Funny, I Don’t Feel Like a Terrorist.

Well, the Great Debt Deal is over. As usual, the Dems are claiming victory, as are Republicans. And the Dems are also screaming that they got screwed and so are the Republicans. In other words, we’re back to traditional Washington politics: Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. (Insert your own favorite word where appropriate)

In breaking news (courtesy of Drudge this morning), there’s this report that the Obama administration’s spending spree has now exceeded 100% of GDP. Obama borrowed $239B on Tuesday, the largest one-day total in our history, and will borrow another $72B next week. And still, the economy is struggling to gain a toehold on any kind of improvement.

SNAFU.

But I’m digressing. I’m doing it now so I can get it out of the way early.

The big story for me is the all-out attack coming from the lefty news outlets against those who would dare to suggest that Washington live within its means like a normal American household. These people have been referred to as “terrorists” by no less than the Vice President, Joe Biden. They’ve “held a gun” to the nations’ head and “strapped on their suicide belts” in an attempt to keep this administration from bankrupting the country in what appears to be Obama’s own Cloward-Piven Strategy: spend, spend and then spend some more. Overload the System, drain and destroy the private sector, spread the wealth around until no one's wealthy any more, all in the spirit of "fairness."

It’s the “Tea Partiers as Terrorists” Campaign.

It’s the best example of Backwardsness that I’ve ever seen, in addition to being the most pathetic. Advocate something as innocuous and common-sensical as balancing the nation’s books, and all of a sudden, you’re smeared and derided as a lunatic.

Is this a great country or what?

I’m going to carbon-date myself and say that I can remember when this kind of rhetoric was off limits in American media. I also remember when a certain large Communist country employed this same tactic against its dissidents. They were characterized as somehow lacking a certain psychological quality that others (who just happened to be in the ruling party) possessed. There must be something wrong with the way they think, perhaps they were the victim of some sort of, well, a disease, for thinking that the all-powerful State could somehow not be acting in their best interests at all times and in everything they did.

How dare they?

Oh, did you feel that cold chill run up your spine? I certainly hope so. And, you’re welcome.

Now, you could be seeing this and wondering just what the hell is going on. I sure am. It was subtle towards the beginning of the Tea Party movement, but after a few rallies around the country, it wasn’t long before the Make Believe Media started to cherry-pick isolated incidents and selectively edit photos and quips to paint a very false picture of the entire movement.

Then the image concocted by the left-wing media began to form: we were racists for opposing our historic first black President, then we were all homophobic, and now we’ve graduated all the way up to terrorists.

All this has happened while at the same time, traditional lefty news outlets were shedding their audience in record numbers. Newspapers were losing readers and the once-vaunted CNN became an afterthought for most new-seekers. Now, they’re just after the decidedly niche market of extreme lefty fanatics. All you need to is compare the viewership ratings of Fox News Network to see how far they’ve fallen from favor.

And yet they persist. Their screeching grows ever louder and more incoherent with each passing day.

Looking at it from a psychological perspective, what we have here is a classic case of projection. If you’re unfamiliar with the term and what it means, its rather simple: someone who is in denial of their own faults will find someone else to blame for their troubles (and make no mistake, they’ll have lots of troubles). Once this psychological boogie-person is found, the denier will then project their own faults upon them, and assign to them the problems that they themselves have in processing the real world.

For a more complete overview of various defense mechanism that people regularly use to cope when they can’t really, click here for Dr. Sanity’s excellent post on the subject.

Now, if you’re grounded in reality, understand that there are a lot of very powerful people who aren’t. Challenge their followers and their mistaken political beliefs and you’ll find out pretty quick. It only takes a few minutes of debate with a lefty to discover more than you ever wanted to know about the myriad methods some folk use to sidestep reality. Rage, projection, denial, it’s all there for you to pick apart, should you care to do so.

You might wake them up, or you might drive them deeper into their fantasy world. I’m going to repeat this saying, because it bears repeating: You can deny reality, but you can’t deny the consequences of denying reality.

And those in the left-wing media are doing a hell of a lot of denying these days. They’re seeing their vision of a Marxist Utopia crumble before their very eyes and, to put it bluntly, they can’t handle the truth. So they lash out at the nearest convenient person in order to affix the blame for the problems that arise from the crumbling, like a horrible economy, rising inflation and rampant joblessness. Notice that all that is being blamed on the Tea Party in Congress for their refusal to increase the nations’ debt limit, even when a certain freshman Senator from Illinois opposed it in 2006. That’s one little factoid that you won’t hear from them.

As a side note, one of the first things to look for in someone who can’t cope is inconsistency. A normal human will have the same beliefs, grounded in reality, at all times. This translates to a consistent stance on the issues.

If you’re someone who understands the clear language of the Constitution and the intent of the Founders to limit the power of government and maximize the freedom of the individual, that’s a pretty consistent position. But, curiously, you’ll be criticized roundly for it. It’s like standing on shore while someone is rowing a boat away from you. The American Left is doing the rowing, putting more and more distance between themselves and you (politically speaking), so who’s doing the moving? Take a simple, common sense, principled stand and you suddenly become the enemy.

Do you feel like a terrorist yet?

John McCain’s Shameful Embrace of the Latest Lefty Smear Against Conservatives – Isolationist!

In the never-ending quest to paint anyone who doesn’t adhere to the big-government, globalist political movement that is embraced by the New American Communists (known popularly as Progressives), they’ve come up with a new word with which to smear anyone who is opposed to their agenda.

Actually, the word itself isn’t new, but the negative connotation that the left is attempting to attach to it is. Like the word “racist,” it’s being bandied about with enthusiasm to smear, denigrate and deride anyone who dares to oppose this administrations’ involvement in Libya, and the three other conflicts we’re currently engaged in.

And, right on cue, John McCain was out in front of this effort, again turning his back on the Republican Party in general and conservatives in specific in helping progressives attack conservatives who don’t like the idea of entering a conflict without a clear mandate to win and to defeat the enemy.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Maverick, fine job you’re doing there.

It’s interesting that such groups as Code Pink, who were on the evening news nearly every night opposing President Bush’s War on Terror, are strangely silent now that their boy Obama is in the White House. Had Bush engaged us in the conflicts in Libya and Yemen, no doubt we’d be seeing much more of them, hands dripping with red paint, interrupting Congressional hearings, screaming about how illegal it all is and how he’s a war criminal and should be impeached.

Where are they now? And why aren’t they counted as knuckle-dragging isolationists as conservatives are?

The inconsistency, it burns.

But this double standard pales in comparison to McCain’s leftist stance on this issue.

McCain, speaking Monday at an event sponsored by the Foreign Policy Initiative in Washington, D.C., was asked whether he thought that support for the war on terrorism might be eroding within the GOP.


“I worry about it, and I worry a lot,” McCain said. “Because throughout the history of the Republican Party in modern times there’s two wings: the isolationist wing manifested before World War II and at other times; and the internationalist side.


“So I think there are going to be some tensions within our party,” he said.

Americans overwhelmingly support the War on Terror, but are greatly disappointed when they see our fighting men and women in uniform forced to abide by outrageous rules of engagement that give a clear advantage to our enemies. We understand the need to fight, but how can we win with one arm tied behind our back by misguided politicians who seem to think that winning the “hearts and minds” of 7th century barbarians is more important than defeating them?

The only tension that exists within the party is between an appeaser like McCain and Americans who wish to win this war by defeating the enemy by any means.

I have never understood the mysterious position taken by those on the left who oppose any and all wars. In theory, it sounds nice. “Who doesn’t want a world free of hostility and anger? Don’t we all want peace?” they say. I can’t argue with that.

But the problem doesn’t lie with us here in America. The tragic attacks of 9/11 should have proven to the world that radical islamists had escalated their war against the US and the Western way of life. Our response was justified. We wanted to destroy the infrastructure of support for Al Qaida, which was provided by Saddam’s Iraqi regime, along with Iran and Afghanistan. President Bush rightly attacked the source of their support and postponed the establishment of an islamic caliphate by invading Iraq. It had been clear to those who were paying attention that radical islamism was increasingly being supported by whole nations.

But today, ten years removed from 9/11, we still find our military attempting to win against an enemy that willfully ignores the Geneva Convention rules concerning non-uniformed fighters. This is another little detail that’s ignored by the left and various human rights organizations (but I repeat myself). If we were to truly abide by the Conventions ourselves, there would be no prisoners in this war. Illegal enemy combatants would be executed on the spot. We have the legal right to do this, why we aren’t is a mystery.

So we’re left with the impossible task of trying to win a politically correct war, fighting a war on our enemies’ terms instead of our own. And if this is the way McCain and the other appeasers in Washington want to fight this war, then there will be some blowback from those of us who remember how Americans once fought wars: to win them. If they want to call us isolationists, then so be it.

It makes no sense for us to be constantly engaged in hostilities without the clear goal of winning.

Poets, Priests, and Politicians, Part II – Those Word Thingys

I like to observe things. Life, people, pretty women (especially BackwardsGirl), squirrels, lizards, hot cars, motorcycles, and bright, shiny objects. I have to stay away from those last ones, though, they’re really pretty.

Really, really, pretty.

Oh, I left out politics and the practitioners of that dark art. There is a wide chasm between reality and what goes on inside the head of the typical politician. The more leftward they lean, the greater the chasm.

Of particular note is the way they use language to disguise their intentions. New York Senator Chuck Schumer showed us how this works when he inadvertently instructed his party cohorts to describe any attempts by Republicans to cut the budget as “extreme.” Inadvertently, since he didn’t think anyone else was listening besides his party-mates.

“I always use the word extreme,” Schumer told Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Barbara Boxer of California, Benjamin Cardin and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, according to New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer, who was on the call without Schumer knowing it. “That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week.”

It’s too bad they didn’t instruct him to just tell the truth, or to get to work cutting this bloated beast of a deficit down to a manageable size so our grandkids can have a future. He seems to follow marching orders well; he just doesn’t take them from the people he’s supposed to, namely his constituents.

But I digress.

That example was pretty blatant, but it proves that there are some folks in Washington who are willing to twist and distort the English language so they can increase their power and control over us. That’s standard operating procedure and it’s done on a regular basis by those on the left.

That twisting and distortion can also be rather subtle. In fact, it works better when it’s done that way.

I had a conversation a few years back with a friend when I noted that machinists weren’t held in very high regard by the general public anymore. I said it was because the public never heard the word “machinist” without also hearing the words “union” and “strike.” Since that phrase came out of me without thinking about it, a little light bulb went on.

That’s how it’s done.

It doesn’t need to be an outright lie to be effective. A grand lie works as well as a small one. There are subtle variations that can be just as effective.

So, why am I telling you this? You may already know how it’s done. You may also not know. If so, then just consider this an affirmation. If not, or if you know someone who seems susceptible to suggestion, you can help them by pointing this out.

You see, there’s a propensity for us humans to automatically accept any information as true. This binary acceptance of anything is also our undoing. Skepticism is a very healthy thing to have in your mental toolkit these days, especially when it comes to politics. That old adage, “Don’t believe anything you read and only half of what you hear” is a good yardstick. That might be backwards, but hey, it’s what I do.

Still, one must develop an ability to decode any statement coming from a politician. Plain language isn’t their strong point, and many statements can mean something entirely different than at first blush.

Take this for example. I’ve linked to it before, but it’s good and bears repeating: Health Care Words to Use and Avoid.

Use the term “quality, affordable health care” instead of “universal health care.”

Say "giving people control or peace of mind” instead of “public health care for all.”

Here’s my favorite: use “guaranteed” instead of “required.”

Or, “bovine-based, organic growth enhancer” instead of “bullshit.”

But also be on the lookout for those descriptors used together such as “extreme right-wing.” After a while, you could drop the word “extreme” and just use the word “right-wing” and the word “extreme” becomes implied. Repetition is the key. It works. Many times, too well. How many lefties have you talked to who could repeat, verbatim, certain talking points, but when countered with facts, fall apart into a blithering heap of name-calling and invectives?

There’s a verbal war going on out there.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Idiocy on Parade – What We’re Up Against

Glenn Beck played a video clip the other day that you should watch. As a side note, whether you love or hate Beck, you’d be wise to at least listen to what he has to say.

Language warning.



There are so many things wrong in that clip that it’s difficult to know where to start. From ideologies that have failed spectacularly in the past, to economic ignorance, to psychological denial and plain, old brainwashing, it’s all there. If I was that kids’ parent, I’d be embarrassed to show my face in public. The sad part is his parents likely think the same way.

First off, this kid seems to think that the whole world belongs to him. The notion of personal ownership never seems to occur to him. “What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine, too” is his credo. Normally, one must go to a day-care center to find this highly intellectual concept, but here it is in the hallway of the Wisconsin statehouse.

Immaturity is also present in the meeting, where one fellow just wants to tax the rich and have someone else "clean up the mess.” Whoever edited that clip deserves an Oscar for highlighting the number of times that guy says, “I feel.” And I have no reason to doubt the dude when he says that. That’s a big part of what passes for leftist thought, emotion. Logic and reality have no room to operate inside the brain of a liberal, as emotionality takes up every available space.

But the best part starts at the 3:38 mark, where the Socialist man-child starts to bemoan the tyrannical working conditions at the restaurant where he works. How he got hired in the first place is a mystery. He seems to think that the owner should abdicate his position and take his place alongside his workers to unite in a paradise where all are equal before the fry station and no one actually performs any work.

I watched this with equal parts of humor and outrage. The humor part came from listening to the madness and wondering how anyone with two functioning brain cells to rub together could be so stupid. The outrage part came from understanding that these idiots are serious about their goals of tearing down the country and are busily working to make it happen.

Oh, and there’s also hypocrisy. I almost forgot about that. Towards the end, there’s an exchange that shouldn’t have happened, given all the anti-capitalistic talk that preceded it and gives lie to the earlier statement by the woman who said that markets don’t work.

Our little socialist man-child is more than happy to sell a copy of his organization’s magazine to the videographer.

Today is the Day! Go Vote!

Has it been two years? It seems like much longer, but today is the day we've been waiting for.

Vote! Vote like your life depends on it (which it does, but you know that already).

As if you needed any reminders what you're voting against, here ya go,








I'm keeping today's post short, because I know you'll be busy at the polls.

Here's one final video, a little ditty to take with you,



Now, go, git, vamoose, hightail it outahere. Your country needs you.

Friday Bits of Tid, Juan Williams Edition

Boy, did NPR step in it when they fired Juan Williams on Wednesday. There are many lessons to be learned from this debacle, among them, what freedom of speech means, how intolerant the left is of ideological impurity, and why George Soros is the enemy of American values. You can click just about anywhere on this Intertubes thingy and read all about it.

Personally, I think Juan has learned an important lesson, and that is that the left, where he says he was practically born and definitely raised, can turn against you for the very slightest of reasons. I also hope he comes out on top of this situation, and he has already with a contract extension from Fox. I'd also like to see him sue NPR for violating his civil rights. His former boss was extremely insulting to him by insinuating that he was somehow mentally imbalanced for speaking against the party line, just like old-world Communists did.

Most revealing are his facial expressions. In the many interviews he's held since his firing, you can see the disappointment on his face. He knows he's been betrayed and that hurts him. He'll be all right in the end, I believe. He has a new fan base, which includes me. I haven't agreed with his views on many occasions, but he's certainly allowed to speak his mind. Opposition gives me a chance to more fully examine my own views, some thing I think is valuable in order to be intellectually honest about one's beliefs and convictions.

Anyway, if you're out tonight and have the opportunity, hoist a drink in Juan's honor and wish him well.

And speaking of honor, everyone stand up and welcome our newest follower, Flounder. Stand up there, Flounder, and let everyone see you.

To watch you readership increase by 33% overnight is truly amazing.

I am deeply humbled once again.

On to the bitting.

Today in 1797, is the first time anyone willingly jumped out of a perfectly good aircraft. Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin made the world's first parachute jump from an altitude of 3200 ft above Paris.  In 1799, Garnerin's wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, became the first female parachutist.

Duude. High Times writer is busted for pot possession. And it took them how long to find him?

Dear Santa Claus, I've been a really good boy this year and I want one of these for Christmas. But if your elves can't make one in time, I'll take one of these. Thanks.

Maybe they just got bored. Ten garden gnomes found on hiking trail.

A robber with a case of OCD robs the same bank four times.

Neither rain, nor snow, nor the passage of time, will stay the courier from his appointed rounds. Postcard finally delivered after 64 years.

Obama Underappreciation Syndrome. Possibly related to the Williams Syndrome. Not to be confused with the Juan Williams Law.

I wouldn't stand too close to one of these. A Japanese vending machine sells live crabs. Oh wait, they're not those kinds of crabs? Never mind, then.

Via David Thompson, what to do when you've read everything in your *ahem* library.

And finally, from Ace of Spades HQ come these words to live by. "Don't talk back to Darth Vader, he'll get you."


I'll see ya on Monday. In the mean time, have a good weekend.

Fisking the Anti-Christ, George Soros

The Financial Times has an article online today by noted America hater George Soros. In it, Soros, far from seeming knowledgeable about finance, pens a rambling, incoherent analysis of our current financial problems, in which he no doubt played a part. As usual, when it comes to our enemies, and make no mistake, Mr. Soros falls into that category, expect confusion and misleading statements.

America needs stimulus not virtue is the title, and even that is misleading. America is in dire need of virtue, particularly from the people it sends to Washington to represent her. In recent years, these people have said one thing in order to get themselves elected and abandoned their promises once they arrive. So strong is the allure of power that precious few can resist its siren call.

But I digress.

Soros begins with a falsehood and proceeds downhill from there.

The Obama administration’s insistence on fiscal rectitude is dictated not by financial necessity but by political considerations.

There is no insistence on any kind of fiscal decency, as his goal is clearly to employ the Cloward-Piven strategy of placing so many demands on “the system” that it becomes incapable of sustaining itself and collapses under its own weight in order to foment political revolution. The massive debt he and his corrupt “progressive” enablers in Congress have engineered is planned and well thought out.

The US is not in the position of Europe’s heavily indebted countries, which must pay hefty premiums over the price at which Germany can borrow.

Really George? In case you missed it, we’re in jeopardy of losing our AAA credit rating. Try again.

President Barack Obama is under political pressure. Americans are deeply troubled by the accumulation of public debt.

You’re getting warm there, George. We know that Washington’s balance sheet is just like the one we have to balance at home every month. Washington’s just has more zeros. A lot more zeros. And deficit spending makes about as much sense in Washington as it does for us, which is none.

The Republican opposition has been extremely successful in blaming the crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession and high unemployment on government ineptitude. But the crash of 2008 was primarily a failure of the private sector. US (and other) regulators should be faulted for failing to regulate.

Not so fast there, Georgie. Here’s what really happened.

The lending standards for home mortgage loans changed substantially beginning in the mid-1990s. The looser lending standards did not just happen. They were the result of federal policy designed to promote more home ownership among households with incomes below the median. While home ownership is a worthy goal, it was not pursued directly through transparent budget allocations and subsidies to homebuyers. Instead, the federal government imposed a complex set of regulations and mandates that forced various lending institutions to extend more loans to low- and moderate-income households. In order to meet these mandates, lending standards had to be reduced. By the early years of the 21st century, it was possible to borrow more (relative to your income) and purchase a house or condo with a lower down payment than was the case a decade earlier.

George, in the future, please try to keep your facts straight. The mortgage meltdown was caused as a direct result of government regulations, (particularly the Community Redevelopment Act, as rewritten by Clinton) not the lack of them. Lenders were following the law, as they must.

I believe there is a strong case for further stimulus. Admittedly, consumption cannot be sustained indefinitely by running up the national debt. The imbalance between consumption and investment must be corrected. But to cut government spending at a time of large-scale unemployment would be to ignore the lessons of history.

I believe that we need a stimulus, but not the kind you’re talking about. We now know that Obama’s Stimulus was a huge mistake, one that ran our deficit through the roof with no positive effect on unemployment, or GDP, or anything else except the special interests who received lump sums of cash.

And if anyone is ignoring the lesson of history, it would be your puppet Obama. Many Americans remember how we pulled out of the last prolonged recession in the late ‘70’s: it was Ronald Reagan’s stimulus of the private sector that created the largest peace-time expansion of our economy is history, one that lasted until “progressives” infested the Republican Party and began their long, slow march to dismantle the economy again.

But we can’t blame you guys, it’s what you do. Your own history in manipulating world markets is well documented, and your penchant for causing financial harm to innocent citizens the world over is well known by those of us who follow these things. We also know, by your own words and actions, that nothing would make you any happier than to bring America to its knees as witnessed by your founding and funding of the various extreme left-wing groups like Media Matters, Think Progress, and MoveOn.org.

The obvious solution is to distinguish between investments and current consumption, and increase the former while reducing the latter. But that seems politically untenable. Most Americans are convinced that government is incapable of managing investments aimed at improving the country’s physical and human capital.

Actually, I’ll give you credit for getting that one right. Americans see massive fraud and waste and accurately surmise that government in incapable of “managing investments”, especially when we see  $800K of our tax dollars going to Africa to teach men to wash their genitals after sex. If that doesn’t improve the country’s physical and human capital, I don’t know what does.
Oh, sorry, did I interrupt your insanity? Pardon me, do continue, George.

Again, this belief is not without justification: a quarter-century of calling the government bad has resulted in bad government. But the argument that stimulus spending is inevitably wasted is patently false: the New Deal produced the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Triborough Bridge in New York and many other public utilities still in use today.

Um, no George. I could call the sky brown with pink polka-dots for twenty-five years and that wouldn’t make it so. When government actually is bad, and people have been noticing for twenty-five years, that’s something altogether different. And your observations that previous “stimuli” have resulted in such things as the TVA bring up a very salient point: that was then, this is now. There is no such achievement to point to as a success from Obama’s Stimulus plan. The only bridge that has been built is the one to our ruin. But the signs are really pretty.


Soros concludes by giving us his plan for our demise and his profit. After all, his track record shows that he is very good at manipulating currencies for his benefit always at the expense of someone else.

…but the Obama administration’s stated goal of halving the budget deficit by 2013 while the economy is operating far below capacity is not one of them. Investing in infrastructure and education makes more sense. So does engineering a moderate rate of inflation by depreciating the dollar against the renminbi.

Really? I don’t think the word “investing” means what you think it means, especially when it comes to spending our tax dollars. Back when we had a roaring economy, those “investments” were called taxes, and we paid them so we could have effective schools and sound roads and bridges. And inflation might help you, but you’d be the only one. Of course, those on fixed incomes would be harmed the most, but we know that you don’t care as long as you make your precious money. Funny how, when Obama rails against the "evil rich", he doesn't mean you.

George, you’ve made your fortune. Now please take your bazillions, go buy an island somewhere, establish whatever type of government that pleases you and your Jesus complex, and kindly leave us alone.

Forever.