ObamaCare is Upheld - I Quit, this will be my last post.

Explanation in the title. I'm tired of fighting.

I didn't vote for any of the things I've gotten from goverment: a destroyed economy, no job and now no liklihood of ever getting one in my old profession in manufacturing thanks to NAFTA, now I'll be a criminal because I can't afford to buy health insurance.

So long, America. We had a good run, but today's SCOTUS ruling means that we have officially lost control of our government and our country.

I feel sick.

American Muslims Stone Christians in Dearborn

Had your coffee yet? You certainly won't need it after you watch this video, your blood pressure will rise.

Do I really need to say that this is a gross dereliction of duty for the police? Not only did they refuse to defend the victims, they actually accused them of starting the near-riot by simply being there.

I wonder if the Department of Justice will investigate this hate crime? If not, why not?

SooperMexican Calls the Justice Department Racism Hotline

Other than that, I got nuthin' today.

I need to make a beer run before tomorrow's SCOTUS decision on ObamaCare. Hopefully, the whole thing will be ruled unconstitutional. If it comes down that way, I may not be posting for a while, what with the hangover and all.

If it's upheld, I'll be drowning my (and the nation's) sorrows, so I might not be posting for a while, what with the hangover and all.

Obama Administration - Let the Invasion Continue

May You Live in Interesting Times. This isn't a toast, it's a curse. And whoever wished it upon us is no doubt chuckling with glee right now.

As all fourteen of you are probably aware, the Supreme Court announced their decision to effectively stop the state of Arizona from stopping the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican border into our country. They did leave intact one part of SB1070 that allows Arizona to detain illegals.

The interesting part of this is that within hours of the Court's decision, the Obama Administration announced that the Department of Homeland Security would no longer assist the state in the prosecution of illegals.

PowerLine has this assessment of yesterday's events:

Next, the administration announced measures designed to undermine the portion of the Arizona law that was upheld, unanimously, by the Supreme Court. The Department of Homeland Security said it would exclude Arizona from a program known as 287(g), which allows the feds to deputize local officials to make immigration-based arrests. A Homeland Security official explained that the administration finds such agreements “not useful” in states that have Arizona-style laws. I guess the program is “useful” only in states that aren’t taking meaningful measures to identify illegal aliens.

Accordingly, local police in Arizona will have to rely on federal officials to arrest illegal aliens. But federal officials have made it clear that the feds will not respond to calls from Arizona law enforcement unless the person detained meets certain criteria, such as being wanted for a felony. Being an illegal alien is not enough. As Obama showed with his unilateral mini-DREAM act, this administration is no longer interested in enforcing the immigration laws except perhaps against illegal aliens who are shown to have engaged in felonious conduct.

In addition, the Justice Department set up a hotline through which people can complain about having their immigration status checked by Arizona law enforcement officials. Obama thus hopes to drum up complaints against Arizona law enforcement agents. He wants to make the federal government a party to the harassment of those trying to do what Obama won’t – enforce the law. Obama hopes to intimidate them into not using their authority to address the severe problem of illegal immigration — authority granted by the state legislature and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court.

So this administration, much like the previous one, refuses to uphold the laws of the United States by ignoring established law in order to gain votes among the Latino community.

We're putting up with this, why, again?

I should note that it's illegal for any administration to refuse to enforce a law. It's also unConstitutional. My question is, why is no one calling out the president on this? Why is no one in Congress speaking up against this outrageous action that defies the very foundation of our country and the Founding Principle of the Rule of Law? Why isn't the Supreme Court not warning this president that he is in violation of the law and his Oath of Office?

What are you all afraid of?

Why is a secure border politically controversial?

It's no coincidence that those on the Left hide behind the false charge of Racism on this issue. It's their fallback position, since they have no real argument for their cause. It's tiresome and ignores the entire reason they hold office. But the persist because  their goal is not the same as our goal: theirs is to destroy our country, which we average citizens are allowing them to do.

There is a way to defuse the false charges of racism, but for some reason, those who are in a position to stop it are reluctant to use it. How difficult is it to preface a remark on the illegal immigration problem with a statement similar to this: "We (or "I") are all for welcoming those who wish to become Americans in accordance with our laws, but..."

This administration has made it clear it has no wish to uphold the law or the Rule of Law which states that everyone is to be treated equally.

Thus, we are being invaded with the full consent of the White House.

A Little Conservative Ditty

Heh.

(h/t to Fox Nation and a Fellow Moron over at Ace's Place.)

(Economic) History of the World, Part I

I was surfing the Interwebs this morning when I ran across this little article over at Glenn Reynold's blog Instapundit, The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph.

It's fairly self-explanatory, which is perfect for Morons like me. It shows the dramatic rise of the Industrial Revolution (led by the US), among other things. The author also follows up with more in Part II and Part III.

What I found most interesting was this chart from Part II.

Notice the rise of the US after 1800.

Not mentioned in this series is the disturbing fact that an awful lot of people (curiously including some Americans) view this as something to be stopped rather than imitated. I speak specifically of those One-World-Government types who inhabit the United Nations. Their new initiative to tackle the Ongoing Myth of Man-Made Global Warming calls for an economic contraction of major countries.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get that whole idea. Why would anyone wish to destroy the means by which to clean up the environment by contracting economies and making everyone poorer?

Could it be that their whole point isn't to "save the world" but to tear us down because of our freedoms? This mindset makes my brain hurt when I try to comprehend it. Not just this chart, but pretty much all the others point to the success of freedom and liberty.

Why not duplicate this success for the whole world? Why not foster and promote individual freedom for all?

Friday Bits of Tid - NBA Champion Miami Heat Edition

Whassup, y'all?

It's Friday again and I'm going to see if'ns I can try another Tidly Bits Post.

In sports news, The Miami Heat won their second NBA Championship last night. LeBron James had a stellar game, scoring 26 points with 11 rebounds and 13 assists.

Lost in the media frenzy surrounding LBJ and his first ring, my Orlando Magic named their new general manager to replace Otis Smith. His name is Rob Hennigan and he has an impressive resume for a young'un (he's only 30 years old). He spent the last four years helping the Oklahoma City Thunder, you know, that other team in this years finals. He'll have a big job on his hands finding a head coach. If I were he, I'd be ringing Phil Jackson's doorbell every morning at 6:00 am with a pail and a hosepipe in my hand ready to wash his cars and asking, "Doughnuts for breakfast today, sir?"

Last Sunday, my (and apparently everybody elses's) favorite NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr ended a four-year winless streak when he took the checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway's Quicken Loans 400 Sprint Cup race. Let's hope there isn't such a long gap until the next win. Sorry BackwardsGirl, that Carl Edwards didn't win.

OK, let's do this thang.

Mommy, why is my name Mile Marker 47?


Sex Born from Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.


This looks cool, but me and heights just don't get along. Sky high dining.


Hey, Hand Me That Piano Pass Me a Beer...

What Friday would be complete without a video of Kate Upton at a bikini shoot?
(Warning: Not Safe For Work)


You're welcome.

As long as I'm posting videos, here's asking why about the plot holes in Prometheus, of which there were many. If you haven't seen the movie yet (or cussing isn't your thing), don't click this...

And finally, The Most Arrogant Man in the World...

OK that about wraps it up. Y'all have a good weekend.

A Fast and Furious Linkfest

As you may have heard (or not, if you watch NBC News), the House Congressional panel that's investigating the illegal transfer of guns to drug cartels in Mexico was just about to hold a vote to place Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his less-than-full disclosure about his role in the program.

Then President Obama stepped in to invoke Executive Privilege which essentially prevents Congress from receiving the documents it was seeking from the Department of Justice.

This is a complex issue and I'm still digesting all the information on it. It appears that Operation Fast and Furious was an attempt by this administration to turn public sentiment against one of our most revered Constitutional rights to gun ownership by turning loose a large amount of guns to some very dangerous people. This program resulted in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and some 200 Mexican citizens.

This investigation has been going on since 2011, and virtually ignored by the mainstream media, save for Sharyl Atkisson of CBS.

President Obama had pretty much stayed above it all except to signal his support for Holder. But his citing of executive privilege yesterday now implicates him.

Is this unprecedented? No, it's been done before, most notably by Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigation. That ultimately led him to resign and sent the Republican Party into the wilderness for a generation or so back in the mid-1970's. Other presidents have done it on various occasions.

Here are a few links from when George Bush did it.

Harry Reid: "It's like saying, I'm King."

Katie Couric's Perky Colon: "People in power being above the law."

And finally, then-Senator Obama calling for Bush's AG to resign and "trying to hide behind" executive privilege. (h/t to Breitbart.com)

Many federal laws were broken which could amount to something called "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Stay tuned...

Economics Wednesday - Let Us Not Mourn the Death of Keynesianism

Good morning, buckaroos and buckarettes. Today is Economics Wednesday. (Actually, as you may have already figured out, any day can be Economics Day around here.) I ran across these three articles that build the case for free market capitalism that you might be interested in.

The first comes from The American Enterprise Institute and is entitled John Taylor: Yes we can cut and grow. James Pethokoukis is the author and in it he cites Mr. Taylor's research that predicted the "unexpectedly" dismal results of President Obama's budget busting Stimulus Bill. But the best part is Mr. Taylor's proof of something that we all know instinctively: contrary to progressive economic arguments and the European Economic Model (in which "austerity" is a dirty, riot-causing word), cutting government spending will lead to economic growth.

Granted, there's a PDF link inside that post that contains a lot of exotic-looking mathematical symbols, but don't let that concern you. The point is that there is some genuine work going on behind the scenes by serious economists proving the Backwards Postulate of Governmental Economics.

And what is this postulate, Mr. Boy? It's simply that the federal budget is no different than the budget of a typical American household, except with a lot more zeros at the end of it. If more is spent than taken in, problems will result. Don't allow yourself to be fooled by people such as Ben Bernanke and Timmy Geithner. There is no magical formula for solving our economic troubles, and they don't have any special insight into economics that the rest of us don't have. Actually, there is a formula: it has worked before and will work again if we can elect some politician who understand it and will get government out of the way.

Capitalism works.

If you can manage your household budget and have money left over at the end of the month, you're more qualified to set economic policy that either one of those guys.

It isn't rocket surgery. Understand the fundamentals of capitalism and stick to the basics, the rest will take care of itself as a matter of course.

The second article is also from the AEI titled Why Free Enterprise is About Morals, not Materialism by Arthur C. Brooks.

No hard numbers here, just a moral argument for free market capitalism and the role it has played in lifting up the life of mankind the world over. Here's a sample:

Americans learn early on in school that the Declaration of Independence claims for us as our birthright the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Founders used this phrase because they wanted to make a moral case for our nation's struggle for independence.

But what does the right to pursue happiness mean? It means earned success: The right to define and seek our happiness as we see fit, through creating value in our lives and in the lives of others. For some people, this leads to prosperity in business. But for others it means saving souls, helping the vulnerable, raising kids who become good men and women, cleaning up the environment, or creating beautiful art. Either way, it doesn't mean mindlessly pursuing money for its own sake.

This also happens to tie in with another article over at Matt Drudge's place where a UN official named Helen Clark declares pompously that "Western nations don't need more cars, more TV's, whatever."

Really? Who are you to declare what I, or anyone else needs, Ms. Unelected Bureaucrat? She says, "So the issue is how to get human development that will see it continue to rise for the world’s poorest people and people in developing countries."

Here's an idea for you, Ms. Clark: how about abandoning the disproven theory that mankind is causing the Earth's climate to change, and start recommending what we know works, namely freedom and free market capitalism. You will not achieve your goals by tearing down Western nations and redistributing the wealth they created through your taxation and regulation in a New World Order of reparations. The answer is not to stifle capitalism, but to promote it.

It's true the Earth's resources must be exploited to meet the needs of humans (that's why it's here). But the wealth generated by that also provides the means for the cleanup. Destroy the wealth and we'll be  worse off environmentally. Much worse.

(Have you noticed that so many restrictions have been placed on the free market that it's nearly inoperable? And how those who have distorted capitalism are the first to say it doesn't work? It's madness, I tell you.)

She seems oblivious to the fact that the poorest countries are nearly all dictatorships. She is also ignorant of world history, specifically the Twentieth Century where aggregate world incomes increased and poverty decreased at the fastest rate on record. This was driven not by governmental mandate (or anything the United Nations did), but by capitalism and freedom.

So, you have your reading assignment for the day. The articles are pretty short so read them all and click on all the links and be glad that some people recognize simple economic truths.

Art Becomes Life: Andrea Mitchell as Liittle Miss Can't Be Wrong

Heh.

You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up to find the left-wing, Obama Transcription Service that is the Mainstream Media caught trying to twist a simple story into a smear against a Republican.

In case you missed it, Andrea Michell over at MSNBC deceptively (and purposely) edited a campaign appearance by Mitt Romney to make it look like he'd never, ever seen a brand new piece of technology and was awed by it. This is the same tired trope that the MSM used to portray George H W Bush as "out of touch" during the 1992 electoral campaign when he expressed amazement not at the technology of grocery store scanners, but that they could accurately scan a ripped label.

So, enjoy this little tune by the Spin Doctors whilst you read the rest of this post.

Well, actually, you'll have to let the song finish so you can watch this video, courtesy of the good folk over at Breitbart.com...

Lies and spin seem to be all the MSM has to offer its viewers any more. Is it any wonder their viewership numbers are tanking? Get a clue, y'all: nobody enjoys being lied to.

Somebody should tell Mediaite that, too. They swallowed the MSLSD story hook, line and sinker after it had been debunked. The author of that piece even got busted for it in the comments. Repeatedly.

Kudos to SooperMexican for discovering this weak effort by the MSM to deceive their viewers.

And shame on MSDNC for blatantly attempting to mislead the voting public about something as important as our Presidential election. As we've seen over the course of the past three and a half years, who we elect is important. We need accurate facts in order to make an informed decision when we step into the voting booth to perform our duty as a citizen. In fact, if you depend on the MSM for your news, you're really doing yourself a disservice.

Keep it up, Andrea, and nobody gonna bow no more when you bang your gong.

Heh.

Obama Implements Soros' "Open Society" Agenda

In case you somehow missed it, last Friday President Obama decided to bypass Congress and ignore the Constitution to implement a backdoor amnesty program for illegal aliens.

If you've been wondering why Eric Holder and the Department of Justice have been suing states like Arizona and Florida to keep them from requiring voters to produce a valid identification at the polls, wonder no more. The other shoe has dropped.

This comes as Obama's approval numbers are sinking and his popularity is diminishing by the day. Despite saying that this "wasn't a political decision," the results from his refusal to enforce immigration laws say otherwise.

This is also a mistake from an economic standpoint: at a time of near-record high unemployment, allowing some 800,000 young illegals to compete in the job market will only make things worse.

Even some on the left have started to notice that this president has more in common with tinpot banana republic dictators than with any American President. From the Politico site: Obama's policy strategy: Ignore laws.

Rather than pushing new laws through a divided Congress to enact his agenda, Obama is relying on federal agencies to ignore, or at least not defend, laws that some of his important supporters — like Hispanic voters and the gay community — don’t like.

“If the president says we’re not going to enforce the law, there’s really nothing anyone can do about it,” University of Pennsylvania constitutional law professor Kermit Roosevelt said. “It’s clearly a political calculation.”

A White House official said the strategy is the result of a stalemate in Washington.

There is a "stalemate" in Washington for a very good reason. The 2010 midterm election was a message and a mandate that the country sent to this administration. In no uncertain terms, we said we wanted this leftward lurch to stop.

There are a few more things we the people want: we don't want our Constitution ignored, we want all of our laws enforced, and we damned sure don't want some power-hungry leftist's "one world government" agenda imposed upon us.

Progressivism in Full - Our Disconnected Government

These past three and a half years have been an education for the average American. We've seen and experienced things not too many of us have seen or experienced before. I won't bore you with the details. You're well aware of them: an economy in shambles, oppressive laws and regulations that encroach on our once-sacred freedoms, the sacrifice of our sovereignty to international, unelected and unaccountable institutions, the list is large and growing.

The flaw in my psychological makeup is seeking to find the origin of a problem. It served me well in my former life in the world of manufacturing. Mistakes are costly to a company and being able to spot them and fix them as soon as possible is a skill that marks a successful organization. The further upstream in the production process you can catch a problem, the less expensive it is.

You can also take that same principle and apply it to life. This is what your parents meant when they (hopefully) told you that "Life is hard. It's even harder when you're stupid. Don't be stupid." Far from a personal dig, this advice was meant to save you a lot of trouble and heartache by thinking before you act.

As in life, you can also apply this principle to government. Our Founders wanted their fellow citizens to avoid the mistakes others had made. They wanted for us what they wanted for themselves: the freedom to live life to the fullest in harmony with others according to an agreed-upon legal foundation.

It was a simple idea. It was also the exact opposite of the way governments had ruled for millenia. Additionally, this idea runs counter to human nature, for no one who has power will ever give up that power willingly. This is pretty much the reason for every war that has ever been fought.

To quote the great warrior-poet Tom Petty, everybody's got to fight to be free.

As you might have guessed, this idea of self-rule wasn't very popular to the world's ruling elite. It wasn't long after our emergence as a country that we were met with anti-Americanism. Then, as now, I'm certain that there were many Americans who couldn't understand why anyone would oppose the simple notion of self-determination, free from needless and often nonsensical constraint. Is it perfect? No, but it's headed in that direction as much as humanly possible.

We established a government for ourselves where average citizens took hold of the reigns of power for a while, then returned to their homes and families to live under the laws that they had made. We were to form a more perfect union where governmental interference in everyday life was held to the minimum necessary to maintain order. Laws were clear, easy to understand and based upon morals that had served humanity well for many generations.

Then something began to change. The worst of human nature managed, as it always seems to, to infiltrate and corrupt the good. The unscrupulous found themselves drawn to the power, prestige and money of politics.

Flash forward to today. The idea of self-governance on both the personal and national stage is again under attack by those who crave power. This fatal flaw in human nature has given us the government we now so richly deserve and all the easily avoidable problems contained in it.

Pause for a few moments and think about what we want in life: a happy family, a fulfilling job, enough money to pay the bills with some left over to enjoy life and time with our loved ones, and security so we can plan a future consistent with these goals.

That's not so unreasonable, is it? There's no wish to harm others, no desire to deprive anyone else of the things we would have for ourselves. We merely want an opportunity for a decent life lived humbly, with respect for God and others.

You are probably surprised to discover the forces arrayed to prevent you from doing just that today.

Pause once more and think of the things we could have if we had the type of government that our Founders had originally envisioned for us: a sensible government that lived within its fiscal means and that didn't spend more than it took in. A strong military to defend our shores. A legal system where everyone was treated identically and fairly. A society where unity in the common values of brotherhood and good will were celebrated, not scorned.

There are many good things we could have, but don't.

Our government has become disconnected from our wishes. Our rights are no longer defended. Our Constitution is no longer even recognized as the basis for our laws. Those whom we send to Washington to act in our place have someone else's ideas in mind, not ours. When we stand up for the values, traditions and principles of Christianity and our Founders, we are reviled and cursed, called "radical" and "throwbacks." We are expected to do what we're told, think what we're told to think without question, shut up and pay our "fair share." We're basically told we aren't smart enough to live our own lives in our own way, so someone else will do our thinking for us while wrapped in a flag. We're treated like an enemy while the real enemy is treated as a poor, misunderstood future friend who just needs a hug.

Laws are written that cannot be understood without expensive oracles to decipher them, so you're never quite sure if you're legal or not. Once-clear principles of behavior that were widely recognized as being the core values that produced intelligent children and responsible adults within a stable family structure are now criticized as "old-fashioned" to be replaced with the pop-culture, cotton-candy, psychological theory-of-the-day. Absolute truths, we're told, like consistency, are hobgoblins borne of feeble minds.

All these things (and a lot more) raise a question: will we truly take our country back, or will we continue to allow ourselves to continue in our not-too-well-managed decline?

Or will we prove ourselves to truly be the exception to the world?

Patriots Stop State Funding of Connecticut Communist Party HQ

This is a welcome change: there's a growing intolerance today for those who would destroy our country.

Via BadBlue and Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog comes this story of a group of patriots who have  successfully (so far) stopped the state of Connecticut from spending some $300,000 of taxpayers money to refurbish a building that the Communist Party uses.

Waving American and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and patriotic placards, the speakers called on Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to change his mind and remove the $300,000 request from Monday’s State Bonding Commission agenda. 

This isn’t just a matter of New Haven or Connecticut political wrangling or budgeting, said one of the event’s speakers, Republican state Sen. Len Suzio of Meriden. This has historic and worldwide implications.  

Suzio called the People’s Center crew “people who are hell-bent on destroying the American capitalist system.”

I certainly don't want my tax dollars funding my enemies in any way, do you? Kudos to these patriots in Connecticut who've decided they've had enough of this sort of crap from the elected officials who are supposed to be acting in our interests.

Since I'm watching the U S Open and rooting for my favorite lefthanded golfer, Phil Mickelson, I'm in a slightly less curmudgeonly mood than normal today. In fact, I think I'll even post a song to commemorate this victory.

Buckaroos and buckarettes, here's Todd Rundgren with Just One Victory.

 And happy Flag Day and Happy Birthday to the U S Army.

The Socialist Mask of Marxism and Modern American Democrats

Given the noticeable and disturbing turn to the left that our federal government has taken recently, it's no wonder that more attention is now being paid to the rise of foreign elements (Socialism, Marxism, and Communism) within the American Democrat Party. Representative Alan West opened the discussion by calling Progressives what they really are: Communists.

If you missed it (and you really shouldn't have), Breitbart's Joel Pollack recently revealed Barack Obama'a membership in the radical-left New Party. That should make you pause and think for a bit about your future, your family's future and the future of your country.

Do you wish to live in slavery to your government?

Do you like not having any money?

Do you enjoy being told what to eat and what to buy?

Does it bother you that today's youth are so misinformed about the real world, so much so that our world educational rankings are falling precipitously? That they can't spell, can't perform simple arithmetic and don't possess critical thinking skills to prepare them for adult life?

All of these sad facts are the result of enemy action.


Maybe you're one of the lucky few who haven't been negatively affected by the destructive policies of this current administration and the truly bad laws and regulations that have been put in place by the leftist politicians who preceded them. I don't see how, but that's entirely possible.

There is a reason why all these negative things are happening to us. It's part of a not-so-secret plan to destroy us from within. I've made it a point to let all fourteen of you know this, so you can prepare and fight these forces with your voice and your vote. Indeed, knowledge is power. You can't fight what you can't see.

I certainly hope you don't think that "it can't happen here." It is happening here, right before our very eyes. But you don't have to take my word for it: you can hear it from someone who has been on the other side of freedom.

I'd like to introduce you to a fellow named Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa. His history as the highest-ranking official ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc gives him a unique insight into the inner workings of socialism. He sees the same things happening in America today as I do.

His recent column over at PJ Media is your reading assignment for today. In The Socialist Mask of Marxism, he lays out the beginnings of installing a Marxist/Socialist/Communist government here in clear defiance of our Constitution.

Here's a sample:

Although we now live in an age of technology, we still do not have an instrument that can scientifically measure to what extent the Communist endorsement of the Democratic Party influenced the results of the 2008 election. But if there had been any doubt in my mind that the Democratic and the Communist parties had secretly joined forces, that doubt was erased in 2009, when Van Jones, part of a left fringe of declared communists, became the White House’s green jobs czar. Soon after that, the White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress began dutifuly following in Marx’s footsteps by redistributing our country’s wealth and putting under government control a part of its health care, banking system, and automobile industry.

Today it is considered bad manners even to mention the word Marxism, a doctrine that killed some 94 million people and transformed a third of the world into feudal societies in the middle of the 20th century.

Scared yet? To quote that great philosopher/warrior Yoda, "You will be."

In November, the United States will indeed face one of the most important elections in its history. On the surface, the voters will decide which of our two main political parties will control the White House and the U.S. Congress. In fact, the voters will chose between keeping the country the leader of the Free World, or allowing the United States to be further infected by the virus of Marxism.

My friends, the choice is yours.

Choose wisely. For yourself, for your family, and for your country.

Madness Plus Money Equals George Soros

The Medial Research Center has this most excellent investigative report on your favorite anti-Christ and mine, George Soros. As all fourteen of you know, I'm not a fan of this man. I've followed his career for a while, noticed his destructive influence in American politics and heard about his various left-wing meddlings in other governments around the world.

Even I didn't fully realize the full depth and breadth of his crusade to "fundamentally transform" the world. This article entitled Special Report: George Soros: Godfather of the Left spells out an awful lot, with the emphasis on awful.

If you've ever wondered how the anti-freedom, anti-nationalistic and anti-American movements here and around the world have managed to gain such notoriety over the past couple of decades, wonder no more. It's primarily the result of one man and his maniacal quest to destroy countries, their forms of government and your life.

Here are a few tidbits:

Say the name George Soros and liberals see dollar signs – literally. The world’s 22nd richest man, according to Forbes, is now worth $20 billion. But Soros isn’t just noteworthy for the money he has – he’s notable for the money he has given away. Since launching his Open Society Foundations in 1984, Soros has donated more than $8 billion to charities around the world.

But instead of gaining a mighty reputation for his philanthropy, or his investment prowess, Soros is reviled abroad and criticized here in his adopted country. Most everywhere Soros, his foundations or his investing have gone, trouble has followed. He’s helped foment revolutions, undermined national currencies and funded radicals around the world. Soros has been convicted of insider dealing in France and fined $3 million, fined another $2 million in his native Hungary. His “foundations have been accused of shielding spies and breaking currency laws” and his investing strategy has been targeted for harming several national currencies.

As you can see, it's not just us that he seeks to destroy, but pretty much the entire world. I won't try to psychoanalyze the guy, I don't feel like taking the time. Suffice to say, this dude is dangerous to freedom loving people everywhere.

What I will say is, he seems to hold the strangely popular philosophical movement of Postmodernism close to his heart. For those of you who are new to this form of insanity, it's basically a rejection of modern Western thought wherein the observations and beliefs of ancient thinkers are replaced with, um, pretty much nothing. In short, there is no such thing as Truth, or Beauty or God, or anything other than Man and Power.

It's sick. But it's popular. Why, I couldn't tell you.

Some of Soros's other donations go to fund his extensive network of liberal media outlets, which have received more than $52 million. Those operations include a wide range of liberal news operations as well as the infrastructure of news - journalism schools, investigative journalism and even industry organizations.

All of that is designed to create what Soros has been pushing for decades to achieve - what he calls an "open society." But what exactly is an open society? In "Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism," he wrote that the concept is "an ideal to which our global society should aspire." But his influences are more complicated and more twisted.

Soros says he based the concept on works by philosopher Karl Popper, who Soros considers his mentor. "Popper proposed a form of social organization that starts with the recognition that no claim to the ultimate truth can be validated and therefore no group should be allowed to imposed its views on all of the rest," Soros wrote in "The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror." "Open Society denotes freedom and the absence of repression," he summed up.

What a crock of shit.

I read this and I truly wonder whatever happened to the idea of sedition. How can someone else enter a country, start throwing money around in a clear attempt to overthrow its government, and not be punished? Unless, that is, those entrusted to enforce the law have received their own twenty pieces of silver to ignore it.

Anyway, there's a lot to read here, so open your favorite beverage and educate yourself. You may squirm for a while, but that's far preferable to living in ignorance of the man who is your enemy.

Know him.

America's Commencement Speech

Want to fix a few things in our country? Then let this video be the template for every commencement speech in the country for a while.

Also, as a bonus, read what Ace has to say about anger.

Here's a sample...

What exactly is New Anger? Let’s find out by first having a look at Old Anger. Before we lionized all those angry anti-heroes — from Jack Nicholson in the movies, to John McEnroe on the tennis court — Americans admired the strong silent type: slow to boil, reluctant to fight unless sorely provoked, and disinclined to show anger even then. Gary Cooper in Sargent York comes to mind. Old Anger was held in check by ideals of self-mastery and reserve. As Wood puts it, “Dignity, manliness, and wisdom called for self-control and coolness of temper.” The angry man, Wood reminds us, was once thought a weak-minded zealot, bereft of good judgment and prey to false clarity. Above all, Americans (especially women) kept anger at bay “lest it overwhelm the relations on which family life depends.”

On behalf of this ideal of reserve, anger was not merely checked, but was even partially defeated (today we’d say “repressed”). There was a time when Americans strove to train themselves away from actually being angry — a time when even the private, inner experience of rage felt shameful and was shunned. Yet in compensation for the inner sacrifice and discipline demanded by the art of self-mastery, Americans experienced a mature pride in “character” achieved. In what Wood calls that “now largely invisible culture” of Old Anger, refusal to be provoked was its own reward.

That was then. America’s New Anger exchanges the modest heroism of Gary Cooper’s Sargent York for something much closer to the Incredible Hulk. New Anger is everything that Old Anger was not: flamboyant, self-righteous, and proud.

Actually, that's not Ace, but the lead-in to his point. Pretty good stuff, as Insty would say (were he here), read the whole thing.

Have a good Monday.

National Day of Blogger Silence

Today is a National Day of Blogger Silence to bring more attention to the suppression of free speech that Brett Kimberlin is currently attempting. And to ask our representatives in Congress to step up and begin investigations.

Here's my original post on the subject.

Here's Ace:

On Friday, this site will be absolutely dead-silent, which is what Brett Kimberlin and his stalker crew seeks, and what the media and our supposed Representatives in Congress would permit.  

The only post on Friday will be a bold-faced Open Letter to Congress, urging them to act and not attempt to pass the buck to others. 

They are our representatives; we would like some representation. 

They vowed to defend and protect the Constitution; they can honor that vow now.  

I will post links of Congressmen's and Senator's email addresses and offices and phone numbers, and urge every concerned American citizen to let them know, in no uncertain terms, that a crime in progress against the First Amendment (and people's safety) is occurring, and we humbly request they take this seriously.  

They are literally going to get someone killed. That is their endgame here. 

Will the media and Congress pretend "we didn't know" when this happens?  

ABCNews knows.  

The Weekly Standard knows.  

The Daily Caller knows.  

And many, but not yet all, Congressmen and Senators know.  

I encourage all bloggers and twitterers to essentially strike that day, or write nothing except your desire that you expect your Congressmen to take threats to your First Amendment rights seriously.

Here's Michelle Malkin.

Who to call:  

GOP House Speaker John Boehner Online contact form Phone: (202) 225-0600 Fax: (202) 225-5117

GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor Web form Phone: (202) 225-2815 Fax: (202) 225-

0011 Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Web form Phone: (202) 225-4965

GOP Rep. Frank Wolf (Va.) – Ask him to investigate Kimberlin-related charities. Phone: (202) 225-5136 Fax: (202) 225-0437

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Web form Phone: 202-225-3906 Fax: 202-225-3303

US Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line – 202-353-1555 Email AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Please contact your Congressional representatives today and ask that they live up to their oath of office to protect our inalienable right to free speech.

An Interesting Read - The End of American Conservatism?

Here's a link to an article by Kyle Becker over at Conservative Daily News that I thought all fourteen of you might like: The End of American Conservatism?

It's not a Doomy as the title sounds. It's more of a call to arms in the ideological battle we face with our enemies. Here's a sample...

American conservatives, as we have come to be called, have been blessed by inheriting one of the greatest nations on earth. But we have been cursed by limitations, in both our language and our manner of thinking, that have doomed us to a perpetual rearguard struggle against a determined and even fanatical adversary – the American progressive, an indigenous variety of socialist.

Unlike in warfare, where one can hold the line against barbarians until the hordes expire, ideas have an eternal life of their own, and are thus immune to the earthly tactics of hand-to-hand combat among flesh-and-blood foot soldiers. If one seeks to defend one’s ideals against an opponent, rather than advance them, one is already politically dead.

If you follow politics at all, there is no doubt that the Founding Principles are under assault. In fact, one could argue that we're in a philosophical war, played out in the halls of power and the voting booth. Our enemies are of the mind that theirs is "new" and "modern" way of thinking, casting aside such allegedly outdated ideas as freedom, individuality, and personal responsibility. Never mind that what socialist/progressives propose has been an abject failure, to say the least, every single time it has been tried. The results of the imposition of their socialist utopia has been filled with death and destruction.

Becker maintains, rightly in my humble opinion, that these ideas are timeless and everlasting. They are the struggle eternal between the forces of freedom and the forces of slavery that have existed since the beginning of man.

You should also understand that you are involved in this philosophical fight, whether you realize it or not. Perhaps it's time to choose your side.

I won't spoil this for you, click on over and have a good read. And *ahem* be sure to read the comments...

The Lamentations of the Wisconsin Women

What is best in life?

After yesterday, Conan, you can also add Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's recall win.

And the lamentations, especially this one:

This poor girl can't even get the numbers right about campaign spending. And maybe, just maybe, a few public employee union members got just a bit fed up with their union dues money going towards a political candidate they don't support. Or maybe the Midol hasn't kicked in yet.

For me, this is the Official Beginning of the Conservative Preference Cascade. It will progress into a tsunami as the November general election approaches, and will sweep the first wave of Progressive/Communists from power in Washington. It'll take a while to complete, but it will be done. We will regain our national political sanity. There's nothing like a good dose of epic failure from dabbling with socialism to wake us up.

Outstanding! Good job, Wisconsin. Ride the Wave!

UPDATE! : Hitler finds out that Scott Walker won the Wisconsin recall election...

Economic Illiteracy on Parade - Paul Krugman's NYT's Column

Many days, I wonder just how people rise to the levels they have achieved in life. Today is one of those days. And one of those people is Paul Krugman, the self-admitted Keynesian cheerleader of Obamanomics. He has an article in the New York Times entitled "This Republican Economy." In it, he lamely attempts to place the blame for our economic doldrums squarely at the feet of "the Republican Congress."

How does one speak in such eloquently derisive prose when the premise is false? This incongruity doesn't seem to bother Krugman in the least. The truth that Republicans only control one-half of one house of Congress just doesn't register with Dr. K, but that doesn't dissuade him from building on his absurd claim that Republicans caused this miserable economy.

Here's a taste of, something, I'm not quite sure what it is, but it's certainly not the truth:

So the Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t followed (in large part because the G.O.P. wouldn’t let him), and that our woes can be cured by pursuing more of the same policies that have already failed.

That's a con, how, exactly, Paul? Obama had a rubber-stamp Congress in his first two years, and he got nearly everything he wanted from that august body: ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank bill, Cash 4 Clunkers, the Stimulus Package, all of which remains on the government's accounting books to this day. It's no secret that this administration is responsible for a record amount of federal spending that continues to drag on the economy today.

"In large part because the G,O.P. wouldn't let him? If I remember correctly, the Republicans were locked out of any meetings with Dems during that time.

It's also responsible for a record amount of regulation, which I covered yesterday.

Now, let's take a look at this "more of the same policies that have already failed" phrase, shall we?

What caused the housing market crash of 2008, Dr. K? In reference to yesterday's post, Citigroup subtly suggested what we in the real world already knew: it was caused by a specific piece of legislation, namely the Community Redevelopment Act that forced banks to lend money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. It really is that simple.

This is a classic example of Progressive politics and policy, where instead of making sure the economy is humming along and Americans have the upward economic mobility that characterizes the Promise of the American Dream, meddling politicians decide to short-circuit free market capitalism and force banks to do what is against their best interests for short-term political gain. Politicians can thump their chest and proclaim, "Look what I did for working families!" Never mind what it does to the economy later.

The results were predictable to most except to Paul Krugman and others like him for whom real-world business experience is a mystery.

Paul, go run a business and meet a payroll every week. That's something that would do you some good.

Dr. K continues...

What do I mean by saying that this is already a Republican economy? Look first at total government spending — federal, state and local. Adjusted for population growth and inflation, such spending has recently been falling at a rate not seen since the demobilization that followed the Korean War.

How is that possible? Isn’t Mr. Obama a big spender? Actually, no; there was a brief burst of spending in late 2009 and early 2010 as the stimulus kicked in, but that boost is long behind us. Since then it has been all downhill. Cash-strapped state and local governments have laid off teachers, firefighters and police officers; meanwhile, unemployment benefits have been trailing off even though unemployment remains extremely high.

Dr. K lumps in federal, state, and local spending, which is not how it works. He studiously avoids the fact that states and local municipalities cannot print money as the federal government can, and must balance their books the old-fashioned way by cutting unnecessary expenditures. And he also hits the Progressive Go-To Point that teachers, firefighters and police officers are laid off as a result, instilling just a bit of fear into the discussion of "Why Republicans are Evil Cost Cutters." This ignores the salaries of many officials in local governments, who are paid well above the national private-sector average of $45K per year. Is there no room there for a pay cut for these people? Why are those salaries untouchable, while the rest of us live in daily fear of the "let's talk" talk from their boss?

Here's some more Reality-Avoidance from Paul,

As an aside, I think it’s worth pointing out that although the economy’s performance has been disappointing, to say the least, none of the disasters Republicans predicted have come to pass. Remember all those assertions that budget deficits would lead to soaring interest rates? Well, U.S. borrowing costs have just hit a record low. And remember those dire warnings about inflation and the “debasement” of the dollar? Well, inflation remains low, and the dollar has been stronger than it was in the Bush years.

Um, inflation remains low? Well, according to the Official Obama Numbers, it is. Only that their numbers don't count a couple of things we buy every week like groceries and gasoline, curiously, the two items that have increased in price the most lately. If you figure inflation the old, pre-1988 way, it's running about 11%. That's not low.

Sheesh, are all Keynesian economists this blind to reality? I guess when you're the Official Economic SpokesStooge for this administration, it does require a certain suspension of reality, for the sake of his own mental health.  What you say must make at least some sense to you just to keep from laughing. That's OK when you sit down to read a book, but when you're formulating policies that affect others, you really need to be grounded in Reality. Really.

Or else you wind up looking like Paul Krugman: delusional and out of touch.

Just like this administration. Now that I think about it, he's a perfect fit.

Just not for America.

Well, Duh! - Government Regulations are Hurting the Economy

My Econ 101 professor told a joke at the beginning of the semester: If you were to lay all the world's economists end-to-end, they wouldn't reach a conclusion.

*Rimshot!*

If he were alive today, I'm pretty sure he'd be amazed at just how much IQ's have dropped in the ensuing years, particularly in the area of economics. What was understood as plain fact not long ago isn't so plain any more.

Part of this is the urge by many economists to transmogrify themselves into modern-day oracles. It is in their interest that economics be viewed as some sort of mysterious art practiced by an elite few, who demand of the masses large quantities of money for advice they should already know.

Like, "Buy low, sell high."

I could go off on another tangent about how the basics of economics (along with quite a few other basics) are no longer taught in schools, but you knew that already.

Here's the simple truth: if you have a household budget, you already know everything you need to know about economics. Balancing a checkbook, managing expenses, and justifying purchases gives you all the economic principles you'll ever need. Government adds just a few zeros to their figures.

It's not rocket surgery.

Granted, there are many subsets of economics and different ways of looking at data, but it still has at its foundation some very basic principles.

In your household budget, you have overhead: rent or a house payment, utility bills, groceries, and other bills that must be paid first. Anything left over is called "disposable income." Now, let's say gasoline prices start to rise, but your wages or salary doesn't. That reduces your disposable income. How about if grocery prices begin to rise? Same thing happens: you have less money.

Now let's say that the reason for rising gasoline prices is something like, say, a government regulation that prevents domestic oil producers from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Or maybe it's not a new regulation, just a dramatic slowdown in the number of drilling permits issued. Either way, government is causing you to have less money to spend. The principle, and the result, is the same.

Let's also say that we had an entire administration that sees the whole of American enterprise (our formerly-free market) as one large area that needs to be regulated, because, well, because that's what governments are supposed to do, right?

Those inside the government think that it's their job to regulate. Witness former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's brag that the 111th Congress was the "most productive in years." As I pointed out in that post, that's nothing to brag about, not in America.

Now, let's take another look at someone who just loves regulations: Barack Obama.

...the Obama administration enacted 32 new “major” regulations – rules that carry an estimated price tag of $100 million or more. These measures stand to cost the U.S. economy $10 billion a year, along with an additional $6.6 billion in first-time implementation costs.

And that's in just one year. The principle here is that regulations cost jobs. More regulations equals more money added to the cost of doing business.

At some point, you've regulated enough. We have reached that point. Actually, we reached it a long time ago. Even some of the Economic Oracles have noticed: California governor Jerry Brown wants to cut through the environmental red tape to waste taxpayer dollars on the high-speed rail boondoggle.

And Citigroup chimes in as well: Don't Blame Wall Street for the financial crisis, blame the Community Reinvestment Act.  Yeah, when you have the government forcing you to lend to people who clearly can't afford a home loan, what could go wrong? Even Barack Obama thought it was such a good idea, he sued banks to enforce the CRA.

Wonderful.

Government regulation = lost jobs. Got it? Good. Now, go out and find a few candidates to vote for who will begin to dismantle this dangerous Leviathan of government and regulations before it's too late.

OK, class. That's it for Economics Monday. Try to have a good day.

Friday Bits of Tid - Sgt Pepper's Edition

I haven't done a Friday BoT post in a while, as I'm sure all fourteen of you noticed. Hope I can remember how to do it.

It would appear that the wind is to the back of the conservative movement. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's recall election is next week, and polls show him ahead. But don't get cocky, Cheeseheads. Don't take anything for granted, vote.
David Axelrod had an audience he didn't plan for yesterday. He was in Boston to attack Mitt Romney's record as Massachusetts Governor (again) and got heckled.

As Insty would say, more of this, please.

OK, let the tidding commence -

It was forty-something years ago today that Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.

Making a flamenco guitar.




Impatient, are we?

This is the kind of science I can get behind. Mathematicians Solve the Guinness Sinking Bubble Problem. (h/t to David Thompson)

 "I still gotta warrant in pearland..those pigs will NEVER catch me!!!…NEVER!!!" I'll take "Things not to Tweet the Police" for $1000, Alex.

Destined to take the place of Paul the Psychic Octopus in your mythology: Fred the Psychic Ferret.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. So, this man with a zebra and parrot walks out of a bar --

Finally, an oldie but a goodie. The Ultimate Dog Tease

Y'all have a good weekend, y'all.