Real Hope

Liberal bureaucracies are crumbling worldwide, their promises as empty as the people who defend them
 
Obama's magic spell is broken, the hopium smoke is dissipating...  Presidential approval has cracked 50%, going down.

Support for Obama and the Pelosicrats' Soviet Style Health Care Monstrosity is sinking fast.  Only 35% support this monument to lying and irresponsibility.

Economic suicide upon the altar of Gaia looks less and less likely.  Only 35% of Americans support Senator Boxer's Cap and Trade lunacy.

Millionaire mushy middler Mort Zuckermann elucidates the national mood:

In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll, Americans were asked which economic issue facing the country concerns them the most. Deficit reduction ruled over health care. Half were prepared to defer spending or to spend less, even if it meant extending the recession.

CAN THE GOP CAPITALIZE?

Europeans are making painful decisions and slashing spending. 
Lefties in America love pointing to some European program and asking why we aren't doing it.  Now it's the GOP's turn.  Republicans should ask, "Why aren't we reducing government budgets like our European friends? 

'Kill Bill' and start from scratch on Health Reform

Charles Krauthammer provides clarity, as usual:

The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health-care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions.

The better choice is targeted measures that attack the inefficiencies of the current system one by one -- tort reform, interstate purchasing and taxing employee benefits. It would take 20 pages to write such a bill, not 2,000 -- and provide the funds to cover the uninsured without wrecking both U.S. health care and the U.S. Treasury.

Keep asking, "How are you going to pay for it?"

The GOP needs candidates who are not afraid to crap in the DC punchbowl.  McCain should have done it it 2008; at the time, he was the only one crusty enough to credibly pull it off.

Now, one year and trillions of dollars later, every Republican politicians should be focusing on fiscal sanity like a laser beam.   

Stand with the heroes, Fight the Zeros!

Hide The Decline

Liberals are so entertaining, what with their beliefs in fairy tales like global warming...  

Minnesotans for Global Warming give the e-mailing science scammers a royal roasting in this parody "Hide the Decline," a takeoff of Tommy James and the Shondell's "Draggin the Line."

Climategate: Believers in Denial

The Warmists are circling the medicine show wagons.  A plucky digital Toto pulled back the curtain to reveal The Global Warming Wizards as just another cabal of fudging humbugs.

James Delingpole has a great summary of the fallout so far.  Here's a snark sample, where he lampoons one of the guilty scientist's excuse:

“The use of the term ‘hiding the decline’ was in an email written in haste,”

Which does make you wonder how the sentence would have read had he just had a little longer to type it correctly. “Hiding the sausage?” “Heeding the decline?”

Go read the whole piece Here.

Gerald Warner also has a good update in The Telegraph.  Conservative and libertarian Brits, so tired of being dictated to for so long, are relishing this scandal even more that conservative Americans are:

Fox News, Barack Obama’s Nemesis, is now on the case, trampling all over Al Gore’s organic vegetable patch and breaking the White House windows.

At the more domestic level, the proposed ban on incandescent light bulbs, so supinely accepted in this servile state of Britain, is now provoking a huge backlash in America.

US citizens do not like the government coming into their houses and putting their lights out. Voters may not understand the cut and thrust of climate debate at the technical level, but they know when the Man from Washington has crossed their threshold uninvited.

Go read Warner's short article here. Check out the reader comments as well. They are entertaining and heartening. Many Europeans still look to the US and take hope from the heroic resistance of common sense conservative and libertarian Americans.

Attention Angry Shoppers!

Another Thanxmas shopping season, another collection of news stories about social retards who don't know how to behave in public...

People in other parts of the world fight over food, water or religious freedoms; we fight over DVD players and toys

Store employees are to blame when two women get in a fight over a pair of discounted pajamas.  Just like...

... Teachers are to blame because our kids behave like spoiled brats, little sluts, and junior gangbangers.

... George Bush is to blame when people too benumbed by corrupt liberal governance don't know how to get out of the way of a hurricane

... People who dis Islam are to blame when wild-eyed radicals slash, bomb and burn

It's called personal responsibility.  People who don't know how to behave should be jailed or cast out beyond the pale of civilized society.

Bad Things are Good for You!

Feeling guilty about all that oveindulging you did on Thanksgiving? 

Me neither, but many Americans are.  Nagging nannies constantly wag their fingers at us telling to stop eating this, stop doing that...  It's enough to drive you crazy, so just ignore them and do what you want.

For those who still feel guilty, here's good news, courtesy of my buddy Larry in Paradise:

Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You

10.  Beer

9.   Anger

8.   Coffee

7.   LSD (with caveats!)

6.   Sunlight

5.   Maggots

4.   Marijuana (for medicinal purposes only!)

3.   Red Wine

2.   Chocolate

1.   Sex

Go to Live Science to see the rationale behind the list.

Beer, anger, sex and coffee are all great, but engineering on LSD or pot could run the train off the rails...

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?

A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.

Seven things We Can Be Thankful For

From that citadel of conservatism, The Heritage Foundation.  Written by Amanda Reinecker.

As we gather with family and friends to celebrate our blessings at Thanksgiving, we should remember how fortunate we Americans are to live in a free and just nation.

America was founded upon sound conservative principles grounded firmly in human nature and not in radical idealism. And today, we see that these principles, though under attack from the Left, are still very much alive. 

"While we are committed to upholding religious liberty, we remain one nation under God."

 Here are the seven things Amanda says we can be thankful for:

1. The United States Constitution

2. America's Armed Forces

3. Conservative America

4. Growing Conservative Momentum

5. The Sputtering Liberal Agenda

6. Conservative Victories

7. A New Heritage Milestone (membership growth!)

I've just summarized this short, upbeat article.  Please go read the whole thing here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Witches and Trannies and Crosses, Oh My!

ROME (AP) - Europe's court of human rights said Tuesday the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and education freedoms, prompting an angry reaction from the Catholic Church and government officials in Rome.

So what brought this on?  A pinched harridan moved down from frigid Finland and didn't want Christ crucified soiling the eyes of her little grade-school God-haters.

She should jump on her broom and take her little winged-monkeys back to her cold, humorless frozen kingdom where God won't bother her. 

This is my problem with immigration (and liberal invasions)

Would you move to Israel and demand they remove the Star of David from everything?  Would you attempt a cattle roundup in Calcutta?  Would you move to Saudi Arabia and demand the guy in the tower shut up because it's disturbing your hog roast?

Of course not.  You respect the culture because it's not your home, it's theirs.  But every kook and nutball can invade a Christian enclave and demand all vestiges of that religion be removed, regardless of historical significance.

Invasions bring honor killings and liberalism, destroying society
If you like good old-fashioned 7th century honor killings, stay in your armpit of a country and don't come to America. 

Do you enjoy unbridled liberalism that morally and financially bankrupts all in its path while coddling bums and criminals?  Then stay in California! 

Tech Crunch shows us where this leads: 

... all was rosy for the next two years until a female transgender employee joined the group Bara worked for. Bara’s boss, a woman named Pam Sohn, allegedly made inappropriate comments about this woman, and ridiculed her sexual preference.

Bara complained about the comments to Sohn, who Bara says turned on him and began to treat him, and the other men in the office unfairly. Bara, who is a member of the Wiccan religion, also said that Sohn made inappropriate comments directed towards him about witches and his religion that made him feel uncomfortable.

For example, Sohn would sing The Wizard of Oz’s “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead.”

There is no right to not be offended.  Just as a Christian or a Jew.

European Court - Italian Crucifixes
Google - Multicultural Mashup

Global Warming Hacked

Global Warming stands at the crossroads of scientific tomfoolery and economic ignorance.

Now, with the hacking of one of the principle citadels of this world wide fraud, the jig may be up for the global warming swindlers, according to James Delingpole. 

The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed after a hacker broke into the computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (aka Hadley CRU) and released 61 megabites of confidential files onto the internet. (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)

He shares some damning evidence in his excellent article.  These are actual quotes from the "scientists":

Manipulation of evidence:

I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.

Private doubts about whether the world really is heating up:

The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.

The Washington Post has a short piece on this here:  WaPo - Climate Fudge Factory Hacked

Loony Left:  We shall not be moved (despite the evidence of fraud)
None of this matters to the left.  Can't let facts get in the way of a good global scam.  Self-described "Environmental Strategist" Andrew Winston is a typical fount of nonsense: 

we need a cap and price on carbon so we can compete and innovate. 

This is nonsensical, so he elaborates:

Without a cost on carbon and some restrictions on total emissions, the "externality" that is climate change won't be priced into our investment decisions.

In other words, we need to make the cost of fossil fuels artificially high so inefficient, pie-in-the-sky "green technologies" can compete.  Jack up everybody's light bill to line Al Gore's pockets.  Go ahead Dems, run on that in 2010.

"Talk to a climate change believer long enough and they will eventually get around to saying the earth has too many people.  Well then, they should go first!"
--Ann McElheinney (Anti-enviro heroine)

Not Evil, Just Wrong
Telegraph - Delingpole

Bushanomics

** Unhinged DeviledEgg Rant Alert! **

The man who destroyed capitalism in order to save it announced the launch of The George Bush Center for Big Government and Big Business: 

Former President George W. Bush, outlining plans for a new public policy institute, on Thursday said America must fight the temptation to allow the federal government to take control of the private sector, declaring that too much government intervention will squelch economic recovery and expansion.

This is the man who authorized the largest transfer ever of taxpayer funds from the US Treasury to the pockets of Wall Street banksters and corrupt corporate crybabies disguised as capitalists.

"As the world recovers, we will face a temptation to replace the risk-and-reward model of the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control. History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much,"

This is the man who presided over more government growth than Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev combined!

Folks, George Bush is a great guy, buuuut...
... He's not the figure 21st century conservatives should rally 'round.  He has no credibility on free market capitalism or small government.  The role of government when he was in office was to roll over everything in its path.  He presided over eight years of private sector-big business-big government orgies that brought us to where we are now.  

Worst of all, he burdened us with TSA, Thousands Standing Around.  That alone is an impeachable offense in my book!

It pains me to say this.  Silverfiddle begged me not to say it.  He was in the military during his administration, and he says it literally felt like it was the military, President Bush, and good-hearted Americans against the world.  

God bless President Bush, but he's a relic of the past.  Trying to defend his crony capitalism and big government policies is a quagmire all good conservatives should avoid.

WashTimes - Bush Center for Big Government and Big Business

Krugman's Voodoo Statistics: A kid throws rocks at Reagan's Monument

Paul Krugman Criticizes Reaganomics 
Here's how to defend it

Blogger buddy Ben Franklin would say, "Paul Krugman is a douche." I won't say that, but I do take issue with his criticism of the Reagan years.  

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Krugman proves that a crafty, beady-eyed man with some education man can make statistics say whatever he wants them to. It's all about how you aggregate or disaggregate them and how wide or narrow an angle your snapshot captures.  

He showcases the blazing hot growth of the 50's and 60's that was the inevitable result of post-WW II rebuilding, and then criticizes Reagan because his growth didn't measure up to this impossible-to-maintain pace.

So why does Fama (Eugene Fama, who trumpets the irrefutable success of Reaganomics) believe that something wonderful happened around 1980? Part of it, I suspect, is that in his milieu the politically correct thing is to pretend that nothing good happened until Reagan came along.

Sorry: there’s no measure I can think of by which the U.S. economy has done better since 1980 than it did over an equivalent time span before 1980. It may be something you’ve heard, it may be something you’d like to believe, but it just didn’t happen.

Post WW II Economic Boom Was An Historic Anomaly  
All true, I'm sure, but Dr. Krugman fails to provide a contextual backdrop. Our WW2 and post-WW2 economic and population boom is a historical anomaly. With the rest of the world in economic ruins, the US cleaned up exporting goods to help them rebuild. This rebuilding spurred astronomical growth rates in economies worldwide, and the US enjoyed an unprecedented share of the spoils. 

As Europe came roaring back and Asia climbed out of third-world status, our share of the global economy naturally shrank. The 70's was an era of economic decay, marking the end of the post-war rebuilding boom. US businesses, fat, dumb and happy, got complacent and lost even more market share. The result was more high unemployment, raging stagflation and high interest rates. Reagan and Volker turned it around.

Krugman is an Intellectually Dishonest Liberal Political Hack  
Blame Reagan? Ha! Sounds like political sour grapes to me. This is why Mr. Krugman may know economics, but he loses all credibility when he strays into political commentary. His misuse of statistics and his Nobel to manipulate public opinion is unconscionable. He's a charlatan. Some would even call him a douche...

NY Times - Krugman
NRO Store

Democrats Advance Soviet Style Agenda

Congratulations to Harry and the Pelosicrats for advancing Dear Leader's Long March!  

That $300 million bribe to Senator Landrieu was classic!  Chicago Democratic machine politics comes to Washington...  Lord only knows what dirty deals will never see the light of day...

Here we are in the age of hyper-freedom.  Top 40 DJs who told us what to listen to are a thing of the past.  Fan clubs?  What's that?  You can start your own site dedicated to whatever or whoever you want on the internet.

Those Nostalgic Democrats!
We're in the age of iPods, indy music, facebook, ultimate internet freedoms, customizable mortgages and car loans...  And the Dems rock it old school by unabashedly advancing a we-say-so, one-size-fits-all monument to Soviet-style central planning.

Kids too young to remember the 70's will now get to relive them!

Obamacare

Sent to me by a NASCAR fan. Don't know where it came from...

Tools Explained

Here's one for the do-it-yourselfers courtesy of Papa Silverfiddle.  I know I can identify...  Enjoy!

DRILL PRESS:
A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL:
Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh, sht!"

SKILL SAW:
A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS:
Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER:
An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW:
One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS:
Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH:
Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW:
A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:
Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW:
A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:
A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:
Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:
A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non- removable screws and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR:
A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER:
A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of driving rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object you are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE:
Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, DVDs, liquids in plastic bottles,collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DAMMIT TOOL:
Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "dammit" at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

Renew America, er... England!

David Cameron, putative successor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, wrote a barn-burner of an article in The Guardian last week. 

The size, scope and role of government in Britain has reached a point where it is now inhibiting, not advancing the progressive aims of reducing poverty, fighting inequality, and increasing general wellbeing. Indeed, there is a worrying paradox – because of its effect on personal and social responsibility, the recent growth of the state has promoted not social solidarity, but selfishness and individualism.

The first step is to redistribute power and control from the central state and its agencies to individuals and local communities. That way, we can create the opportunity for people to take responsibility.

Liberal British commenters, like pigeons to a statue, dumped all over it.  I'm not a British subject, and I really don't understand their politics, so I shouldn't take sides.  But I couldn't help wonder why no one in the GOP writes articles like this.

Guardian - Cameron

Why the (His)Panic?

** Unhinged DeviledEgg Rant Alert! ** 
  Alright, I'm really PO'd about illegal immigration! 

To think that the retards in congress would reward criminal trespass and identity theft with free US citizenship galls me. It also chaps my ass that any foreign fertility goddess who crosses the border can squeeze out a pup and, bingo! She's won the US lottery!  

Who's stupider than us, huh?  
But anyway, I started this rant because Hispanics in America are getting a bum rap, and it ain't fair. They ain't all illegal, and the ones that are wouldn't be here if the US Chamber of Commerce, businesses, and the Democratic party hadn't lured them with open borders, pathetic immigration enforcement, no-questions-asked employment and a cornucopia of social services only dreamed of south of the border.

We keep hearing they will one day be the largest demographic group in the US, and whitey is supposed to tremble at the thought. Well, that's like saying German-descent people are the majority now. Yeah, it's true, but your average Yank don't know any Deutsche besides Der Wienerschnitzel and beatchen. We've assimilated.
 
Hispanics assimilate easily 
I know, some treat your neighborhood like little Jalisco, slaughtering hogs in the front yard and playing mariachi music all night... But give them a generation or two. Texas is filled with people with Hispanic last names who don't know a lick of Spanish.  

How do I know Hispanics are easily assimilated? The evidence is all around us!

If a guy's name is Jose Ramos and he don't talk like the Frito Bandido no more, he's assimilated!  

Hispanics intermarry like crazy. Like coffee and milk, American whiteys and Latin lovers just can't help mixin' it up. And the results are beautiful (excuse my moment of soft-boiled weakness). 

If you say to some guy named Rodriguez, "Oye vato! Que onda?" and he says, "Excuse me, I'm with a patient right now," he's assimilated!  

The average Hispanic newcomer is: 
* Christian 
* entrepreneurial (No safety nets in Latin America!) 
* hard working (again, no safety nets...) 
* anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-tax 
* willing to live in a one bedroom apartment with 58 other men until he saves up for a place of his own 
* and almost as friendly as a drunken Irishman 

It's a natural GOP constituency if we can just get them out of the shadows and free them from the clutches of social workers waving food stamps and la raza plying them with illegal ballots and fake drivers licenses.  

Here in Europe, the average Brit, Swiss or Dane would trade their Muslims for our Hispanic "problem" in a heartbeat. Count your blessings, Dammit!
*********************************************
The DeviledEgg is prone to unhinged rants, childish outbursts, and fits of anger, but he's really a good egg once you get to know him. He is half German and half American and splits his time between the two countries. Western Hero is proud to add him to the team.

It Takes a Village of Angry Taxpayers

We just taught the local politicians a lesson here in our little city at the foot of the Rockies

They threatened to fire policemen and lay off firemen if we didn't vote them a big tax increase.

We resoundingly turned them down.  

On top of that, a citizens group has started a recall petition for gross financial incompetence (they were funding current operations with new construction fees), and for threatening voters.

Nevermind about those threats!
Guess what?  The council just announced that, tada!  They found other ways to cover the shortfall.  They may have to close city pools and decrease bus service.

Why is the city running pools (at a loss)? 

Sell them to the private sector and they will turn a profit while still serving the public.

Buses?  They are privatized in Socialist Latin America.  And they are more user friendly

Latin America does buses much better than the US.  They go where people need them, when they need them.  No labyrinthine routes and complex schedules it takes a college degree to figure out.  Each bus has a specific run, back and forth with the names of both ends of the route on the front.  A city will have numerous crisscross routes like that, providing transportation to thousands.  And it's all privatized!  In socialist Latin America!

Community Centers:  Turning Wangsters into Gangsters

Finally, the city council gave the municipal community centers 6 months to find private funding, and the liberals are screaming.  What good do community centers do anyway?  I think they just give junior criminals a place to exchange tactics and plot their depredations on the populace. And they probably carry out many of their crimes slouching to and from the community center! 

It Doesn't Take a Village

Kids get bored.  I got bored one time and threw rocks at the neighbors' car, when they were in it, driving.  Papa Silverfiddle beat my ass with a belt.  I learned the value of finding non-criminal activities to entertain myself when bored.

It doesn't take a village.  It doesn't take a community center.  It takes a society that won't tolerate criminal behavior, from kids or from politicians.

And an angry dad (or voter) with a belt (or ballot) bringing down the wrath of God upon a little hooligan (big elected hooligan) doesn't hurt...

Mr. Obama, You Don't Own The Presidency

No president has ever owned the presidency.  It belongs to the people.

Like all patriotic Americans, I'm fed up with the president's apologizing, bowing and scraping.  The latest disgrace took place in Japan when he bowed from the waist in deference to their emperor.

Here's a story Obama would do well to learn from...
When I was promoted to Master Sergeant, an older Senior NCO who I greatly respect took me aside, and in a time-honored tradition that predates the Air Force, gave me an old set of his stripes.  He also imparted this advice: 

Respect the rank the Air Force has appointed you to.  The respect and authority that goes with it is not yours to barter away or alter.  Be worthy of the rank and act appropriately.

You don't have the right to tell a subordinate to call you by your first name or to otherwise allow them to subvert your authority.  The privilege of the rank does not belong to you.  It is not yours to throw away.

Your rank belongs to the Air Force as an institution.  It belongs to all the men and women who have worn it in the past, as well as to those who will wear it in the future.

Respect that history, and just as important, preserve the respect and dignity of the rank for the Master Sergeants of the future.  The success of our force depends upon it.

It's not your presidency, Mr. Obama
George Washington didn't own it, nor did George Bush.  The institution is bigger than you and it is always more important than the person who temporarily occupies it at the pleasure of the voters.  The prestige of the Presidency is not yours to barter away.

The office you occupy was graced by truly great and historic men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Respect it! 

You lead the greatest nation in the history of the world.  Act like it!

Power Line - Why is this man bowing?
WSJ - Concerns Arise Around Obama Trip
Yahoo News

Gerald Walpin Cleared, Obama White House Corrupt

"How do I get my Reputation Back?" 
First asked by Reagan Labor Secretary Ray Donovan upon his acquittal...

Gerald Walpin can now ask the same question

The AmeriCorps inspector general fired by President Barack Obama, Gerald Walpin, has been cleared by a federal investigation into allegations that he improperly interfered with a criminal inquiry into alleged misuse of government funds, according to a letter filed in federal court Monday night.

So now, when will the Obama Administration be held to account for trashing this good man's reputation in order to defend their corrupt, liberal cronies?

Politico - Ousted IG Cleared

Muslims Immigration: Even Responsible People Think it's a Bad Idea

** Unhinged DeviledEgg Rant Alert! ** 
 

If the thought of an "honor killing" on American soil doesn't disgust you and make you boil with patriotic rage, you're brain dead! 

I live in Europe, I've lived in North America, and I've lived in that armpit they call the Middle East. No contest which I think is better!

Why the hell do Western nations continue to allow these troublemaking Muslims to immigrate? Look at a map.  Wherever there's trouble, angry turbaned men with beards are involved.

Our cultures are incompatible.  We enjoy pork bbq and beer, use toilet paper and refrain from female genital mutilation, for example.

Many Muslim immigrants refuse to assimilate, and the only way to have peace here in the West is to give in to their fleck spittled agitations at the expense of our cultural norms.  Not while I have breath in my body!  Better to close the gates...

ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE!!! DISAGREE AND I'LL KEEEEL YOU!!!

Unlike the DeviledEgg, foreign editor of The Australian Greg Sheridan is no xenophobe, but he declares, "Uncontrolled Muslim Influx a Threat to the West."

It is extremely difficult to talk honestly about Muslim immigration. All generalisations about it are subject to countless exceptions. Muslims are very different from each other.

Most are reasonably successful. But a much bigger minority end up with social, political, extremist or other problems resulting from a lack of integration than is the case with any other cohort of immigrants in Western societies. A lack of honest discussion about this results in bad policy.

He goes on to recommend a book by Christopher Caldwell, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

Jacob Laksin at City Journal recommends the book as well.

Polls show that some 70 percent of Britons believe that there are too many immigrants in their country. Majorities throughout Western Europe agree, and Muslim immigrants in particular are viewed with suspicion.

Europe is a Benignly Racist Continent
Despite the finger-wagging at America, many Europeans are fundamentally and unconsciously racist and insular. Here in Germany, people from the next village over are considered outsiders, fellow German speakers from Austria are treated as the enemy, and those who hail from farther afield have no hope of ever fitting in in the land of beer and bratwurst. 

Europeans are in a jam, trying to steer a course between the Charybdis of bigotry and the Scylla of cultural destruction. Worse, the entire continent is in denial. Muslims are to blame as well, especially when they display open contempt for their new home:

Yet the immigrants themselves are far from faultless. One of the immigration debate’s inconvenient truths is that Muslim immigrants have been so difficult to assimilate into European societies because they’re unwilling: many Muslims simply choose religious ties over national loyalties.

... 31 percent of British Muslims felt they had more in common with the people of Muslim nations than with their fellow Europeans.

I hope the US can learn the right lessons from Europe's immigration debacle. Reading Caldwell's book would be a good start.

I've got to stop now, that guy shouting from the tower is giving me a headache!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The DeviledEgg is prone to unhinged rants, childish outbursts, and fits of anger, but he's really a good egg once you get to know him. He is half German and half American and splits his time between the two countries. Western Hero is proud to add him to the team.

City Journal - Jacob Laksin
RCP - Greg Sheridan

Afghanistan: Patriotic Dissent

There are no easy answers in the Afghanistan Debate

"I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love," Hoh said.

"There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed," he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. "I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys."

Matthew Poh, a former Marine Captain and combat vet, resigned his position heading up reconstruction for the State Department in Afghanistan.  He says he can no longer support the war.  

You don't have to agree with his conclusions, but we'd be foolish to ignore the observations of a man with so much in-country experience as we contemplate the way forward.  


Patriotic Americans should hear well-reasoned arguments from all sides

Here's an excerpt from a reader Q & A hosted by WaPo. 

This isn't WWII and there shouldn't be a comparison. No one can kill better in this world than the US military, however, if killing was the means to victory we would have "won" this years ago. This is primarily a political fight.

For more reasoned dissent, see TNR - Bacevich and NY Post - Ralph Peters

Strategic Drift
Poh, Bacevich and Peters, patriots all, point to a strategic drift that started in the Bush administration.  We went in to kill bad guys.  Now what?  Obama exaggerated that drift by appointing a man of action, General McChrystal, and then criticizing him when he took action.  The President's scholarly and leisurely pace isn't helping matters any.  

What is the Mission?
I have faith in General McChrystal.  What I want is to hear a stated goal from our elected officials.  Where will be be in 10 years?  What's the end game?  What does "success" look like?  

Freeing Pashtun women from their shackles sounds nice, but is it in our national interest?

I am not against the Afghan war.  I was there (in a non-combat role) and I believe our efforts have been heroic and noble.  It is important that our government clearly spell out the mission, embrace it, and explain it to the American people.  They owe it to the good men and women who are giving it all they've got over there.
 
WaPo - Matthew Poh
WaPo - Poh Q & A
NY Post - Ralph Peters
David Shribman
TNR - Bacevich

Poverty in America is One of Ideas

Root cause of poverty:  Jobs.  If you have a good job, you won't be in poverty

Everything this government does on the economy should be focused on providing a good employment environment for American citizens.  Handouts demean the recipient and sap his self-sufficiency

A business-friendly environment is key.  Businesses and rich people are where the jobs come from.  Tax and regulate them to death and the jobs go away.

Why doesn't government just hire everybody who wants a job? 
Because the money to pay them has to come from somewhere.  In a business, it comes from customers buying goods or services.  A business spends money to make more money.  Government doesn't work that way.  Rather than turn a profit, governments must tax citizens to get money.  


A thrifty, well-behaved government keeps taxes low and dedicates itself to the basics.  Government-provided infrastructure can be a boon to private enterprise, but anything beyond that takes bites out of the economy.  Look a California:  Government has become so huge, consuming ever bigger chunks of the economy that economic activity has been smothered and productive people are leaving in droves


Even Salon's Michael Lind admits it's all about the J-O-B.  Only the most curmudgeonly Ayn Rand acolyte would deny a government stimulus program that funded needed infrastructure projects.  But the majority of this current stimulus has nothing to do with "shovel ready" infrastructure, and rising unemployment proves it.

"Stimulus" Understood
Further,  liberals conflate three distinct issues when talking about The Stimulus:  Federal aid to state and local governments, unemployment benefits, and economic stimulus.

Giving state and local governments money to cover budget gaps is not a stimulus, and may actually have the negative effect of allowing elected officials to continue their irresponsible fiscal promiscuity.

Unemployment benefits is not a stimulus; it is a palliative to keep someone who's lost his job from going under. 

Federal government paying a private enterprise for goods and services is the only action of the three that could loosely be called "stimulus," and even that is dubious if bureaucrats blow it on chimeras like immature "green technology." 

The better route is to incentivize business, the job creators, by creating a stable business climate of minimal regulation and low taxes, but nobody outside of Texas gets elected doing that...

ABC - Poverty
Salon - Michael Lind

BaracKabuki Theater in Afghanistan

Does anyone really believe he's doing this of his own accord?

Ambassador Eikenberry is counseling the president to not send more troops to Afghanistan, and he pulls some weight.  He was the ISAF commander there for two years before going on to a NATO posting and then retiring to become the US Ambassador to Afghanistan.  He's just the man to cover the president's dithering backside.

Eikenberry described his serious concerns about sending tens of thousands of more American troops to the country without dealing with the corruption and incompetence of the Afghan government, according to U.S. officials familiar with the cables.

Does anyone really believe SecDef Gates is "appalled" by this?

I am appalled by the amount of leaking that has been going on," Gates told reporters
"If I found out who" was involved, he said, "it would probably be a career-ender."

Prepping the Battlefield
This selective leaking, followed by feigned indignation, is called prepping the battlefield, or more fitting to the Obama administration, "propagandizing the masses."  

Yes, during the campaign Obama said this was the right war, but, well...  A president's gotta listen to the smart people and be willing to change his mind...

Bonus:  He gooses the nutroots and loony lefties who voted him into office...

Independents Turn Right

Liberals forever strive and strain towards the collective, and independents are abandoning them in droves

The very rich and the very poor vote for ever more taxes and collectivist government programs. The middle class largely rejects them. Why?

Dennis Prager observed that the poor vote liberal because it costs them nothing. It's free stuff. The rich do it perhaps out of some misplaced guilt or to "give something back," whatever that means.

The Rich Can Afford Liberalism

Anyway, the rich have investment strategies to protect their wealth from a rapacious government, and they have enough money to wall themselves off from the social dysfunction, crime and chaos their liberalism creates.

When a tea partier protests taxes or big government programs, liberals are quick to shout "hypocrite!" because we are the beneficiaries of public libraries, police and the fire department, not to mention a national grid of roadways and utilities.

I love my local library, and I enjoy the thought of my tax money paying police officers to drag the dirtbags off to jail. We're well armed at our house, but a little backup is always a good thing.

Call them collectivist if you want, but these are proper functions of government, and conservatives don't mind paying for them.

Liberal Rodents Have Infested Our Homes

Liberals used to complain about government being "in the bedroom," during those right wing Christian Reagan years. Well, now Pelosi, Barney Frank and an inept army of federal bureaucrats are in every room of the house, regulating everything from light bulbs to flush toilets. They've invaded our neighborhoods, buying off our governors and mayors, and people don't like it.

These Gallup Survey results confirm what the recent elections told us. Independents are swinging conservative, big time:

Source:  www.Gallup.com

Political Correctness Will be The Death of US All

LL over at Can We Keep Our Republic?  has written a great piece on political correctness, and how it paralyzes us in the face of Muslim murderers.  He reminds us that is wasn't always that way.  Go read the whole thing here.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day in the US, and Remembrance Day in Canada, where we pause on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate the WW I Armistice.  The day has grown into a tribute to all veterans of all wars. 


This is a beautiful musical tribute to veterans by Canadian musician Terry Kelly. It is unabashedly patriotic, whether you're Canadian or American, and don't be surprised if it brings a tear or two. I know I can't help it, especially when that line of veterans appears out of the past.

What Independents Want

David Brooks is a token "conservative" sitting on The Senile Old Lady's mantle above the fireplace.  Only the New York Times could consider this squishy middler (but quite good writer!) a conservative.

He's a good enough guy.  I read him often, and I even agree with him sometimes.  I really like this:

If I were a politician trying to win back independents, I’d say something like this: When I was a kid, I had a jigsaw puzzle of the U.S. Each state was a piece, and on it there was a drawing showing what people made there. California might have movies; Washington State, apples; New York, fashion or publishing. That puzzle represented an economy that was diverse and deeply rooted. 

We’ve lost that. First Wall Street got disproportionately big, then Washington. It’s time to return to fundamentals. No short-term fixes. Government should do what it’s supposed to do: schools, roads, basic research. It should not be picking C.E.O.’s or setting pay or fizzing up the economy with more debt. It should give people the tools to compete, not rig the competition. Lines of restraint have dissolved, and they need to be restored.

 Amen!  The Feral Government needs to retreat behind its constitutional boundaries and free the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in state and local communities.  One size does not fit all, Nancy!  As for Wall Street gamblers and inept car manufacturers?  Freedom also means the freedom to fail...

NY Times - David Brooks

The Incredible Barackness of Being

"Here's a major shout out to Injun Joe!"  yelled President Obama, getting the gathering of Native Americans on its feet.

"Pashtoonipakiganistan can wait, I've got political favors to hand out!"

"Did he say "injun?"

"No," clarified Propaganda Minister Gibbs, "with the roar of the crowd I can see how someone would hear 'injun' when he really said 'Native American.'"  

The crowd's enthusiasm dampened when a grinning Vice President Biden, doing his best rain dance and tomahawk chops, chimed in with a politically-incorrect "Hi Howara, Hi Howara!"

But he quickly recovered, roaring to a group of wheelchair-bound Native American veterans, "C'mon guys, stand up and be recognized!"

Meanwhile, in a universe far away from DC and all its Barackatude, where the spotlight's glare and hopium smoke are replaced by the rocket's red glare and cordite smoke, reality marches on...

NBC News - Obama's Frightening Insensitivity

Stupak Amendment Means Nothing

Fellow pro-lifers have been sending e-mails celebrating the passage of the stupak amendment.  I'm not sharing in the celebration.  That amendment is nothing but a small fig leaf for the cowering blue dogs.  Their lack of testicular fortitude makes it apparent that it only takes a small one to cover them.

Note the language in this excerpt from the NY Times.  The Stupak Amendment imposes "tight restrictions."  It does not ban federal money from funding abortions. The loopholes are big enough to drive a herd of buffaloes through.

To save the health care bill she (Pelosi) had to give in to abortion opponents in her party and allow them to propose tight restrictions barring any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions.

Pelosi and her fellow liberal bloodsuckers will have their free abortions, either through federal funding of planned parenthood, the giant Stupak loopholes, whatever. 

But Ms. DeGette, Ms. DeLauro and other defenders of abortion rights said they would nonetheless vote in favor of the health care bill and fight for changes in the final version, to be negotiated with the Senate.

I don't believe these lying bastards for a second.  
And if you do, you haven't been paying attention.  A plague of liberals has been unleashed upon the nation, and they will destroy everything in their path.

Pakistani Commuter Train Promises Virgins and Clean Air on Earth

A Classic From Dr Dave at Feed Your ADHD

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Railway today unveiled an innovative locomotive that may go a long way toward turning the tide against the world’s climate change problems.

The Osama, a remarkable train with external seating and standing room for commuters, can carry an average of 72 people per square foot. Named after popular terrorist Osama bin Laden, the train was designed to improve relations among terrorists and capitalists, while serving a greater good for the environment.

“As a bridge between martyrdom and claiming 72 virgins in heaven, and the capitalist dog’s reckless pursuit of societal degradation and environmental ruination, we built this masterpiece. Now, we can have our 72 'virgins' here on Earth, provided they purchase a ticket and sign an agreement not to tell their husbands, brothers, and fathers of their vile actions, and the American dog can use our trains in their own country instead of pumping noxious filth into the air from their oil-fed automobiles,” said Imram Raza Hasni, supreme commander of Pakistan Railway, the country’s national rail service.

The trains are equipped with seats on top of each engine and commuter car, along with steps and handrails every 3 inches along the sides and front. A recent test run of the prototype from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to Karachi, a resort city on the Arabian Sea, carried nearly 10,000 passengers without incident, except for a few minor problems in which some external passengers were stoned to death by locals waiting to cross the tracks to their poppy fields.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari called the train the eighth wonder of the world. “We will surely earn a place in heaven for all Pakistanis and smote our Indian neighbors into abject poverty with this ingenious innovation, as we will sell it to every nation on Earth EXCEPT India.”

Orders were reportedly filing in today to the Pakistan Railway manufacturing facility in bin Laden-friendly Peshawar from most of the major U.S. railways, including the federally-owned Amtrak, NorFolkin' Way in Virginia, and Atlanta's BR549 Railway.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking on behalf of the major oil-producing nations, called the train an obamination. “This is a direct attempt to influence America against the purchase of petroleum, our livelihood. I now present Pakistan with the choice between being overrun by more than 1 billion starving Indians or being the new home of the Israeli, after we force the Zionists from Jerusalem.”

Reports indicate that Iran has begun aiming some Ashura MRBM missiles, previously aimed at Israel and capable of reaching Washington if hijacked by Somali pirates and sold to Russian warships heading to Cuba for the good weather, at Islamabad.

How Do You Spell ACORN? Let Us Count The Ways

That ubiquitous internet denizen and prolific poster Anon left the following comment to my post, Acorn Assists Genital Contractors:

Going Nuts
ACORN: Alien Children Offered Regularly Nationwide
ACORN: Authorities Caught One Registering “Napoleon”
ACORN: Assembly of the Complacent: Organized, Registered & Non-productive!
ACORN: Association of Criminals Obama Represented in the Nineties
ACORN: Assorted Crazies, Oddballs, Reprobates, and Nincompoops
ACORN: “Audacity” and “Change” that Obama Represents Nationally
ACORN: A Crooked, Offensive, Repulsive Nut
ACORN: Agitators, Cheats, Offenders, and Repugnant Nonentities
ACORN: Association of Crooks O’Keefe Revealed in a Nanosecond
ACORN: Advising Criminals, Organizing Radical Nutjobs
ACORN: Assisting Call-girls, Obama, Reid & Nancy
ACORN: Advancing Collectivism, Obamamania, Reparations Now!
ACORN: After Clinton, Obama Retards a Nation
ACORN: Alike Carter, Obama is Regretful and Negative
ACORN: America, Could Obama Resign Now??
ACORN: Against Conservatives, Order, Republicans, and the Nation
ACORN: American Cash Outflows to Rathke’s “Nonprofits”
ACORN: Apparently “Community Organizing” Really is Nefarious
ACORN: Awarding Capital to Objectionable Rent-seeking Noncontributors
ACORN: Apathetic, Crybaby, Odiferous, Rejected Nothings
ACORN: Andrew Clearly Outplayed the Resentful NYT
ACORN: Always Cheating, Often Ruining Neighborhoods
ACORN: Addled Crack-heads and Obnoxious Race-baiting Neurotics
ACORN: Appalling Cesspool; Obscene Revolting Nightmare
ACORN: A Clan of Odious, Ridiculed Nitwits
ACORN: Another Corrupt Obama Run Network

Others? Please suggest!

They Don't Know Up From Down

NEW YORK - Home prices rise for the third straight month, signaling a housing recovery is taking hold. (El Lay Times)

"This is good news for homeowners underwater due to the Bush economy,"  said Congressman Barney Frank. 

Obama administration official Angela Marks agreed.  "Higher home prices are key to keeping people in their homes despite the irresponsible decisions they have made." 

Borrowing against the increasing value of ones home is seen by the US government as key to restoring consumer spending to it's rampant pre-recession levels.

Congress Tries to make home ownership more affordable

Congress has also announced the continuation of it's blue ribbon program to lower home prices, making home ownership available to the poor and unemployed. 

"This will be a real economic boon to the economy, and it is the socially responsible thing to do," said Princeton economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman. "To each according to his need, from each according to his means"

 Economically ignorant people should keep their hands off of the economy...

El Lay Times