money would be spent.

We should be outraged that congress irresponsibly pressured financial institutions to make loans to people who had no way to pay them back, thus precipitating the mess we're in.

We should be outraged that congress votes themselves outstanding health insurance, retirement benefits (they're vested after only five years of service at age 62), and a hefty salary ($174,000 for rank and file members) with automatic pay raises, all from the public purse.

We should be outraged that congress puts hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful earmarks in appropriations bills that are often little more than ways to reward supporters back home.

It's certainly arrogant and disgraceful that AIG executives accepted those bonuses (The company was apparently required by contract to give them), but no more disgraceful than the behavior of our political leadership in Washington who abuse their power everyday by taking money from taxpayers and using it, either directly or indirectly, for their own personal gain.

Barack Obama promised he would end this sort of politics, but so far from ending it he's simply turned out to be an enabler of it. That should outrage us, too.

back to the future?

it's hip to be square!

mental illness in the real world

some causes
some symptoms
some recoveries

to boldly spend

...what nobody has spent before!

today's ant and grasshopper

A brilliant retelling, sad but true.

I never liked that movie

The Manchurian Candidate