OCCUPY L.A.: 30 tons of debris left behind.

Instapundit comments: "Remember how the Tea Party protesters left things neater than they found them?"

VICTORY: McDonald's outsmarts San Francisco on Happy Meal ban. If I'm ever out in San Francisco (admittedly, unlikely) I'm going to stop at Mickey D's and buy two Happy Meals so as to get the toys for my granddaughters.

UPDATE: Let's ban San Francisco.

IRAN'S NONEXISTENT NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM gets blown up -- again.

TRANSPARENCY FOR ME, but not for thee.

SO RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE doesn't apply to people who are intolerant of Christians?

THOMAS SOWELL: Seize the center? Hell, no! To use a football analogy, I don't want someone who'll make his stand on the 50-yard line; I want someone who'll drive for the score.

ENDING INCOME INEQUALITY: Stop the 99% from buying all the stuff that makes the 1% rich.

IN OREGON, a profile in incoherence. No, a profile of preening moral arrogance.

APPARENTLY NOT: Does Obama Know the Difference between Great Britain and England?

THEY'RE NOT EARMARKS, they're 'special spending provisions'.

THERE'S A BIPARTISAN APPETITE for tax cuts; spending cuts, not so much. Borrowing other people's money is sooo ... appealing.

HEAT YOUR HOME: burn data.

MICHAEL GOODWIN on President Obama: "He’s so bad at the job that the frequent comparisons to Jimmy Carter are unfair to Carter."

MICHELLE MALKIN: Occupy Dayton rages at Wal-Mart and Target customers -- and are ignored.

WHY THE SUPERCOMMITTEE FAILED. The Washington Post had Sunday opinion pieces from both sides of the Supercommittee:

According to Democrats: Republicans would not accept the need for a balanced deficit-reduction plan. This opinion was authored by Democrat member Chris Van Hollen.

According to Republicans: Democrats were determined to have big, new tax increases, both now and later. This opinion was authored by the entire Republican side of the Supercommittee.

The Republican piece was interesting; they offered tax reform (but not rate increases); also - but not mentioned - Social Security reform and Medicare/Medicaid reform. The Democratic offer was 'same old, same old': tax increases on the rich, and - to their credit - some Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid reforms along the lines of the Simpson-Bowles Commission plan.

WHY DEMOCRATS SHOULD LOSE IN NOVEMBER: 62% of Americans think any new tax hikes will be spent on new programs.

They're right.

OOPSIE! Rather complete destruction for an 'accident'.

HOW TO FIX:

Medicaid.

Medicare.

Social Security.

From the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

CAIN PLANS 'assessment' of his campaign. I suspect that the latest allegation of a 13-year affair will put the kibosh on his campaign. My question is "Who induced these women to 'come out' and more importantly, how much were they paid?"

EQUALITY OF RIGHTS VS. EQUALITY OF RESULTS: Thomas Sowell vs. Francis Fox Piven 21 years ago.



Equality of rights still wins.

NATURAL LIGHT: the first beer in space.

CHANGING SEASONS VII: 29 November 2011


I'm beginning to believe God creates more leaves out of thin air. I was out this morning; the winds are calm, the trees are bare, and leaves are still falling in the yard. Here's today's photo, the last of the series. Last week's photo is here, and you can continue backward from there.

THE SMOKING GUN.

HUNTSMAN'S FAILING CAMPAIGN. It's not the ineptitude; it's the Obama-scale ego.

SPACEBALL: Astronaut plays baseball with himself aboard the International Space Station. So who won?

ON BECOMING ILLEGAL:

The Honorable Tom Harkin
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Phone (202) 224 3254
Washington DC , 20510

Dear Senator Harkin ,

As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service , I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year.

Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications , as well as 'in-state' tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.

Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums .. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent,
(hoping to reach 'illegal alien' status rather
than just a bonafide citizen of the USA )

Donald Ruppert
Burlington , IA

From my email.

SURVIVAL FOOD.

THE FUTURE OF THE OBAMA COALITION: "[P]reparations ... for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class."

The Democrat Party is rapidly becoming the party of the takers, not the producers.

THE ROOT CAUSE of the higher education bubble. Read it all.

AMERICAN AIRLINES files for bankruptcy protection. They must not have paid their required quarterly tribute to the Obama administration.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE RETIRED when you spend more on gasoline for your lawn tractor than for your car.

BARNEY FRANK to (finally!) retire from Congress. His replacement on the House Financial Services Committee will be Maxine Waters (D-CA), assuming voters in California's 35th congressional district are foolish enough to re-elect her.

Looks to me like some Democrats are 'pre-jumping' from Obama's Titanic.

CORRELATION does not imply causation (but it sure is a hint to look around the cubicle walls).

HAVE A very Obama Christmas holiday.

GUNS: a better investment than gold? I haven't seen the television advertisements for guns yet, but if they're legal, they're surely coming....

Linked from Instapundit.

OBAMA JUST DOESN'T GET IT when it comes to business. To the contrary, I think he does 'get it' and is actively hostile to any enterprise that doesn't conform to his vision of social justice.

"THE TRAIN WRECK that's coming may be the most spectacular in recorded history. Wish I didn't have a front row seat." From the comments to this Mark Steyn post.

ARMED ROBBERY FAIL. "The sole customer in the [Denny's] restaurant, a licensed concealed handgun carrier, observed the suspects enter, pulled out his own gun, took cover and fired at the robbers ... the suspects returned fire and fled the restaurant."

FINALLY: Los Angeles mayor tells Occupiers to "hit the road, Jack."

PRESIDENT OBAMA among the 25 least influential people alive. At least he beat out MSNBC host Ed Schultz.

OCCUPY ALASKA protestors keep vigil despite the cold. It'll be interesting to see how long they can continue. Minus 30 degrees is cold.

THE SURPRISING NEWS about U.S. oil production. Good news, but ... it's Goldman Sachs making the prediction.

SURGES AND SETBACKS for trash-to-gas electricity.

"IT'S A SILICON VALLEY of strategic space for the U.S. government and Boeing’s crappy leadership ran it into the ground.” As one who worked in the "black world" for many years, I suspect that the root cause was not Boeing's 'crappy leadership' (though there is plenty of that, I can assure you) but the government's failure to abide by Kelly's Rules.

LIBERAL VIOLENCE RISING. Of course. Like any spoiled brat, progressives throw tantrums whenever they don't get their way.

ANOTHER EFFORT TO DISMANTLE THE UNION STATE: Indiana Republicans aim to get right to work on 'right to work'. I hope the Republicans are successful.

A BRIDGE TO NOWHERE: The Higher Education Bubble and Liberal Arts Education.

The problem, I think, is not so much the disparity between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates and liberal arts graduates as it is with the corruption of liberal arts: 'victim studies' does not sell well on the open market.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Bring back the lash?

JUST ANOTHER Black Friday at Wal Mart:

55-Year-Old Woman Gets Shot, Returns Fire With Her Own Pistol.

Woman Pepper Sprays Rival Black Friday Shoppers.

It's not a good idea to get between a woman and her Black Friday purchases ....

NEAL BOORTZ: It's all the Republicans' fault I can't redistribute America's wealth.

ANDREW McCARTHY on immigration and amnesty.

YOU CAN'T ARREST IDEAS (scroll down): No, but you can ignore bad ones.

'OCCUPY'-INSPIRED CAMPAIGN urges boycott of Black Friday. Perfect! Now the rest of us can start our Christmas shopping in peace.

UPDATE: The Tea Party responds with a "buycott."

CLIMATEGATE II: The newest batch of emails appear to be very encouraging for the skeptics. It's not so much the data; it's the attitude.

ARE THEY, OR AREN'T THEY faster than light?

THOMAS SOWELL visits the Land of Unintended Consequences.

SO WHAT'S NEW? Obama blames GOP for deficit panel's failure.

THE OBAMA JUSTICE DEPARTMENT sued Utah, claiming that the state’s new law, which require law enforcement to verify the legal status of those arrested for class A misdemeanors or felonies, is inconsistent with Obama’s decision not to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.

Since when does the President have the authority to not enforce the nation's laws?

EVEN OBAMA'S CHEERLEADERS are falling away: "I feel your pain, but we tried to warn you."

TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE? Why did the salmon cross the road?

OH, MY: You can't buy that lime ... it could be classed as a weapon.

So can the pen and pencil I carry in my shirt pocket.

INSPIRATION: Gabby Giffords and husband serve Thanksgiving meal to local troops.

SARAH PALIN: Giving Thanks for Trig.

THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER'S Conn Carroll: Newt Gingrich will fall. I'm not so sure.

EXPOSING THE COST OF HEALTHCARE: “Most Americans don’t know what medical procedures cost until after the fact. One startup aims to change that.”

Too true. If I had known the true cost of the rabies series I went through, I would have accepted the miniscule risk and refused treatment.

WHILE ROME AMERICA BURNS, Nero fiddles Obama campaigns.

COMPANY POLICY: We're not hiring until Obama is gone. And the important point is that it is not "we won't hire," it's that "we can't hire."

THE PROSPECTS are dim for a society that makes mascots out of the unproductive and condemns the productive. The rich don't 'go Galt' because they want to; they do it because they're forced to.

SPEND MORE, SAVE MORE: Maryland spends $2.3m on renewable energy for $637,000 in savings.

Translation: Sure, I lose a little on each transaction, but I make up for it with volume.

OBAMA'S ECONOMY has run out of excuses.

FDR was re-elected; Obama won't be.

JEFF JACOBY: Making Americans.

PAUL GREENBERG: Coming home to the wilderness.

MARYBETH HICKS on Thanksgiving.

TIMELINE: the story of the Democratic Party’s absolute refusal to come to grips with the country’s fiscal crisis.

GOV. RICK PERRY is getting a second look, and the reviews are positive:

Miniter & Miniter: Optional Government, and
Zoller: Rick Perry Offers a Feast of Reform Ideas.

I'm impressed. Not in full agreement, but impressed.

Newt Gingrich is also getting favorable coverage.

HEH. The "Obama tube."

NOMINATE someone other that Obama ... please!

Hillary?

MEET THE OWS PROTESTORS. Which one do you want your tax dollars to go to?

THE CULT (?) of journalistic objectivity. Conor Friedersdorf in a nearly incoherent post on the works of James O'Keefe: "... [M]ore evidence that pretending reporters have no opinions or biases is no longer tenable."

Friedersdorf is confusing opinion with bias and both with objectivity. I have no objection to either opinion or bias, provided they are kept in the opinion pages, where they belong, and not the news pages. I expect news to confine itself to who, what, where, when, how, and only sometimes why (if that can be established as factual and not opinion). I can generate the opinion myself.

Linked from Instapundit.

SO FAR: Cost to cities for Occupiers exceeds $13 million.

Just add it to the deficit tab.

I HAVE BEEN highly unimpressed with Patrick Pexton as the Washington Post's ombudsman. Here's why.

THE HANDWRITING IS ON THE WALL: Obama's Medicare chief Donald Berwick quits.

ANOTHER REASON not to trust the Washington Post's Dana Milbank.

NBC PROVES ITS BONA FIDES as a member of the Lamestream Media: No way to treat a lady.

NOT SOON ENOUGH: Will Demography Defeat Democrats?

FIRST LOOK: Electronic Warfare Missile. OT&E (operational test and evaluation) should be conducted in Iran.

HEH. Occupy DC expects to be raided, tells campers to remove drugs. Can you imagine that happening at a Tea Party protest?

PARALYZE GOVERNMENT: not a bad idea. It might surprise working Americans to find out that they can do perfectly well without it.

JEEZ: Every time I think I have the leaves under control, Nature provides me with a new batch to mulch.

WHOLE FOODS founder John Mackey's free market plan for creating jobs. It's refreshing to see someone who, one would think is tied to the environmental movement, actually understand free market capitalism.

SUPERCOMMITTEE: Failure or Success? It depends on the goal. It will be up to the voters in the next election to make it a success.

RUSSIA'S stricken Mars probe contacted. With luck -- and hard work -- it may not be necessary to attempt a 'shootdown'.

A BUMPER STICKER FOR THE NEXT ELECTION? I've always wanted to use the phrase “a bridge to hope and change nowhere” and it just dawned on me that it's the perfect description of the Obama administration.

WHY THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT will never amount to a hill of beans.

RUSSIA PROBABLY ISN'T CAPABLE of shooting down its wayward spacecraft with tons of toxic chemicals inside that may soon crash to Earth.

The $163 million Phobos-Grunt, made by Moscow-based NPO Lavochkin, got stuck in low-Earth orbit after its Nov. 9 launch. It may crash within weeks if scientists are unable to establish contact and activate its propulsion systems. The window to send the spacecraft to a Martian moon, its destination, ends today, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

I wonder if they'll ask the U.S. or China, both of whom have successfully intercepted satellites, to attempt to destroy it.

LIFE'S LESSON: I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

From my email.

SCUTTLE NASA NOW: It’s time for the Obama administration to make NASA a facilitator of private space ventures.

A SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY School of Law adjunct professor resigns over the school’s handling of a fellow faculty member’s military-bashing email.

U.S. Army Reserves Major Robert J. Roughsedge, who spent eight years as an adjunct Suffolk Law professor, resigned in a letter to Dean Camille Nelson over Suffolk Law Professor Michael Avery’s five-paragraph email to colleagues stating that it was “shameful” for students at the school to send care packages to soldiers who “have gone overseas to kill other human beings.”

Roughsedge called in from Kabul to explain his decision to resign.... “I do not want to provide them cover from what they really are.”

The law school should have fired Avery and promoted Roughsedge. More here.

ANOTHER REPUBLICAN DEBATE, tonight, 8 pm on CNN.

WHY OCCUPY WALL STREET will keep up the fight [Registration may be required]. Kalle Lasn and Micah White, who claim to have launched the OWS movement, use the Washington Post to describe what our future holds:

The people’s assemblies will continue with or without winter encampments. What will be new is the marked escalation of surprise, playful, precision disruptions — rush-hour flash mobs, bank occupations, “occupy squads” and edgy theatrics. And we will see clearly articulated demands emerging, among them a “Robin Hood tax” on all financial transactions and currency trades; a ban on high-frequency “flash” trading; the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act to again separate investment banking from commercial banking; a constitutional amendment to revoke corporate personhood and overrule Citizens United ; a move toward a “true cost” market regime in which the price of every product reflects the ecological cost of its production, distribution and use; and with a bit of luck, perhaps even the birth of a new, left-right hybrid political party that moves America beyond the Coke vs. Pepsi choices of the past.

In this visceral, canny, militantly nonviolent phase of our march to real democracy, we will “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” We will regroup, lick our wounds, brainstorm and network all winter. We will build momentum for a full-spectrum counterattack when the crocuses bloom next spring.

I can sympathize with some of their concerns, but they have real problem understanding the difference between capitalism and crony capitalism. It's also apparent that they do not -- or cannot -- understand that it is exactly their solutions that got us into this mess in the first place.

MICHAEL BARONE: Why not put tax breaks for mortgages and local taxes on the table?

Why not? Aren't we all in favor of ending tax breaks for 'the rich'?

“YOU KNOW the old saying that if mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy?” Well, momma ain't happy, and she's leading the Tea Party.

LOS ANGELES MAYOR TO OCCUPIERS: How about a permanent camp ... somewhere else? As a former resident of the Antelope Valley, I can assure that they would not be welcome.

UPHOLDING OBAMACARE will encourage endless meddling.

When the government forces you to pay for other people's medical treatment, either directly through taxpayer subsidies or indirectly by requiring insurers to take all comers and charge them the same rates regardless of health, you have a financial stake in other people's lifestyle choices, including their diets, their exercise levels, their sleep patterns, their oral hygiene and their risky habits.

These decisions, aggregated together, have a substantial effect on health care spending, which the Obama administration has vowed to control. Imagine the fun that Congress could have coming up with mandates aimed at coercing healthier lifestyles once it has a constitutional blessing as well as a fiscal justification. Even if it sticks to regulating purchases, the possibilities for meddling will be wide and varied, ranging from food to recreational activities.

Endless meddling. You can be sure the nanny-staters will take every advantage, just as they've forced you into wearing seat belts, not smoking in public places anywhere, driving tin cans, attending declining public schools, ... and on and on.

IF THIS GOES ON .... Texas highland lakes will soon be dry.


As a former -- and intermittent -- resident of Central Texas, this is the worst I can recall ever seeing. When my family first moved to Austin in the early 50's, Lake Travis (the easternmost major reservoir) was still filling. I've seen its 'sometimes islands' appear and disappear, but they've never become the 'sometimes peninsulas'. I've never heard of anyone being able to drive over the Lake Buchanan (the westernmost major reservoir) to old Bluffton.

Lake levels are nearing historic lows since records have been kept.

IS CLIMATEGATE back in the news?

SPENDING OTHER PEOPLES MONEY: Occupy D.C. cost local taxpayers $1 million.

PRESIDENT PRESENT: Romney Blames Obama for Supercommittee Failure.

BRIDGE TO HOPE 'N CHANGE NOWHERE: Supercommittee fails.

A FRIGHTENING FORUM IN IOWA. The secular Left simply cannot fathom any principled objection to their cultural fantasies. Read the comments.

EUROPEAN TAX RATES: If these rates are accurate, then one must concede that no matter how bad things looks in the U.S., they're worse in Europe.

IT'S BEGUN: Mr. Obama, please go quietly. Frankly, I didn't think it would take this long.

PROMPT GLOBAL STRIKE: The Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, lifted by a 34-foot, 36,000-pound rocket, successfully flew 2,400 miles from Hawaii to its target by the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. This in contrast to DARPA's more highly publicized Falcon HTV (hypersonic technology vehicle) which had two successive failures earlier this year.

The most interesting part of the article is the Environmental Assessment (here), which shows the degree -- and expense -- associated with satisfying the environmentalist movement.

SHOCKING (NOT): A USA TODAY analysis of companies who received money from Obama's stimulus found that those firms have "soundly beaten the stock market" since the stimulus became law.

But long-term success is still TBD, and the question of whether or not in the long term the companies that survive would have done better or worse can never be determined.

OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT: a self-bailout proposal. I suspect that the "Occupiers" will find their creditors not amused -- and quite willing to give them short shrift when it comes time for them to apply for a new auto or mortgage loan.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME: This guy is shooting a .50 caliber rifle. The target is a steel plate, 1000 yards away. You can hear the ping of the hit and then hear the bullet coming back. It hits the ground just in front of him, then bounces up, hits the earmuffs, knocking them from his head.



LESSON: When shooting at a hard target, always make sure it's angled away from you. I learned at about 10 years old with my very first 'Red Ryder' BB gun.

"NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the willingness of politicians to try to avoid making ... hard choices."

HEAD SCRATCHER: Seen on the road today, a large advertisement for

Amber Ale: Employee Run and Wind Powered

It was painted on the side of a diesel 18-wheeler.

SURPRISED? Almost half the homeowners aided by the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program are in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. All three states are heavily Democratic. No surprise there.

ANOTHER REMINDER: Regulations are for little people.

DAN MITCHELL is unhappy to hear that the Republican members of the Supercommittee may be capitulating on the "no tax increase" pledge for fear of sequestration, which he sees as a foolish fear. He needn't worry as it looks like sequestration is inevitable.

Road, can, kick.

GUNMAN SHOT AT BERKELEY near the Occupy demonstrations. There are actually two stories here; one about the campus police shooting an armed intruder on the campus, the second about police removing protestors at the behest of the University to uphold a ban on camping on the university campus.

So what does the Chancellor do?

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau launched an investigation into allegations that campus police used excessive force. He said videos of the protests were disturbing, and he plans to grant amnesty to all students who were arrested and cited for attempting to block police from removing the tents.

Utterly amazing.

MAPPING THE LUNAR SURFACE: a high-resolution topographic map of the lunar surface from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mapping data.

THE SENATE RULES COMMITTEE blocked the Tea Party Debt Commission from unveiling its budget proposal at the Capitol last Thursday, with staff members removing microphones and locking doors to the room where the group was set to present its findings. Naturally, the Senate is ruled by the Democrats who clearly don't want any serious budget proposals presented in any mainstream media covered public forum.

Having read it, the Tea Party's budget proposal is both serious and quite good. I can pick nits, but in general the Tea Party's proposal is strong.

OBAMA'S JOB-DESTROYING MACHINE GRINDS ON:

I can’t figure out whether it is due to malice or incompetence; all I know is, if you wanted to hurt America’s economy, you would do pretty much everything the Obama administration does.

Commenter Vova Khavkin responds: "I guess it's both -- monumental incompetence that is characteristic of all quota appointees and malice driven by intense hate for our country."

FIVE LESSONS learned from the European fiscal crisis. The video is worthy, but the real lesson is in the chart at the bottom.

KATHLEEN PARKER: The Palinization of the GOP. Parker's commentary simply drips with condescension.

Translated: "We are the liberals, the intellectual elite, the guardians of knowledge, and the font of all scientific wisdom. Therefore anyone who has the temerity to disagree with us must be an illiterate religious bigot like Sarah Palin."

OCCUPYFAIL: Where are the occupiers?

LEFT'S BIG GREEN AGENDA abuses the working poor. It's not just the poor.

TIME TO think about adoption?

CHANGING SEASONS VI: 20 November 2011


Part VI of a series. Only a week later and almost no leaves left.

WHY OCCUPY A TENT when you can occupy a luxury hotel?

MEMO TO WASHINGTON: Kick the spending habit!

TAKE AWAY THEIR ALLOWANCES: Capitalism's spoiled children.

By sheer coincidence, I received this in my email today:

My daughter just walked into the living room and said " Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window, take my TV, stereo, iPod, iPhone and my laptop. Please take all my jewelry to the Salvation Army or cash converters. Then sell my new car. Take the front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Disown me and never talk to me again. Write me out of your will and leave my share to my brother."

Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said, "Dad, I've decided to work for Obama's re-election campaign."

Sounds right to me.

OCCUPY D.C. CAMPS are protesting the right way.

Yeah, breaking the law is the 'right' way.

"IF A TINY GROUP of committed Utopian socialists can’t create a tiny socialist Utopia when it’s just them in a park, where is this notion likely to succeed?"

JEEZ: paying students not to go to law school. Is this like paying farmers not to grow crops? If so, consider me in. I'll gladly not go to law school and not grow anything in my garden for a modest payment from your tax dollars.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.

While I'm not particularly religious, I miss the days when patriotism was the rule and not the exception.

GOD'S DIVERSITY PLAN:

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.

He inquired, "Where have you been?"

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look,
Michael. Look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, and I've put life on it.. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, "I'm still confused.."

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things."

God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, "What's that one?"

"That's North Dakota, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful rolling prairies, rivers and streams, hills, and plains. The people from North Dakota are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of good things."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, "But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance."

God smiled, "I will create Washington, D.C. Wait till you see the idiots I put there.

It worked.

BECAUSE that's where the money is. I wondered about that myself.

ELISABETH MEINECKE: Miracle at Mile High.

DEAR AVERAGE AMERICAN: It's all your fault.

LOOKING FOR THE 1 PERCENT? Look on Capitol Hill. Those who became 1-percenters after they joined Congress deserve real scrutiny.

OCCUPY WALL STREET: "Never in the field of human debate has so much media been given to so few who had so little to offer…"

From the comments to this post.

THERE CAN'T BE A DOUBLE STANDARD when you have no standards at all.

WHY FREEZE their little tushes off when there's a nice warm basement in Momma's house?

SUMMER SKIING: I would be willing to try this. Beats the hell out of freezing in the snow....

HYBRID CARS are safer than conventional cars. But of course. They're heavier.

THE TRUE FACE of the Democrat party. Some learn; most don't.

THANKS FOR THE CREDIT: and I am now a PJ Media member.

'GOING GALT': Hedge broker shuts down her firm at least until Obama is out of office and Congress cleaned up. Wow.

RESEARCH proves the blindingly obvious: Number of hours students study varies by major.

That's something I knew by mid-semester of my freshman year - 49 years ago.

CAN SEX SELL HYBRIDS? Nothing else can.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-LALA LAND) shrugs off OWS violence: "That's life. It happens." This from the same woman who told the Tea Party to "go straight to Hell."

MISS ME YET? George Bush returns for his 'miss me' tour.

OCCUPY LOUISVILLE: "Our nuts may well be better than your nuts."

SARAH PALIN on Occupy Wall Street.

BROCCOLI: ObamaCare's next mandate?

No, if the Democrats get their way I suspect the next one will be child care reform.

OF COURSE I want fries with that. How else am I going to get fuel for my flight?

An unintended consequence of Michelle Obama's war on obesity.

ADDED: It was supposed to be satire.

MORE THAN you ever wanted to know about about government: "nooooooo one in the top echelons of the federal lawyers’ bureaucracy actually reads memos addressed to them."

For the sake of argument, let's assume that sanctimonious bullshit is true. Then you've just received confirmation that government is overstaffed and underworked.

SOLYNDRA. Even the Washington Post gets a clue: “You can call it crony capitalism or venture socialism — but by whatever name, the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program privatizes profits and socializes losses.”

THE 'OCCUPIERS' won yesterday -- by deflecting the media from the real news of the day.

ENERGY SECRETARY STEVEN CHU: Yes, the sun does rise in the west.

WHO IS THE MOST LIBERAL? It's the wrong question; it should be "Who is the most stupid?"

OH, REALLY? 56% would give Obama a vote of 'no confidence'.

BUT PROGRESSIVES don't break windows.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NO ONE'S ASKING: The Service Employees International Union officially endorsed Obama for reelection.

WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST E. J. Dionne roots for a do-nothing Congress. Unfortunately, he'll probably get his wish.

EXECUTIVE BONUSES ARE FINE when the taxpayer pays them.

UK RESEARCHERS unveil silent aircraft concept.

SURPRISED? "The Transportation Security Administration is a bloated agency plagued by significant problems ...."

NOW THAT CHRISTIE IS OUT, Ann Coulter is backing Mitt Romney. I'll vote for Romney if he's the eventual Republican nominee, but for now I'm still mulling the others.

BECAUSE IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO? Why Does America Defend the Weak and Small?

MICHAEL BARONE: Obama Has a Knack for Ticking off America's Friends. I must admit that's the one thing Obama is very good at.

WHERE ARE the patriotic millionaires?

WHAT? Regulations don't hurt the economy?

ANOTHER DAY, another $56 billion. Hmm. How long has it been since the debt ceiling was raised from $14.3 trillion to $15.2 trillion? Just 3-1/2 months.

OBAMA'S ENERGY PLAN: the Chevy Volt. Poor need not apply.

MORNING EXAMINER: If Obama can figure out a way to disappear entirely, he may just cruise to reelection.

The less we see of him, the more popular he is.

TURNING AGAINST the Occupy Movement:

As the Occupy Wall Street movement has continued and spread, its esteem in American voters’ eyes has slipped. Last month, when PPP first asked about the movement nationally, voters were split, with 35% supporting the movement’s goals and 36% opposing them. Now, that is 33-45, 11 points worse. Still 52% of Democrats support their goals, but opposition has risen from 16% to 24%. Meanwhile, both Republicans (from 13-59 to 11-71) and independents (from 39-34 to 34-42) have moved 13 or 14 points against O.W.S. That now makes the movement less popular than ... the Tea Party.

MORE: In New York, occupiers are planning an International Day of Action which will include disrupting business at Wall Street in the morning and occupying transit hubs in each of the five burroughs in the afternoon. In Washington, Occupy DC plans to march on the Key Bridge, likely disrupting the rush hour traffic. As if their poll numbers weren't bad enough.

Americans are either wising up or getting pissed at the smell. My vote is on the latter.

OBAMANOMICS? Embraer see clouds on biz jet horizon. Bombardier setting up shop in Morocco.

OCCUPIERS storm San Francisco Bank of Americe. It's time to bring back Alcatraz.

A SIDE BENEFIT FROM OBAMANOMICS: Immigration from Mexico in fast retreat. It's a different question as to whether the benefit is worth the cost.

GOOD NEWS: Students Lose Zeal for Aiding Obama Again.

AMERICA: unworthy of its President. Or conversely.

UPDATE: We're sorry, Mr. President.

HEH: Obama admits he was born in Asia.

HISTORY LESSON: the inevitable fate of Occupy Wall Street. The Indians Native Americans learned; will the OWSers?

LIVE NOW ON FOX: Obama Addresses Australian Parliament(no link). My question: Does he speak Australian?

IS AMERICA past its prime?

On a related note, I've noticed more and more businesses advertising using Reagan's "shining city on a hill" metaphor. It seems the Obama administration is so downbeat that now businesses are trying to build up American optimism.

STATE DEPARTMENT denies playing politics in delaying controversial oil pipeline. Which is equivalent to denying the sun rises in the east.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: "Everyone agrees ... that the demonstrators have a perfect right to protest. But that right is not so elastic that permits them to destroy a community."

Except in the nation's capitol.

NOT TRUE: the media are the protesters.

THOMAS SOWELL on the Republican primaries: "What is remarkable is how seldom the smart money folks look at what has actually been happening in presidential elections."

BYRON YORK: Newt Gingrich's Wonkish, Unconventional Campaign. It's working.

NOW THE FDA is trying to kill smokers. What's next? Attack Nicorette?

OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT: an (invisible) unicorn in every garage.

'OCCUPY' COST TO THE TAXPAYER: Denver, $2,400,000; NYC, at least $5,000,000; San Francisco, $100,000 (but how do you tell the difference between an 'occupier' and a 'normal' San Franciscan?); Boston, at least $2,000,000; Portland, $750,000.

Latest developments here.

YOU CAN'T EVICT AN IDEA. Not even a really bad one?

WANTED: Adult For President. While I agree that the need for an adult is desperate, I'm not convinced Mitt Romney is the only adult in the room.

ANNOY A LIBERAL.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD:

President Obama's various remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO business summit in Honolulu over the weekend show he is simply incapable of growing in office.

The statement would be more accurate if the phrase 'of growing in office' were deleted.

THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY: Explaining the Diminishing Returns to Non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Higher Education. Read the comments.

RICK PERRY: uproot and overhaul Washington.

The governor’s Uproot and Overhaul Washington plan includes establishing a part-time, citizen Congress, cutting congressional salaries, ending lifetime appointments of federal judges, issuing an immediate moratorium on new and pending federal regulations, and dismantling wasteful, redundant federal agencies....

I particularly like the idea of a part-time Congress, and I would further recommend that congresscritters only be allowed to be in Washington D.C. for a fixed period, say two 3-month sessions per year.

Perry's full plan can be found here. His Cut, Balance, and Grow plan is here, and his Jobs & Security plan is here.

WILL SOMEONE please explain to me why when the mainstream meadia trots out an 'expert' to analyze some news item, said 'expert' is always a liberal academic, completely devoid of any trace of common sense, whose analysis can be best described at utter hogwash?

WILL WORK FOR FOOD? But he still wants to get paid ....

LURITA DOAN: Obama's Lilliputian Legacy.

REWARDING THE NANNIES: The doctor is in -- and on your case.

BACK IN THE NEWS: Space-based solar power satellites. That is sooo 70's.

NYPD EVICTS 'Occupy Wall Street' protesters from Zuccotti Park, citing health and safety concerns. Note that there is no concern for the rights of the general public, under existing rules, to use the park for their own purposes.

SYMMETRY IN FLIGHT.

PRESIDENT OBAMA will announce $1 billion in new spending to hire, train and deploy health-care controllers workers.

IS CNN biased against Republicans, completely in the tank for the Democrats, or merely so far to the left it can’t even see the right?

The correct answer is probably Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

INSTAPUNDIT thinks there's a market for space tourism. He's right. But the 'political class' has deemed space exploration too important to be exploited by the 'little people'. This is exactly the same argument that environmentalists have used for years: Gaia is to important to be subject to the mere whims of the public.

AT LEAST HE didn't use the odious Tea Party/OWS comparison.

BEAUTIFUL: Earth video taken from the International Space Station over a period of months. Roughly 5 minutes long.

SURELY HE WON'T OBJECT TO MY CALLING HIM DESPICABLE: Massachusetts Law Professor Calls Care Packages for U.S. Troops 'Shameful'.

There's a time for stupid people to shut up.

INSIDER TRADING is not for little people.

IT'S THE LICE, STUPID: I most fervently hope to avoid the looming confrontation with the Occupiers here in Los Angeles, not least for fear of the reported lice infestation.

SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP: Ex-cop boots OWS heckler from congressman's swearing-in.

TURNABOUT IS FAIR PLAY: NYC residents protesting the protesters.

NICE TO KNOW: World Will Not End From Solar Flare Next Year.

ANOTHER SIGN OF THE TIMES: Hawaiian Guitarist Wears ‘Occupy With Aloha’ Shirt While Playing For Obama, Other World Leaders. It's hard to fathom how any administration could be so tone deaf.

FROM MY EMAIL: A Deer Hunting Story.

Ted Nugent, rock star and avid bow hunter from Michigan , was being interviewed by a liberal journalist, an animal rights activist. The discussion came around to deer hunting.

The journalist asked, 'What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before you shoot him? Is it, 'Are you my friend?' or is it 'Are you the one who killed my brother?

Nugent replied, 'Deer aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, what am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the Democrats in Congress.'

The interview immediately ended.

A REMINDER as we begin the final year of the Obama administration.

DANA MILBANK: Republicans break out the blame game. So how is this different from the Democrats' standard operating procedure?

CHANGING SEASONS V: 14 November 2011.


Part V of a series. One week later, and the difference is striking. The beech trees in front that used to have leaves are now completely devoid of them. Those that were formerly green are now brown and losing leaves rapidly.

The Part IV photo is here. You can click back to earlier photos from there.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Average Lifetime Earnings Trajectories by Education.

OCCUPY HARVARD DAY 3: 2 photographers, 2 police, no occupants.

Linked from Instapundit.

OCCUPY WALL STREET uses capitalist means to promote statism.

"WORLDWIDE, more and more energy resources are being discovered, developed, and delivered. In the United States, not so much. In the global economic war, America is not poised to win."

IF YOU CAN'T VOTE 'PRESENT' THEN PUNT: Deficit 'supercommitte' may put off decisions.

“IRONIC, ISN'T IT: woman is safer in meeting at the National Resturant Association than in a crowd at #OWS.”

Tweeted via Instapundit.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S 'friends and family' plan. But don't call it corruption.

'GREEN' no longer means environmentalism.

ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAM ripe for abolishment.

SUPREME COURT to take up ObamaCare. It will still have to be repealed in 2013 to ensure the coffin is never reopened.

THAT'S GOOD TO KNOW: You're not dying of overregulation; you're just lazy.

OCCUPY NEWS OF THE DAY:

• Occupy Portland protestors arrested for possession of explosives.

• Police arrest NC protestors occupying vacant business.

• Occupy Wall Street costs local business $479,000.

• Occupy San Francisco protesters attack police.

• Victim of slaying near Occupy Oakland identified as camp resident.

And the good news is ....

MSM GETS SCHOOLED. Video here.

ON OCTOBER 12TH, Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post's ComPost blog wrote a tongue-in-cheek opinion (Craving older Americans; not yet online) recommending that the Occupy Wall Streeters "eat the elderly" to which I respond, tongue-firmly-in cheek, that it's inadvisable. It's true that we're older and generally wealthier, but we're also wiser, more experienced, tougher, spoiling for a fight -- and we'll take away your allowance.

FROM MY EMAIL: a cure for constipation.

If you are bothered by occasional or frequent constipation, look in the mirror and repeat the following phrase three times in succession when symptoms occur:

My present and future financial and personal well being are totally in the hands of ... Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Geithner, Rahm Emmanuel, Chris Dodd, and Barney Frank.

If that doesn't scare the shit out of you then you are probably destined to be backed up for the rest of your life. There is no need to thank me for this advice; I'm just doing it as a public service.

I haven't had a problem for nearly three years ....

A REFRESHER COURSE ON FIREARMS.

RANDOM THOUGHTS on the news from Victor Davis Hanson.

TIN MAN: we need a government with some core values and a backbone to match.

OBAMA'S NEW JOB PLAN: Kill 400,000 jobs immediately.

OUCH!


"As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given The Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name, because America gave him the White House based on the same credentials."

~ Newt Gingrich

OCCUPY WALL STREET: November 11, 2011

HYPOCRISY ABOUNDS: We’ll Show You Ours If You Show Us Yours.

SO IF YOU ARE A CAREGIVER for a Medicaid recipient you are a defacto SEIU employee?

AMERICANS like Netanyahu better that Obama. I doubt Israel would consider a swap.

MEET THE GROWING NUMBER of Americans who want to move abroad. The only two things keeping me here are language and family. And language is the lesser of the two.

STUDY: Conservatives far more likely to exhibit antisocial personality traits.

Translation: Conservatives far more likely to be independent.

HELL HATH NO FURY like a nanny-stater scorned. What amuses me about nanny-staters is that cigarette smoking is bad; marijuana smoking is good. Consistency is not their forte.

Jeff Jacoby has more here.

WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? All the apparatchiks have nice dachas in the country, where they can recover from their ceaseless labors on behalf of the workers and peasants.

THINNING THE HERD: OWS has its own lung disease (among others).

WAR ON TCHOTCHKES: Mark Steyn on Obama's and the SuperCommittee's deficit reduction fever.

Democrats on the supercommittee have proposed that the savings from the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan be used to pay for a new stimulus package, according to a summary of the $2.3 trillion plan obtained by The Hill.

Great! Now Obama can start/end more wars and save us zillions.

BERZERKELEY BERKELEY STUDENTS have a tantrum on finding out that they're 1%-ers.

THOMAS SOWELL on numbers games. I'm reminded of the folk wisdom that "statistics never lie, but liars use statistics."

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Unbound. An unstable President for an unstable world. How reassuring ... especially given the signs of the time.

MOON STILL FOCUS FOR SCIENCE, BUSINESS. Maybe humans will colonize the moon yet.

THE LEAGUE OF ORDINARY GENTLEMEN on tribalism. The conclusion isn't pleasant for either side of the political divide.

BREWSTER ROCKIT joins the Presidential debates. Start here and click forward to here.

PAUL GREENBERG: A Fair Tax That Really Is One. I'd go along with Greenberg if a consumption tax replaced the current income tax.

SCORING TONIGHT'S CBS/NATIONAL JOURNAL DEBATE: No clear winner; questions remain.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: Whose Income Should You Tax? Not very good news for the political elite, I should think.

OCCUPY FAIL:

Man shot to death near Occupy Oakland camp.

Shooting closes half of Occupy Burlington site.

Tuberculosis breaks out at Occupy Atlanta.

Occupy Portland camps to be cleared on Sunday.

Not looking good for the 'Occupiers'.

DO NOTHING: the Obama uncertainty machine.

THE MAIN DIFFERENCE between the Tea Party movement and 'Occupy' protesters [is that] "we, like America’s Founders, declare our independence from government. The Occupy Wall Street protesters declare their dependence on government."

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: the potential is there, but extraction could cause earthquakes. If the quakes could be confined to some specific area -- say the San Francisco bay area -- I'd be all for it.

FAST AND FURIOUS was not botched; it was carried out exactly as planned.

RON PAUL: When I am President ....

LACK OF R&D prompting fears over U.S. ability to compete globally? And the solution is?

"Attracting the talents of the best and brightest from other countries can help prospects for American workers, because in an innovation economy, jobs often beget jobs."

Sadly, I don't think so. Here's where the 'best and brightest' are going. The solution is to grow your own, and our colleges and universities are doing an abysmal job.

WELL, WELL: 70% of those subject to the millionaire surtax are small business owners.

WALTER E. WILLIAMS: Ignorance Exploited.

THE CLOCK OF THE LONG NOW: Engineering the 10,000 year clock. Of course the clock will be vandalized well short of its expected lifespan.

OBVIOUSLY: Is the Keystone pipeline decision a political ploy?

HEH. With friends like these, it's no wonder small business owners fight back.

HOW UNPRESIDENTIAL! Most of the video clips you can safely ignore, but the jabs at Fox's Shephard Smith are priceless.

NEVER BEFORE has a generation arisen with the promised [sic] of highly developed talent and education, prepared to lead us into the new, service-based economy of the Information Age.

Perhaps that's because the idea of a 'service-based' economy is -- and always has been -- a pipe dream.

HERE'S AN INTERESTING ARTICLE from today's Washington Post: Mariann Budde, Diocese of Washington’s next top bishop, has plans for reviving the Episcopal Church. The article is about her efforts to revive a declining church, and here is the paragraph I found most interesting:

[F]or nearly two centuries it was the faith of America’s elite. Despite never having huge numbers, the American wing of Anglicanism dominated institutions from the Supreme Court to Congress to the local pool club; its churches were built in the grandest, most prominent spot in many a town square.

I rather suspect that the fall of the Church is less a matter of religion than it is a matter of the elites who 'occupy' it.

IT TOOK OVER 50 YEARS, but we're finally getting there.

KIM STRASSEL on Tuesday's election in Virginia. We won. Big.

OBAMA'S ECONOMIC PLAN.

OF COURSE there's no smuggling across the Arizona border. From the email that accompanied the link to this video:

The most infuriating aspect of this fiasco is that Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona Governor who should know better than anyone the chaotic conditions that exist on the border, stands there with a straight face and tells us the border has never been more secure.

Here is some fresh video we retrieved from one of our cameras in a wash northwest of Three Points, near the eastern edge of the Tohono O’odham Reservation. There were a total of 82 activations of the camera between October 1 and November 1, but we’ve compiled only seven 20-second clips for this posting on YouTube. Two clips show drug smugglers and the rest are illegal aliens – all using the same trail.

FUKUSHIMA: a blow-by-blow account of the first 24 hours.

HERE'S A SUGGESTION that would shut down the OWS protests, remove a bunch of idiots (both student and 'professor') from university campuses, save the government money, and encourage education in the more productive sciences: simply make it a rule that any university student arrested for protesting shall forever be barred from receiving any government-sponsored student loan.

OCCUPY WALL STREET police blotter.

SARAH PALIN on Veterans Day.

PAUL GREENBERG: The Emergence of Mitt Romney.

RACHEL ALEXANDER: A Fifty Percent Welfare Nation. And it's getting worse.

OCCUPY DENVER shows up at BlogCon; get taste of their own medicine. Follow the links for more.

UPDATE: more here.

2012: IT'S GOING to be a nasty, mean campaign.

YOU GOTTA GO where the big money is -- government.

A MILITARY TRIBUTE: Here's to the heroes.

THAT'S HARVARD FOR YOU: We are the 99% -- of the 1%.

FOR VETERANS DAY: the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetary.

OWNERSHIP: the bar'Occupy Movement. It takes a moment.

RUTH McCLUNG: Thank you Veterans! America would not be America without you!

From a soon-to-be Congresswoman.

DISRESPECTFUL: California mayor thumbs nose at veterans.

HAVE SOME RESPECT. This is not a request; it is an order!

OCCUPY OAKLAND deposits money in same bank they trashed. Bail money is more important than principle.

BEN SHAPIRO: What Is Obama Thinking? My take is that deep down where it really counts, he's shallow.

STEVE MILLOY: It's time for EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson to go. No, it's time for the EPA to go.

RICK PERRY: When I am President ....

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN: Man shot to death near Occupy Oakland camp.

CAN AMERICA SURVIVE without its backbone, the middle class?

OCCUPY WALL STREET ENVY: "Occupy Wall Streeters need to be reminded that organized envy has no place here in our land."

OBAMA VOTES 'PRESENT' AGAIN: Delay Could Push Pipeline Past 2012.

More here.

SAD BUT TRUE: Why Can't the Republicans Nominate a Genuine Right-Wing Nut? "[T]he ideal candidate for conservatives isn’t some extreme right-winger. It’s a skilled politician we know we can bully."

VETERANS DAY


The original video is here.

SAVE AMERICA: repeal ObamaCare. All of it; not just parts. "A good surgeon doesn't hope to remove most of a cancer."

ACTIONS speak louder than words. The allegations against Cain must be taken seriously, but the timing and actions of the alleged victims suggest more than a pinch of skepticism be applied.

ADDED: The skepticism is warranted.

IN DEFENSE OF AMERICA'S BORDERS:

SETI: the real reason the search for extraterrestrial life continues.

IT'S THE MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY: Happy Birthday and thank you for 236 years of service. Semper Fi!

HERMAN CAIN: When I am President ....

IF A POLICY feels good and sounds good, but doesn't work, should it be continued? Only if you're a politician.

DYNAMIC EYE: LCD lenses and sensor eliminate glare.

MALLARD FILLMORE: the 2012 election comes down to this.

THE NEVER-ENDING JOB: I mulched the leaves over the entire yard just yesterday. Here's what it looks like today.


Somewhere to the far left in this picture is a driveway.


This was bare ground at 4 pm yesterday.