The Policy Obama Won't Try: Economic Growth

We're going broke. Obama and his progressive comrades in Congress are spending money like there's no tomorrow, a scenario that they're creating with their policies. Talk about circular logic, if that doesn't have you chasing your own tail, nothing will.

There are many reasons for this. First among them is the fact that Obama has no real experience in the workaday world that most of us inhabit daily. He's never had to perform, never had his decisions questioned, never had anyone to answer to or a boss to please. And neither have most of his economic advisers. Almost all of them come from academia.

Seemingly every bill he's gotten from this Congress damages the ability of the private sector to create jobs and wealth. Obama has constantly criticized business owners, bankers, doctors and anyone else who tries to provide for themselves and others in our free market economy. His hostility towards business was well known to those of us who follow politics prior to his election. Only after nearly two years of his relentless war against prosperity is the business community finally waking up and smelling the cappuccino: President Obama hates business. Period.

The funny thing is, he doesn't hate money itself. As the author of two books, his income last year was around $4M dollars or so. And I don't recall him returning any campaign contributions from anyone. In fact, it's common knowledge that his campaign had the verification settings turned off that prohibit foreign contributions, something that is (or used to be) illegal.

So, pardon me if I see a discrepancy between his words and his actions. Such is the mark of a hypocrite.

Anyway, Daniel Henninger over at the Wall Street Journal online has a great piece today that states the blatantly obvious: it's time for Washington to pursue policies that enable and encourage economic growth. After two years of open hostility towards business, any letup would be quite welcome by the community, and be a major factor in getting the economy back on track.

Reducing taxes would be a good start, but there's much more that needs to be done. The increasing costs of regulations is driving business operations overseas to less restrictive areas. Financial regulations coupled with increasingly stringent environmental rules forces businesses to pass those costs along to the consumer.

Now would be a good time for a moratorium on any new regulations by any governmental agency, followed by a review of all the old ones and eliminating the ones that are counterproductive or don't make sense. It's taken years for us to arrive at this point of government actually acting against the best interests of the nation and its people. It won't be fixed overnight, but a push-start is needed to get the engine of commerce up and running.

President Obama could start to live up to his potential were he to abandon his anti-business policies in favor of freeing up the market to foster growth. However, this move would alienate his base, the radical left who would immediately accuse him of selling out to big business. So don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

If the upcoming mid-term elections turn out as predicted with many corrupt progressives swept out of power (hopefully permanently), I expect to see the economy begin to rebound as businesses hope to see an end to the uncertainty in Washington. Rest assured, if this happens, Obama will be ready at the teleprompter to tell the American people that he is the cause of it all.

That's just the way he is.

More Reading Assignments

Here's a few more links for you to peruse while the heavy lifting for the move begins. And no, I didn't find any bodies in the attic yesterday. Just a box of Christmas lights.

Which is more radical: the idea of abolishing the EPA altogether, or their actions to eliminate an estimated 800,000 jobs in the middle of the greatest economic downturn in memory? Also, ask yourself if this seems like the action of a government acting in the nation's best interest.

Increasingly, we're hearing warning bells about our economy. Here's another one.

Florida voter alert! If you live in the 8th District, you have the opportunity to rid Washington of the execrable Alan Grayson. His twisting of soundbites borders on the insane, like many of his remarks during his tenure. Thank goodness his efforts are backfiring on him. We deserve better representation.

Obama as the real Agent Smith.

Even I didn't know that all these anti-American groups existed, and certainly not in these numbers. Watch all the clips if you didn't see the show yesterday. And if, after watching, you're not just a bit concerned, then watch again. I can remember when the terms "Socialist" and "Communist" were dirty words. They still are to those who know their history and understand their goals, which is complete control over you, your family and your life. This is serious stuff and worthy of your time to find out as much as you can about these people. Of course, that's why you're here in the first place.

Oh, and could you hand me that tape gun?

A Few Links for Today

Busy day today, inspections and such. Here are a few links for y'all while I climb around in the attic at the new place.

Over at Aces' place, the Pudding Patrol dismantles Alan Grayson, although he's already done a pretty good job on his own.

Over at Pajamas Media, Dr. Victor Davis Hanson dismantles Obama, although he's already done a pretty good job on his own.

And enjoy the intellectual parry and thrust in the comments here and here on articles about radical environmentalism starring yours truly and how it's become entrenched as a shadow government in Washington, immune to the will of the people.

Who's Defending American Values? Czech President Vaclav Havel (plus other goodies)

Our ranks are growing. Everyone stand up and recognize Vanilla_and_Roses, the newest follower in the side bar. *wild applause* There's nothing quite like the feeling of having your fan base grow by 50% literally overnight.

I am deeply humbled.

Here are a few things for you to read while BackwardsGirl and I are busy taping up boxes.

Money

Czech president tells UN to stay the hell out of economics. And we don't want your "global governance" crap either. There is just no way that America will put up with any kind of foreign governance that we don't directly elect, and if anyone in this administration thinks that we will, well, they just don't know us very well. In case they've forgotten, we fought a war over that very thing a while back. We're stubborn like that.

Canadian economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb says what we all know, namely that Obama's economic policies have done more harm than good. If Obama was trying to sink our economy, would he be doing anything different than what he's currently doing? Methinks not. Had he spent more time around teachers and classmates that could have taught him something instead of trying not to look like a "sellout" by hanging around radicals, he might not be enjoying his record dive in poll approval. But, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Law

Here is an example of why we need to rid government of lawyers. Swingsets are being removed from West Virginia elementary schools. I know I'm carbon-dating myself when I tell you that when I was growing up, kids got hurt on the playground all the time. Bangs, cuts, bruises, and scrapes were worn as a badge of honor, not as the basis for some greedy lawyer courting an overly-distraught, overly-protective mother who thinks that her children should never, ever, experience any sort of pain or disappointment in life whatsoever. How is a child supposed to deal with pain if he or she never has the chance to experience it and realize that it's only temporary? Or learn that the human body has a great capacity for healing itself?

I have an idea - why not keep the swingsets and pass a law that prevents lawyers from suing over their use? Let the lawyers lobby scream all they want. We're facing a very real danger of being litigated to death as a nation. This type of legal BS must stop. And we wonder why we have a child obesity problem...

Environment

Here's the dirty little secret that Big Green doesn't want you to know. Wind farms are not cost effective. For the cost of one wind farm in England, they could have built a nuclear plant that produces thirteen times the amount of power and takes up far less space.

At some point, the laws of physics and common sense must prevail in the quest to provide a growing population with affordable energy. Wind farms are great as an addition, but as not the primary source of power generation. The wind doesn't always blow. There's also the problem of storage for the power which, with existing technology, consists of large, environmentally unfriendly batteries. Not to mention the fact that they are a constant drain on limited economic resources.


Compare and contrast

Thou Shalt Not Kill versus Jihadi Etiquette - How to behead an infidel without offending your host. (courtesy of The Jawa Report)

Friday Bits of Tid, Moving Day Edition

BackwardsGirl and I are moving into a new place. So if posts are shorter or don't follow their normal pattern, that's why. As I mentioned last Friday, you're all invited to help. Free pizza and beer and aspirin for all! Just don't drop anything, OK?

Swedish scientists say they can build whatever animal you want to eat. Excellent! I'll take a critter that eats weeds, poops filet mignon, and guards the house.

"I'm warning you, I have a zucchini and I'm not afraid to use it! Now scram!"

School billboard misspells one word by just a hair.

Polly wants a cracker restraining order.

So, like, dude, how am I supposed to get rid of this wicked case of cotton-mouth, man? California beer sellers oppose marijuana legalization.

From Gateway Pundit, The Forgotten Man.

Ace of Spades now has its' very own private label of beer. Fittingly, after three of them, about all you're able to say is "Arghhh" since it has a whopping 18.5% alcohol content. Not that any of us would notice after all these years spent pickling what's left of our livers in Valu-Rite vodka.

And finally, courtesy of The Jawa Report, this edition is brought to you by the Potty Putter.

Congressional GOP Agree: "The top down way of governing is outdated and just plain backwards"

Thankyuh, thankyuhverumuch, as Elvis would say, were he here and not running that convenience store on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

Congressional GOP members unveiled their Pledge to America today. A draft is circulating around the Internet, here's a link to Gateway Pundit's post along with the pledge. Michelle Malkin's analysis is here. Do take the time to read it for yourself.

My take is that's it's a good start. It also removes the Dems assertion that the opposition hasn't come up with a viable alternative to Obama's policies. They have all along, it's just that the Democrat leadership in Congress has dismissed their proposals out of hand and then lied to the country about it.

Candidate Obama campaigned as one thing, a self-described blank slate upon which we wrote our own version of his vague promises. President Obama has ruled as something altogether different, a virulent anti-American. His distorted view of the nation has expressed itself in a myriad of ways, from bowing to heads of state overseas to the massive growth and intrusion of government into areas of American life that were previously untouched.

As Obama was told on Monday of this week, we're tired.

Hopefully, when the GOP wrests control of Congress away from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, we can begin to change the course that has been set against our will. There are a few ideas in this Pledge that are greatly encouraging, such as the insistence that any new bill cite it's constitutional authority. This provision gives the GOP a club with which to bludgeon their progressive opponents. It's a masterful stroke, made all the better since they came up with it first. I expect hilarity to ensue when we start to hear the stammering from the left side of the aisle when they try to justify another one of their Big Brother bills.

Congressional Republicans should be aware that the county is far more engaged and informed about the goings-on in Washington than ever before. Should they use this Pledge to assume control and then fail to implement it, the wrath of the country will come down on them too. Issues are behind this new "red wave" of national discontent. Personalities have been pushed into the background. No longer will a pretty face and an empty promise be enough to get elected. We expect, scratch that, we demand that Washington  consider the needs of everyone in the nation, not just the special interests like radical environmental groups, communist union leaders, and anti-war protestors that funnel money into their coffers and start legislating accordingly.

After two years of Obama and four years of "progressives" in control of Congress, the nation has had just about enough hope and change. We want the other kind, the kind that doesn't suck.

Drive-By Blogging - What if GWB Had Said This + Mike Pence Speech

I'll chuck this one out the car window...

Shamelessly stolen from contributed by Ace; "Mexicans were here long before America was an idea." Umm, no, Mr. President. We declared our independence in 1776, Mexico became a country in 1821. In the future, please try to get your facts straight. I'll bet you also don't know that ours is the world's oldest Constitution.

Also, Mike Pence gives a speech at Hillsdale College. Read the whole thing, it is truly inspiring and sad at the same time, to be reminded of just how far we've fallen away from the noble ideas of our Founders.

America, Love It or Leave It – Said Socrates

It was a familiar bumper sticker to baby-boomers during the counter-culture revolution of the sixties. The phrase was embraced by those who felt under attack and despised by those who considered themselves to be cerebral. It was the perfect expression for the time: short, easily remembered, and notable for the visceral reaction of anyone who read it. There was no way to avoid the reaction. You could react one of two ways (as it asks you to) because there was no way to remain indifferent to the concept.

You either loved your country or you didn’t.

The Sixties aren’t over quite yet. In many ways, the counter-culture revolution is ongoing. Try typing that phrase into your favorite search engine and you’ll find the same opinions and reactions to it today. It’s the line that still divides us. The terminally hip among us, in their effort to appear intelligent and at the forefront of modern society, look down their nose at such a concept. To them, anyone who subscribes to that notion is a knuckle-dragging, Bible-thumping, bitter-clinger, hopelessly out of touch and quite possibly a product of inbreeding.

These self-described intellectuals would be surprised to discover that the phrase they smugly denounce was expressed by one of the worlds’ great thinkers, Socrates.

That’s right, Socrates.
In Plato’s Crito, Socrates is visited by his friend of the same name who has come to free him from prison. As you may know, one of the reasons why Socrates is considered one of the world’s great philosophers is that he was always seeking the good in everything. His discourses consisted of questions framed by logic with his eye fixed on positive results for the individual, his family and the state.

Here’s a short synopsis;


The exchange between Socrates and Crito shows the thinker unafraid to die and convinced that to allow himself to be freed from prison would show him to be a hypocrite for betraying his beliefs. Interestingly for the sports fan, Socrates also makes the case for an athlete needing a good coach. But I digress.

Holding in his heart the deeply held belief that he should do what is right regardless of the opinions of the masses, Socrates lays out the model of responsible citizenship along with an argument for goodness.

Goodness first…

Socrates. Are we to say that we are never intentionally to do wrong, or that in one way we ought and in another way we ought not to do wrong, or is doing wrong always evil and dishonorable, as I was just now saying, and as has been already acknowledged by us? Are all our former admissions which were made within a few days to be thrown away? And have we, at our age, been earnestly discoursing with one another all our life long only to discover that we are no better than children? Or are we to rest assured, in spite of the opinion of the many, and in spite of consequences whether better or worse, of the truth of what was then said, that injustice is always an evil and dishonor to him who acts unjustly? Shall we affirm that?


Crito. Yes.


Socrates. Then we must do no wrong?


Crito. Certainly not.

And now citizenship, from the point of view of the city…

Socrates. … For, after having brought you into the world, and nurtured and educated you, and given you and every other citizen a share in every good that we had to give, we further proclaim and give the right to every Athenian, that if he does not like us when he has come of age and has seen the ways of the city, and made our acquaintance, he may go where he pleases and take his goods with him; and none of [our] laws will forbid him or interfere with him. Any of you who does not like us and the city, and who wants to go to a colony or to any other city, may go where he likes, and take his goods with him. But he who has experience of the manner in which we order justice and administer the State, and still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do as we command him. And he who disobeys us is, as we maintain, thrice wrong: first, because in disobeying us he is disobeying his parents; secondly, because we are the authors of his education; thirdly, because he has made an agreement with us that he will duly obey our commands; and he neither obeys them nor convinces us that our commands are wrong; and we do not rudely impose them, but give him the alternative of obeying or convincing us; that is what we offer and he does neither.

Sound logic, no? As they say, read it all.

And I just added another "P".

A Drive-By Post, Truth in Action

From Ace of Spades and the Morons (hereafter referred to as the Pudding Patrol).

Click this link to Founding Bloggers and watch the vids, especially the first one where Andrew Breitbart dispels a crowd of protestors with nothing but questions. It is priceless.

The move begins!

Friday Bits of Tid, Constitution Day Edition

Today marks Constitution Day. On 17 September 1787, in Philadelphia, the Framers of the American Constitution added their signatures to the document they had produced, and soon thereafter it was dispatched to the Continental Congress for consideration by the states. Later today, I plan to sit down with a cold Samuel Adams beer and read that wondrous document. It caused many things to happen, a war not the least among them, ultimately resulting in the the greatest advancement of the human condition in history, politically, socially and scientifically. We should feel humbled and grateful.

Let the tidding commence.

Romanian witches get tax relief. Afraid of being turned into a frog, are we?

The fastest lawyers in the world.

Politics in DC has gone to the dogs. Literally.

Your right to swing your fist cat stops at my nose.

Hamburger chains Krystal and White Castle genetically design the world's smallest cow. Does it have square hooves?

This has to violate at least one law of physics. How to get and cure the munchies at the same time: pot-infused ice cream.

More vintage advertisements.

We're more like SpongeBob SquarePants than we think.

And finally, blogging will be light/sporadic/intermittant for a while. BackwardsGirl and I are moving into new digs. Much to be done, but it's right down the street.

You're all invited to help, of course.

Just What America Needs to Recover - Union Leaders at the Wheel

You would think, during one of the longest peacetime recessions in history, union leaders would be at the front of the crowd, cheering on the free market that gave birth to them.

You would be wrong. Or as the late, great Johnny Carson might say, “Wrong, spreadsheet-breath!”

Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, writes in the Detroit News.com this piece whose title says all the right things: Stop outsourcing to save Michigan Jobs, middle class.

He starts off this way:

Outsourcing. Isn't it time to halt the hollowing of our economy and employ smart policies to rebuild American manufacturing and keep good jobs here?

He then veers wildly from the road of economic prosperity by spouting the tired, worn-out clichés that greedy corporations have been more than happy to ship American jobs offshore in their bloodthirsty quest for profit.

For three decades, American laws governing business have followed the lure of ever-lower labor costs, cheap debt, weak environmental regulations and lobbyist-written free trade pacts. It's the result of a profits-over-people strategy that caught on like a fad, and it's the underlying contributor to our Great Recession.

Then, like a drunken driver, he manages to find the correct lane, but only for a moment.

It turns out that cheap, offshore labor makes for lousy consumers, because people without good-paying jobs can't support our consumption-driven economy.


Back in the 1980s and 1990s, we were told that only the machining and assembly jobs were heading offshore. Yet in the last five years alone, we lost the jobs of 1 million scientists, software developers and high-tech researchers. Those were the jobs we were supposed to keep. But R&D follows the factory floor.


The bottom line is this: Long term, no economy of our size can be sustained if we don't invest in jobs, build things here and insist on a level playing field. That's why America needs a strong national industrial policy to rebuild, strengthen and modernize our manufacturing capacity. We need to get rid of the notion that we can't compete in the global economy.

Then we hear the tires thumping against the lane markers again…

We need to pursue with urgency opportunities in green technologies, high-end manufacturing and infrastructure. In Michigan, tens of thousands of jobs have been created through the Recovery Act, which has supported clean energy projects to develop a sustainable, green work force. Michigan now leads the way with advanced battery research and production for hybrid cars, with over a dozen companies investing here, creating tens of thousands of jobs.


Projects like this create a virtuous chain of innovation by spurring private investment and spin-off benefits. A relatively small, but key, federal investment in these projects makes the difference.

Hmm, there’s that word "virtuous" again. Now where have I heard that word recently? Oh yeah, President Obama’ recent press conference and the back yard confab where he touted his efforts to turn the economy around, which has resulted in record poverty levels in only eighteen months. Helluva job there, Barry.

It should be common knowledge amongst my two readers that “green jobs” are as much of a myth as was “global warming”. Spain proved that for every green job the government created, 2.5 regular jobs were lost. And that “small, but key federal investment” in green technology is precisely what’s wrong with it. We’ve been working on this technology in the free market for years with little success. Private companies have poured great sums into research for solar panels and the like with no marketable results. In short, we’ve already proven that green tech needs to mature in order to be effective.

Until that such time as it becomes effective, there are traditional methods of energy generation like nuclear power. However, these efforts are under constant attack from radical environmental groups seeking not clean energy, but a crippling of our country economically. It seems to be working quite well.

Mr. Gaffney concludes,

Without a massive investment to create jobs, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, it may take as long as 11 years for the economy to recover the jobs necessary to lower unemployment to pre-recession levels.

He speaks, of course, of the “investment” of our tax dollars, something that the free market would normally do on its own, thus creating jobs and tax revenue instead of draining it.

This trip is starting to become more than a little dangerous. What Mr. Gaffney needs is a designated driver. What he has is a passenger who is far more inebriated than he is: Richard Trumka.

If they don’t manage to wreck the car, you just know he’ll be the one who starts cussing out the police officer who pulls them over. That’ll help.

We know what Rep. John Boehner will do if he gets the Speaker’s gavel – because he’s told us! He’ll privatize and cut Social Security, protect the corporations that send our jobs overseas, slash taxes for the super-rich. There will be no more extensions of unemployment benefits. No jobs legislation. No infrastructure spending. No Davis Bacon. No retirement security. No health care.

Trumka looks as though he may hurl any second now…

That’s why I say to the hand-wringers, to the naysayers, to the detractors, to the Party of No: If you don’t believe in America, get out of the way!

Oops, they just ran into a fire hydrant. Quick, drink this six-pack before the cops get here.

Tea Party Calling Thurston Howell III…Hmm, The Line’s Busy Again

UPDATED*

Last nights’ Republican primaries resulted in upset wins for Tea Party candidates running against established incumbents, with Christine O’Donnell being the biggest surprise, winning over long-time Delaware Representative Mike Castle. Other Tea Party nominees also won in New York and New Hampshire.

Heh heh, not too shabby for a party that technically doesn’t exist.

No official national spokeshuman. No official Political Action Committee. No money, at least compared to the national GOP and Dems.

Just ideas, and simple ones at that: Reduce the size and scope of government, be fiscally responsible, keep our friends close and our enemies within visual range, drastically reduce Washington’s footprint on our daily lives by sticking to a strict interpretation of our Constitution. You know, all that knuckle-dragging, far-right-wing-nut radical stuff that’s so old and worn out.

If there’s a down side to last night’s latest Red Wave, it’s the news that the GOP won’t be helping Christine O’Donnell in her battle for the Delaware Senate seat formerly held by the Democrat’s version of Forrest Gump, Joe Biden, proving once again that the American public is far ahead of the Washington establishment.

Why can’t Michael Steele and company catch up to mainstream conservative/American thought?

For years, conservatives have been told that they need to establish a “big tent” strategy to include as many folk as possible. Republican party leaders admitted that they'd allowed themselves to be mischaracterized as a tight clique of blue-blooded, aristocratic snobs for generations. Despite GOP support for such groundbreaking human rights legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the abolition of slavery, Democrats managed to portray everyone in the GOP as Thurston Howell III. This enabled them to appeal to a wider demographic as the party of the little guy and it worked for a long time, particularly in the South where I grew up as the product of a Dixiecrat. “There are always good times when a Democrat is in office” was a phrase I heard often from my mother.

Nowhere was this more evident than in George McGovern’s presidential campaign in 1972 when he famously lamented that fat-cat businessmen could deduct the cost of their three-martini lunch while Joe Six-Pack couldn’t deduct the price of his ham sandwich.

However, in recent years, the pendulum has swung in the other direction and Democrats are now the party of Big Money. Curiously, they still push the image as being a friend of the working man, even when the anti-Christ, billionaire George Soros, famous for his radical left-wing views and history of destroying entire country's monetary systems, is funding the Democrat machine. Think Progress and Media Matters are but two of his organizations committed to turning America into one of his holding companies with every American as a minimum-wage-slave, along with the aid of somebody called Barack Obama.

Our current recession/depression has had a profound effect on the national psyche, due in equal parts to the alarm of working folks losing half their retirement accounts overnight and all the spare time the large numbers of unemployed find on their hands. Everybody’s suffering in one form or another and this has led to a conservative awakening of epic, nay, Biblical proportions. The “big tent” theory wound up being a sort of Democrat-Lite version of the GOP where we were offered RINOs in large numbers in an effort to capitalize on the growing number of Americans who called themselves Democrats. The GOP was after the soft, chewy center of independent voters who just can’t seem to find their own set of values and tend to follow the crowd right off the cliff.

Today’s American voter has been the recipient of this Republican moderation, good and hard. Going along to get along with a Democrat party that has no interest in the little guy is what got us into this mess. The so-called “ruling class” is overwhelmingly left-liberal while the country leans to the right. This disparity has led to the outright political revolt that has become the Tea Party movement where RINOs are no longer welcome.

The issues are now what matters. The candidates’ track record is on display instead of their rhetoric. The nation wants action, not promises. We want a government that actually acts on our behalf, benefitting the majority and ignoring the delusional screams of the various left-wing radical groups and their manufactured outrage.

We want the tide to rise so everyone’s ship can get off this reef.

*UPDATE - John Cornyn pledges NSRC support for O'Donnell. Yay!

Wild Serfdom presents...

Welcome to another episode of Wild Serfdom. I’m your host, Coddington van Voorhees IV, professor emeritus of anthropology at Carnegie Watermelon University in Anunder, Maryland.

In this episode, we go in search of the creature known scientifically as progressivus politicus, popularly referred to as the common progressive politician. Previously thought to be extinct, it has in recent decades been spotted in increasing numbers, primarily along the eastern- and western-most continental coastlines. While it takes on the outward appearance of a normal human, this is merely camouflage, a method which allows it to capture and devour its primary food source and close cousin, conservatiis politicus. Once considered a relatively harmless sub-species, recent studies have revealed a new threat: it is thought that once its primary food source has been exhausted, it will begin to feed upon the general population. This makes it very dangerous indeed.

A pack animal, its social structure is extremely rigid, dominated by a leader who has earned the position through the effective use of vocalizations. It tends to avoid contact with those outside the pack, as most of the pack is bred from within. However, new members are allowed into the pack once a complex ritual has been successfully survived. While the exact nature of this ritual remains a mystery, it is believed to involve repeated blows to the head so as to render the new pack member incapable of independent thought.

This creature’s outward appearance often is so effective as to fool even the most astute of observers. Clad in expensive clothing and jewelry, it strives to maintain its illusion of humanity. However, this deception becomes readily apparent in circumstances where it finds itself separated from others in its pack, primarily when surrounded by the general population. Facial expressions such as the smile, crucial to maintaining its camouflage, are often the result of surgical enhancement or the injection of chemicals such as Botox.

It employs a series of sudden, shrill cries to confuse and scare its enemies. Most notable are “racist” and “bigot”. These are not limited to only two syllables; more advanced noises have been heard such as “homophobe” and “bitter-clinger” with the most advanced being “Christian fundamentalist”. These intricate sounds were once thought to be unique for a creature that otherwise displays such a limited intelligence, however, research has shown that their capacity for imitation and deception is greater than previously thought. Certain vocal phrases from others reflexively arouse its vicious nature, which it attempts to conceal, often at a great cost in mortality. High levels of alcohol consumption aid this effort temporarily, but eventually the protective mechanism fails.

They appear to be incapable of walking long distances under their own power and must be transported in large vehicles, transported to their various feeding and nesting grounds by those whom they choose not to devour, but instead retain in servitude. On the rare occasion when they venture outside on foot, they often carry crude weapons. There is some debate as to whether these weapons serve as actual protection, are used as a display of aggression, or are a combination of the two.

We highly recommend that our viewers do not attempt to engage one of these on your own. Should you suspect that you will face one, always travel in groups and have a digital recording device handy at all times as they appear to be frightened by the presence of electronics with which they are unfamiliar. We also recommend the use of earplugs. Occasionally, an especially aggressive one will be encountered. Our film crew was attacked on one occasion, as this video demonstrates.

Viewer discretion is advised.




When we return from the break, we’ll show you more video of this dangerous creature in its natural habitat.

Dinesh D'Souza Breaks the Code - What Obama Thinks

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I did, but I also found the transition from the remembrance of 9/11 to the start of the college football season to be rather clumsy. So many old feelings returned, as they did for all of us, that I felt somewhat awkward trying to enjoy an annual rite of fall. I also found that I couldn't write anything like I normally do on Friday. I'm sure both of you noticed.

Anyway, on to the week at hand. I ran across an article Forbes.com that helps complete the story I touched on recently concerning why Obama seems somewhat cool (to put it mildly) to the values that America was built upon. Notions such as individual responsibility, the idea of a small government that is responsive to the will and wishes of the people and a free market economy.

This story by Dinesh D'Souza, entitled How Obama Thinks is a gem. D'Souza is a native of Mumbai, India. He outlines the reasoning behind many of Obama's oddly anti-American policies and distills it into a single word - anti-colonialism. Barack Obama Sr. was a virulent anti-colonialist.

He know from whence he speaks when it comes to the subject,

I know a great deal about anticolonialism, because I am a native of Mumbai, India. I am part of the first Indian generation to be born after my country's independence from the British. Anticolonialism was the rallying cry of Third World politics for much of the second half of the 20th century. To most Americans, however, anticolonialism is an unfamiliar idea, so let me explain it.

Anticolonialism is the doctrine that rich countries of the West got rich by invading, occupying and looting poor countries of Asia, Africa and South America. As one of Obama's acknowledged intellectual influences, Frantz Fanon, wrote in The Wretched of the Earth, "The well-being and progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat and the dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs, Indians and the yellow races."

He goes on...

Anticolonialists hold that even when countries secure political independence they remain economically dependent on their former captors. This dependence is called neocolonialism, a term defined by the African statesman Kwame Nkrumah (1909--72) in his book Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, writes that poor countries may be nominally free, but they continue to be manipulated from abroad by powerful corporate and plutocratic elites. These forces of neocolonialism oppress not only Third World people but also citizens in their own countries. Obviously the solution is to resist and overthrow the oppressors. This was the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. and many in his generation, including many of my own relatives in India.

Anti-colonialism is a foreign term to Americans precisely because we have yet to colonize any country where we have shed our blood and spent our treasure. How strange it is to have the sins of Europe visited upon us, to accuse the US of doing something it has never done, nor even attempted. Pause for a moment to recall some of the lands where our sons and daughters fought and died: Afghanistan, Iraq, Viet Nam, Korea, France and ask yourself if they consider themselves to be American colonies. Their answer, and yours, would be a sounding "no."

Obama Sr. was an economist, and in 1965 he published an important article in the East Africa Journal called "Problems Facing Our Socialism." Obama Sr. wasn't a doctrinaire socialist; rather, he saw state appropriation of wealth as a necessary means to achieve the anticolonial objective of taking resources away from the foreign looters and restoring them to the people of Africa. For Obama Sr. this was an issue of national autonomy. "Is it the African who owns this country? If he does, then why should he not control the economic means of growth in this country?"

No rational person could argue against that last statement. However, for the Senior Obama, rationality doesn't fit inside radicalism.

As he put it, "We need to eliminate power structures that have been built through excessive accumulation so that not only a few individuals shall control a vast magnitude of resources as is the case now." The senior Obama proposed that the state confiscate private land and raise taxes with no upper limit. In fact, he insisted that "theoretically there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed."

Maybe it's just me, but that certainly sounds like Saul Alinsky speaking. And Bill Ayers, too. Also, communism is supposed to work "theoretically".

Remarkably, President Obama, who knows his father's history very well, has never mentioned his father's article. Even more remarkably, there has been virtually no reporting on a document that seems directly relevant to what the junior Obama is doing in the White House.

Hmmm, funny, that.

It may seem incredible to suggest that the anticolonial ideology of Barack Obama Sr. is espoused by his son, the President of the United States. That is what I am saying. From a very young age and through his formative years, Obama learned to see America as a force for global domination and destruction. He came to view America's military as an instrument of neocolonial occupation. He adopted his father's position that capitalism and free markets are code words for economic plunder. Obama grew to perceive the rich as an oppressive class, a kind of neocolonial power within America. In his worldview, profits are a measure of how effectively you have ripped off the rest of society, and America's power in the world is a measure of how selfishly it consumes the globe's resources and how ruthlessly it bullies and dominates the rest of the planet.

For a great read and answers to the many questions that the country has concerning its' current direction under this, our most foreign president, read it all.

Friday Bits of Tid - 9/11 Edition

A Prayer

Heavenly Father, we humbly seek Your wisdom and guidance, Your Grace, Loving Kindness and Your continued Blessing upon our land as we recall the souls lost on September 11, 2001. We ask that you fill our hearts with forgiveness. We ask also that you open the hearts of our enemies that they might know Your love and that peace may reign over Your Creation. That we, your children, may one day join together in harmony and good will, seeking no longer war nor destruction. Let your Light show us the path to righteousness that we may not stumble, but find at journeys' end the peace which you promise in Everlasting Life. Grant us these humble wishes, O Lord, that we may know Heaven on Earth.

Amen

Obama in Ohio - The Great Divider Speaks

Our President is keeping me rather busy this week, what with dissecting his speeches and searching for some shred of truth or accuracy that might prove he has a handle on things. So far, I don't have much to report. But I'll keep on looking and listening.

I do it so that you, gentle readers, don't have to.

Mr. Obama gave another economic speech in Illinois Ohio yesterday before yet another hand-picked crowd of enthusiastic supporters. I am left to assume that these people still have jobs, which would be their only reason to cheer. He wasted no time in blaming his predecessor for the country's current problems...

I ran for President because for much of the last decade, a very specific governing philosophy had reigned about how America should work: Cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires. Cut regulations for special interests. Cut trade deals even if they didn't benefit our workers. Cut back on investments in our people and our future - in education and clean energy; in research and technology. The idea was that if we had blind faith in the market; if we let corporations play by their own rules; if we left everyone else to fend for themselves, America would grow and prosper.

Would you be referring to the same philosophy that resulted in a new record for single-day tax revenue set in 2005?

For a time, this idea gave us the illusion of prosperity.

Hmm, an illusion of prosperity, obviously bought and paid for with the illusion of money.

But while all this was happening, the broader economy was becoming weaker.... Folks were forced to put more debt on their credit cards and borrow against homes that many couldn't afford in the first place. Meanwhile, a failure to pay for two wars and two tax cuts for the wealthy helped turn a record surplus into a record deficit.

 
Um, about that record deficit, Mr. Obama. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one, since you may not have had time, between taking all your vacations that the rest of us wish we could take, to read a report by the Congressional Budget Office. I'll get you up to speed: this report shows that you, not your predecessor, has added a larger deficit than all other presidents combined.
 
He then proceeds to relate a brief family history to demonstrate how he and Michelle pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps to become President and then arrives at this;
 

Yes, our families believed in the American values of self-reliance and individual responsibility, and they instilled those values in their children. But they also believed in a country that rewards responsibility. A country that rewards hard work. A country built upon the promise of opportunity and upward mobility. They believed in an America that gave my grandfather the chance to go to college because of the GI Bil. An America that gave my grandparents the chance to buy a home because of the Federal Housing Authority. An America that gave their children and grandchildren the chance to fulfill our dreams thanks to college loans and college scholarships.

That's quite an impressive list of government programs you recite there, Mr. President. Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt. You were still bashing Republicans, if I recall..

Some Republican leaders figured it was smart politics to sit on the sidelines and let Democrats solve the mess. Others believed on principle that government shouldn't meddle in the markets, even when the markets were broken. But with the nation losing nearly 800,000 jobs the month I was sworn in, my most urgent task was to stop a financial meltdown and prevent this recession from becoming a second depression.

So that's why you spent your entire first year in office trying to cram your Health Care bill down the throats of an unwilling country?

I have a different vision for the future. I've never believed that government has all the answers to our problems.

That's funny. Your class picture from the second grade shows something different.

I apologize once again. I interrupted your Boehner-bashing, didn't I?

We want to put more Americans back to work rebuilding America - our roads, railways, and runways. When the housing sector collapsed and the recession hit, one in every four jobs lost were in the construction industry. That's partly why our economic plan has invested in badly needed infrastructure projects over the last nineteen months - not just roads and bridges, but high-speed railroads and expanded broadband access. Altogether, these are projects that have led to thousands of good, private sector jobs, especially for those in the trades. Mr. Boehner and the Republicans in Congress said no to these projects. Fought them tooth and nail. Though I should say that didn't stop a lot of them from showing up at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies and trying to take credit. That's always a sight to see.

Yup, just like the time we saw you at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the automotive battery plant in Michigan earlier this summer. Remember, the one owned by the Korean company? Or, even better, let's talk about the energy conservation bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress that has forced the last GE American light bulb factory to close, resulting in the loss of 200 jobs to China? Will you and your party take credit for that?

With all the other budgetary pressures we have - with all the Republicans' talk about wanting to shrink the deficit - they would have us borrow $700 billion over the next ten years to give a tax cut of about $100,000 to folks who are already millionaires.

Um, no, they wouldn't. See, this is one of your problems. Your progressive buddies in Congress also have the same problem. It's a belief that tax cuts cost the government money. Nothing could be further from the truth. You see, that money doesn't belong to you, as you seem to think. It belongs to the people who earned it.


You have to understand that government is like a salesman who gets paid by commission only: the money you make (and in using the word "make", I mean "collect by taxation") is a percentage of the money made by someone else.

Look, I recognize that most of the Republicans in Congress have said no to just about every policy I've proposed since taking office. And on some issues, I realize it's because there are genuine philosophical differences...They're making the same calculation they made just before the inauguration: if I fail, they win. Well, they might think this will get them where they need to go in November, but it won't get our country where it needs to go in the long run. So that's the choice, Ohio. Do we return to the same failed policies that ran our economy into a ditch, or do we keep moving forward with policies that are slowly pulling us out?

 
 
Well, Mr. President, it sure looks to us like you managed to get just about everything you wanted from Congress so far, since your party has held the majority there ever since before you took office. Most folks would call that a win for you. But the results haven't exactly been what you promised. Your policies don't seem to be doing very well.
 
But perhaps if I state this using your car metaphor, you might understand it a bit better: our car is in a ditch. We paid $800 billion for a tow truck that hasn't shown up.
 
(A big ol' tip of the hat to my fellow Morons over at Ace of Spades for that last analogy.)

Why Obama Likes Targeted Tax Credits, and Why They Don't Work

In his Labor Day speech last Monday, President Obama outlined his plan for another stimulus. He wants to spend $50B more on infrastructure to improve the nations' three R's: roads, rails, and runways, similar to his first Stimulus Bill. Also included in his New Stimulus is a targeted tax credit which allows businesses to write off investments in equipment and plants. There's also a tax break for research and experimentation thrown in.

Wow, that's one whole paragraph with no snark. I must be slipping.

In the name of all that's fair, I can't really fault the President for trying. He's slowly starting to understand what it's going to take to get our economic engine to start. Tax breaks for business are what we need, along with a drastic reduction in the government's footprint. However, there's a right way and a wrong way to do almost anything. Targeted tax cuts are the wrong way.

The Obama economic team lacks a firm grasp of free market economics. Indeed, their proposals so far have failed in spectacular fashion The outgoing Christina Romer recently admitted she had no clue what she was doing. Rush Limbaugh pointed out her lack of business experience during his radio show yesterday.

Obama's tax cut proposal for business is a step in the right direction, but he still manages to get that wrong. It's due to two flawed concepts: they're targeted and temporary.

Our President apparently likes picking winners and losers. That's somewhat understandable given his early home life. Many things happened to him that were beyond his control, primarily the fact that his parents abandoned him in order to study radical political theory at the feet of real radicals. Unable to control his situation as a youngster, his frustration remained with him into adulthood, when he was finally able to gain a modicum of control, only this time, over other people. This psychological yearning was probably the main reason he wanted to get into politics.

When carried forward to today, we see this emotional scar in the form of favoritism, primarily shown towards those who are supportive of him, either directly or indirectly. The takeover of General Motors and Chrysler Corporation are prime examples of this. As I pointed out in yesterday's post, we already had a mechanism which would have allowed those companies to restructure their debt: it's called bankruptcy, of which there are several types, suitable for the many different instances of financial trouble.

President Obama could have, and should have, allowed these companies to file for bankruptcy protection. We know now why he didn't: bankruptcy would have permitted these corporations to renegotiate the contracts with their respective unions, a move that would almost certainly have caused the union members to receive a reduced wage and benefit package. Since the labor unions contributed handsomely to his presidential campaign, their support would have been reduced, since a percentage of union dues go to political efforts, often against the wishes of the rank and file members.

Obama's favoritism towards selected groups is on display again in this latest Stimulus proposal. Overall, tax breaks for businesses are welcome and needed, but the problem is the fact that they're only for selected groups, or for specific reasons, or temporary. That's no way to foster long term economic growth.

What is needed is permanent tax relief for all businesses, regardless of the size or the nature of their investments. Tax credits for new plants and machinery are great, but what if your company needs to spend money on something else? Then what? Wouldn't it be far better for the country to reduce taxes for as many businesses as possible? That would go a long way towards government acting for the "general welfare." Or not acting, depending on how you look at it.

This notion of Washington picking winners and losers is an idea whose time has come to die. Other administrations have also attempted this with similar results: they just weren't enough to benefit everybody.

The allure of power causes people to do some mighty unwise things.

Reality-Challenged President Addresses Union Crowd on Labor Day

President Obama took time from his busy golfing schedule to address a hand-picked, cheering throng of union members in Milwaukee yesterday. In his speech, he displayed his continued befuddlement about how the real world in general, and business in specific, operates.

He sprang into action immediately, continuing his demonization of  evil American business,

...some on Wall Street took reckless risks and cut corners to turn huge profits, while working Americans were fighting harder and harder just to stay afloat.

Huge profits? Does he mean that despicable corporate average of around 7 percent profit? How dare those evil corporations make money!! Bastages, all!

He then proceeds to relate all of his knowledge of the job market,

It was through my grandparents' experience that I was brought up to believe that anything is possible in America. But they also knew the feeling when that opportunity is pulled out from under you. They would tell me about seeing their fathers or uncles losing jobs during the depression; how it wasn't just the loss of a paycheck that stung. It was the blow to their dignity; their sense of self-worth. I'll bet a lot of us have seen people changed after a long bout of unemployment; how it can wear down even the strongest spirits.

So my grandparents taught me early on that a job is about more than a paycheck, as important as that is. A job is about waking up every day with a sense of purpose, and going to bed each night fulfilled. A job is about meeting your responsibilities to yourself, to your family, to your community.

What's missing in that tale? Just any of his own experience in a real-world job, that's all. His grandparents had to tell him what jobs were all about. I'll bet it sounded like a bedtime story. He retains that child-like sense of wonderment until this day. How charming.

And the question is, how do we create the same kind of middle class opportunity my grandparents' generation came home to? How do we build our economy on the same kind of strong, stable foundation for growth?

That's simple, Mr. President. Take every policy you and the corrupt progressives who run Congress propose and do the exact opposite. See, that wasn't hard, now was it?

Now it's time for a little conservative-bashing thrown in with all that economic wonderment.

Well, anyone who thinks we can move this economy forward with a few doing well at the top, hoping it'll trickle down to working folks running faster and faster just to keep up – they just haven't studied our history. We didn't become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn't come this far by letting special interests run wild. We didn't do it by just gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street.

We saw what you did there, Barry. That was a not-so-subtle swipe at Ronaldus Magnus, whose fiscal policies just happened to result in the largest peacetime expansion of our economy on record. And Sir, could you, just once, stop regarding any and all profit as being greedy and reckless? It's really getting old, in addition to being false. You're only showing your ignorance about the profits that a growing number of retired Americans rely on for their incomes via their retirement accounts.

He does , however, get really, really close to a fact in his speech,

We did it by producing goods we could sell; we did it with sweat and effort and innovation.

Uh huh, all without the interference of government. You're getting warmer...

That's why we're investing in growth industries like clean energy and manufacturing. Because we want to see the solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars of tomorrow manufactured here. We don't just want to buy stuff made elsewhere; we want to grow our exports so the world buys products that say “Made in America.”

Growth industries? Sorry Barry, those products have been on the market for over thirty years now. If they made sense, wouldn't they be enjoying some success by now? Government subsidies for those items don't count. And, just so you know, we have a proven method of producing clean energy in nuclear power, but you and your radical environmentalist friends have worked tirelessly to make sure we haven't built a plant in a generation. You just got cold again.

When the naysayers said we should just let the American auto industry vanish and take hundreds of thousands of jobs down with it, we said we'd stand by them if they made the tough choices necessary to compete once again – and today, that industry is on the way back.

Here we go again. Mr. President, we have this legal thingy called "bankruptcy", maybe you've heard of it. Oh, wait, that's right, I keep forgetting you've never held a real job, with real people with real children depending on you providing them real paychecks every week. You were busy organizing communitites. My bad. Anyway, this thing called "bankruptcy" would have allowed these evil car companies to renegotiate their contracts with unions, which I'm sure all your union boss buddies would have been kinda angry at you for. I understand. It's much better for our tax money to prop up their outrageous pay than the free market, you know, the money we stand to lose when GM makes it's next IPO.

Anyway, boys and girls, it's now time to get back to his second favorite sport after golf: bashing Republicans,

But there are some folks in Washington who see things differently. When it comes to just about everything we've done to strengthen the middle class and rebuild our economy, almost every Republican in Congress said no. Even where we usually agree, they say no. They think it's better to score political points before an election than actually solve problems. So they said no to help for small businesses. No to middle-class tax cuts. No to unemployment insurance. No to clean energy jobs. No to making college affordable. No to reforming Wall Street. Even as we speak, these guys are saying no to cutting more taxes for small business owners. I mean, come on! Remember when our campaign slogan was “Yes We Can?” These guys are running on “No, We Can't,” and proud of it. Really inspiring, huh?

To steal a line from our old friend, Ted Kennedy: what is it about working men and women that they find so offensive?

And ol' Teddy held how many jobs in his life? He had almost as much business experience as you. And also never mind that your party has held the majority in Congress ever since your election. That means that your buddies over there didn't need any votes from Republicans to pass your bills. You thought we forgot all that, didn't you?
 

Bottom line is, these guys refuse to give up on the economic philosophy they peddled for most of the last decade.

OK, I'll give you some style points for finding a new way to blame your predecessor for our current woes. That was done with flair, but the level of difficulty is still too low to score accurately.

So basically, they're betting that between now and November, you'll come down with a case of amnesia. They think you'll forget what their agenda did to this country. They think you'll just believe that they've changed. These are the folks whose policies helped devastate our middle class and drive our economy into a ditch. And now they're asking you for the keys back.

Um, no, I don't think we'll forget those horrible days of 4.7% unemployment despite two active wars following a brazen attack by radical Islamists on American soil. And what's this obsession of yours with cars? Why don't we time you as you change a tire? And no, you can't call a tow truck.

He wraps it up,

We can restore the American Dream and deliver it safely to our children. That's how we built the last American century. That's how we'll build the next. We don't believe in the words “No, we can't.” We are Americans, and in times of great challenge, we push forward with an unyielding faith that we can. Yes, we can. Thank you, God Bless You and the work you do, and God Bless the United States of America.

Well, at least he got that last sentence correct.

We should thank him for that.

Friday Bits of Tid, Labor Day Monday Edition

Hey, it's a holiday. At least for those lucky enough to have a job, that is. Today is a good day for more football, golf, and saving beers from an icy death. Oh, and cooking outside.

Now I'm hungry. And thirsty.

Let the games begin...

There's a boob joke in there somewhere. Politician raffles off breast implant. Maybe more than one.

Lloyd's of London is insuring Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu's hair for $1M, not his hands.

Homeless man calls from hot tub to request a cup of hot chocolate and a hug. I'm sure his new cellmate, Bubba, will be glad to accommodate him.

Taking a tourist's first question and turning it into a tour.

While we're *ahem* on the subject, how much am I bid for J. D. Salinger's toilet? $1 million going once, twice... and now on to our next item, John Lennon's loo.

Founding member of ELO killed not by rock and roll lifestyle, but by a bale of hay.

Send your child to Drake University where the standards are high.

Duude.

What is this world coming to when an ad for a handbag company is deemed too sexy for Italy? Prudes.

And finally, Zack Nash for President.

Y'all enjoy y'all selves, back to the grind tomorrow...

Friday Bits of Tid, College Football Edition

Look. Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a football!

According to the crawler on one of the ESPN channels last night our most recent Heisman Trophy winner, Alabama running back Mark Ingram, will sit out tomorrow's game against Brownie Troop #318 San Jose State with a knee injury. Get well soon, Mark, your team has a national title to defend.

Heavy drinkers outlive their teetotaling counterparts. As a bonus, after we die you can use our livers as a doorstop.

And speaking of alcohol, I want this guy's job. And some fried beer. Then we can go, um, canoeing.

Scientists create dry water. Just add water.

The future is "...a communist chocolate hellhole, and I'm here to stop it ever happening."

"Honey, please don't sneeze." Woman gives birth in a vehicle for the second time.

It's Allliiive!

"Dear, we'll be gone for a while. Did you remember to turn off the gardenias?"

"Dude, that shot was a real worm burner."

And finally, I guess this dog got bored playing poker.

Orlando Mosque Raises Funds for Terror Group, Local Newspaper Silent

I ran across this video on Breitbart’s Big Peace website yesterday. It’s a story that you should be aware of regardless of your locale.



The article reveals that over $1M was raised from that mosque and sent to Gaza for use by the terror group Hamas.

Very interesting indeed. Not only is there a local player engaged in supporting Hamas, but this mosque appears to have ties to our current Governor, Charlie Crist. This could be big. It could sink Crist’s Senate campaign. Naturally, this blog wanted to find out more about this potentially explosive story.

Since this happened where I live, I naturally assumed that our local newspaper would have more information. So, off I went to the Orlando Sentinel’s website where I found, wait for it…nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not one article or even the mention of a very serious matter involving local ties to the global terrorist movement and our own Governor. I did discover, however, that Paris Hilton was “embarrassed” to have her SUV searched.

How curious, I thought. Well, maybe I just didn’t look hard enough, or the article appeared a few days earlier and I missed it (I’ve learned over the years to suspect operator error first). OK, I’ll do a site search and see what happens. I entered the search term “Hamas” and received this message: “Did you mean hams?”

Um, no, I didn’t.

This isn’t good. How are we to combat terrorism in America when we don’t even know about it? I seem to remember a time when newspapers had things called “reporters” whose job it was to report on these things called “stories” so we could be “informed” about important issues, particularly ones that involved our national security and the security of other countries. In the case of terrorism, this is even more important since terrorism targets innocent civilians in defiance of international law and rules of combat.

I searched some more, specifically looking for local news outlets who might have written about it. Still nothing. I did find lots of links to the story, but none of them were from traditional local news gatherers. How can this be? Surely, someone in town must be covering this story. It is a local story with international implications. Doesn’t that kind of make it a big thing? Kind of?

After all, don’t most local news outlets pride themselves on being “first on the scene” of local news? That’s what I see in all of their advertisements. So why the silence on this story? Where’s all the breathless reporting?

Having reached a dead end in my quest for local links to this story, I decided to call someone who might know would be covering this, Tom Trento, Director of Central Florida Security.org, who produced the video. During our telephone conversation, he confirmed that there were no local news organizations currently covering this story to his knowledge, but there may be one in the pipeline.

One.

This still isn’t good. If the folks who broke this story weren’t aware of anyone else covering it, what is the average citizen to do? More importantly, why are traditional news organizations such as the Orlando Sentinel silent?

Why are they covering this up?

Fear and Self-Loathing - Hallmarks of the Leftist

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Are you naturally cheerful or consistently grouchy?

Chances are you've noticed a trend lately, that of a constant, shrill screeching from the left side of the aisle versus the general good nature of the right side. Where this comes from is a mystery, but a lot more people are starting to notice just how dour leftists are.

If I were a psychologist, I could do nothing for the remainder of my career except study this phenomenon. I'd never run out of something to do, since the depth and breadth of hatred seemingly extends outward from politics into everything else to infect every nook and cranny of life itself.

I'm not the only one to notice this trend. Matthew Sheffield from the Washington Examiner writes about this in a piece entitled Hating your countrymen is the new patriotism. In it, he notes the trend away from mere disagreement with those who differ in opinion toward downright seething, spittle-flecked hatred such as that displayed by CNN's Ed Shultz.

One could argue that conservatives and libertarians are prone to similarly negative views about the public–particularly when it votes for politicians loathed by the Right–however, it seems to me that when such sentiments are expressed, they tend to proceed more from disappointment than the fulminations against the public one regularly sees expressed by liberals (the supposed movement “for the people”).

Sadly, this is becoming more and more common as we watch the left collapse in on itself. Glenn Beck pointed this out on his show recently, citing a Huffington Post post that I think was supposed to be high snark, but comes across as just a delusional rant against the everyday Americans who attended his Restoring Honor rally in Washington this past weekend. He displayed pictures that HuffPoo called "ridiculous". Guess what these pictures showed? Average Americans displaying patriotism. (I deeply apologize for linking to that site. If you feel the need to go wash your hands or take a shower after clicking, I understand. I'll wait 'till you get back.)

Even Hollywood stars are getting caught up in this blind, running hatred. John Cusak has called for the "satanic death" of Fox News and GOP leaders.

I have a theory concerning this malady. Indulge me if you will.

One can easily see and hear the carping and criticism from the left. It's their stock in trade. They seemingly cannot stand the country into which they were born and their every waking moment is spent pointing out her every fault as if there is some perfect society that once existed to compare her to.

That's what causes their unhappiness. They constantly criticize. Anything and everything. As a result, by immersing themselves in criticism, they feel like they're being criticized. Their emotional state overwhelms them to the point that they become most unpleasant and incapable of polite conversation. It is for that reason that leftists tend to surround themselves with other like-minded individuals and join groups that support their critical views of the nation and life in general.

After all, who wants to hang around the perpetually dour?

You may have noticed the calm demeanor of those who attended Glenn Beck's rally in Washington. Every video clip I've seen so far shows general good will toward others. The anecdotes of the day reflect the same atmosphere of cheerfulness and accommodation, along with the respect shown by the crowd for the grounds that were left in pristine condition afterwards.

This, in my opinion, is one of the biggest ideological divides between the right and left. Because we on the right have a modicum of self-control, those on the left who don't have it are reduced to emotionality, and must respond in the only way they know how: emotionally, in a most immature way.

Like a spoiled child.