Tuesday, April 30, 2013

UNEXPECTEDLY. Obama Walks Back 'Red Line' Stance On Syria Chemical Weapon Attacks. Good thing it was drawn in the sand; it's much easier to erase.
NOW OBAMA wants your pension. And why not? After all, the government is going to take care of all your needs. Remember the 'Life of Julia'?

[NOTE: the 'Julia' ad itself appears to be gone from the internet. I wonder why.]
TROUBLING QUESTIONS: Benghazi is back in the news.

And Fox News, at least, is reporting it. Other news networks (CNN, MSNBC) are studiously avoiding it.
DAN HOLLER: The Elite Media Hates You. The feeling is mutual.
I COMPLETED my ObamaScare weapons buy with the purchase of this beauty yesterday.



It took an extra day because in addition to the 'proof of identity' requirement to complete the NICS background check, I also needed proof of citizenship. Apparently only citizens and criminals are allowed to possess 'scary' guns. Er, ... excuse me, 'assault weapons'.
THE 'PROFESSIONALLY OFFENDED' industry is in high dudgeon -- again: Native Americans incensed over pro-gun rights billboard in Colorado. You can have only one opinion -- ours. Even if the facts disprove the opinion.
“THE TSARNAEV BROTHERS were state-supported terrorists. The state was Massachusetts.”

Follow the links.

Monday, April 29, 2013

GREEN SUPREMACY: the viciousness of the 'environmentally righteous'.
I’D CALL THEM GHOULS, but that’s unfair to ghouls everywhere.
COLLEGE: What's the Point?

Via Meadia is far too kind on the value of a liberal arts degree: "Employers want people who can write, who can intuit what others are thinking, who can learn from others." That's true. But try to find a recent college graduate who can do even one of the above....
NEWT GINGRICH:
President Obama often speaks of the need for a “balanced approach” to reducing the deficit. But when his administration defends air traffic control disruptions and half-million-dollar electric lemons in the same week, you have to wonder about his sense of “balance.”
Read it all.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Why Read Old Books?

So we can understand today?
PRESIDENT OBAMA IDENTIFIES HIMSELF.
President Obama walks into the Bank of America to cash a check. As he approaches the cashier he says, "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me?"

Cashier: "It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?"

Obama: "Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America."

Cashier: "Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of impostors and forgers and requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID."

Obama: "Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am."

Cashier: "I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them."

Obama: "I am urging you, please, to cash this check."

Cashier: "Look Mr. President, here is an example of what we can do. One day, Tiger Woods came into the bank without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check.

Another time, Andre Agassi came in without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot whereas the tennis ball landed in my cup. With that shot we cashed his check.

So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?"

Obama stands there thinking, and thinking, and finally says, "Honestly, my mind is a total blank ... there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I don't have a clue.

Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?"
From my email.
THE REAL REASON ammunition is in such short supply.

I'm prepared, though I'd prefer to have a few hundred more rounds available.
THE SPENDING CUTS CAME and no one noticed.
[G]overnment programs aren't tools for improving the country. They're tools for acquiring the main goal of the political class: more power, which leads to more patronage, more graft (legal and otherwise) and a boost to their all-encompassing sense of self-importance.
So cut more. Much, much more.
VIRGIN GALACTIC'S SpaceShipTwo makes history with first rocket-powered flight. I'd sign up to fly if I had the $200K fare to spend....
GUN MAKERS head for greener pastures.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

A WORD TO THE WISE: "Institutions do not always seek to find the truth. More often than not they seek to find the approved solution.”
HAVE WE NOW placed our survival in the hands of Tinkerbell? Carolyn Glick writes on Obama's foreign policy.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: a reflection on the Bush presidency.
Bush talked about the "purpose of public office" in a democracy. It's "not to fulfill personal ambition." He said: "Elected officials must serve a cause greater than themselves. The political winds blow left and right. Polls rise and fall. Supporters come and go. But in the end, leaders are defined by the convictions they hold."

And then he talked about freedom and how our country should expand its reach. Freedom, the former president said, is a "gift from God and the hope of every human heart. Freedom inspired our founders and preserved our union through civil war and secured the promise of civil rights. Freedom sustains dissidents bound by chains, believers huddled in underground churches and voters who risk their lives to cast their ballots. Freedom unleashes creativity, rewards innovation and replaces poverty with prosperity. And ultimately, freedom lights the path to peace."

And he talked about the responsibilities we have for one another as well. "Freedom brings responsibility. Independence from the state does not mean isolation from each other. A free society thrives when neighbors help neighbors and the strong protect the weak and public policies promote private compassion. As president, I tried to act on these principles every day. It wasn't always easy, and it certainly wasn't always popular."
'Nuff said.
PAUL GREENBERG: The Trainwreck Called ObamaCare.
Instead of a clear, simple reform, Americans are getting a vast bureaucracy that would make one of Rube Goldberg's machines look like a model of efficiency. Ol' Rube specialized in contraptions designed to accomplish some simple chore in the most complicated way, all for comic effect. Only there's nothing funny about this one.
Only a few years ago I would never have believed the government could screw something up so badly. I was wrong.
OBAMA'S WORLD. Be sure and read the comments.
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE to start piece-by-piece approach to immigration reform. This is a much more comfortable approach than the Senate's comprehensive 'ObamaCare' approach.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

NASA ENDORSES Anthony Weiner for NYC Mayor. Courtesy of Instapundit.
IMMIGRATION REFORM: The Left has a history of breaking immigration promises.
FROM HUNTERS AND FISHERMEN TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS: "You're Welcome."
For the last couple of decades hunters and fishermen have contributed over $1.5 billion per year towards environmental protection in the most genuine sense.... A study by the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that for every taxpayer dollar invested in wildlife conservation, American hunters and fishermen contribute nine.

The Pittman-Robertson Act (1937), you see, imposed an excise tax of 10 per cent on all hunting gear. Then the Dingell-Johnson act (1950) did the same for fishing gear. The Wallop-Breaux amendment (1984) extended the tax to the fuel for boats. All of this lucre goes to “protect the environment” in the form of buying and maintaining National Wildlife Refuges, along with state programs for buying and maintaining various forms of wildlife habitat.

So please note: to "preserve nature," they don’t tax Birkenstock hiking boots and Ying-Yang pendants – but do tax my shotgun. They don’t tax Yoga manuals and Tofu tid-bits wrapped in recycled paper – but do tax my 30.06 deer rifle. They don’t tax binoculars or birding Field Guides with cutesy photos of the red-cockaded woodpecker and spotted Owl – but do tax the shotgun shells I blast....

Going further, they don’t tax Kayaks and rock climbing picks and ropes – but do tax my compound bow and rifle scope. They don’t tax the plastic water bottles on Mountain bikes (or the mountain bike itself, come to think of it) or the cutesy spandex shorts these yo-yos wear – but do tax my duck decoys and camo pants. They don’t tax Yanni and Enya CDs – but do tax the arrows I fling....
Read it all.
LOOK, A SQUIRREL! Jonathan Chait calls President Bush stupid. Five years into the administration of the worst president in American history and it's 'blame Bush' time again.
CONGRESS WORKING to strip presidential land grab power -- before he uses it to designate the United States as his own 'national monument'. (Don't give him any ideas. -Ed.)
SPACE FISHING: Nets, harpoons could be used to haul in space junk.
JOHN C. GOODMAN: Guns, Bombs and Government.
"'COMPREHENSIVE' IMMIGRATION REFORM suggests that importing more potential voters for the Democrats has a higher priority ... than safeguarding the country."
IS OBAMACARE turning health care into a luxury? I don't know that there's anything 'luxurious' about lousy care.

The closer I get to government-mandated healthcare (i.e., Medicare), the more scared I become.
IS THE MEDIA BIASED? Or just plain stupid?
REAL SCIENCE, or just another 'global warming' attack? Earliest satellite maps of Antarctic and Arctic sea-ice assembled from 1964 Nimbus-1 spacecraft images.

One can hope for real science, but I wouldn't bet my hat on it....
HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS: bending the medical costs curve. But they're not available in government-sponsored 'healthcare' (ObamaCare, Medicare, TriCare) because they permit the patient to control his/her/its (in deference to other genders) own medical care.
MICHELLE MALKIN: America’s Insane Asylum for Jihadists, Hustlers and Frauds.
CALIFORNIA'S LATEST SUICIDE ATTEMPT: The California state legislature is poised to pass a “Homeless Bill of Rights” which (hopefully) will encourage vagrants from all across the United States to move there.

Friday, April 26, 2013

YES, LET'S capture an asteroid and bring it home.
MORE ON ObamaCare's White House circus. And in the center ring, ....
MISSION PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE.
TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: Literature Is Hard to Remember—Compared to Facebook.

"And gossip is more memorable than the evening news." No surprise on the last part.
SO KICK SOME SAND over the Syrian 'red line' and move along. Nothing to see. Just move along.
HELL, NO: Should Lawmakers be Exempt from Obamacare?
ANN COULTER: "[O]ur immigration policies are designed to help other countries solve their internal problems by shipping their losers to us."

I'm sympathetic, but the flip side of the coin is those who came to the U.S. in poverty, and whose children and grandchildren have been extraordinarily successful. Sen. Ted Cruz is an obvious example, and my wife knows several more recent immigrants whose children have become quite successful.
SURPRISED? I'm not. A product of an all-American left-wing education.
HE DIDN'T BELONG TO THE TEA PARTY. How could he be a terrorist?
KEYSTONE II: now the EPA steps in. It's possible, I suppose, that the EPA is just butting in where they're not wanted, but I rather suspect this is a coordinated Obama administration effort to dissemble, delay, and hope America forgets.
TECHWISE CONVERSATIONS: IEDs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Boston.
WHY TO VOTE 'NO' on the internet sales tax bill.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Syria crossed my 'red line' but I don't plan to do anything about it.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: On deportation.
IN AN EMERGENCY, even residents of blue states believe gun control means having one.
SPACEX ROCKET launches, hovers, and lands.



We will (to my mind, anyway) officially become a spacefaring nation when a rocket can launch vertically, tilt, move downrange a significant distance, reorient, and land vertically on a different pad.
JEFF JACOBY: There's nothing fair about the Marketplace Fairness Act.
HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER tweets on Congressional ObamaCare.
"IF THE WHITE HOUSE wants to know why their [gun control] agenda has stalled, they are not going to find the answers on MSNBC."
THOMAS SOWELL: Immigration Gambles.
Today, virtually every group has its own "leaders" promoting its separate identity and different way of life, backed up by zealots for multiculturalism and bilingualism in the general population. The magic word "diversity" is repeated endlessly and insistently to banish concerns about the Balkanization of America -- and banish examples provided by the tragic history of the Balkans.

We are importing many foreigners who stay foreign, if not hostile. Blithely turning them into citizens by fiat, rather than because they have committed to the American way of life, is an irreversible decision that can easily turn out to be a dangerous gamble with the future of the whole society.
Read it all.
OH, JOY: a car driven by Ethernet. I had one like that a few years back. Putting a foot on the brake blew the fuse to the brake lights, and putting the key in the ignition turned on the readling light in the rearview mirror.
Y'ALL CAN GO TO HELL; I'm goin' to Texas. Not yet, but I'm thinking about it.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

I WONDER how many books Chris Matthews has read (beyond Dick and Jane).
REPUBLICANS: highlight Obamacare failures by offering specific alternatives.
DON'T GIVE MONEY to red-state Democrats who didn't support gun control legislation. Agreed. Give it to red-state Republicans who won't support gun control either.
WHAT!! Lawmakers may vote themselves and their aides an ObamaCare exemption.
Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.

The talks ... are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.

Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office.
Tough sh*t. They built this pigsty; now they should be required to wallow in it with the rest of the little people.

OBAMACAREFAIL UPDATE: Stephen Green takes note and ends with this observation: exemption or no, "[ObamaCare is] still crappy policy, and one which is already costing Americans money and putting up big barriers between us and our physicians."
POLITICO: Democrats find much to like in immigration bill. Of course we, the people, haven't seen the bill, and at 848 pages are unlikely to do so given the rush to pass it.

I'm afraid we're in for another ObamaCare, having to wait until it's passed to find out just how bad it is.

Vote it down; then start over with smaller, incremental immigration bills. 'Comprehensive' is just a metaphor for 'screwed up mess'.

MORE: The security promise that isn't.
CLEANING ACADEMIC CESSPOOLS: "[T]here's nothing like the sound of pocketbooks snapping shut to open the closed minds of college administrators."
NEWT GINGRICH on the FAA and sequestration:
Americans are exactly right to doubt government is doing everything it can to use taxpayers’ money effectively. When in recent years the Army hired private-sector experts in a cost cutting method called Lean Six Sigma, it reduced costs by approximately $22 billion, mostly eliminating waste in its supply chain.

The rest of the federal government could surely show a little more initiative in distinguishing the critical expenditures from those that can wait.

Take for example the Department of Transportation. As the Wall Street Journal noted this week, the DOT posted an announcement on its homepage Monday about the nearly half-billion dollars in funding for an initiative to help “make communities more livable and sustainable.” The program, designed to fund “projects that will have a significant impact on the nation,” originated as part of the stimulus package in 2009.

Apparently a functioning air traffic control system does not qualify as such a project. At least, it seems the Department of Transportation saw no contradiction between the announcement that more stimulus-style funding was available and the administration’s insistence that nothing could be done to avoid the air traffic control delays.

In fact, the amount allocated to this one program alone would make up for most of the sequester reduction at the FAA.
Read it all.
HO-HUM. Just another defensive use of firearms. Nothing to see. Move along, now.
EXPAND BUSINESSES? What a novel idea. Someone should suggest that to the Obama administration....
THE BOSTON BOMBERS, the assimilation vacuum, and immigration reform.

I blame the Left's culture of victimization.
ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING -- in Illinois. Blue states seem to have a disproportionate share of mass shootings. Could it be because in red states there is at least some probability that the intended target might shoot back?
RI-I-IGHT: Obama Is Just Too Good to Be a Good President.
JOHN STOSSEL: The Education Blob's Revenge.
UNFORTUNATELY FOR LIBERALS, Tom Coburn and John Boehner don’t have their lines faxed over from Hollywood every morning.”
GUN REGISTRATION remains the third rail. 'Universal' background checks -- even for felons and the insane -- will remain impossible until there are ironclad guarantees (i.e., no friggin' way) that the checks cannot lead to registration.
SPACE ARCHAEOLOGISTS call for preserving off-earth artifacts. Somehow I doubt we need worry about the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft being vandalized....
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK: “Islam might have had secondary role in Boston attacks.”

Quick, cover it up. Can't have truth destroy the Liberal narrative....

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

IMMIGRATION, SOCIAL SECURITY, AND THE BUDGET. I'm skeptical, because I don't think the analysis takes into account the long-term effects of the increased productivity of the immigrants children and grandchildren. Yet to be fair, the current multi-culti, politically correct victim culture may inhibit those very same children and grandchildren from ever becoming productive citizens.
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Bush years, parts one and two.
RUN, HIDE, FIGHT. When seconds count, the police are typically minutes away.
WHERE IS THE CALL for sword control?
OBAMACARE AUTHOR: "a huge train wreck [is] coming down." And now that he's done all the damage he can, Max Baucus is retiring.
THE WHIMPERING of the lambs.

Say it with me: "No more."
SHOCKING NEW GUN CONTROL AD. If we're handing out awards for ignorance, this is certainly 'A' level material.
TOO LATE: Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American. The Left cannot stand to see it's favorite multicultural tropes shredded.
BUMPER STICKER seen on the road this morning:
SECOND AMENDMENT: the original Homeland Security
Not to mention the best homeland security.
IN THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE, first let's control the borders. And new data suggests we're doing a piss-poor job of it.

I see nothing in the immigration bill before Congress that suggests that border control will improve before 'shamnesty' is granted.
THOMAS SOWELL: Gun control laws don't control guns, they control people.
A FREE-MARKET APPROACH to Medicaid. But, but ... the ruling class can't control how it's spent!

That's called a feature, not a bug.
THE CHAINED CPI: A Bad Deal All Around. The liberals at Daily Kos are aghast at the possible move to the chained CPI for Social Security, which to my mind is a strong argument in its favor. Andrew Biggs makes the conservative case against its use.
NEWT GINGRICH: Boston, Philidelphia, and contemporary culture.
BACK AT ATROCITY RANCH, it's only news when it's consistent with the liberals' narrative.
ASTRONAUTS should return to the moon as a way station to Mars.
EXAMINER EDITORIAL: Gang of Eight immigration reform fails accountability test.

Much more here.
CHARLTON HESTON: “Political correctness is tyranny with manners.” Updated.
FAA FURLOUGHS BEGIN: despite the FAA's best efforts, almost no one notices.

But you can't fault the White House for not trying.
POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Who Really Isn't Paying Their Fair Share of Income Taxes?

DEREK HUNTER: Progressives’ Ultimate Fetish.

I'm struck by this quote from Marc Ambinder: "He suggests we consider 'the possibility that something about America is radicalizing people of all sorts'."

Ambinder's right about that, and he's among the very ones who are 'radicalizing people of all sorts' are the progressives who keep demanding that everyone (except white males over 50) be a victim. I suggest that it's the progressives' insistence that everyone must be a victim is the driving force that moves otherwise normal people to violence.
CALIFORNIA: Stop me before I buy something.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

JAMES TARANTO: The Banality of Evil Bias.
'ELECTRONIC NOSE' developed at NASA Ames Research Center. To be sure, I can see the benefits. I can also see the potential for snooping.
POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Is it time to bail out of the stock market? For what it's worth, despite my advanced age, I'm still in it for the long haul....
WORRISOME: Maybe North Korea does have the capability to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
MSNBC ON THE GOSNELL ABORTION TRIAL: It's not news.
GUN CONTROL MADE EASY. According to the latest release of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the soon-to-be-released fifth edition of the 'psychiatric bible', the odds will probably be greater than 50 percent that you’ll have a mental disorder in your lifetime.

And once you're found to be mentally 'unhealthy' and have your gun rights taken away, you'll never get them back.
ENVIRONMENTALISM FALLS FLAT: Plaintiffs 'experts' disavow their own work.
YOU DON'T NEED TO SAVE FOR RETIREMENT since it will be government-provided.

Welcome to Cyprus.
BLOOMBERG: the Obama budget. The graphic is interesting, but essentially worthless since it shows only the size of the change and not the size of the total budget allocation. It would be useful, perhaps, if it were in terms of percentage change.

The discussion is here.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers and ranchers to environmental groups. Obviously it was done to 'protect the children'.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

YOU MAY NOT KNOW IT YET, but ObamaCare made first contact with your wallet on April 15th.
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS: A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip. To put it bluntly, bull. To imply, as Giffords has, that NRA members (of which I am one) are somehow indifferent to the deaths at Sandy Hook is borderline libel, and to argue that any of the 'gun control' measures rejected by the Senate would have made any difference is utterly ridiculous. Not one of the mass shootings Giffords mentions -- Newtown, Aurora, or Blacksburg -- would have been prevented by any of the measures before the Senate. The shooters is all three cases were terminally nuts, and mental health was not included in any significant way in any of the measures the Senate rejected.

Had armed citizens been present, on the other hand, the above massacres might not have happened.
GETTING GREENER: Here's todays update on the spring 'greening'.



Last week's update is here.
INSTAPUNDIT: "A fish rots from the head." Follow the link.
THE 'NEW NORMAL': the inevitable result of electing fools to leadership.
USEFUL IDIOTS. Methinks 'useless' would be a better descriptor....

Saturday, April 20, 2013

PLAY THE AGE GAME.
BUT ISN'T 'OWNER' racist, or sexist, or ... something bad?
PROOF: Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence.

Instapundit agrees.
HEH. "[T]he only populist mass movement on domestic policy issues Obama can claim credit for creating is the Tea Party...."
THE ALL-ELECTRIC CAR you never plug in. Wireless power transmission would let EVs draw their power from the road.

I'd be scared sh*... (you get the message) of walking on, or anywhere near, that road.
THINK PROGRESS attacks Regal Cinemas for cutting employee hours because of Obamacare. They'd rather Regal Cinemas went out of business....

Friday, April 19, 2013

VERY UNLIKELY. Keep clicking the 'previous' button for more.
WHAT NONSENSE: Jet Propulsion Laboratory suspends June open house, cites sequestration. For a two (weekend) day event? Following a budget cut of 2 cents on the dollar? Oh, come now.
3-D PRINTING: first it was guns; now it's cars.
ONLY FORTY YEARS AGO.



The first portable telephone call.
MONA CHAREN: Obama Doesn't Care About Dead Children. No, he doesn't. He cares about Obama, control, and ... Obama.
NORTH KOREAN CARRIER GROUP departs to attack California & Hawaii....



From my email. I'm somewhat reminded of The Mouse that Roared.
'BIG GOVERNMENT' immigration policy: a step in the wrong direction.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Postmodern Prudes. I would call it hypocrisy, but hypocrisy presupposes some modest degree of self-awareness, which simply does not exist in the liberal mind. Rather I think it is simply childishness, a total unawareness that actions have consequences.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

TOO LATE, SUCKERS! Union expresses buyers' remorse over ObamaCare.
PAUL GREENBERG: Shut Up, He Explained.
THE LOGIC OF BACKGROUND CHECKS: Would a Broader Screening Requirement for Gun Buyers Reduce Violent Crime?
Three sources accounted for almost nine out of 10 crime guns: friends or family (40 percent), the street (38 percent) and theft (10 percent). It is hard to see how any national background check requirement, even one applying to all private transfers, can reasonably be expected to have a significant impact on these sources.
Thus the answer: probably not.

ADDED: Congress agrees.
NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR LORI GARVER: a role for private sector in NASA’s asteroid mission plans. I'd have more confidence if the headline read "a role for NASA in the private sector's asteroid mission plans."
THOMAS SOWELL: Fact-Free Crusades.
ARE INCOME TAXES FAIR? "[I]n a nutshell: The top 20 percent of Americans earn 53.4 percent of the total U.S. income, but pay 67.2 percent of total income tax." But of course income taxes are not all taxes. Here's the rest.
MARS ONE to start taking applications by July. One way only; no round trips.
RICK SANTORUM: Children Belong to Parents, Not Government. I'd love to sign the petition as suggested, but I'll never 'register' with the Obama administration. Nothing is so important that I'd give my email address to an [Obama] government entity.
MARGARET THATCHER: a litmus test for loser Liberalism. "Anyone I've ever met with a viscerally negative reaction to her has either been (a) lazy, (b) incapable of thinking for himself, (c) misogynistic, (d) ignorant, (e) socialist/collectivist, or (f) a nanny-state freeloader."
SPRING, FINALLY: There's a way to go yet, but the leaves on the trees around the house are showing up.





Here's what it looked like last week.
ORBITAL SCIENCE'S Antares rocket scheduled to launch from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport today.
SWEET ANGEL OF DEATH, please take me now.

From my email.
UTTERLY DISGUSTING (AND DESPICABLE). Margaret Thatcher's funeral is happening as I write this. President Obama is not attending, and has not sent an official representative of the United States of America. The Senate, run by Democrats, is blocking a resolution sponsored by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell honoring her. Only the House, led by Republican Speaker John Boehner, has sent an official delegation to the funeral.

The Queen of England is attending Baroness Thatcher's funeral, a first since the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

The Obama administration and their cronies disgrace the offices they hold.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

OBAMACARE (NON)SURPRISE. The Affordable Care Act was never about healthcare; it has been and will always be about control and power. For those of you dumb enough to have voted for it, enjoy....
AS DEBATE BEGINS, Senate background check proposal for gun sales lacks necessary votes. Good.
MORE ON expanded background checks. In addition to the possibility of registration and a whole host of other 'inadvertent' crimes, the Manchin-Toomey bill adds another tax on the innocent.

Note once again that the Liberal response to almost any perceived problem is to punish the innocent.
BOSTON MARATHON BOMBED; actor calls for gun ban. He seems to have a bit of trouble understanding that the Second Amendment refers to the right to bear arms; it doesn't contain a right to arm bombs....
JOHN KERRY speaks for the Obama administration.

THE “PRO-GUN” PROVISIONS of Manchin-Toomey are actually a bonanza of gun control. Based on my reading of the post, I'm even less enamored of the legislation than I was before.
MEDIA BIAS and the Boston Marathon bombing:
Get over yourselves. For one day, get over yourselves. For one day realize the purpose you claim to serve and distribute what the authorities are confirming as fact. Practice actual news gathering. A public is fearful. Cities are securing their public centers and people are hugging their loved ones extra tight tonight. If you’re an anchor or reporter your professional designation is a publicly-declared obligation to provide unfiltered information to this very public. The public doesn’t give a damn about your political leanings or what you think. Give them the facts.
For the MSM, 'facts' are whatever speculation promotes their causes.

UPDATE: More.
A LOOK INSIDE the immigration reform proposal. I'm impressed, but only with its complexity. Otherwise, no. The border control part can be 'unenforced' with the stroke of a pen, and no matter how good the rest appears on the surface, it's just amnesty without effective border control.

Monday, April 15, 2013

TAKE THE TIME to get immigration reform right. "[I]t's less important to get an immigration bill through than it is to get immigration right."
KURT SCHLICTER: Snob Rule. I'm thinking that it's past time to put the snobs at the pointy end of the spear.
SOLAR CONJUNCTION suspends communications between Earth and Mars. For the next couple of weeks, at least, the Mars explorers are on their own.
OBAMA is sittin’ on the dock of the bay, wastin' time. And we have very little left to waste....
HOME PRICES highest point in history for D.C. as liberals cry 'austerity'. It's a nice thought, but as I live in the D.C. metro area, I have to point out that my house is appraised (in 2013) at only 64.2% of it's appraised value at the peak of the real estate bubble in 2006.
OBAMA HAS your pension plan in his sights. Anyone with more than sh*t for brains should be thinking about keeping his/her IRA in a Cayman Islands bank....
SOME THOUGHTS for those [gun] control addicts who denigrate those 'right-wing extremists clinging to their guns and bibles'.
THINKING OUTSIDE the [education] box. College never was the answer for everyone; it's rapid descent into progressive dementia leads me to wonder if it's an answer for anyone.
INSTAPUNDIT reflects on the quality of the political class.
RIGHT ON. The Cost of the “Collective” Message to “Our Children”.
ERECT ME MAYOR and skip the real scandal.
HAPPY TAX DAY! Courtesy of PJ Media.



Tax Freedom Day is April 18th this year, so you only think you're 'debt free'. Sign the check.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

ANOTHER CHAPTER of Liberals behaving stupidly: Gun bill championed by Democrats sharply limits rights of gay gun owners. Aren't liberals supposed to champion gay rights?
GEEK TOYS: iCandy.
WANT A CREDIBLE VOICE ON GUN CONTROL? Listen:



Now substitute 'health care' for 'guns' and listen again. It's all about control.
EVEN POLICE OFFICERS prefer armed citizens. Which is exactly what my concealed-carry instructor (a police officer himself) told the class several times during training.
MICHELLE MALKIN: Back-door amnesty.
REFLECTIONS of a medical ex-practitioner:
A fundamental principle in medicine is that if you get the diagnosis wrong, you'll probably apply the wrong therapy. A corollary is that if the therapy isn't working, increasing the dose may make things worse. That's where we are with ObamaCare.

There is no shortage of evidence [that] ObamaCare will, deliberately and by design, destroy what — while imperfect — has served very well. We have gotten to this point after years of good intentions making bad problems worse. To double down on the very therapy that has brought the system to its present sorry pass is a toe-ticket to the morgue.
Read it all.
ST. BONIFACIUS says no to drones (below 400 ft AGL). I would infer that there are no RC aircraft enthusiasts living in St. Bonifacius....
OBAMACARE cannot succeed while remaining Obamacare. So Republicans must make plans for a market-based replacement when it inevitably collapses.
TWIT TWEETS LIBERAL HYPOCRISY. From the Washington Post (naturally).
NOT-SO-EXPERT GOVERNMENT. Back in the good old days (when I was working), I'm reminded of a common aphorism at the office: "A committee is only as smart as its dumbest member." And I once saw a mathematical proof to that effect.
GUN CONTROL'S 'HIGH CAPACITY' MAGAZINE ARGUMENT: Plausible, or Propaganda?
MARK STEYN on tolerating pre-sensitive facts.
THE STUPID THINGS People with a Ph.D. say on Airplanes. Strike 'People with a Ph.D', replace it with 'Liberals', and the post would be just as accurate.
FINALLY. A touch of green is in the air.



It seems like forever, but looking back at past Aprils, spring is pretty much on schedule.

Friday, April 12, 2013

OBAMACARE'S FAILURE:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius cancelled the law’s government-run long-term care insurance program, the CLASS Act, last year after she admitted it was financially unsustainable and Congress formally repealed it in January’s fiscal cliff deal. Enrollment in Obamacare’s high-risk pools for individuals with pre-existing conditions was so low that that program was also cancelled. The nation’s best health care providers, chosen as models of cost savings, have dropped out of Obamacare’s unworkable Accountable Care Organization program. The tax credits that were meant to help small businesses afford coverage, have proved to be so complicated that only 7 percent of the 4.4 million businesses the program was designed to help, have claimed the credit. And no one expects the Obama administration to have health insurance exchanges up and working by this year’s October deadline.
But other than that, everything's working just fine.
MEDICAID FOR FELONS. It seems like a small and reasonable thing to do, but here's the core concept writ large:

As Bloomberg’s recent soda campaign so aptly demonstrated, once health care becomes a public expense, personal choices become a public concern. Taxpayers can expect to be nagged about small poor life choices like opting for a bigger beverage or a higher-calorie meal choice.
If you are unwilling to take personal responsibility, someone else will take control. And they will not have your best interests at heart.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Confessions of a Counter-Revolutionary.

It's come to this since Obama took office....
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Frankly, I don't know what it is about California , but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine , even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington , we're Number One. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The four of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words.
It's old, but it does explain California quite succinctly.
LEGISTORM: Hill staffers upset. I'm amused. The government doesn't respect my privacy, and they expect me to respect theirs?
CALIFORNIA: Where is the Pension Fairy when you need her? (Maybe Walt Disney could ask Tinkerbell to help....)
YES, ABSOLUTELY: Vote for the crook for Virginia governor.

I'll be very interested in how the Washngton Post skirts this when they choose to endorse McAuliffe for Governor in 2014.
ANN COULTER: "The one clear thread that unites all the mass murders currently being exploited by the Democrats is that they were committed by visibly crazy people who were unaccountably not institutionalized."

Yet not item -- not one! -- in the current gun control bill before the Senate addresses mental illness.
SEE? Global warming does cause global cooling.

Told ya so....
OBAMA’S SUCCESS: The Poor Get Poorer, And The Rich Get Poorer. And in the end, we're all equal.
The late Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, explained it to us:

“The honorable gentleman is saying that he would rather that the poor were poorer provided that the rich were less rich,” she said, explaining the certain type of wealth-envy by which liberals plague the rest of us. “That way one will never create the wealth for better social services, as we have. What a policy. Yes, he would rather have the poor poorer, provided that the rich were less rich. That is the Liberal policy.”
Redistribution properly defined.
CALIFORNIA CONSIDERS mandated insurance for 'gay infertility'. If this doesn't qualify as insanity, what does?
A DOCTOR on ObamaCare's unintended consequences.
A group of bureaucrats in Washington have determined what they believe is best for all Americans when it comes to their healthcare, without any proof that their ideas will work. They have decided what a health insurance policy should look like, who may deliver healthcare, where the care will be delivered and how much it should cost. Very soon, these same bureaucrats will determine the care people are entitled to or worse- what care can be denied to certain individuals. Just as it was with the ACGME, the unintended consequences were not considered.

The 2700 pages of the ACA has spawned 20,000 pages of regulations -so far. The $980 Billion that the ACA was promised to cost has ballooned to $2.7 Trillion and climbing. The “simple” process of signing up for subsidies in the Obamacare exchanges is now a 21 page form with a 61 page appendix, inquiring about every aspect of your life. Instead of insurance premiums decreasing by $2500 per family, they have soared and now on average have increased by $3065. According to Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, these rates will go up 20-50% more in 2014. The ACA may create government jobs thanks to the 159 new agencies created by this massive law, but the private sector stands to lose as many as 800,000 jobs because of the mandate to provide insurance to employees.

When a small group of people decide that they know what is best for the rest of us and are determined to make changes, ignoring the potential unintended consequences, it is time to strip them of this power, replace them , and protect the institutions that are so vital to our well-being.
Remember Campbell's Law. Another Campbell (John, long deceased editor of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact) had a similar law that I think is also appropriate: "You can never do just one thing."
TED CRUZ PRESS RELEASE: Senate to Vote on Gun Bill No One Has Read. Remember the last time Congress passed legislation no one had read? It's called ObamaCare.
OBAMA'S 2014 BUDGET: borrow more, tax more, spend more. All that's left is to steal more, and he's working on that.
HEH. Marylanders, get ready to pay your ‘rain tax’. And note:
[S]tate lawmakers exempted government-owned property from the rain tax but imposed it on religions and nonprofits (which own big roofs and parking lots).
If they tried it in Virginia, my driveway would immediately become gravel....
NANNY BLOOMBERG: next let's ban pacifiers.

Surely there's a pothole or two that New Yorkers can shove him in....
ADIOS, CONNECTICUT: another gun manufacturer packs up to leave.
TIM PHILLIPS: The budget priorities of Democrats. It's not about the budget; it's about control.
YOU KNOW commercial space will be successful when governments declare it can't be done.
TEXTING WHILE FLYING may be hazardous to your health.
GOOD QUESTION: Why does the Congressional Black Caucus hate poor blacks?
THOMAS SOWELL: Tests and Tiger Moms.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

LIBERALISM: What's mine is mine, what's yours is ours mine.
OBAMA'S HALF-BROTHER, ANYONE? Charity begins with other people’s wallets.
JOHN RANSOM: "What the world needs now is a good, judicious measure of normality from government. They need to pick up the trash, repair the streets, police the neighborhoods and put out fires -- not start them."

Read it all.
NEWS SPEAK: "[I]t makes the folks at AP feel doubleplusungood when they see badspeak." (Im)precisely (in)accurate.
JEFF JACOBY: The essence of Thatcherism.
TAXES ARE FOR COMMONERS, not the ruling class.
MY ONLY SURPRISE about this is wondering why anyone would waste time and perfectly good money to listen to his deranged rants.
WELCOME TO CYPRUS: Obama's budget targets our retirement savings.
PROGRESSIVE HUBRIS AND ARROGANCE. They cannot countenance the idea that Joe and Josephine Sixpack might be smarter than they are.
HEH. Wisconsin union membership plunging as workers exercise new rights. The right to walk away.
OBAMACARE WON'T WORK. Now what? The only thing missing from this post is the recognition that some of us (actually many of us, I suspect) would welcome a return to the traditional catastrophic-care insurance model of health care.
GUN CONTROL DEBATE to begin in the Senate. Although the only gun control legislation that has even a remote chance of passage is the Manchin-Toomey compromise on background checks, I have advised my Senators (probably futilely) to vote against. Here's why:
Background checks currently apply only to transactions handled by the country's 55,000 licensed gun dealers. Advocates of expanding the system say too many sales – the exact proportion is unknown – escape the checks, which are supposed to keep weapons from going to criminals, the seriously mentally ill, and others.
The fact is that the efficacy of expanding background checks is unknown because the number of unchecked sales is unknown (the 40% number bandied about is patently absurd) and we do know that background checks -- even expanded background checks -- would not have stopped even one of the recent mass shooting.
BLOOMBERG: The Myth of the Falling Bridge.
FACTS DON'T MATTER: If it reinforces my beliefs it must be 'science'. A small recognition that 'social science' is an oxymoron.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

A BLAST FROM THE PAST:



In the Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index, President Obama dropped below 50% for the first time since his reelection in November. In a blast from the past, his approval is dropping even faster than it did in 2009. Then it took until mid-June for his approval rating to drop below 50%, where it stayed until just before the November election.
JURY DUTY isn't as burdensome when you don't have a job.
THE NEW ECONOMY TAKES SHAPE: that 'hopey-changey' stuff isn't working as anticipated. By liberals; conservatives knew all along that Obamanomics is unworkable.
YUVAL LEVIN: Replacing ObamaCare.

Two thoughts of my own.

Yglesias's understing of 'risk pools' is sadly mistaken. The risk pool is not the employer, and not even the insurance company (although Levin is much more nearly correct): it is the totality of all the insurance company's insurees, averaged over some extended period of time to build up reserves against catastrophic, but unlikely, events. Because Yglesias is fixated on health care and not health insurance, he conflates an insurance risk pool with a 'prepayment pool' for routine, but entirely predictable expenses.

With respect to 'cheap, renewable catastrophic policies', Yglesias again misses the point entirely. Cheap, renewable catastrophic policies are not 'low-quality health care'; it's high-quality health insurance for unlikely but potentially catastrophic events. Like automobile and homeowner's insurance, with catastrophic health insurance I pay a small premium each month in the fond hope that eventually I die having 'wasted' all those premiums by not requiring the services they cover.

To use Yglesias's affordable housing policy analogy, I'd rather live temporarily in a tent in the park while my house is being rebuilt than live permanently in Yglesias's government-owned housing project.
THE NEW CLIMATE DENIERS. Those members of the 'reality-based community' shall henceforth be known as 'reality deniers'.
EVERYONE KNOWS that white males own guns to compensate for a lack of manhood.
SEE? -- ObamaCare is already creating jobs. Just not productive jobs.

It never ceases to amaze me that people are ready willing to pay exorbitant taxes to get 'free stuff' that they could buy directly for much less.
JOHN LOTT: Fact vs. fiction on background checks in the gun control debate.
THOMAS SOWELL: The lunacy of 'proportional response'.
Back before the clever new notion of "proportional" response became the vogue, our response to Pearl Harbor was ultimately Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And Japan has not attacked or even threatened anybody since then. Nor has any war broken out anywhere that is at all comparable with World War II.

Which policy is better? There was a time when we followed the ancient adage "By their fruits ye shall know them." The track record of massive retaliation easily beats that of the more sophisticated-sounding proportional response.

Back in ancient times, when Carthage attacked Rome, the Romans did not respond "proportionally." They wiped Carthage off the face of the earth. That may have had something to do with the centuries of what was called the Pax Romano -- the Roman peace.
I think we've seen sufficient evidence that 'tit for tat' doesn't work. It's time to return to making rubble, then bouncing it just to be sure.

Domestically as well as internationally.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

A GROWING NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS are skipping TV for smartphones & tablets.

I can understand why. I pay a boatload for TV, internet, landline and wireless phone service. And yet my landline phone is used primarily for ignoring junk calls; of the several hundred cable television channels that are available, I can stomach watching maybe 4 or 5; and my 'broadband' internet access is so clogged with popovers, popunders, and spam that I've hardly got better access than I had with dial-up.

Ninety percent of the money I pay is for communication 'services' I neither use nor want but can't not buy.

It won't be long before I join the 'Zero Services' user group.
DAVID LIMBAUGH: The World Is Upside-Down.
8-YEAR-OLD nabbed on felony BB gun charges. There ought to be a 'felony stupid' law applicable solely to local, state, and federal government employees.
HARRY R. JACKSON, JR.: State Grown Kids Always Fail. It doesn't take a village; it takes parents.
OH, MY: Global warming causes bumpy flights. Cue the tiny violins....
AMERICANS SHOULD LOVE HUGE GOVERNMENT DEFICITS. If you've ever wondered about the meaning of the phrase 'grasping at straws', you should read this.
MORNING EXAMINER: Why Obama will lose on guns.
Since the current gun control proposals would do nothing to stop mass shootings, even if Obama’s gun control bill became law, more are bound to happen. And the deaths in those events will be no more or less tragic than the deaths at Columbine, Aurora, or Sandy Hook. The emotional appeal for “more” gun control will be the exact same. Anti-gun activists would just use those future tragedies to justify further gun restrictions. The logic of doing “just one thing” so a father does not have “to bury his child” simply has no end.
Note that this is a consistent argument with every liberal policy failure of the past. Schools are bad; we haven't spent enough. People continue to smoke; we haven't taxed them enough. People are still getting killed in automobile accidents; we haven't mandated enough safety equipment. Americans are getting fatter; we must restrict calories and mandate gym memberships.

You get the picture.
ON FEBRUARY 4TH, 2013, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, addressed the Duma, (Russian Parliament), and gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia:
In Russia live Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Shari a Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law. Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'. We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities. When this honourable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the national interest first, observing that the minorities are not Russians.

The politicians in the Duma gave Putin a standing ovation for five minutes.
From my email.
RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane: on the radio just a few moments ago I had to listen to President "It's not about me" Obama promoting his gun control policies. Does anyone remember President Bush (II), President Clinton, Prisident Bush (I), or President Reagan ever say "It's not about me."?

I don't.
DOG BITES SELF:
Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., decided last month not to recognize a Knights of Columbus group as a student club, citing the organization’s religious and gender exclusivity. The Knights are a Catholic men’s organization.

So are the Jesuits, who run Gonzaga.
PC is for little people....

Monday, April 08, 2013

WE NEED AN IQ TEST FOR POLITICIANS: "The only problem is, that might leave us with a lot of vacancies in Congress and America’s statehouses."

Which is not necessarily bad....
MARIJUANA, OBAMACARE, AND GUN CONTROL. Given the apparent correlation of marijuana use with mental illness, shouldn't it be a determining factor in gun control background checks?
RAND PAUL on the Fourth Amendment:


EIGHT REASONS why 'background checks' should fail.
WILL DEMOGRAPHICS doom the Democrats' demagoguery on entitlements?

It will, but they are willfully blind to it. I once had an email 'conversation' (which I may post in the future) with a leader of Daily Kos's Social Security Defender interest group which evidenced their complete and utter unwillingness to do the math.
MEXICO: a good neighbor?
RECYCLING I CAN LIVE WITH:



More here.
ALL YOUR CHILDREN are belong to us. The comments are devastating.

My original post is here, and I will add that I agree with JerryB's comment.
PENN & TELLER ON RECYCLING. They answer the question "Why is California hosed?"



It's long, but lovely.
ASKS MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: If politicians are stupid and corrupt, why should we let them run our lives? The perfect response is in the comments: "Boy, talk about a complete lack of self-awareness!"
THE FACE OF PROGRESSIVE GUN RESTRICTORS: ignorant, unyielding in error, and coldly arrogant.
'REALITY-BASED' LIBERAL mystified why WalMart doesn't hire more staff. Even more mystifying is why a reality-based liberal would shop at WalMart....
TEEN SHOOTER, 1; gun controllers, zip. She should get a full 4-year ride for the video alone.


CAMPBELL BROWN: The President Gives Hollywood a Pass on Violence. Two words: campaign donations.
OBAMA ANNOUNCES NORTH KOREA DEFENSE POLICY:



It is the left west coast.
HHS SURVEY shows that half of ObamaCare's target market doesn't want it. And what we do want (catastrophic insurance) the law won't allow....
MARGARET THATCHER has died.
PUBLIC SECTOR UNION membership is down -- way down -- in Wisconsin. I wonder why.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

IF YOU BAN GUNS, YOU GET ...



... knife crime.
MY DAUGHTER is now a religious extremist. (She joined the Catholic church.)

What kind of crazy is this world coming to?

Mark Steyn has more, here and here.
TAKE UP SMOKING. It's for the children.
SMART MONEY abandoning renewable energy. BP now stands for 'Beyond Posturing'.
JOHN BOEHNER: Top 10 Excuses President Obama’s Budget is Late.
WHY ARE YOUNG AMERICANS supportive of Obama when his policies are so bad for them? Young Americans are stupid. So are many -- if not most -- older Americans.
NORTH KOREA threatens the United States....

DISCOURAGED JOB SEEKERS call it quits ... to become 'government employees without portfolio'. Might as well call government welfare programs what they really are.
GUN CONTROL not going over too well.
THE REALITY OF HOPE & CHANGE:



The link is here.