IT’S ABOUT LIBERTY, not healthcare.

The video is about Virginia’s lawsuit to block ObamaCare. It’s long (~60 min) but worth every second of the time spent watching.

NEAR-COLLISIONS ON RISE in Washington area's skies amid influx of inexperienced controllers. In an otherwise decent article about Washington D.C.’s crowded skies, there’s this:

"It's the air traffic controller that's supposed to control this situation, not the onboard warning system,” said John DeLisi, deputy director of aviation for the National Transportation Safety Board. "When it had to kick in and do its thing, that wasn't a good controller."

Partially correct. The onboard warning system, TCAS (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System) is indeed a “when-all-else-fails-and-things-are-rapidly-becoming-unglued” system of last resort.

What’s missing is the role of the pilot. When I last flew as pilot-in-command, admittedly a long time ago, it had been drummed into me that it is the pilot, not the flight controller, who is ultimately responsible for safety of flight.

A good pilot listens to his flight controller’s instructions, as he should. But the ultimate responsibility is his alone.

FEMINISM VS. HOTNESS: From the perspective of feminist recruitment efforts, ask yourself this: if a girl is going to choose an adult female role model, who is she more likely to choose, Sonia Sotomayor or Michelle Bachmann? Elena Kagan or Sarah Palin? Feminists need to demonize attractive Republican women because they pose an existential threat to feminism.

Link from Instapundit.

WHY LIBERALS SHOULD LOVE THE SECOND AMENDMENT. Ignoring the obvious “liberals good/conservatives bad” condescension, this Daily Kos post is quite a good argument in favor of Second Amendment (gun) rights.

I’VE PRETTY MUCH IGNORED l’affaire Weigel. Once one recognizes the mainstream lamestream media is corrupt, preferring to report the narrative in lieu of the news, the existence of a JournaList becomes obvious. Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic observes:

The sad truth is that [news organizations] now hire people who came up in journalism without much adult supervision, and without the proper amount of toilet-training.

Too many “journalists” are petty, mean, small-minded pseudoadults badly in need of mature supervision.

ROADSIDE SCHLOCK: Calling the Recovery.gov stimulus signs "the height of narcissism," Rep. Aaron Schock, (R-IL)is preparing to do battle on the floor of the House.

Having driven the highways for 50-plus years and seen every construction site signed with something akin to "this wonderful improvement is brought to you by (your tax dollars)," it's hard to get too excised.

Except for this -

Projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will bear a newly-designed emblem.

The emblem is a symbol of President Obama’s commitment to the American People to invest their tax dollars wisely to put Americans back to work.

which is quoted exactly from this EPA document. And if you're interested, here's a training document of which there must be at least 49 more.

Narcissm and waste: hallmarks of the Obama administration.

FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY, we visited James Madison’s Montpelier, the lifelong home of the Father of the U.S. Constitution, architect of the Bill of Rights, and fourth president of the United States. Here are some photos from the visit.

The home, restored to its 1820’s appearance.

The Blue Ridge mountains, taken from the front veranda.

Madison’s Temple.

James and Dolley Madison statue.

CAPTION ME

BIG SURPRISE: A report released Thursday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee "provides evidence that the Obama administration misrepresented the assets devoted to the cleanup, misrepresented the timing of when government officials knew there was an oil spill and misrepresented the level of control the government had over the matter. It also claims the Obama administration seemed more interested in public relations than cleaning the mess and plugging the hole.”

Via CNS News.

PRAISE FOR OBAMA? From the Washington Examiner?

Link from Instapundit.

OLD TOWN MANASSAS always has a phenomenal Fourth of July fireworks celebration. This year was no exception. Here are some photos.

The train station, gussied up for the celebration.

Waiting for the fireworks. The best view is always along the railroad tracks.

The fireworks begin.

Darker now, and a better image.

And the finale.

INDEPENDENCE DAY, July 4, 2010.



Old Glory. Long may she wave.

TAKING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE TOO FAR: “[T]he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reject[ed] a proposal by [Louisana’s] Jefferson Parish to build a series of rock dikes to protect the ecologically important Barataria Bay.... The Corps found that the dike plan was incomplete, lacking a designated agency to remove the barriers, a restoration plan for environmental damage and data to measure any such damage."

The mind reels at such boneheaded stupidity. Perhaps the Obama administration would get a clue if it were immediately moved to the Louisana marshes and housed in FEMA trailers – but I doubt it.

THE MIND-NUMBING power of collectivism. Welcome to the Age of Aquarius Obama.

WHAT IS A TEA PARTY?

What unites Tea Party supporters is less their geography or demography than their policy views: a firm conviction that the federal government has gotten too big and too powerful and a fear that the nation faces great peril. Nine in 10 are unhappy with the country's direction and see the federal debt as an ominous threat to its future.

What the MSM, and sadly, both major political parties fail to understand is that the Tea Party is not a political party in any conventional sense of the word and it has a profound distrust of the political establishment on both sides of the aisle.

Link from Instapundit.

SIX MONTHS TO GO until the largest tax hikes in history. Forty-eight pages of detail are here.

Our only recourse is November 2, 2010, when Americans will finally have the opportunity to send nearly 500 of the bums who got us into this mess to the unemployment lines.

THE FEDS ARE TRYING TO BLOCK MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE GULF OIL SPILL.



As should be obvious by now, I’m no fan of MSM coverage of disaster events, but riddle me this ... why does the government have no problem with an idiot journalist standing on the balcony of a beachfront condominium at the peak of a category IV hurricane and then have “safety concerns” when the same journalist wants to photograph an “oil soaked” boom in the water during calm weather?

Could it be that the spill isn’t as bad as the Government wants it to be? Or that the Government is even more incompetent than we already know it is?

More here.

IT’S 1938 AGAIN, and there will be war. The only remaining questions are time and place. Read the whole thing.

THE BATTLE OF NEW OIL-LEANS. Johnny Horton would be proud.

Linked from Instapundit.

PORTLAND POLICE TO reopen “crazed sex poodle” case. It’s always enjoyable to watch a pompous airhead get his just desserts.

Pass the popcorn.