Shock! & Surprise! at Chinese Censorship

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is just one more stupidly delusional international organization. Reporters aren't much better. Both groups are mad because the Chinese government has censored their internet access.

News Flash: China is a Communist country. They deny their people basic freedoms that we here in the free world take for granted, like criticizing the government and watching YouTube. Was the "We are the World" globalist crowd really so naive as to think that granting Red China the Olympics would transform them?

This is how international organizations and their fellow travelers in the press gain a reputation for naivety and stupidity. The IOC actually thought that the country that swallowed Tibet whole would grant total internet access to foreign reporters.

Another point: Notice how the world's progressives have no problem with China denying it's own people freedoms, but complain when China does the same to them? Anyway, here's quick survey of what the newspapers are saying:

Here's a quote from Reuters:

"This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," Amnesty East Asia researcher Mark Allison said.

The NY Times, a paper more sympathetic China's communist politburo than it is to the Bush Administration, blandly reported on the situation without a hint of criticism directed at China's dictatorial regime. The Toilet Paper of Record uttered not a peep as China cited terrorism concerns as an excuse for restricting freedoms. I guess the Times only gets upset at imaginary restrictions of freedom:

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

“For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet,” Mr. Rogge told Agence France-Presse just two weeks ago. (The commies lied. Imagine that! --Silverfiddle)

Timesonline of London had the best take:

The 2008 Games will be held under the slogan “One World, One Dream”. As was only to be expected, the world and the dream will be defined by China. Hopes that the Olympics would change the People's Republic have been shown up as an illusion, just as the idea that economic progress would bring multiparty democracy on Western lines to China has been exploded by reality. The International Olympic Committee probably calculates that it has no alternative but to go along with all this. Now, as the Games reflect broader issues in China, the question is whether the IOC stands as a mirror for foreign governments' dealings with Beijing.

Reminds me of an old saying: Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas...

Government Sponsored Greed, Ignorance & Stupidity

Is your wallet feeling a little lighter? I'm not referring to your latest trip to the gas pump. President Bush just signed the gargantuan $300 Billion mortgage bill that bails out the stupid, the ignorant and the greedy. As a bonus, your government has now also shouldered a large percentage of mortgage failure risk.

Plain language: They just acted as cosigners for millions of home loans that are already in trouble. Is it any wonder our federal debt is approaching $10 Trillion?

My favorite senator, Dr. Tom Coburn, likes to remind us that spending other people's money is not generosity. Congress has a 9% approval rating while Senator Coburn's is around 60%. Hmmm...

Even the most flint hearted fiscal conservative agrees that we must help the wounded veteran, the aged, infirm and truly needy. But the goomer who bought too much house does not belong on that list.

If the president and our elected officials want to help such people, they should use their own money. After all, our congress has a much higher percentage of millionaires than the general population. Shoot, Teddy Kennedy could probably solve this "crisis" single-handedly with the cash pile he's sitting on. Get the Pelosis and the Feinsteins to kick in some San Fran cash and they could really make things happen! But no, it's so much more satisfying handing out other people's money. The power rush must be incredible.

Bottom Line: I bought a house I could afford; Boy do I feel stupid. You too? The government has a word for people like us: SUCKERS!

Obama & Pelosi: Political Godlings

Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are intelligent, hardworking politicians with boundless self-esteem. Uber-achievers that they are, they've abandoned pedestrian political dreams and instead are grasping at divinity:


Here's a Speaker Pelosi quote from Politico:

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

Here is a Senator Obama's quote upon his winning the nomination:

"I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

Does anyone remember a time, not so long ago, when such delusions of grandeur would be laughed off the public stage? What has happened to our politics, and what has happened to us as a nation when politicians can make such grandiose, messiah-complex statements and we just shrug it off? Especially given government's trail of bureaucratic failures and broken dreams.

Next year's projected budget deficit is almost a half-trillion dollars and the federal debt is approaching 10 trillion. We're sitting on natural resources that would bolster our economy while simultaneously allowing us to tell the petro-crooks to shove it while goring their cash cow in the process.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, a pro-abortion Catholic, is channeling Jesus while Obama plays Moses parting the Red Sea.

Hey, Nancy and Barack! Wanna play God? You can start a little closer to the ground by taming the government spending tempests and healing our energy woes with some unrestricted oil drilling.

Leave the world-saving and ocean lowering to God... or Poseidon.

Friendly GWOT Criticism

Roger Cohen features the opinion of Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store in a recent column.

The Norwegians are our friends and fellow NATO allies, but they have a different opinion on the Global War on Terrorism. I don't agree with Foreign Minister Store, but I respect his opinion because it is a cogent and charitable critique our strategy. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Norway’s message to the United States is blunt: the next administration, whether headed by Barack Obama or John McCain, should pronounce the war on terror over. Because it has tended to isolate the United States, polarize the world, inflate the enemy, conflate diverse movements and limit scope for dialogue, its time has passed.

Engaging, he insisted, does not mean lowering of requirements. It can be a means to set yardsticks, hold interlocutors accountable, and probe their thinking while surrendering nothing.

“Part of this ideology of the war on terror has been the United States doing things by themselves,” he said. “Now we in Europe and Norway must expect to be more actively engaged by Washington.” That will bring demands as well as opportunities.

I wish our childish politicians in this country could express their disagreements like Mr. Store does.

Iraq Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them

Here is the McCain quote that the Dems and the Obama Fan Club (aka the press), are using to simplistically claim that McCain is changing his position and agreeing with Obama, "proving" Mr. Obama right:

“He said it’s a pretty good timetable based on conditions on the ground,” Mr. McCain said. “I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal. But they have to be based on conditions on the ground. This success is very fragile. It’s incredibly impressive, but very fragile. So we know, those of us who have been involved in it for many years, know that if we reverse this, by setting a date for withdrawal, all of the hard-won victory can be reversed.”

LIE #1: Obama was right all along about withdrawing:
Obama and his Iraq 16-month timetable "plan" is like a three year old playing with crayons who accidentally spells the word "cat" among his random scrawlings. "Oh, Look honey, our little wonder kid is a genius!"

Responsible adults have known all along that at some point in time we would be 16 months (or 12 months, or 2 years) away from withdrawing. Unlike Mr. Obama, responsible adults have also said that a departure must be based on conditions on the ground.

Mr. Obama has been all timeline all the time: withdraw, pull-out, retreat, regardless of conditions on the ground. His reasoning seems to be that we are just making the situation worse. The surge has eroded the basis for that thinking, but some still cling to it.

Mr. McCain's position has been stay in it to win it. The surge has made it possible to now envision Mr. Obama's 16 Month timeline. Obama is the blind squirrel that found an acorn.

LIE #2: The Surge had nothing to do with the Sunni Awakening:
The Sunni Awakening had tenuous fits and starts before the surge, but it was not solidly consolidated until American firepower rolled in and convinced the Anbar Sunnis we were serious about a protective partnership. Google the news and you will see that even after the surge started early in 2007, nervous tribal chiefs were backing away and threatening to rejoin our enemies because they initially doubted our sincerity.

LIE #3: The Mahdi Army defeat was a "truce" that had nothing to do with the surge:
If we had followed Obama's timeline, we would now be out of Iraq. Does anybody seriously think the Mahdi Army would not now be doing the Jihadi Jig all over Iraq, drilling holes in the heads of their infidel Sunni enemies and seizing control of government? The Mahdi army got a good old fashioned butt whoopin' at the hands of the Iraqi Army we trained and now support.

Iraq is also meeting 15 of the 18 benchmarks congress set for them. Looks like the Iraqis are standing up as we stand down. Hmmm... Where have we heard that before?

Conclusion
McCain has agreed with Gen Petraeus all along that we should leave based on conditions on the ground. Policies developed by Gen Petreaus and boosted by McCain have brought Iraq to a point where we may just be able to pull much of our forces out in 16 months.

Meanwhile, during the last year and a half as this was playing out, Obama has been scrawling "16-months" with his crayon and saying the surge would fail. And now, Mr. Obama and his Hallelujah Choir in the press claim that he is right on Iraq?

That's Audacity!

Obamessiah

This is hilarious. Gerard Baker (one of the few pro-American conservatives left in England) of Times Online in London has written a brilliant piece parodying the messianic overtones of Obamania:

Here are a few excerpts:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

Read the whole thing here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece

-- Enjoy the Weekend!

Unvarnished Liberal Crap

Here's a great example of Unvarnished Liberal Crap, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times: Working Without a Net, by Peter Gosselin. This good man bleeds his heart out for the American family who, despite historic prosperity, still must cope with *Gasp!* risk. My fiskers are out, so let's break it down.

Working Americans and their families arrived on the doorstep of the current economic crisis uniquely ill-equipped to cope with its consequences. Rather than having gained a financial protective coating during the period of growth that preceded it, working families up and down the income spectrum were actually nudged further out on an economic limb and therefore were primed for being picked off once problems emerged.

So "working Americans" decided to squander all their gains rather than save something back. Who's fault is that?

Even as our incomes went up, economic risks -- the costs of being laid off, of suffering a work-stopping illness or of a catastrophe like a house fire -- that were once largely borne on the broad shoulders of business and government were being shifted onto the backs of ordinary families, from the working poor to the reasonably rich.

When did "the broad shoulders of of business and government" ever bear the burden of house fires and work-stopping illnesses? This is a classic "straw man" argument: Set up a non-existent enemy and argue against it.

... following a rash of disasters ... insurers phased out guaranteed replacement cost policies in favor of "extended replacement cost" policies. ... It is up to you to figure out what it would cost to rebuild your home. And it is up to you to keep your policy current.

Theoretically, you could do this job. But the industry's own estimates show that more than half of American homeowners simply have too much else going on in their lives to keep tabs on changing building codes, the fluctuating price of plywood or what carpenters and plumbers are making in their neighborhoods.

This is typical liberal, big-government, nanny-state condescension. "Poor thing! You shouldn't be saddled with those decisions about your home insurance! You can't do it yourself, let big brother take care of it for you." This is asinine. I adjust my insurance policy annually, all by myself! All I do is see what new homes in the area are selling for, add in the value of my stuff inside it, and insure my house for that amount. No looking up building codes, pricing lumber... And I do it all without the government's help! Look mama, I'm a big boy!

Similar changes -- with similar shifts of economic risk from business and government to families -- have occurred in retirement, where the switch from traditional pensions to 401(k)s has left individuals largely on their own to provide for old age.

So? The stock market consistently outperforms social security. Period. If I die, my family gets the money in my 401K--they certainly won't get the money I paid in to social security. Also, I guess the author is unaware of the massive pension shortfalls big companies are facing, not to mention pension fraud that leaves people with NOTHING! I would much rather handle my own retirement, thank you.

Similar changes have occurred in the way people pay for college education, where rocketing costs and the declining availability of federal grants have meant that most families can no longer pay as they go to send their kids to school, but must borrow. That's left parents more financially exposed. And it's meant that after they graduate, most young people are saddled with debt and, in many cases, must make a beeline to the best-paying jobs to help defray the costs of college.

When was this magical golden era when a family could "pay as you go" for a kid's education? Another bogus argument. Go complain to the overpriced universities! Maybe congress could drag "Big Education" through televised hearings and demand to know why they are gouging the consumer? Nah, they only do that to the big oil meanies. Finally, despite Michelle Obama's whining, I can think of many fates worse than graduating college with a degree and having some debt to pay off.

Some argue that in the new, globally competitive economy, U.S. business and government simply cannot afford to provide the kinds of protections against financial peril that they used to. Perhaps not. But that doesn't mean that we should automatically shunt the job of bearing these dangers to families alone. And it most assuredly doesn't mean that we should pass along the task without letting people know they've just been assigned the job of bearing a big new load of risk.

This last statement is liberalism in a nutshell; and it's what gets liberals elected. If you drink yourself into a stupor, lose your job, and drive your family to ruin, Big Government should be there to catch you when you fall, with my tax dollars. Some calamity befalls you, big business and Uncle Sam should shoulder the burden. Kids in college? Government should pay for that, too. There was a time when families actually saved back money for emergencies and budgeted for future expenses like college.

Not anymore. We buy houses we can't afford and burn through our credit cards buying trendy goodies, all the while whining about how bad things are in this country. Things go south and we expect our fellow taxpayers to subsidize our irresponsibility. That's liberalism, served up by politicians looking for votes, aided and abetted by thousands of media propagandists who churn out crap like this LA Times article, and your fellow citizens are snarfing it down like hogs at the trough.

Are you voting this November?

UN Gun Grabbers

Interesting read over at the Volokh Conspiracy concerning the UN's disdain for our 2nd Amendment. I've got just two quotes from the article here. I love the arrogance of this first one (we don't have to bow down to the UN? We're still free to make our own laws? Oh, Thank you, Mr. UN Poobah!)

“States remain free to have their own national legislation,” said Daniel Prins, chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs.

Here's another goodie. Stalin himself couldn't have said it better:

Citizens should only be allowed to own guns if they are given a government permit, and the permit should only be issued if there is a "good reason" for possession or or "genuine need." In particular, permits to own guns for self defense should not be issued unless the applicant proves that he is in immediate danger.

If you cherish the second amendment while looking upon the UN as the stinking dung heap it is, do yourself a favor and read the entire article, it's short and very well put together. http://volokh.com/posts/1216681864.shtml

Enjoy!

Dumb News, Funny Comment

WNBC out of New York features an article about kids getting burned on New York playgrounds because it's so hot. City council meetings have been held, parents are demanding signs be put up... It's a real crisis.

I guess people in New York don't know metal and asphalt got hot when the sun hits them. I'm waiting for a story this winter about a kid getting his tongue frozen to a metal flagpole. That'll probably make the front page.

Anyway, the best part of this dumb article was the comments section. Here is a comment from a nanny state nurtured Canadian, Victor Hallstrom, who demands a government solution. It's followed by my favorite comment, which comes from Texas Rick, of Lake Zurich, Illinois.

First, the Canadian's comment:

This is a disgrace. Clear negligence on part of those city officials. Why would NYC leave itself open to major lawsuits from parents of injured children? What sort of people wouldn't act immediately to solve this problem when it was brought to their attention a year ago? Not only should they be fired, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for willful endangerment of minors causing grievous bodily harm. Where's the Mayor in all this? Why doesn't he act to protect our City's most vulnerable citizens?

Texas Rick, from Lake Zurich, Illinois responded:

Spoken like a true Canadian Victor. Let's get government to step in and do everything for us so we will never ever have to face the prospect of disappointment or accidents, etc. Maybe you socialist clowns at the northern branch office are used to bending over everytime the government needs money to ensure utopia, but down here, it goes over like sandpaper toilet tissue. Unfortunately,**** happens in life and no matter how big government gets, it will never be be able to save people from themselves and the sooner you learn to accept that, the better off you will be.

Who says Americans aren't helpful?

Obama Hits the Bullseye Blindfolded

For Mr. Obama, all the world is a stage, with a fawning press cheering him on. Grim theaters of battle where America's bravest fight and die to bring order out of chaos are but dramatic backdrop.

It's been a breathless torrent of dispatches since Mr. Obama departed on the overseas tour that will magically bestow foreign policy credentials upon him.

Obama backers and the press (but I repeat myself) insist that Iraqi PM Maliki's apparent embrace of a 16 month timeline proves that Obama was right all along. This assertion is illogical and selective. Obama has been relentlessly pushing the 16 month timeline for over a year. Was he right when he first proposed it, insisting at the time that the surge would fail?

Obama is like the man who, day and night, continues to loudly announce (wrongly), "It's eight p.m.!" and when the clock finally strikes eight, he shouts, "Aha! I told you it was eight pm!"

Of course, the O-Man is too polished to shout, his press lackeys do that for him.

Meanwhile, Maliki spokesmen have tried to back down from the comments that appear to support Obama's position: Excerpt from CNN:

But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

Der Spiegel stands by its story, pointing out that the translating was done by Maliki's own guy. Here's what they and all reporters leave out: Arabic is much more difficult to translate than German or French. It is a very subtle language and its speakers often express themselves in flowery circumlocutions, stating what they wish reality was while downplaying unpleasant truths.

This also explains the apparent schizophrenic poll results from Iraq. Everybody wants the US out. But they want us to stay. The simple explanation is that Iraqis don't like foreigners on their soil, which they express loudly, but they know deep down that a too-rapid departure would quickly bring a descent into hell on a greased rail.

John McCain brass-knuckled the Pentagon and the White House into accepting a strategy change, and our brilliant military machine made it happen. Obama spoke some words that had no effect on strategy. He opposed the surge and now wants to claim he is "right" on Iraq.

That's Audacity.

Paris USA

Finntann wrote in his blog about the decline of 'Civil-ization' in this country. While the polite still outnumber the rude, the ranks of the latter are growing.

Closely related to the rude are those who think the rules don't apply to them, or who have become successful but are resentful of having had to work so hard for it. Just look at the financial mess we are in: The rules didn't apply to the politicians and their crony capitalist friends. Next we have anger and resentment from those who have overcome poverty and racism to get where they are today. Millionaire Michelle Obama is a perfect example:

“You’re looking at a young couple that’s just a few years out of debt,” Obama said. “See, because, we went to those good schools, and we didn’t have trust funds.”

We are the land of self-inflated entitlement: "I want it all and I want it now. I deserve it." No further explanation necessary.

My explanation? We are a conglomeration of self-absorbed entities casually bumping into one another. Sense of community is rapidly becoming a quaint ideal practiced only in small town America, where, according to certain elitists, the benighted hicks cling to their racism, guns and bibles.

We also don't realize that we are the spoiled rich brats living off of, and squandering, the inheritance of our forbears. No appreciation, just "give me the keys to the Beemer, Dad." And we drive off in ignorant bliss.

The freedoms we enjoy were bought and paid for with the blood of patriots. This economy, still the envy of the world despite current glitches, didn't just build itself. Capitalists and financiers, small business owners, inventors, and sinewy laborers built this nation by the sweat of their brow.

Conservatives will say the downhill slide started when we abandoned the ethos that taught: "You don't work, you don't eat," and they are right.

Progressives will say that capitalism without morals or rules has fueled rampant greed that is destroying our society, and they are right.

Cotton Mather said it best:

Virtue begat prosperity, and the daughter killed the mother.

Wisdom for the Weekend: Hippies -vs- History

The hippie generation taught us to laugh at the parents and grandparents who defeated America's enemies, bought us our first car and paid for our college. The hippies brought us social acceptance of drug use which spawned death and wrecked families; sexual freedom that imprisons human dignity; a sneering condescension for the squirrel that hoards his nuts against a hard winter.

The hippie generation has defied the wisdom of the ages by redefining family, gender, and marriage. They even tried killing off God! How stupid is all of mankind that came before them! We are now suffering the rotten fruits of their pot smoking, sex crazed self-indulgence.

G.K. Chesterton was a great thinker of the 19th and early 20th century. He spoke of the thought that kills all thoughts; and that's what these aging hippies, ensconced in their Hollywood studios, ivory towers of academe, and marbled halls of governance are trying to do: Kill our old fashioned thoughts. Kill our thoughts of loving and serving God, self-reliance, patriotism, morality. His words still apply today:

The peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought.

It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a skeptic, you must sooner or later ask yourself the question, "Why should anything go right; even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?"

The young sceptic says, "I have a right to think for myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says, "I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all."

There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.

Don't let them stop your thoughts.

Socialism Disguised as Capitalism

People smarter than me are saying it so it must be true: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are socialist institutions nursing at the teat of government. They are privately owned companies backed by our tax dollars, which encourages the "capitalists" running them to take imprudent risks.

Here's an excerpt by Terence Corcoran's article in Canada's National Post.

...turns out not to be rampant capitalism but out of control back-door socialism.

There is nothing free market about the two American mortgage backers, hybrid institutions created by the U.S. government to support mortgages and make home buying easier and more affordable for Americans. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, prodded by Congress and regulators, socialized trillions of dollars of mortgage risk on the backs of U. S. taxpayers. Along with dozens of other U. S. government programs that lured American's into a home-buying frenzy, the two institutions -- now getting even more socialist backing from Washington -- stand among the leading creators of the U. S. mortgage and credit crisis.

So what do we do about them now? Kill them! (Freddie and Fannie, that is.) That's what Holman Jenkins suggest in his WSJ article.

The obvious solution is to nationalize Fannie and Freddie and break them up. Sell off their regional underwriting offices to private investors. Don't heed any guff about how Fannie and Freddie are "vital to the functioning of the U.S. housing market." Houses would still need to be financed, and the private sector would jump at a chance to get the solid, triple-A business that Fannie and Freddie now monopolize. Indeed, there's evidence that their implicit subsidy never flowed through to homebuyers anyway, but was captured by their shareholders and managers.

So how did these crony capitalists, these socialist welfare queen moochers disguised as free marketeers get by with it? They were in bed with federal government officials who love taking your money and giving it away to others, or in this case, using it to back shaky home loans to people who were not financially ready for home ownership. Politico breaks it down for us here.

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions.

They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Repubican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House. (Silverfiddle note: McCain's man lobbied for the institutions, but Obama's man was a little higher up the food chain: He was the CEO of Fannie Mae, leaving in 1998 with a golden parachute.)

Fannie and Freddie’s aggressive political maneuvering has helped stave off increased regulation and preserve special benefits such as exemption from state and local income taxes and the ability to borrow at low rates.

There you have it: State sponsored socialism, all in the name of doing good and helping people...

The crony capitalists and Wall Street banksters seem to be well served by our government. How about you?

Good News! We'll all be Millionaires Soon!

Bad News: A million dollars won't be worth a bucket of spit. Think it can't happen here?

Consider Argentina: The corrupt, incompetent colossus of South America. It has lucrative farming operations, abundant fertile land, natural resources and universities, but it is an economic basket case. It wasn't always like this. 100 years ago Argentina enjoyed one of the top 10 global economies and was a powerful, respected nation. Those evil twins, Corruption and Socialist Statism, got the best of them.

Still think it can't happen here? Consider what our Socialist Interventionist government is doing:

- Bailing out the Wall Street welfare queens (formerly known as capitalists)
- Bailing out people who bought more house than they could afford
- Bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
- Bribing taxpayers with free money and calling it a "Stimulus Package"
- Putting our nation further in debt to continue this unbridled spending spree
- We're sitting on enough oil, gas and coal to tell the world to get bent, but thanks to congress, we continue to sit on it
- Wind, solar, hydrogen. Like the weather, everybody talks about it but nobody does anything. Hey government! Got Energy Policy?

Adding fuel to the fire, Senator Chuck Schumer, in an act both venal and stupid, caused a good old fashioned bank run. Panicked citizens, apparently not realizing their deposits were federally insured, lined up demanding their money, ala "It's a Wonderful Life," although I doubt this story will end with everyone happily singing Auld Lang Syne.

Speaking of bank runs, if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go under and require government money to save them, we are in big trouble:

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee $5 trillion of mortgages, nearly half of all U.S. mortgages." (Reuters)

This particular crisis was caused by, you guessed it, government policy. Presidents Clinton and Bush, egged on by congress, established irresponsible policies that encouraged home ownership by people who had no business owning one. Of course, this scheme was funded with our tax dollars. Here's an excerpt from reuters:

"Efforts that began in the Clinton White House and continued through the Bush administration to boost home ownership, particularly among Americans in minority groups and with lower incomes, were what helped drive a surge in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac activity. Supporters in Congress egged them on."

Oh, and Speaker Pelosi wants to hand out more free money. Congressional approval is below 10% and elections are less than 4 months away. Coincidence? You decide...

And for my progressive friends who want me to include "President Bush's wars" in the financial toll, I remind you that Democrats voted for both wars but then didn't have the rocks to back their vote when the Nut Roots went crazy. If these same politicians had stood up for what they voted for instead of stabbing the president in the back at every turn, both wars would be won now and our troops would be home.

Free Market Capitalism works. Socialism fails. History has taught us that. Capitalism built every successful economy on the globe, including ours. If you want to blame conservatives for something, blame them for a lack of regulation. They forgot that Capitalism without a moral code is a jungle. Adam Smith, the proto-capitalist of "Invisible Hand" fame, told us so 200 years ago.

So here's my suggestion. Let the greedy and the stupid fail: It will put them where they belong and serve as a lesson to the rest of us. Let the conservatives plan laissez fair economic policy and let the progressives be the watchdog. Having a liberal on each shoulder should teach those Wall Street Bankster pigs a lesson! And, as a bonus, liberals will be performing a useful function besides just nagging and protesting. Finally, American Citizen, have enough pride in yourself to tell your candy man congresswoman and senator to shove it next time they dangle goodies in front of you. You have to live by a budget, demand they do the same.

It beats the hell out of being an Argentinian millionaire.

New Yorker: Too Sophisticated for its Audience

This was done by liberals, at the expense of liberals, for the entertainment of liberals. Imagine the firestorm of outrage if a conservative publication had engaged in such lampooning!

It was supposed to poke fun at the those right wing racists by parodying their unenlightened, caveman beliefs. Apparently, the irony was lost on the target audience. The Obama campaign was less than amused and his supporters in the press are in a tizzy.

Perhaps this hit a little too close to home? Think about it. If he and Michelle had been portrayed as say, John and Teresa Kerry, do you think the uproar would be as loud?

Bush and Cheney must be behind this somehow, probably Halliburton, too.

At least the New Yorker didn't threaten to cut his giblets out.

Reagan's Wisdom: Antidote to Liberalism

As we fight the slide to Socialism and goodies giveaways by our elected "leaders" it is useful to return to the words of Ronald Reagan. I get frustrated arguing with those who think liberal government policies will solve our problems.

Liberalism is easy: Every problem can be solved by government. Can't pay for health care? Uncle Sam will pick up the tab. Poor? Here, have this money Uncle Sugar shook out of somebody else's pockets. Confused by too many choices in the marketplace? Bureaucrats will make those decisions for you. Protectionism, paternalism, leveling the playing field. It all sounds so attractive, and it makes people feel good.

Conservatism, on the other hand, takes thought. Where will the money for government handouts come from? What would happen if you take away incentive to work or make money? What would happen to personal initiative if government took care of everybody and shielded us from those tough decisions? If people had no more incentive and no more initiative, what would happen to our country?

Ronald Reagan, a man much greater and wiser than I, addressed all these issues decades ago. His solutions, drawn from the wisdom of the ages, healed a malaise-ridden nation whose economy had been made moribund by a half-century of liberal policies.

American Rhetoric, an on-line speech bank, has the complete text of a speech President Reagan gave at Hillsdale College. You can read the text or even listen to a recording of the speech. It will refresh your belief in free enterprise and restock your armory for doing battle with the feel-good liberals. You can read the entire text or listen to the speech here.

Here are a few excerpts:

But how much are we to blame for what has happened? Beginning with the traumatic experience of the Great Depression, we the people have turned more and more to government for answers that government has neither the right nor the capacity to provide. But government, as an institution, always tends to increase in size and power, not just this government -- any government. It's built-in. And so government attempted to provide the answers.

Ludwig von Mises said that, "Government is the only agency that can take a perfectly useful commodity like paper, smear it with some ink, and render it absolutely useless."

There’s a fellow in Indiana with a shop. He’s got seven employees. At the front and back of his tiny shop there was a twelve foot door -- each end. OSHA has just told him he has to install exit signs in the event that a new employee might become confused in case of fire and not be able to find his way out. He asked a pretty logical question. He said if he can’t see a twelve foot door, how’s he going to see that exit sign?

You know, it has been said that politics is the second oldest profession, and I've come to realize over the last few years, it bears a great similarity to the first.

But, you know, if you lose your economic, you lose your political freedom, all freedom. Freedom is something that cannot be passed on in the blood stream, or genetically. And it's never more than one generation away from extinction. Every generation has to learn how to protect and defend it, or it's gone and gone for a long, long time.

Already, many of us, particularly those in business and industry, there are too many who have switched rather than fight. And it's time that particularly, some of our corporations learned, that when you get in bed with government, you're going to get more than a good night's sleep.

Beer and A Joke for the Weekend

George Will has written a scholarly but highly readable (does he ever write any other way?) treatise on the benefits of beer and it's role in human survival throughout history. This reminded me of a joke I got in an e-mail awhile back about Beer, Conservatives, and Liberals. I apologize in advance to my liberal friends; it's just a joke :)

Beer, Conservatives & Liberals: A History Lesson

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: 1. Liberals; and 2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement. Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided. Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off.

Move On Mom: America's Worst

Once again, MoveOn.org brings us the very worst of America: A woman who wants all of America's benefits with none of the sacrifice.

This is a well-crafted piece of propaganda that is sure to resonate with the soft-headed in this country. No parent relishes the thought of a child of any age fighting and dying in a war, but we must also consider this sad but true quote by Thomas Jefferson:

"The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Not Alex

Don't worry lady: This is America! You can enjoy all this beautiful country has to offer, and we won't require any sacrifice of you. There is a long, unbroken line of patriotic men and women who have kept this country safe and will continue to keep you and your baby safe whether you like it or not.

Got Freedom? Thank a Soldier!

Conservatives Really are Happier

Conservatives really are nicer than Liberals. They're happier too, according to the General Social Survey. Peter Schweitzer has written a provocative article on the subject in The Daily Mail. You can read the full article here.

Here are some sample questions and responses:

Is it your obligation to care for a seriously injured/ill spouse or parent, or should you give care only if you really want to?
Of those describing themselves as 'conservative', 71 per cent said it was. Only 46 per cent of those on the Left agreed.

Do you get happiness by putting someone else's happiness ahead of your own?
55 per cent of those who said they were 'very conservative' said Yes, compared with 20 per cent of those who were 'very liberal'.

When asked by the World Values Survey whether parents should sacrifice their own well-being for those of their children, those on the Left were nearly twice as likely to say No.

Most surprising of all is reputable research showing those on the Left are more interested in money than Right-wingers.

He also observes those on the left seem more obsessed with self and feelings. Clinton-era navel gazing and a glance at Michelle Obama's college thesis confirm these observations.

Honor Killing in Georgia

Unassimilated immigrants will destroy this country.

I don't mind letting legal immigrants in, but they've got to leave the head cutting and 6th century obscurantism and misogyny at the door. Oh, and learn English while you're at it! Especially if you anticipate that your petty bigotry and overinflated sense of "honor" will land you in front of a judge.




Fox News

Illegal Tuition

More states are denying in-state tuition rates to the "undocumented." File this under "B" for Boo hoo. Is there any other country on the planet that extends billions in benefits to those who break in illegally? The US stands for Uncle Sucker. But more states are wising up (or getting meaner, according to illegal immigrant coddlers). Here's an excerpt from USA Today:

Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students.

In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school in the state. That represents a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for such students.

Here's my favorite quote from the article. Somebody needs to tell Rep Harrison that it's not generosity if you hand out other people's money :

Helping them is "the right thing to do even if it's unpopular," says North Carolina state Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat who introduced a bill that would prevent state institutions from asking about students' immigration status.

You can read the whole article here.

Prime Minister Brown tells families: 'Stop wasting food'

Yes, you read it right... the head of a prosperous, democratic government scolded his subjects about food wasting. People are starving in China!

Of course, as children we all wanted to sass to our mothers, "Then let's put the leftovers in a box and mail it to them!" Which would have gotten us a now-illegal spanking.

And that is what this is all about... governments that treat us like children. A nanny state mentality.

Could it be that when government takes over raising children through public schooling, provides a safety net wherever we go and do, that a whole nation becomes one of adults who think like children? It has happened in the UK and is spreading to the US.

The fact is that governments have created this food crisis through food-to-ethanol programs and not allowing the exploration of oil. Then they have the gall to tell us to conserve!

Fertilizer is made from fossil fuels. These costs have gone through the roof as of late, which will manifest itself on the supermarket shelf.

And speaking of fertilizer, let's get back to Prime Minister Brown. Here's a list of what this patronizing government has banned:

Junk food commercials
Smoking in bars
Certain video games
Throwing your trash out - without separating plastics
Knives
Guns
Fighting back during a home invasion
Children going to fast food restaurants

White goalposts in soccer fields
Pencil cases banned at school

Foam swimming aids in pools

Meatballs taken off school menus

Fire extinguishers

Suncream banned over allergy fears (don't worry - UK socialised medicine will attend to your skin cancer - someday)

And the list goes on and on...

What is needed is a spirit of resistance. The guts to tell a bureaucrat NO.

I recall the story of a friend of mine speaking with the county planner. "So what kind of teeth do you have?" my friend asked in regards to a building permit. The bureaucrat looked dumbfounded. "I ask again, what kind of teeth does your office have?!" The public servant meekly confessed he didn't have much enforcement power. My friend went on to build the structure regardless of the forms to fill out.

That's the kind of guts we need - to do what we morally need to do in life, even if it tweaks some meddling bureaucrat the wrong way.

Just say no to the nannyists.

"A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves."
- Bertrand de Jouvenal

Hugh Farnham

An Apostate President & BDS Sufferers

Mr. Obama is an apostate, according to the pious headcutters who want to kill us. Even this fact doesn't convince the BDS sufferers that terrorism is a real threat. I was arguing with them over at the Washington Post. The subject was Guantanamo, and the the anti-Bush vitriol was at full froth.

Although I think the president's terrorism strategy is open to legitimate criticism, I just can't understand the red-faced, diaper rash ranting Bush hatred. I also cannot understand how someone can mock the terrorist threat as an invention of Bush, Cheney, and those evil neocons.

It was a dangerous world before Mr. Bush became president, and it will still be dangerous when he leaves office. A little Googling confirms this.

So what's the solution? The wackadoos attacking the president never seem to get that far. Can we at least agree on a constitutionally ironclad approach to terrorism that is politically and diplomatically viable?

You think things are bad now, wait until we have an apostate president.

Independence Day

Happy 4^th of July. Enjoy the long weekend, but please pause to remember those who fought and died to make that enjoyment possible. Freedom is never free.

A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
-- Thomas Jefferson, Rights of British America, 1774

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
-- John Adams

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.
-- Abraham Lincoln

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
-- Ronald Reagan

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
-- Ronald Reagan

It Has Always Been The Soldier.
It is the soldier,
not the President who gives us democracy.
It is the soldier,
not the Congress who takes care of us.
It is the soldier,
not the Reporter who has given us Freedom of Press.
It is the soldier,
not the Poet who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier,
not the campus Organizer who has given us the
Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag;
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag.

(Father Dennis O'Brien, US Marine Corp. Chaplain)

Poem Source: http://www.vfwpost1503.org/it's_the_soldier.html
Founding Fathers Source: http://www.foundingfathers.info/

One More Reason to Vote McCain

So John McCain roughed up a Sandinista back in the 80's. Senator Thad Cochran (a political enemy) says it's true, McCain denies it. Here's an excerpt from My Way News describing the incident in Managua:

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said in an interview with The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever ...

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy ... and he just reached over there and snatched ... him."

I don't know why McCain is denying it. He should embrace it: "Yeah, I jerked that stupid commie out of his stinkin' chair... and if any of those punk neo-commies here in this country give me any crap as president, I'll teach them a lesson too!" That's how you get votes.

Religious Tolerance in America

The NY Times reports that we are a quite religiously tolerant nation, thank you. I'm proud of that. I am a religious man. I'll talk about it to anyone who asks, but I don't see any reason to be obnoxious about it. Three points in the article caught my attention and serve to highlight the anti-religious bigotry that thrives at that intolerant leftist flagship known as the New York Times:

"The findings seem to undercut the conventional wisdom that the more religiously committed people are, the more intolerant they are, scholars who reviewed the survey said."

Hmmm... those smug religious nuts aren't so intolerant after all!

“It’s not that Americans don’t believe in anything,” said Michael Lindsay, assistant director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University. “It’s that we believe in everything. We aren’t religious purists or dogmatists.”

He's taking aggregate data gathered on a population sample and applying it to each person in the population, a big logic error. It doesn't follow that each individual has many beliefs because the aggregate group expresses many beliefs.

“It could be that people are not very well educated and they are not expressing mature theological points of view,” said Todd Johnson, director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Slam! You religious nuts don't even know what you believe!

Here's my two cents: Like most Americans, I interact with a religiously diverse community in my daily dealings, and have done so all my adult life. I'm too busy working out my own salvation to worry over the salvation of others. Besides, I'm not God: It would be very presumptuous of me to wield the Lord's winnowing fan. I know what I believe, and I believe it to be true, otherwise I would be looking for a new house of worship. This survey shows that other Americans share my attitude.

We Americans have learned to be tolerant because we are religiously diverse. The alternative would be chaos. We've learned how to disagree with one another without cutting off heads or blowing things up. We also know that our God is bigger than some buffoon who mocks him by crafting religious icons of elephant dung or submersing a crucifix in a jar of urine. I am not the flaming sword of God. Yes, I should defend my religious beliefs, and even share them when appropriate. But no, I don't need to kill anyone to make my point.

It's no surprise the NY Times just doesn't get it. They still think terrorism is all President Bush's fault. And after all, he's a religious nut.

Link: NY Times Article on Religious Tolerance