Think for Yourself!

A diversity of thought is a good thing, and we have plenty on the right.  Beware those who say it's a bad thing and we should all shut up and get on board.

Fuzzy Slippers always has some excellent analysis over at her blog, Fuzzy Logic.  Her blog must be ironically named, because her logic is eternally crisp and the writing crystal clear.  She rarely states the obvious and instead of taking the easy road of attacking today's big, fat liberal target, she will often delve into conservative issues, exposing fractures, and taking apart nonsense on our own side, and always with a smile.

Is the GOP "Imploding From Within?"
This past Sunday she fisked a blog post lamenting that the Republican Party was "Imploding from Within."  She entitled her ripost, The Leftists' Conservative Civil War Trap, and it hits the bullseye.  I recommend you give it a read.  It led me to go read the original blog post she took apart.

I won't bore you with the details of the original post that spurred Fuzzy Slippers to craft her excellent antidote, but the original blogger offered a long laundry list of evidence showing that the GOP is fracturing.  It was full of "Bill O' Reilly hates Rush Limbaugh, Ron Paul hates RINOs, Lindsay Graham is a RINO, You can't be a fiscal conservative and a social liberal ..." 

Can't we all just get along?  (and think exactly like I do?)

The blogger's bottom line seems to be that we should all think exactly alike and get behind Sarah Palin and other "pure" politicians he happens to like.  I could not disagree more.  Here's a factoid that drives Purity Uber Alles bloggers crazy:  "RINO" Tim Pawlenty got an A and a #3 ranking among governors in fiscal responsibility from the libertarian CATO Institute.

Intellectual Ferment is a Good Thing

Progressives make the mistake of turning every belief of the week into religious dogma, and I don't want to see us going down the same road.

Groupthink is a killer and leads to intellectual sclerosis and ultimately, failure. There is a diversity of thought on the right, with libertarians joining in. It is a free marketplace of ideas and that's a beautiful thing.

Avoid Personality-Based Politics -- Use Objective Criteria

We'll be picking a GOP candidate before we know it, so here is my advice.  Avoid personalities and stick to objective criteria.  I recommend three...

US Constitution - My first criterion in judging a politician is the US Constitution.  How does she interpret and understand it?  Natural rights?  Does she believe in negative rights of Locke and the Founders, or has she bought into the progressive movement's phony notion of positive rights?

Russell Kirk's Ten Conservative Principles - This classical essay should be read by all people who call themselves conservative.  It is a brilliant distillation of what conservatism is.

Key Concepts of Libertarianism - If you are libertarian, this is a good quick measurement to use.

Using such criteria, while treating Bill O'Reilly and other talkers as entertainment, will guide you in a rational analysis of the candidates and their ideas.

Brought to You Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue

 

This is a Western Hero salute to the brave Americans who tracked the stinking bastard back to his fetid lair and killed him like the dog that he was.

This does not mean we won the war on terror.  It does tell the bad guys of the world that even if it takes years, we will track you down and kill you if you mess with us, and that is an extremely important message.

Will the West Get its Mojo Back?

Will this change anything?  Will this invigorate a culture gone weak and morally flaccid?

Will Great Britain now stop paying millions to jihadi jailbirds and acting as a launching pad for thousands more?   

Will the US continue to grant citizenship to immigrant criminals convicted of terror-related charges?

We have brave men and women doing grim work in dangerous places.  May their efforts not be in vain.

No one was wringing their hands over a diminishing supply of whale blubber back in the 1800's

"Proponents of green energy argue that if the government can put a man on the moon, it can certainly make green energy economically attractive. Well, notice that government was not trying to get a man to the moon profitably..."  (Green Energy Economy Reconsidered)


The ever erudite George Will wrote an article awhile back about the history of peak oil. The timeline from 1914 to now is dotted with gloomy predictions of oil's imminent demise. Back in the 70's, failure-face president Jimmy Carter publicly worried that we would run out of energy by the 90's. Will brings us up to date...

Since then, the world has consumed three times more oil than was in the proven reserves. Today, shale rock formations in Texas and Louisiana; Montana and North Dakota; and New York, Pennsylvania, and other Eastern states may contain 2,000 trillion cubic feet of clean-burning natural gas. (George Will – Peak oil)

Fellow blogger Jersey McJones recently chided me for calling wind power an "immature technology."  OK Jersey, I take it back.  Wind is very mature.  It's so mature it's over the hill.  Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren say it better than I ever could:

Have we ever seen such a "green economy"? Yes we have; in the 13th century.

Renewable energy is quite literally the energy of yesterday. Few seem to realize that we abandoned "green" energy centuries ago for five very good reasons. (Green Energy Economy Reconsidered)  

It Takes a lot of Land, it's not Reliable, it Starves People...
The same authors explain that you would have to turn the entire state of Connecticut into a wind farm just to power New York City.  And Lord help the NYPD and all those appliance stores if the wind stopped at night.  Solar has the same limitations.

Biofuels is no better.  It starves people to feed cars.  Farm land is finite, and government subsidizing ethanol skews the market and has caused food shortages and higher prices.  Your tax dollars at work.

I am not a Luddite. I cheer technological advances. Unlike many on the left, I only cheer actual advances, not wishful thinking ones. Take LED’s for example. I love them, and I am confident the price eventually come down. It already has for flashlights. Anyone who has ever gone camping with kids who are scared of the dark cannot help but appreciate these little energy saving marvels. They last forever!

Meanwhile, the case for fossil fuels is compelling:

Fossil fuels are everything that green energy is not. Approximately 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas (which cost approximately $4.00) can generate the same amount of electricity as running an average rooftop solar system for 131 days.  (George Will – Peak oil)

XarJ - End of the World

A Distraction Wrapped in an Enigma

John Kass, Daley watcher and Obama chronicler from Chicago has the best take yet on the whole birth certificate thing.  He's the man who coined the term "hopium," as in "liberals need to put down the hopium pipe and see what a failure Obama is."   You can read his article here:  Birth Certificate?  We Don't Need No Stinkin' Birth Certificate.

He manages to lampoon Trump for the buffoon that he is while simultaneously providing a hilarious chronicle of how The One came to be in Chicago.



Obama's Citizenship:  Final Thoughts
That Obama was not born in Hawaii always seemed shaky to me.  How did they fake the newspaper out, since the hospital provided the names of the newborns?  Also, for this conspiracy to work, the state of Hawaii, or people in the records department had to be "in on it."   You don't think Hillary's private dicks didn't throw some money around trying to get someone to chirp?

There remain some interesting threads.  Did he claim to be an exotic foreigner to ingratiate himself with American radicals and to gain entry into prestigious universities?  Did his parents at some point renounce his citizenship?  Did he possess a foreign passport?  And what's up with the social security number he used on his selective service registration?  Investigators claim it is from Connecticut, but neither he nor his parents ever lived there.

And the layers in the birth certificate released by the White House?  What if an Obama operative did that on purpose?  Do you really think someone perpetrating a fraud at that high of a level would be so amateurish?  The certificate placates all but a small, hard-core group convinced it's a fraud.  Perhaps Obama operatives did the layering on purpose to keep the conspiracy theorists baying and yapping, perpetuating a cheap and easy smear of everyone to the right of Obama.

This also allows hopium smokers on the left to perpetuate their cheap psychological projections, insisting "birtherism" is a sneaky manifestation the sub-rosa racism that lurks in the hearts of all conservatives.  The leftwing wackadoos insist this is a stealthy racist plot to demean and marginalize the most powerful black man in the world. 

It's a never ending descent into madness, as are all conspiracy theories.  You could spend the rest of your life on any one thread.  But the election is less than two years away, and I am encouraged to see conservatives, especially my fellow Right Blogistanis, focus in on this man's disastrous policies.

Now, if we can just flush liberal democrat Trump, we can get on with nominating the next president of The United States of America

Obama's Birth Certificate

A naive little Denver University freshman dimwit took the bold and original step of calling me a racist in a post over at Sue's Place. To the credit of Sue and her regulars, they just ignored it and pressed on.

Here is how I handled it:

Oh No! You've called me a racist! Great Godwin's Law! How original. Racist is the new fascist among lobotomized lefties left stuttering when confronted with their own illogic.

As my blogger buddies know, I was never a "birther," but I didn't poo poo those who were.  The problem I have is with those on the fringe who dream of an Obama Exposed!  Frog marched out of the White House to his and the Democratic party's great shame, and every piece of legislation he signed instantly repealed.  Ain't.  Gonna.  Happen.

Finding an inconsistency with birth documents or some other funny business would not bring an immediate end to his presidency, nor would it lead to the immediate repeal of any laws.  I think this is a low-percentage approach.  Sure, let the investigators dig, but this is not a political strategy.


A Few Thought Now That The Birth Certificate Has Been Released

* Donald Trump is full of crap.  Remember a few days ago when he told us the birth certificate was missing, and according to his investigators on the ground it didn't look good for Obama?  All of you naive Trump chumps were played by The Donald, who was a registered democrat in New York during the tenure of Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki.

* Lt Col Terry Lakin sits in Leavenworth for refusing a deployment order because he challenged President Obama's status as commander in chief based upon the absence of a birth certificate.  This president, who dispatches his wife to pretend they care about military families, allowed this good soldier and doctor to be court martialed when he could have simply done what he did this past Wednesday.  Obama is a petty man wielding way too much power.

* This will not satisfy the "Birthers."  No evidence can appease people who believe in conspiracies.

Anyway, I listen to Peter Boyles on KHOW on my morning drive to work, and he really pounds the Obama birth thing.  It's too much for my taste, but he posted this on his website before the birth certificate was unveiled, and I think it's hilarious, made more so by the text to voice technique and the stock phrase talking points and buzz words.

Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

Who says God is uninterested in our lives?

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) — A man was hospitalized Wednesday evening with life-threatening, third-degree burns after somehow catching fire inside a San Francisco porn store, authorities told CBS 5.

CBS – Man Bursts into Flames While Watching Porn

John Galt's Streaming Internet Radio

If you've got time, check this out:
http://johngalt.streamingradioguide.com/.

It's a guide to thousands of radio stations. You can use it to find your favorite talker and listen over the internet.

I've been using streamingradioguide for years to get my Michael Savage fix in the evening after work, and I was saddened to see a blog post from owner Art Stone saying he was packing it in.  Lots of outpouring of "please reconsider," etc (including me), but to no avail.  He lamented that no one even visited the blog part of the site until he announced it was closing at the end of the week.  It really saddened me.

For whatever reason, I decided to click the link on Monday just for old times sake, and he's posted a trailer for Atlas Shrugged.  Go to the blog, and follow the right links, and you end up in a new domain, where he laughingly says "Welcome to Atlantis!"  Atlas Shrugged fans will get it immediately.

He's doing the opposite of what bloggers normally do.  He shut down a popular site and set up a new one that only the curious and persistent could find.  He delisted the site from Google so it won't show up in searches.  He's up to something, I don't know what, but you should probably jump in before he shuts down new membership.

China's Raising Prices, US Prints More Money

Anyone who supports Obama has no right to cry about Reagan's deficits

“The President's own budget documents project as well that by next year more debt will be run up in one term under President Obama than under all other Presidents in history -- from George Washington to George Bush -- combined.” (Peter Ferrara – A Big Question)

Pimco, the largest bond fund in the world, announced it will no longer buy US debt.  Pimco founder William H. Gross explains why...

Unless entitlements are substantially reformed, the U.S. will likely default on its debt; not in conventional ways, but via inflation, currency devaluation and low to negative real interest rates. (Pimco – Skunked)

That 70's Show:  Stagflation!

This was not America's worst recession, but it is the worst recovery.  Following closely on the heels of economic stagnation comes inflation.

Communist China can’t rely on slave labor forever.  The peasants have caught a whiff of prosperity and they want more. China's Communist Politburo is raising wages, and we're printing more money.  This is a silent tax, we all pay more for everything.

Even worse, our government allows China to blatantly manipulate its currency, putting our domestic manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. This would be much harder for them to do if we did not need to borrow money from them.

Anyone who frequents local shops and restaurants already knows that mom and pop can no longer hold the line.  Prices are going up...

Still reeling from the recession, most mom-and-pop shops have held off on raising prices for fear of losing more customers. But business is finally starting to pick up, and after years of being squeezed by cost increases, a growing number of small businesses are hiking their prices.

"They've been squeezed so badly for the last two years, any uptick in demand means they're going to try to raise prices a bit," said William Dennis, senior research fellow with the National Federation of Independent Business. (CNN – Inflation Pressures Grow on Mainstreet)

Walmart to the Rescue

In the face of this economic misery, retail giant Walmart will fight heroically to continue to bring us low-priced goods. Imagine if there were no Walmart or other big box giants, and instead our nation was dotted with scattered and sundry mom and pops. They could not marshal the bargaining power of a Walmart or Target, nor the supply chain efficiencies. We’d be paying frightfully more for everything!

Just as John D. Rockerfeller brought cheap kerosene to the masses, big chain retailers help shield us from the stupid policies of our government.  We should outsource the federal government to Walmart.

When Feral Humans Attack

By now we've all seen the horrible video of the two-legged feral beasts attacking the transgendered person at a Baltimore McDonalds.







I'll spare you the moralizing and get to my point.  The violence will only get worse, and you must be prepared to protect yourself.

I have been in some of the most dangerous places in the world, and I'm not just talking Baghdad or Kabul (where I was in the safety of fellow armed Americans), or outside the wire in some small village in Southern Iraq.  Juarez, Bogota, South Quito, and other scary places...  I've been there, including some rough areas here in the US where as soon as I was in, I knew it was a mistake.

Get a Gun
The most obvious comments concerning incidents like this involve concealed carry.  Owning and carrying a gun is always a good idea, but you must understand the legal ramifications.  Had that poor woman shot those two cavewomen, she would be the one up on charges; that's how it goes in liberal states like Maryland.  Cops nowhere in sight, cowardly girly-boys stand and film your murder while a hooting crowd gathers to watch, but you can't use lethal force to stop the attack.

A related note:  Don't carry any weapon you are not prepared to use.  Be it pepper spray or a gun, if you can't use it, you're just providing a convenience to your perpetrator.

Get an ASP
If you don't like the prospect of shooting an attacker, carry an ASP.  An Asp is a collapsible tactical baton.  I have one that can be carried in the front pocket of my jeans without being noticed.  You deploy it, it extends into a metal rod, and you bring it crashing down on your attacker.  As with all weapons, get training.

Learn Krav Maga
Krav Maga is an Israeli fighting system that really works.  I have used it to great effect.  It's principles are simple and repeatable, meaning you can employ them even when you are under extreme stress.

Watch these ugly ghetto-hags in action again, and you see they really have no technique other than raw brute force.  Had the victim possessed even rudimentary fighting skills, she could have at least slowed down the attack enough to get out of there or fend them off until help arrived.

The simplest technique is fists up and pressed against the side of your skull, elbows out with your forearms blocking the blows.  From this position, you can fire off quick straight punches as you maneuver yourself so you are not between your attackers.  Giving up your back, as anyone who watches MMA knows, is condemning yourself to a death sentence.

The lesson from that video is to fight back with all you've got.  Curling up in a ball, while it protects vital organs, can be lethal.  As videos like this show, "surrendering" doesn't stop the attacks; it just encourages the attackers to kick and stomp you until you're dead.  In a situation like that, your only option is to fight like hell, using anything and everything.  When your life is at stake, nothing is out of bounds and there are no rules.

Don't Go There
The real lesson here is to do your homework.  Don't hang out in bad neighborhoods, avoid potentially dangerous areas and situations at all costs.  Trust your instincts; If something doesn't "feel right," get the hell out of there.  If you don't know the area, stay out.  Do not frequent clubs, bars or other establishments known for violent incidents.

Man is the most dangerous animal.  People who have nothing, don't have anything to lose, and a person with nothing to lose is the most dangerous of all.  You don't belong there.

You may be a good fighter with good technique, but a person with a small hidden palm knife will slash you open before you even realize it.  There are street fighters out there who are impervious to pain, they've battered literally hundreds of victims, and they have grooved their technique.  You don't stand a chance.

The absolute best book out there (I have read it and used what I learned), is Gavin de Becker's "The Gift of Fear."  It is not a self-defense book per se, but a book that teaches you how to predict danger, how to spot it early, and how to avoid it.

It's a jungle out there.  Learn to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Muslims, Neo Nazis, defile Easter and blame it on the Jews

White Supremacists & Islamic Extremists:  One in the Same

A little-noticed event happened in the comments thread of my Happy Easter post.  Anon from England (an Islamic extremist) posted a link to a YouTube of an Israeli TV show given to irreverent humor.  The particular episode mocks Christ's crucifixion.

Islamists and white supremacists (they are indistinguishable) have seized upon this video as a propaganda opportunity.  They hope to stir up anti-Jewish hatred among American Christians, who are by and large big supporters Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East and the one nation in that region where a Muslim can enjoy peace and prosperity.

I went to YouTube and engaged with a few comments, but it turned out to be a stinking sewer of white supremacists and angry jihadis (one in the same).  One commenter hurled anti-Semitic insults at me and threatened to throw me in an oven, to which I replied "good luck, you'd probably get tangled up in your burka."

Here's my Response to the cowardly anon who posted here yesterday: 

Your anti-Jew, pro-Palestine propaganda ploy won't work here.  We are not ignorant, sweaty hordes of bug-eyed religious fanatics easily stirred up by Imams waving cartoons and news of burned Korans.

I will thank you for beautifully illustrating that neo-nazis and islamic jihadis are one in the same, sharing a virulent hatred of Jews and of America.

Here's my favorite observation about this video. Read it and learn something. It is from Fish Eaters Traditional Catholic Forum:

Your blind hatred of all things Jewish has obviously kept you from looking at this rationally.

It's obviously not a kids show. It's intent is obviously to be rude, crude and uncivilized. It obviously was broadcast on whatever the Israeli version of Spike TV is.

So some Jews hate and make fun of Christians, so what? At the end of the day, it was a tv show, but the Jews didn't burn down any churches, they didn't rape and murder Christian women, they didn't gather in the streets in huge crowds to scare and beat all the Christians out of the village.

Oh, wait, who does that? You're beloved muzzies.

I have never met a Jew that has been disrespectful to me about my Catholic beliefs. Does that mean all Jews are respectful? Of course not. But you see one example of such crudity and you sensationalize it as if every last Jew was exactly the same. You're an ignorant person, at least when it comes to Judaism, because you let your emotions lead you around.

So, yes, even after seeing that, I'd still vote for Israel on the Israel vs. Palestine thread, because if I were a Christian in Israel, if all I had to deal with was some disrespectful tv satire around Easter (um, history channel anyone? at least their tv is mocking it as an obvious joke, our tv mocks it and tells us if we're intelligent people we would never believe the claims of Christ.), it would be much better than what I'd have to deal with in Egypt or Palestine.

We are not so stupid to fall for this propaganda.  So Anon, pack your Jew-hating, hitler loving, Jihadi-supporing, cowardly, lily-livered ass on down the line.


Tell Children the Truth

Happy Easter!

“The most beautiful thing we can experience in life is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: for his eyes are closed.”  -- Albert Einstein

Today is the high point of the Christian Calendar.  Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is a mystery.  It inspires believers and renews our faith; while atheists scoff and say it is an impossible fairy tale.  But C.S. Lewis reminds us...

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word "darkness" on the walls of his cell. -- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Anthony De Stefano wrote a nice article in USA Today yesterday about Christianity in America amid a rising number of non-believers (1.6 million atheists).  He takes a page from C.S. Lewis in answering the charge that Christianity is a made-up religion, a wishful thinking "fantasy" sprung from a weak and fearful psychology.

But is it wishful thinking to believe in hell, the devil and demons? Is it wishful thinking to believe we’re going to be judged and held accountable for every sin we’ve ever committed? Is it wishful thinking to believe the best way to live our life is to sacrifice our own desires for the sake of others? Is it wishful thinking to believe that we should discipline our natural bodily urges for the sake of some unseen “kingdom”? (USA Today)

Like Lewis, De Stefano concludes that if it's all made up, we sure did a crummy job.  We could have made ourselves feel better by codifying lust, greed, gluttony and hating our enemies.

But that would go against what we know instinctively to be true:  That there is more to life than this material world.

Happy Easter!

Christ Crucified, drawing by St John of the Cross

To reach satisfaction in all 
Desire its possession in nothing,
To come to the knowledge of all
Desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
Desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
Desire to be nothing.
To come to the pleasure you have not
You must go by a way in which you enjoy not.
To come to the knowledge you have not
You must go by a way in which you know not.
To come to the possession you have not
You must go by a way in which you possess not.
To come to be what you are not
You must go by a way in which you are not.
When you turn toward something
You cease to cast yourself upon the all,
For to go from the all to the all
You must possess it without wanting anything.
In this nakedness the spirit finds its rest,
for when it covets nothing
nothing raises it up and nothing weighs it down,
because it stands in the center of its humility.
-- St John of the Cross

You Can't Make This Stuff Up...

Fellow Right Blogistanis:  I'm off the grid over the Triduum (it's a religious thing.)  I'll be back and blogging next Monday.  

Here is a little news wrap-up...

We on the right can be forgiven a schadefreude-induced chortle as we read this headline…

California Begs Texas for Job-Creating Recipe

The pointy headed statists who blew up the state of California playing with their liberal chemistry set are now visiting Texas to ask the conservative cowboys for help.  It's not a joke.  California has sent a delegation to find out what Texas is doing to create more jobs per capita than any other state in the nation.  There may yet be hope for the sunshine state.

Further reading:  Steven Malanga - California Dreamin' About Texas Jobs

I Saw this headline…

Michelle Obama: I Want to Embrace the Country that I Love

The news article didn't say what country she was talking about…







  4 out of 5 Mass Murderers Support Green Energy

And surprise, surprise! The Nissan Leaf is experiencing technical glitches. The recall will be small, since almost no one has bought the damned things. Seems only a few thousand suckers could be found who were willing to shell out $45000 for a rolling science experiment.

Government Motors sold a paltry 281 Chevy Volts in February. Were it not for Obama-approved Government Electric stepping up to buy the US version of the old East German Trabant, the assembly line would probably be shut down. BTW, Obama will take $6,000 from your pocket and give it to GE for each of these battery-powered crapboxes they buy.

But Charles Manson Would Approve!
Leftists are starving and impoverishing millions with their green policies, so it’s only fitting that mass murderer Charles Manson gives them his wholehearted endorsement.

I pray you all have a blessed Easter.  See you Monday!

Stupid Debt Tricks

How does Obama propose to handle our Big Fat Greek-Style Debt?  Feed it, of course!

My solution involves stink bombs.  Please read all the way to the end.



Conservatives on Fire, a most excellent blog, recently posted about Obama's sneaky plan for automatic tax increases.  He disguises the plan as a "Debt Fail Safe Trigger."

Called a “debt failsafe trigger,” Obama’s scheme would automatically raise taxes if politicians spend too much.

Here's how the White House pitches it.  Note the Plouffian Newspeak...

A Debt Failsafe that will trigger across-the-board spending reductions (both in direct spending and spending through the tax code) (Whitehouse.gov)

Only a confiscatory progressive could come up with something that clever...  Calling a tax increase a "Spending reduction through the tax code."

Notice how with liberals it's never that we're spending too much?  For progressive statists, the answer is always that we're not stuffing enough taxpayer money into the insatiable maw of the soulless government beast.

Here's my idea for a "Debt Fail Safe Trigger."
  
The US Capitol will be rigged with noxious stinkbombs that automatically drop from the ceilings when the debt goes over the limit.  The antidote could be quickly triggered by pushing a button that automatically slashed government programs across the board to get us back under the limit.

* - For more in-depth analysis, see LD Jackson's post at Political Realities

Push Back on the "Give Back"

"Give something back" is a leftist rhetorical trick designed to shame people into pouring even more money into failed state enterprises.

President Obama delivered his official response to the budget crisis: those who have benefited the most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back. (HuffPo - Rev Al Sharpton)

What an absurd statement.  But liberalism has become an eternal fount of absurd pronouncements.

Here is the statement straight from the emperor's mouth:

"It's a basic reflection of our belief that those who benefited most from our way of life can afford to give back a little bit more."  (President Obama - RCP)

"Give back" presupposes that someone took something.  That is why it is an absurd statement.  So until demagogues like Obama can give us details on just what exactly "the rich" took from us, (and which ones?  Name names!), I'll continue to ignore them. 

Speaking of "Taking..." and "Giving Back..."

What have all those recipients of government-subsidized student loans and government grants given back?  How are welfare recipients, government housing residents and food stamp users paying us back?

At the next DC-NY taxpayer-funded orgy, Obama should ask GE CEO Jeffrey HeMelts when GE will "give back" all the damned tax money they have scammed us out of.  When will Obama-owned GM give back the $50 billion he took from us and gave them in a fit of crony crapitalism that would make FDR blush?

And didn't effete millionaire jet setters Michelle and Barack Obama use government-subsidized student loans and grants to attend Ivy League schools?  And don't those schools receive millions each year in government funds?  Have the Obama's given it back?

If liberals really want to go down this road of "give something back," we conservatives and libertarians should take them all the way.

Give Something Back?  Statists Have it Backwards

Government should give us back...

Economic liberty; incandescent bulbs; drilling permits; freedom to travel through airports without being groped, raped, scanned, fondled and strip searched;  Sane immigration policy...

What would you like to see government give back? 

* -  For a more in-depth treatment, see Kook's excellent post, "C'Mon Time to Give Something Back"

Dump Trump

A bad joke is being played on the Republican party, and his name is Donald Trump

"If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid"

OK, Trump fans, time to cut The Donald loose. I like how he injects some real talk into the political discussion, especially in the realm of international trade and diplomacy.  But he's also a Hollywood blowhard who will say anything to get attention.

So who does he really think is the worst president?  Obama?  Bush?  Carter?  He's claimed all three were at different times, and he's called Bush "evil."  Really...  Hitler was evil, Mao was evil, but George W. Bush?

And while his careening into the Obama citizenship sideshow is gaining him some FReeper fans, it is not presidential.  Savvy pols have attack dogs to do the dirty work.  There's plenty in Obama's past that is questionable or mysterious, and I don't begrudge people investigating it, but that's not what a presumptive presidential candidate should be focusing on.  We need to fire The Donald before his extreme unseriousness sinks the entire party, which is just now finding its feet again.

Donald Trump:  A Ross Perot for the New Millennium

Trump is not Obama’s worst nightmare—He’s the GOP’s guarantee of failure in 2012.   His hinting at a third-party run reveals his "I wanna be president" stunt to be nothing more than an egomaniacal road trip. The man is good at self-promotion, but he's got no chance to get elected president.

Entertaining a third-party run is an automatic disqualifier
He’s just told us that if he doesn't get the GOP nomination he will not honor the rules of the game and back the winner, so he’s disqualified. Supporting him is a waste of your money and voting for him in a primary is a vote for Barack Obama.   A Trump third-party foray will be a march of fools that reelects Barack Obama.

If Trump is not on Obama’s payroll, he’s working for free, and I don’t think he’s that stupid

Fuzzy Slippers has the best anti-Trump post in Right Blogistan.  She uncovers some convincing disqualifiers, like the traitorous Trump giving money to Harry Reid, when Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle was up in the polls.  She also links to an article describing how The Donald bribed the government to declare imminent domain in order to kick an old lady out of her house so he could build a parking lot.


If you’re looking for a real businessman to vote for, drop the infatuation with self-promoting wheeler dealers and go for a serious man who has the education, background and experience to be president:

Vote for Herman Cain

H/T Maggies Notebook - Dump Trump,  Fuzzy Slippers - Musing about 2012: Donald Trump,  Reaganite Republican - What are People saying about Trump?

Obambulating Towards Destruction

Obambulate v. 1) To wander or walk about in an aimless fashion. 2) To preside or lead in an aimless, backward, or downward fashion. 3) To conceive in hope but give birth to disaster.

Green Energy Update!

Progressives are sacrificing millions of starving poor people upon the altar of Gaia...

But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development, arguing that the combination of ambitious biofuel targets and mediocre harvests of some crucial crops is contributing to high prices, hunger and political instability.  (NY Times - Food Prices Stir Concern Cars)

The World Bank has warned that rising food prices, driven partly by rising fuel costs, are pushing millions of people into extreme poverty.(BBC - Food Prices Driving Millions to Poverty)

Liberal compassion for the poor and downtrodden is a sick joke.  Grand schemes of the left have killed over 100 million people and continue to enslave millions more. 

Photochop courtesy of Chicago Ray

Hard Luck Woman

Despite being a bluegrass picker, I was a Kiss fan as a kid, probably because it really upset my parents...

Fast forward 10 years or so to dusty southern New Mexico, where I was invited to join a country-rock band because the lead singer/rhythm guitar player was on the run from the law and they needed someone to fill in...

The Kiss tribute CD  Kiss My Ass:  Classic Kiss Regrooved  was released with a mystery singer doing a freakin' awesome version of Hard Luck Woman.  I recognized that it was Garth Brooks immediately and almost went crazy.  My band mates would not let me do it on stage; our crowds were too traditional.  My Bob Seger renditions were about as edgy as we got.

Anyway, here it is, a classic rock ballad redone:  Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley*, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss* on drums, with ...  Garth Brooks on vocals.  It's a great example of how genre really doesn't matter.  Good music is good music.  I love the acoustic guitar riffs...



Endnote:  Wikipedia reports that Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters did a cover version on their 2005 album "Long Playing".  Ain't the innerwebz just full of useful tidbits?

* Update from Bastiatarian:   Ace Frehley and Peter Criss aren't in this one.  "I think that's Eric Singer on drums and Bruce Kulick on guitar. (They were in the band in 1994.)"

Have a great weekend!

The King's Speech

No, not the Hollywood movie, I'm talking about our philosopher king, Barack Obama.  Although his Alinskyite Marx-channeling did make me want to scream the F-word more than once.

His central theme? 

"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need"

Like almost everything out of this man's mouth, his speech was pure excreta.  He took bricks of leftist dogma, mortared them together with BS, and built a house of lies.

President Obama has racked up more publicly-held debt that all previous presidents combined, and he has the temerity to lecture us about fiscal responsibility, shaking his finger at Bush and Reagan.

Progressive America:  Brought to You by Lies & Propaganda
Obama repeated the lie that tax cuts increased the national debt.  As always, he is wrong.  Every time we cut taxes, the economy grew and actual taxes collected by the federal government increased.  Revenue is defined as the money the federal government takes in from taxes.

To refute the shameless lefty lies told to us by our president, here are the facts on taxes, revenues and economic growth

Tax Cuts Resulted in More Revenue
Contrary to the unhinged liberal propaganda, the data show that revenue did increase after the Reagan tax cuts and the Bush II tax cuts. The chart below is for the Reagan years and it shows the growth in constant 2005 dollars.  The same happened after the Bush tax cuts.   You can go here and run the numbers yourself.

The data plainly show that revenue increased after each tax cut, and GDP also kept climbing. So clearly, the culprit in all of this is the spending.

So Reagan and Bush tax cuts resulted in more tax money pouring into the government coffers.   Unfortunately, this goaded politicians on to even wilder spending orgies, resulting in the growth of the national debt.

The Liberal Lie
This is where the mischief comes in.  Liberals scream and point to the debt chart, ignoring the first chart showing the increase in revenue.  To them, this "proves" that tax cuts cause debt.  They have to leave out the fact that revenue increased and the economy grew in order to "prove" their lie.  That tax cuts caused the debt is patently and provably false.  Too much spending is what exploded the debt.

I defended John Boehner a few days ago, and I retract not one word.  I think he's a good man.  However, I now stand with the torches and pitchfork brigade. We need to cut trillions, not billions from the federal budget and the money needs to be returned to the people who earned it.  If the progressives insist on buying votes, they can do it with their own damned money.

Cool picture yoinked from IntelBook

Afghanistan: Tactical Brilliance, Strategic Failure

Meddling in the Muslim world has poisoned us

The embers have gone cold from the latest holy roller Koran burning, but Muslim outrage still flares red hot.  We've bowed, we scraped, but all to no avail...

Our Middle East policymakers can no longer distinguish between evil and stupidity. They go out of their way to genuflect to the scriptures that catalyze our enemies while willfully ignoring bible burning, church burning and infidel burning, which are everyday events in Islamic countries. (Andrew McCarthy – No More Dhimmitude)

Our government is too weak to stand up for our values and too stupid to prevail in propaganda battles with 7th century obscurantists

I have been thinking for quite awhile now that Afghanistan is a failed project and we need to leave.  It pains me to say it; I served over there.

I like to check myself against Blackfive.net when I really get to thinking this way, and here’s what I found

Time To Leave Afghanistan?
Below the title was a link to a post at another blog.

There was some back and forth in the comments section of Blackfive, with no one really defending staying, but rather arguing over how to get out and how to deal with future problems emanating from that region. Here are a few typical comments:

"Agree. And if the Taliban miss-behaves or AQ comes back - that's why we buy bombers and drones and train Rangers and SF types. Just knock 'em down again, don't try to make Afghanistan into New Hampshire."

"Yeah, I am also coming around to the opinion that we need to cut sling on these idiots. There was never any nation to rebuild in the first place. (At least with Iraq, we had something to work with) I agree we need to have a plan for the aftermath but I think that almost anything would be better than this waste of our finest men and women and our treasure."

These are not college kids, bankers or angry leftists. They are patriotic warriors who’ve “been there, done that.”

I am not a warrior, but I served with quite a few. I can tell you that leaving that God-forsaken place to whatever fate awaits it would not be a betrayal to anyone who died or was wounded there. We kicked the Taliban’s ass and then we gave the benighted inhabitants a chance to improve their country.  They failed.  Our fighting forces, especially the Army and the Marines, fought like the heroic lions they are. Nothing to be ashamed of.  We win, they lose.  Our forces return to the greatest country in the world, and they remain stuck in the toilet we tried to pull them out of.

Here are excerpts from the original article, written by a libertarian/conservative, socially moderate Army Vet:

It’s time to leave Afghanistan. In fact it’s time to leave most of the Middle-East. We tried folks. We tried to help them. We tried to free them. But the plain facts are they aren’t ready for freedom. They aren’t worth our lives and money. We won the war in 2002 when we removed the Taliban and killed most of Al-Qaida.

Further Reading:
Mark Steyn – Re: Lindsay Graham and the First Amendment
Andrew McCarthy - More on Koran Burning