Holder's Justice Department exhibits its racism toward blacks

There were and are many things I did not like about George W. Bush, but one line of his that I always thought was spot-on was his description of that other kind of expression of racism which he called the "soft bigotry of low expectations."

He mostly used this term to describe the conditions in some of our schools where not as much is as expected from our minority students as far as academic performance and standards of proper behavior, but the concept can apply just about anywhere in American life.

This soft bigotry is on full display right now in the city of Dayton, Ohio where, after too many blacks failed a Dayton Police Department entrance exam, Attorney General Eric Holder rushed his cronies into Dayton and told that city's government that they were going to have to lower their testing standards in order to ensure that more minority applicants qualified to be hired.

This is by no means the first time something like this has been done in America, but I never cease to be amazed by the implications. What Eric Holder and the Justice Department is effectively admitting is that blacks are too stupid to attain the normal objective standards, so the standards will have to be lowered. Not only that, Holder's actions poison the potential careers of the black applicants who did meet the objective standards. Unless everyone's test scores are out in the open, which I am assuming they will not be, then how is one to know which black members of the Dayton Police Department truly made it on their own intelligence and hard work, and which ones are substandard, but were allowed to sneak through by the Justice Department in the name of racial equity? If I were one of the black applicants who legitimately made it, I would be mad as hell that I will automatically lumped in with those who didn't legitimately make it.

What is also insulting, not only to the applicants, but to the city of Dayton, is that the passing scores for this exam have been lowered by the Justice Department to the equivalent of an F grade. What kind of effect will this have on the quality of policing in Dayton?

If the city leaders of Dayton, Ohio have any integrity, any fortitude, they will tell the federal Justice Department to mind its own business and go back to Washington D.C. This is a local police force, a local matter. Even if this situation did involve the federal government, where is the civil rights violation? In typical Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, applying a single standard to everyone is considered by the Justice Department to be a civil rights violation, while using different standards to accommodate designated groups of people is considered a-ok.

That Eric Holder would take these actions in the Dayton case is unsurprising. His mollycoddling of the New Black Panthers in their voter intimidation case from the 2008 election, and his description of black Americans as "my people" in recent congressional testimony make it quite clear where Holder's true allegiances lie. For Eric Holder, race takes precedence over the rule of law, while in the process, he insults the race he supposedly loves through his soft bigotry of low expectations.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Religion of Peace strikes again

In Israel on Friday (Saturday there), Palestinian Muslim murderers snuck into a Jewish home in the dead of night and killed five members of a family, including both parents, an 11-year old, a 4-year old, and a 3-MONTH old baby.

Pamela Gellar at Atlas Shrugged has crime (terrorist) scene photos posted, which might seem macabre were it not for the fact that family members of the deceased authorized Gellar to post the photos so that one may truly see the face of evil, and what to see what the Israelis face every day as they are surrounded by people who want to see every one of them dead. I posted the least offensive of the photos (that hand belongs to the 4-year old), but I couldn't bring myself to post any of the others.

The standard operating procedure at this point is for Muslim apologists and Palestinian apologists to insist that this was just an isolated incident and we shouldn't make a blanket judgement based on the actions of a few.

That argument might hold a bit more water were it not for the fact that as soon as word of this barbaric attack made the rounds in Gaza, people began celebrating in the streets and handing out sweets.

There are a couple people in my circle of coworkers, family, and friends who complain about the Israelis and talk about the raw deal the Palestinians have. I'm not quite sure how they would defend this.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The destruction of a tsunami

When I watched coverage of the Indonesian tsunami on the day after Christmas in 2004, I figured I was watching a once-in-a-lifetime event. How wrong I was. Here we are, less than a decade later, and our televisions have once again been jam packed with the incredible and tragic images of Mother Nature's indifferent fury.

Of all the footage I have seen of this tsunami, this particular one has seemed to stick in my mind, as it truly gets the point across of what a tsunami looks like, and what it can do:



Wow.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Cutting the federal budget... priorities, priorities

When the Republicans recently suggested trimming a paltry $32 billion dollars from Obama's budget-busting $1.65 trillion dollar deficit, even that insignificant sum of money proposed by the Republicans proved too much for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (who I find to be one of the most repulsive people in recent memory). Reid called the cuts "draconian" and "unworkable."

You want to see an example of what Reid believes to be a federal expenditure that absolutely cannot be cut - because to do so would be draconian and unworkable? Check out this 19 seconds of stupidity:



You know what this means? Harry Reid thinks it is more important that I fork over my hard-earned money to support these poetry-spouting cowboys than it is to be able to contribute to my kids' college funds or to fix the broken air conditioner in my car.

I continue to be astounded by how out-of-touch these bastards are.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

California's most horrendous number: 144,000

I just ran across an article that reminded me of an incredible statistic that I heard before but about which I have gotten around to blogging.

California is the Union's most populous state, with approximately 38 million people. Incredibly enough, 50% of California's income tax revenues are paid by a mere 144,000 people. The other 50% is paid by the other 37, 856,000. That 144,000 - which represents the top 1% of income earners in this state - represents a mere .004% of our state's population.

I even remember former Governor Schwarzenegger mentioning this statistic when I attended his State of the State Speech just over a year ago.

Just as disturbing, 144,000 just happens to also be the number of households that leave California every year in search of greener pastures. Thank goodness these two groups of 144,000 are not necessarily one and the same.

Nevertheless, it still seems like our Democrat-dominated state government is bound and determined to poke and prod the 144,000 mega-taxpayers into leaving.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Boss from Hell: Congressional Edition

Think you have a boss at your job who is tough to work for? Thank your lucky stars that your boss is not Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (Democrat-Texas).

I have heard horror stories about her before - such as the famous "I expect to be treated like a queen" incident - but this article, which mentions that incident, puts all the horror stories together in one astonishing narrative.

Remember folks, this woman votes on legislation that affects all of us.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Branding Obama: The importance of iconography in politics

I urge you to watch this fascinating piece about branding and logos in politics, and how the ubiquitous "O" that our Dear Leader uses can be adopted by our side to hoist the Anointed One by his own petard:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

So when do we impeach Obama for the gas prices?

I continue to marvel at the people who give our Dear Leader a pass over the same issues for which they wanted to keel haul George W. Bush.

There is Guantanamo; the continued presence of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; and enforcement of the Patriot Act, however, one that I see overlooked so far is gas prices.

When the price at the pump began to spiral upward in the mid-2000s, I remember the gnashing of teeth from the Left as they blamed the rising prices on Bush and his ties to Big Oil. In fact, I delved back into my blog archives and came up with this photo right here:



I took that photo at a protest in Sacramento on August 5, 2006 during the short war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. As often happens with these protests, the signs come out for all kinds of issues, even if they have nothing to do with the reason for the protest. Now, notice that one of the reasons why this particular protester thought Bush should be impeached was because of gas prices; and if you will remember, gas prices were a common complaint about our 43rd president.

I looked it up, and the average price of gasoline around that time was $3.04 per gallon. That is indeed too high for my taste, but since right now, the average price of gasoline in the country is
$3.38, why should we not follow this sign-holder's advice and impeach President Obama?

I of course am being absurd in order to illustrate other people's absurdity. I realize that there are too many factors that determine the price of gasoline to just blame it all on the President of the United States. On the other hand, it certainly doesn't help that Obama only just today supposedly allowed drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to resume, even though he lifted a drilling moratorium back in October but wasn't handing out any permits.

The bottom line is that our illustrious president continues to either not be held accountable, or not be held to blame for the very same things for which President Bush was pursued with a hay hook.

There are many positions George W. Bush took with which I did not agree. My question is why was Bush rightly excoriated for these positions by the media, when Obama is not when doing the very same thing?

That question is rhetorical by the way. It is a simple matter of the Old Left Media supporting Obama and hating Bush, thus Bush's missteps are thoroughly reported, whereas Obama's missteps are largely overlooked.

It's that simple.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The end of an era: Our WWI vets are no more

After starting the count with 4,734,991, the last remaining American veteran of World War I has died. Frank Buckles was a Corporal in the U.S. Army when the Great War ended on November 11, 1918. Buckles lied about his age in order to enter service as an ambulance driver, so at age 16 or 17, he was quite a young buck when he served "Over There."

Buckles wasn't done with world wars, however. He was working in the Philippines in 1941 when the Japanese invaded that country. Buckles ended up spending World War II in a Japanese prison camp that had been set up to house foreign civilians. I can imagine the abuse his body withstood, what with malnutrition and exposure, which makes his longevity all the more amazing.

Being born on February 1, 1901, I have given thought to what Buckles's age means.

He was 7 months old when President William McKinley was assassinated.

He was 11 years old when he saw headlines in the newspaper about the Titanic sinking in the North Atlantic.

He had the opportunity to talk to plenty of Civil War veterans, who were only in their 70s by the time he was old enough to comprehend what they had to tell him.

He was born only three years after the end of the Spanish-American War, and as a child, was old enough to remember Teddy Roosevelt being president.

The Wright Brothers flew their first flight when Buckles was almost 3 years old, and he lived to see the end of the Space Shuttle program.

In the year of his birth, someone who died that same year who was the same age Buckles was when he died, would have been born in 1791 when George Washington was only two years into his presidency.

He was born 112 years after the Constitution went into effect in our country, which means, having died at the age of 110, his life spanned just under half of our country's existence under the Constitution.

And my favorite statistic: When Buckles was my age, the year was only 1940. That means if I live as long as he did, if the year was 1940 right now, I still have until 2011!

It truly boggles the mind.

Rest in Peace Mr. Buckles.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson (who died a mere 75 years before Frank Buckles was born!)

Senator Rand Paul gives David Letterman an intellectual beatdown

You want to watch a true example of what happens when statist beliefs go up against conservative logic? Take the time to watch this 11-minute clip as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul completely dismantles every lamebrained argument that David Letterman throws at him. By the end of the interview, Letterman is reduced to admitting to the audience that he is completely outmatched... but that Rand Paul is somehow wrong in his arguments anyway.



Hopefully, a few of the clapping seals in the audience went away questioning their knee-jerk statist beliefs just a little bit. Kudos to Senator Paul for taking his arguments to a place where I'm sure they are rarely, if ever, heard.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Moral of the story: Don't bring a scimitar to a gunfight

One of the rising stars of the Republican Congress is freshman representative Allen West of Florida. West was a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army who made a name for himself in Iraq when he, shall we say, intensely interviewed an al-Qaeda suspect in order to obtain the information to head off an attack that would have killed numerous American soldiers.

This video, which was taken at a town hall meeting in West's Florida district shows why LTC/Rep. West is indeed a rising star. Watch as he dismantles a representative of CAIR, the Council on American/Islamic Relations who thinks West is being too hard on the Islamic religion. I thought my recall of history was good; watch and listen to what West does to make his case:



Hmmm, that takedown was so easy, it reminded me of this scene right here:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

"Private" Sacramento memorial becomes very public when the mourners assault a news crew

All you can do sometimes is shake your head in disgust.

At 2:45 on Monday morning, Chester Jackson was shot and killed in the parking lot of an IHOP in the Natomas area of Sacramento. Apparently, a verbal altercation inside the IHOP spilled out into the parking lot where the guns came out. Haven't they learned that nothing good happens after midnight?

Later that day, friends and family of the murder victim gathered in the IHOP parking lot for some kind of memorial service. Local news crews covering the story - including one from the local Fox affiliate - approached the gathering of people in order to get one of your garden-variety soundbites for the upcoming news coverage, i.e. "How did you know the victim?" "How do you feel right now?" "What was the victim like as a person?"

That is when the mourners turned into a mob. They began screaming at the reporter and his female camera operator. As the two news crewmembers backed away, the mob charged after them, including some "mourners" who ran there from another parking lot, and began their assault. The female camera operator was pulled by the hair to the ground and kicked in the face, while the male reporter was punched several times in the face.

I know news crews can seem invasive sometimes in their efforts to get a story, and I know the mourners were in a high emotional state to begin with, but there is no excuse for this assault.

The mourners kept yelling at the news crew that this was a private memorial service. If you want privacy, then hold your service at your home, or a church. If you choose to publicly gather at an IHOP parking lot where the crime actually took place, then expect there to be news crews and curious reporters.

So now, this so-called "private" memorial service (which again, took place in an IHOP parking lot at the scene of the crime) is being covered by not only all the local news stations, but also has a link on the Drudge Report, which at last count had over 27 million hits in the last 24 hours. Nice job keeping it private, geniuses.

These reporters are there for you to talk to the camera and tell us what a fine, upstanding citizen the victim was, and how he didn't deserve to be shot down like this - isn't that what we always see during these man-on-the-street interviews in cases like this? Instead, after witnessing the video of the beatdown of the reporters committed by people who consorted with the the victim, I am left with the impression that Chester Jackson probably had it coming. If you think I am mistaken and/or insensitive for looking at it that way, I suggest you take it up with his fisticuff-happy family and friends.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Cut spending, but only cut the other guy's program

When it comes to cutting government spending, this report of results from a Harris poll puts it best when it says that people want to cut down the forest, but keep the trees:

When shown a list of 20 areas of federal government spending, a majority of the public supports cutting only six of them and these do not include the big ticket items that comprise most of the federal budget. Furthermore large majorities oppose cutting Social Security or federal health care programs, which many economists believe are increasing at unsustainable rates.

One other interesting finding that may be noted by advocates on both sides of this debate: far fewer people support cuts in these 20 programs today than did so in 1980 when Ronald Reagan became president.

Read the rest if you truly want to see how schizophrenic and ignorant the public can be.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another reason why Wal-Mart is evil

They make you steal:

[I]n the scruffy blocks around the corner of New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road in Northeast Washington, where the first of four Wal-Marts planned for the District would probably be built, the residents have more immediate, street-level concerns...

"There'll probably be a lot of shoplifting going on. They'll need a lot of security," Terriea Sutton, 35, said.

Brenda Speaks, a Ward 4 ANC commissioner, actually urged blocking construction of the planned store in her ward at Georgia and Missouri avenues NW partly because of that risk. Addressing a small, anti-Wal-Mart rally at City Hall on Monday, Speaks said young people would get criminal records when they couldn't resist the temptation to steal.

Has the world gone totally and utterly insane?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Deficit, then and now

The tragic thing is that the "then" I am talking about is merely 2007. Watch this and cry:



When I see it all laid out like that, I certainly feel like I need a drink.

In true absurd fashion, however, statist WaPo columnist Dana Milbank hyperventilates today that that tiny little slurp taken from the last in the line of shot glasses will cost the country 1 million jobs.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Truly awful

I don't watch 60 Minutes on a regular basis, but stories I never miss are those filed by Lara Logan. Her reports from the front lines of Afghanistan have been can't-miss.

I was horrified today to learn that she was brutally and sexually assaulted in Cairo several days ago while reporting on the demonstrations there.

I pray for her full recovery, both physically and emotionally.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Joe McCarthy must be smeared; facts be damned

It has become a rote exercise in self-congratulatory political preening to bash Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Even many conservatives who should know better engage in McCarthy bashing. That is usually because most everything that people have ever learned about Joe McCarthy is not only incorrect, but usually 180-degrees from the truth. What people fail to learn is that after the fall of the Soviet Union and the release of thousands of its secret documents, we now know that McCarthy was right. But still, people are so trained to hate Joe McCarthy, that they have difficulty abandoning all that they have been taught over the decades and adjusting their views.

What doesn't help is when supposedly fact-based and objective newspapers get even the basics incorrect.

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article about a photography exhibit that displays the photos of the recently deceased Milton Rogovin, who once worked as the librarian for the Communist Party of Buffalo, New York.

In its descriptions of Rogovin's life, the Sun-Times article carried this little nugget of information. Read it and see if you can find the three inaccuracies that I found:

Then the inevitable happened. In October 1957, Rogovin was caught in the net cast by the House Un-American Activities Committee helmed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. It was the waning days of the Communist witch hunt, and the experience would change Rogovin’s life.

Give up? OK, I will help you out:

1. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had nothing to do with the work of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who headed the Senate Committee on Investigations. McCarthy never served in the House of Representatives; he only ever served as a Senator.

2. Rogovin appeared before the HUAC in October of 1957. Even if Senator McCarthy had been miraculously able to head this House committee, he still would not have been in charge of the committee when Rogovin appeared before it. McCarthy had died in May of that year.

3. McCarthy's work was not a "communist witch hunt." The term "witch hunt" connotes an inability to find that which you are zealously seeking. The communist-sympathizing subjects of McCarthy's investigations were exactly what he purported them to be: Security risks working in sensitive positions within the federal government. And some of them even turned out to be actively spying for the Soviet Union.

If you have never been exposed to the truth about Joe McCarthy, there are two books that can set you straight.

Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, by Ann Coulter, gives a good basic primer on McCarthy's work and the lies that have been accepted about it. Oh yes, I know, some of you might be experiencing your own rote and visceral reaction to my utterance of the name "Ann Coulter." Fear not, folks, for Coulter's chapters on McCarthy are chock full of these useful little superscripted numbers that reference something called footnotes (or endnotes) that can direct you to Coulter's primary and secondary sources which are listed in the back of the book.

Coulter's account of McCarthy is just one part of a larger narrative in her book about statist treachery in the United States. For a more detailed account that delves into just McCarthy, read the definitive book on the subject, Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies, by M. Stanton Evans.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Further evidence that Great Britain is done for

News stories like this always make me wonder how people like the police officials quoted in the article actually exist.

Homeowners in Great Britain are being urged by police to not block their windows with wire mesh. Why? Because burglars might be injured while trying to break in!!!

It seems that the local and national governments in Great Britain are doing everything they can to ensure that British citizens are totally left at the mercy of the dregs of their society. Always remember that we across the Pond often seem to be only a few years behind Britain's lunacy.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Obama math

President Obama sent his proposed 2012 budget to Congress today, and after reading the basics of it, you can color me confused.

Let us crunch the numbers:

The total budget is $3.7 trillion.

The total deficit in that budget is an all-time high $1.65 trillion

However, the Obama administration is bragging that the budget calls for a spending plan that will cut $1.1 trillion from the deficit over the next ten years. Again, that is over the next ten years. That is indeed a vast quantity of money, however it is not much to shout about when a simple division equation shows that the deficit reduction comes out to just over $100 billion per year over that ten year period.

So under this pathetic ten-year plan, we will be saving $100 billion a year, while just this coming year, the deficit will be $1.65 trillion. Whoopdee-doo.

If the deficit reduction was $1.1 trillion every year - not over ten years - then maybe I would be impressed.

How is it that little ol' me can figure this out, yet these ivy league Ph.Ds can't seem to figure out this simple equation?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Respect your president! So sayeth Oprah.

It scares me to witness the ignorance displayed by some people as to their idea of what role government plays in our lives.

Oprah Winfrey put her ignorance on display the other day when she told President Obama's critics, “Even if you’re not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect.”

No, there doesn't, and I won't do it; especially when "disrespect" to these people is simply disagreeing with them. But that quote from Oprah wasn't the one that made me shake my head in disgust the most. It was when she stated that the presidency is a position that “holds a sense of authority and governance over us all."

The hell you say! The only reason Obama - or any president for that matter - has any authority over anything is "We the People" and the states delegated it to him first. That's delegated, not transferred, not handed over, not surrendered. President Obama is my employee; he works for me. He holds authority and governance over the executive branch of the federal government.

Of course, Oprah isn't the only Obamabot celebrity to get this wrong. Who can forget the PSA made by a whole gaggle of Obama worshiping fools, including Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, who made this pledge:



Yeesh.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Stop butchering our National Anthem!

In fact, gimme that microphone!



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Why I watch the Super Bowl commericals

Because there will always be gems like this. My whole family absolutely LOVED this, the best ad for the 2011 Super Bowl:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Happy Birthday, President Reagan!

Ronald Reagan, the greatest American president of the 20th Century, was born 100 years ago today - February 6, 1911.

Our country is better for his having been born, and his having been our president.

God Bless.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Adventures in parent conferences

A friend of mine posted this hilarious, yet tragically true video on her Facebook page. I thought it was definitely worth posting here, as I have been on the receiving end at one time or another of the majority of the insipid statements made by the mother in this video.



This video sums up one of the major malfunctions of our educational system: enabling parents.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

When headlines conflict

Who has been paying attention to the extreme winter weather that is being experienced throughout much of the USA? Great Britain has had record cold and snowy winters as well.

Members of the Church of Global Warming have an answer for this. Incredibly, they contend that global warming is responsible for the record cold and record snowfall that is being recorded during the winter of 2010-2011! Read this headline and excerpt:

Climate Scientist: It’s ‘Reasonable’ to Believe Global Warming Is Causing Snowy Winters

A prominent climate scientist says it is reasonable to conclude that global warming has caused the unusually snowy weather in the eastern United States and Europe over the past two winters, but stresses that this is only a hypothesis that has yet to be definitively demonstrated...

“Here’s what happens and here’s what a lot of people get really screwed up on, and it’s straightforward,” [Scientist Mark] Serreze told CNSNews.com. “All right, so it’s getting warmer, and what is happening is that we’re not growing as much ice in winter as we used to be, but we’re melting a heck of a lot more in the summer than we used to...

“For example, the last two winters over the East have been cold and snowy,” explained Serreze. “So what happens there? Well, what you’re looking at is some kind of change in the atmospheric circulation, that basically you’ve got this cold, Arctic air plunging down—clearly, because that’s exactly what’s happening—and that gives you a temperature contrast and that’s what gives you the storms, okay?”

Got all that? But Chandler, you say, this Serreze is a scientist! He should know what he is talking about! Hmmm, maybe. But lets take the Wayback machine to the year 2000, and read another headline with excerpts and listen to another scientist talking about global warming and its effect on snowfall:

Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past

Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries...

the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes - or eventually "feel" virtual cold....

So which is it? Does global warming cause more snowfall, or less snowfall? Isn't it great when no matter what the weather, your theory has it all covered? I know several people - many of whom I consider to be friends - who are true believers in global warm... I mean climate cha... I mean climate disruption. When I show them contradictions like this, it just slides right past them, and they assure me that the majority of scientists in the world can't be wrong. Someone please tell me why it is so important to them that global warming, or any variation thereof, exists?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

What was that about those calls for civility?

The right-wing Tea Party types are hateful people and they call for violence. How do I know? Because people like you see in this video tell me so.

One problem, though - me thinks their false accusations betray their projection of their own predilections for hate and violence, and yes, racism.

Just listen to what these supposedly peace-loving, tolerant, kumbaya kooks want to do to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:



When you catch these people in an unguarded moment, you will always find that they are guilty of the very behavior for which they falsely accuse their counterparts. It never fails.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

February is here, and you know what that means...

Time for another 28 days of guilt and self-flagellation as we observe Black History Month. I object to meaningless gestures such as Black History Month, and I'm not the only one who feels this way. Watch this classic clip from 60 Minutes as one of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman, chastises a befuddled Mike Wallace as he rejects Wallace's apparent insistence that blacks should be grateful that they get their own month. Watch and learn, kids:



I don't agree with Morgan Freeman on everything concerning politics, but he and I are totally on the same sheet of music on this topic. And what he told Mike Wallace is almost exactly what I tell my students every year when I get the inevitable questions from them about why I don't do anything or teach anything about Black History Month. I tell my students that there is no "black history." I tell them that this is a United States History class, and "black history" is part of American History. Is that not enough?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Who has had enough of legislating by voting?

Yesterday afternoon, California's new (old) governor, Jerry Brown, gave his first (or ninth?) State of the State Address to a joint session of the California legislature. Last year, I was live blogging from the Assembly chamber gallery, but I was not able to obtain a ticket this time around, so I had to hear the soundbites on the radio and read the transcript along with the rest of the little people out there.

Since he was elected in November, and took office last month, Jerry Brown has been a bit of a wild card as far as indicating what his plans were as our new-old governor. Would he use his status as a grizzled politician to be his own man and do what he wanted to do - and special interests be damned - or was he going to stay true to form and continue to be the left-wing zealot he has always shown himself to be?

We apparently have our answer. Jerry Brown wants to raise our taxes, or at the very least, leave our tax rates at the extraordinarily high level they currently are. And the best part is that rather than being a man and taking a stand, he has punted his responsibility as Governor and has put the decision of raising taxes in the hands of the California electorate. That way, if, after the June special election, the people of California vote to keep our taxes high, Brown can shift the blame to us. "Hey, I didn't raise your taxes, you voted for it yourselves!"

Here is how Brown actually couched it in his speech yesterday:

My plan to rebuild California requires a vote of the people, and frankly I believe it would be irresponsible for us to exclude the people from this process. They have a right to vote on this plan. This state belongs to all of us, not just those of us in this chamber. Given the unique nature of the crisis and the serious impact our decisions will have on millions of Californians, the voters deserve to be heard.

That is sweet of you and all, Jerry, but these voters are the same ones who voted in favor of flushing billions of our tax dollars down the money-losing rat hole that is high-speed rail. We are no longer made up of the kind of voters who passed Prop 13 in 1978 (which Brown opposed by the way). California is now populated by way too many members of the moocher class who want to live at the expense of someone else. There is a reason that direct democracies are doomed to fail, and the people's knowledge that they can vote themselves goodies from the treasury is the ultimate reason for a democracy's downfall.

And what if the people vote against the tax hikes in the special election? That is why Brown is making subtle and not-so-subtle threats about loss of government services, in an effort to scare people away from voting against his tax increases in the first place.

How anyone can think that raising our taxes, or even keeping them at the rate they currently are, is what will fix our budgetary problems is sheer madness. Apparently, Illinois is in an uproar right now because their top income tax rate was just raised from 3% to 5%. Meanwhile, the top rate in California hovers around 10%! We are not broke for a lack of revenue. We simply spend more than we bring in. The problem is that no one wants the spending cut for their pet program, be it welfare, education, public pensions, or subsidizing so-called "green energy."

Right now, California's office of governor and both houses of the state legislature are dominated by the Democrats. They can easily pass and sign legislation with absolutely no roadblocks by the Republicans. Make Jerry Brown and the Democrats in the Assembly and Senate own whatever strategy they have to get us out of this mess, and don't let them have an out by blaming their failure on us, the voters, when their tax-and-spend ways inevitably fail.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Nothing good can come of the situation in Egypt

I have held comment on the uprising in Egypt, because for the first few days, I honestly didn't really understand what was going on.

What I knew is that Hosni Mubarak has been in command of Egypt since 1981, when his predecessor, Anwar Sadat was assassinated. Since then, Mubarak has been your typical dictatorial Arab strongman. Compared to other leaders in the middle east, however, Mubarak has been downright reasonable in comparison. This is evident in the fact that he continued Sadat's wish that Egypt stay peaceful with Israel, even though this is exactly the reason that Sadat was assassinated in the first place.

The bottom line is this: no matter how honorable the intentions of the protesters who have taken to the streets against a dictator who has been in charge for 30 years, if Mubarak is unseated, any democratic reforms that might be made in the immediate aftermath of this unrest will not last.

One of these democratic reforms will inevitably be to hold elections. That right there is what will sink Egypt's current role as a moderate influence in the Middle East. The current government that is under siege may be considered moderate, but the people of Egypt are not, and any election that is held is sure to reflect the extremism of the country's people.

Headquartered in Egypt is an extremist Islamic organization called the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamic group that would like to see Sharia law in place worldwide. Many Islamic organization in the United States that claim to be "moderate" can trace their beginnings to funding and organization from the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, public polling in Egypt indicates that the majority of that country's citizens are extreme in their Muslim views. From Barry Rubin:

In Egypt, 30 percent like Hizballah (66 percent don't). 49 percent are favorable toward Hamas (48 percent are negative); and 20 percent smile (72 percent frown) at al-Qaida. Roughly speaking, one-fifth of Egyptians applaud the most extreme Islamist terrorist group, while around one-third back revolutionary Islamists abroad. This doesn't tell us what proportion of Egyptians want an Islamist government at home, but it is an indicator.

In Egypt, 82 percent want stoning for those who commit adultery; 77 percent would like to see whippings and hands cut off for robbery; and 84 percent favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Asked if they supported "modernizers" or "Islamists" only 27 percent said modernizers while 59 percent said Islamists....

If you are wondering what this can lead to, think of the problems Israel has faced ever since Hamas was democratically elected by the extremist Palestinians in Gaza. The same thing could happen in Egypt if elections are held, and Israel could then have on their southern border what they thought they had solved with the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978. If you think that democratic elections are wonderful and the results be damned, then you position is much like that of Jimmy Carter, who cheered on Hamas back in 2006, and whose absurd opinion was wonderfully explained by Cox and Forkum in the cartoon above.

Like I say, nothing good can come of this situation in Egypt.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

25 years ago: "That's trouble of some kind."

I was in 8th grade when I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger explode live on television. It was on this day, 25 years ago. Until September 11, 2001, it was January 28, 1986 that was the day in the news that I remembered most.

Last year, a video was released on YouTube that shows a home video taken by a man from his home as he, his wife, and his neighbors watched the launch from their front yard. It is always interesting to watch an event like this through the eyes of ordinary people, rather than through the cameras and commentary of the news media:



God Bless those astronauts, and their family members who I imagine have a lot on their minds today.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another useless speech in the can

I finally figured out what it is I can't stand about the yearly circle jerk known as the State of the Union speech.

See, once upon a time, the State of the Union was sent to Congress as a written report. The Congresscritters could just read the president's remarks on their own time. It took the power of radio and, especially, television to harness the true power of the PR machine that the SotU has become.

So when I watched the president's cabinet members walk down the aisle, and then the members of the Supreme Court, and then finally the President, with his working of the congressional crowd as he made his way to the podium, it struck me: no matter what political party these people belong to, they see this night as a way to flex their power; to show everyone that they are the elite, and to, as Kate Winslet's character says of the cigar-smoking titans on the Titanic, congratulate themselves on being masters of the universe.

The one thing I was looking forward to with this speech was seeing the disproportionately-sized Republican side of the chamber, and then the Squishes from the Republican party, led by that idiot John McCain, managed to ruin that with their date night with the Democrats.

Oh, and the speech? Just more of Obama pushing his BS green and health care agendas. Yawn.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

R.I.P. Gerry Rafferty

Crap! I just found out tonight that the great singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died back on January 4th, 2011 at the way-too-young age of 63.

I am not the world's biggest fan of music from the 1970s, but if I had to designate my favorite song from that decade, I would most likely choose Rafferty's haunting slice of perfection known as Baker Street, which was released in the summer of 1978. If you don't know the song by title alone, you will know it the second you hear it:



I never get tired of hearing that song.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another brain-trust in Congress tries to justify the constitutionality of ObamaCare

After all the previous stumbles that Cybercast News Service (see blogroll) has effected from lame-brained members of Congress who demonstrate their ignorance of the Constitution and other founding documents while trying to explain why the individual mandate in ObamaCare is constitutional, you would think that the Dems would have a little pow-wow and get their talking points worked out.

The latest nonsense comes from Democrat Representative John Lewis of Georgia. He is often protected from criticism because was once a scion of the civil rights movement. However, that was fifty years ago. Now, he is just another scheming, mealy-mouthed politician who wants to control the lives of others, and he proves that with this clip:



After the proverbial bloodbath the Democrats in Congress experienced back in November, you wonder how a mental midget like this guy made it. Then again, I am sure that he is in a very safe district. What a shame.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Left's vilification of the Right is going to get someone killed

With the die-hards on the left trying desperately to keep the meme going that Sarah Palin and the political right is responsible for the murderous acts of an insane man with leftist leanings, it has reached the point where these efforts have become so desperate that some lefty out there just may snap after being told over and over again how violent the right is, and decide to lash out at his perceived enemies.

What doesn't help is the following political cartoon I saw today that turns Palin into something less than human. Guy Benson at Townhall.com wrote about this cartoon and some others that employ "heated rhetoric" against the right. Remember, it is much easier to get people to commit violence if you can convince them that the target of their violence is somehow less than human, and I believe this grotesque cartoon accomplishes the mission of dehumanizing Sarah Palin and making her someone who a disturbed person on the left would want to harm:


When I saw this cartoon today, I was instantly reminded of the dehumanizing posters of Jews that the Nazis produced leading up to, and during, World War II. Kind of like this one:

Left-wingers in the media must stop this vilification of those with whom they disagree politically, or sooner or later, some minion of the New York Times, Keith Olbermann, or the cartoonist who turned Sarah Palin into the subhuman caricature you see above, is going to start to think it is acceptable to kill or injure those who are considered to be no longer fully human.

So to these leftists in the media, I say stop the hate! Stop the heated rhetoric!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Music to my ears

Want to hear the recently-discovered earliest known sound recording? It is of a woman singing some French song, and the recording was done in 1860! Yes, 1860! That is about 20 years earlier than Thomas Edison's early recording work.

George Mason University's History News Network has it posted.

Naturally, it's not the best sound in the world, but there is no mistaking that it you are listening to a person. Just think, the voice you hear is from someone who was living in a world where the U.S. Civil War would not start for another year.

Amazing.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Whew! At least the shooter was a "gringo"

From that taxpayer-funded bastion of leftism, National Public Radio, comes the idiotic statement of the day.

Listen as this brown brain-trust (Hey, she brought up the "brown" business!) sighs some relief that it was a white guy who carried out the horrific crime in Arizona. The takeaway line:

"It’s safe to say there was a collective sigh of brown relief when the Tucson killer turned out to be a gringo."



Wow. If the shooter had been black instead of white, would she have expressed her relief that the Tucson killer turned out to be a "nigger"? I doubt NPR would have allowed her thoughts to go on the air so easily. Saying "gringo" however? Meh.

Can we de-fund NPR now? Oh, and after listening to this, they fired Juan Williams because... why?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Left's legacy of hate and violence

I caught a little bit of NBC Nightly News tonight, and unsurprisingly, they spent plenty of time trying, once again, to tie the murderer in Arizona to conservatives; especially Sarah Palin. Shown multiple times of course was this "crosshairs" map of Palin's that designated with geological survey markers certain congressional districts that she hoped would go to Republicans in upcoming elections. The fact that the Democratic Leadership Council and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has used similar maps using target bullseyes went unreported by NBC News.

If someone from the statist side of the aisle tries to tell you how violent Sarah Palin and those right-wing "Tea Baggers" are, I have a treat for you. Michelle Malkin has posted a stupendous compilation of the violent words and actions committed by the political left in the last ten years, including the "overheated rhetoric" - the year's first overused term - that has been uttered by our current commander in chief, that, if a Republican president or other conservative politician said it, would have Paul Krugman suffering from the vapors.

Unlike the smallest off-color comments by those on the Right, which are blasted all over the media, many of the Left's not-so-greatest hits will be news to you unless you are a frequent reader of the alternative media and the conservative blogosphere. It will also give you the intellectual ammunition - can I say "ammunition"? - to throw back in their face - can I say that? - any ignorant statements by statists who try to tell you how uniquely violent those nasty conservatives are.

I wish we didn't have to engage in this kind of tit-for-tat, "you did it too" debating, but as Malkin says, our hand has been forced. You can't just let this crap go unanswered.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Band has lost its lead Brother

Dick Winters, the head of Easy Company, 2nd of the 506th Parachute Infantry during World War II, has died at the age of 92.

The actions of Winters and many of his fellow Easy Co. compatriots were beautifully portrayed in Band of Brothers, the amazing 2001 HBO mini-series.

I own the entire Band of Brothers collection on DVD, and I pull one out every once in a while and view some of the most haunting and accurate portrayals of World War II combat that were faced by our American fighting men.

God Bless Dick Winters and everyone who fought for our country in the "Good War."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

That didn't take long: Tea Party is blamed for Giffords massacre

As soon as I saw the news coverage about the shooting of Arizona congresscritter Gabrielle Giffords, I knew the first thing out of the mouths of the loony left would be to blame the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the political right as a whole for Giffords' shooting.

And as surely as the sun rises in the east, I was right, and right, and right, and right.

Problem is, the background of the shooter is not cooperating with the narrative that the political left in this country so wants to pin on the aforementioned people and organizations on the right.

First off, as far as left-wing hate rhetoric towards Gabrielle Giffords, look no further than that hotbed of left-wing loonyism, the Daily Kos. I would link you to this article, but for some reason, the Daily Kos has scrubbed this article from their site. Good thing I screen captured it first:


What's that? Giffords is DEAD to you? So, apparently it was hateful rhetoric on the left that caused this shooter to do this? Not to mention, wasn't it our current left-wing president, Barack Obama, who, when speaking of how to engage with his political enemies, said, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun"? See how this works? The Left is predictably going to try to pin this crime on the political right no matter what the ideology of the shooter.

Speaking of the shooter's ideology, it is becoming more and more apparent that this shooter was far from being a Tea Party sympathizer.

A high school friend of his Tweeted earlier today that he was "quite liberal," "left-wing," a "pothead," and a "political radical." Yeah, he sounds like a real right-wing nutjob.

This is nothing new as of late. Most of the political violence in our country in the last few years has been committed by the political left, even as the left-wing news media does everything it can to laughably paint it as coming from the right.

In the meantime, I pray for Gabrielle Giffords' recovery, as I also pray for the souls of the 6 people killed and the 13 people wounded by the shooter, along with the families of the fallen.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Obamacare has nothing to do with it. Just move along, move along

Interesting story in today's edition of the Sacramento Bee. It seems our state's brand new statist insurance commissioner (and former statist state assemblyman) Dave Jones is all bent out of shape that several health insurance companies in California are raising their premiums:

Only days into the job, state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones faced off with the health insurance industry Thursday, calling on Blue Shield of California to delay plans to raise premiums by as much as 59 percent on nearly 200,000 Californians who buy health coverage on their own...

Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit insurer, recently announced plans to raise rates for individual customers by 9.8 percent on average – on top of the 14 percent hike it put into effect in October...

Health Net on Jan. 1 also raised rates, by an average of 4 percent, on 37,000 customers with preferred provider coverage in the individual market, said spokesman Brad Kieffer. About 3,000 health maintenance customers saw rates go up an average of 1 percent...

The health insurance companies are quoted in the article as blaming the premium increases on, "spiraling costs for medical care that are charged by hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers," however, a spokesperson for Blue Shield goes out of his way to insist that the newly passed ObamaCare law has nothing to do with the rate hikes:

Blue Shield said its rate increase was not the result of provisions contained in the federal health care law.

"These rates reflect trends that were building long before health reform," the company said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

Golly, it would be so easy to take these insurance companies at their word and let them place all the blame on themselves and health care providers, and absolve government of any responsibility, but don't the inevitable costs placed on the insurance companies by ObamaCare play any role at all? How could they not, and why won't the insurance companies say so?

I know! Let's revisit the words of Obama's Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who said last year:

"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to the insurance lobby.

"Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections," Sebelius said. She warned that bad actors may be excluded from new health insurance markets that will open in 2014 under the law. They'd lose out on a big pool of customers, as many as 30 million people nationwide....

So with a not-so-subtle warning like that from our imperial federal government, even if ObamaCare is a reason for these rate hikes (and you know it has to be), do you think the insurance companies are going to say so?

Welcome to 2011 America.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Reading the Constitution: Yes, they were serious.

Remember when a reporter from CNS asked then-Speaker (I love the sound of that) Nancy Pelosi by what constitutional authority had Congress passed the individual mandate in the Obama-Care bill? Pelosi's non-answer was, "Are you serious? Are you serious?"

I have to say, I was having quite a bit of fun this morning as hundreds of members of the House of Representatives - Republican and Democrat alike - read the U.S. Constitution from the Preamble to the 27th Amendment.

I had the most fun watching the Dems get up there and read. There were times when some of them didn't look too happy about it. You could just see the seething going on behind some of these Democrats' eyes (Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas comes to mind) as they read their excerpt from the Constitution only because they knew if the Dems boycotted this reading, they would have been pilloried even more by the American public than they have already.

I texted a buddy of mine while the Constitution reading was going on and mentioned my observations about the Democrats to him. He responded back by saying, "It's like opening the Ark of the Covenant... their skin will melt off of their faces."

The proglodytes got all bent out of shape that Speaker Boehner insisted that the Constitution be read at the beginning of the 112th Congress. If I were Speaker, I would insist that this be done at the beginning of every new Congress. For God's Sake, they took an oath to uphold, protect, and defend this document; the least we can do is ensure that they know exactly what is in it.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

And I always thought I would be the one to get groped

Ever since my wife told me back in October that we would be flying to San Diego just after Christmas to see her sister and family, I had been dreading the return flight from San Diego back to Sacramento.

Why?

Because even though Sacramento's airport doesn't have the porn-scanners that show your naked form to TSA officials, I know San Diego's airport does. And we all know the choice that is faced at airports like San Diego: Porn scan, or enhanced patdown. After all, it was at San Diego's airport where the famous "Don't touch my junk" guy introduced a new catchphrase to the American lexicon. When I ran the scenario in my mind about what to do if faced with that choice, I tended to place myself in that predicament. For whatever reason, it just seemed logical that I would be the chosen one for this 4th Amendment-busting treatment.

Fast forward to New Year's Day, 2011; which, at this writing, is still yesterday. My wife, kids, and I approached the TSA agents at the x-rays and metal detectors. Like good proles, we dutifully emptied our pockets and removed our shoes. My wife was the first through the metal detector, and it beep-beep-beeped. She was sent back through to try again, removing her watch and necklace and handing it to me first. She went back through again, and it beep-beep-beeped. She was sent back to try again. This time, there was nothing left to take off or out of her pockets. She walked through the detector a third time, and it beep-beep-beeped again. By this time, my wife was getting flustered. She was pretty sure the underwire in her bra was setting off the metal detector, but she began rightly wondering why that same bra didn't set off the detectors in Sacramento. But her fluster was mostly caused by what she knew was coming next.

Now, in the past, the security official would have wanded my wife with a hand-held metal detector, it would have beeped in the underwire area, and that would have been it. Not in Barack Obama and Janet Napolitano's America. Instead, we were ushered to a side area where a female TSA agent had my wife assume the arms-up position with which we are all now familiar, and proceeded to conduct the enhanced patdown with which we are all familiar.

It was just like you have all seen in news reports and YouTube videos: Just about every inch of my wife's body was checked. The agent used the back of her hands to check the chest area, and most uncomfortable part was the below the waist check. The agent didn't just go up the legs and stop when she reached no more room to go up; she went across the front of my wife's unmentionable area, and then worked her way down.

Meanwhile, my wife had a look that was one part humiliation, and one part resignation. I guess the saving grace is that the TSA agent had the same look as my wife. I got the feeling that this was not what the agent signed up for.

When it was over, I asked my wife if she was OK. She was a good sport about it, and said that if she would have done anything differently, she would have requested a private room. She said the patdown itself wasn't as bad as the fact that it was being conducted in front of God and everybody. It also bothered her that our kids had to watch it. I would have loved to have the kids go elsewhere, but I would have had to go with them, and there was no way I was leaving my wife by herself. After we took a seat near our gate, I made a point of talking with our kids about what they had witnessed, and planted the seed in their minds that this is not the way things are supposed to be at the airport or in our society, and that once upon a time, things were indeed not that way.

So, quite the way to ring in the new year, eh? A sad little glimpse of 2011 America.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

2011 already?!

Statist media members say the darndest things!

It's that time of year again! The Media Research Center has released its Notable Quotables for 2010.

Click on the link above to revisit the revolting utterances that have escaped from the mouths of our supposed betters in the Statist Media.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Forgive *this* expression: You're a moron!

Nina, Nina, Nina. National Public Radio's contribution to the national discourse, Nina Totenberg, said something very naughty the other day. It was so naughty, that Nina had to ask viewers to forgive her for what she uttered. What was the word for which she asked forgiveness?

Christmas

Take a look:



This is from the same woman who once expressed her hope that the late Senator Jesse Helms and/or his grandchildren would contract AIDS. I don't remember her ever asking for our forgiveness for saying that!

And remember: your taxes pay her salary.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The ends justify the means

Admitted communist Van Jones, who briefly served as President Obama's "Green Czar," recently let the cat out of the bag during an unprotected moment in a speech to some of his young minions.

You know that whole "Cap and Trade" thing that would devastate our economy if it were passed? Jones and his fellow travelers are just making stuff up in an effort to get it passed. I know, shocking.

Hat tip to The Blaze for this enlightening snippet of video.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Victor Davis Hanson's California

I can think of few other people to describe the problems faced by the late, great state of California than Victor Davis Hanson; a native son, farm owner, and former CSU Fresno professor.

In an article for National Review, Dr. Hanson provides a wonderful narrative of what is wrong with California. You really need to read the whole article, but here are just some of many literary gems to be found:

I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption...

It is almost as if the more California regulates, the more it does not regulate. Its public employees prefer to go after misdemeanors in the upscale areas to justify our expensive oversight industry, while ignoring the felonies in the downtrodden areas, which are becoming feral and beyond the ability of any inspector to do anything but feel irrelevant. But in the regulators’ defense, where would one get the money to redo an ad hoc trailer park with a spider web of illegal bare wires..?

California coastal elites may worry about the oxygen content of water available to a three-inch smelt in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, but they seem to have no interest in the epidemic dumping of trash, furniture, and often toxic substances throughout California’s rural hinterland. Yesterday, for example, I rode my bike by a stopped van just as the occupants tossed seven plastic bags of raw refuse onto the side of the road. I rode up near their bumper and said in my broken Spanish not to throw garbage onto the public road. But there were three of them, and one of me. So I was lucky to be sworn at only. I note in passing that I would not drive into Mexico and, as a guest, dare to pull over and throw seven bags of trash into the environment of my host...

In two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when “food stamps” were embarrassing bulky coupons). But I did not see any relationship between the use of the card and poverty as we once knew it: The electrical appurtenances owned by the user and the car into which the groceries were loaded were indistinguishable from those of the upper middle class....

I think you get the picture: This state is screwed. Again, I highly recommend that you read the entire article. It is brilliant.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Boo-Boo

I just wish I could have pulled the trigger. I despise the work of Hanna-Barbera:



Great send-up of that wonderful, moody Western from 2007.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Michelle Antoinette knows what is best for you

When it comes to deciding what your kid will eat, "We can't just leave it up to the parents," says Michelle Obama.

I'm so glad I have Michelle Obama around to tell me how and what to feed my children. I don't know how I would get along without her. After all, she knows better than I how to feed and raise my children. After all, I am just a peasant.

My usual question: Where in the Constitution is Congress and the President authorized to pass laws providing school lunches and breakfast at taxpayer expense? To the tune of $4.5 billion in this case.

It is always such a simple litmus test that our pampered princes and princesses in D.C. fail time and time again.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

My Bologna has a first name: It's A-s-s-h-o-l-e

With Alan Grayson on his way out the door, it appears that the baton has been passed to the new biggest jerk in the House of Representatives: Anthony Weiner (Democrat, naturally) of New York. And yes, it is pronounced *Wee-ner.*

Watch this guy in action against the lovely Megyn Kelly of FoxNews. Between his condescension and hissy-fits, he appears to be gleeful as he describes your demise so that he can tax the hell out of your estate:



Grayson was from a majority-Republican district in Florida, so he was beatable. This piece of work is from lefty New York City. I expect we will be watching the antics of the Weiner for years to come.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

December 7, 1941: 69 years ago, today

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Now I'm a cultist for supporting the Constitution

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Such a simple amendment, is it not? The final amendment of our Bill of Rights provided quite the exclamation point to the first ten amendments that were added to the Constitution. As we all (should) know, the Bill of Rights were added to the Constitution in an effort to quell the fears many Americans had that their God-given rights would be violated by the brand new federal government that was much more powerful than the one we had under the Articles of Confederation.

The Tenth Amendment stated that if the federal government had not been given express permission to do something by the Constitution, then that the power to do that something was automatically something only the states or individual Americans could do.

Now, according to the union cultists of the AFL-CIO, to support the Tenth Amendment makes one a "Tenther."

This article is admittedly almost two months old, but I highly doubt their position has changed. Read the diabolical and sadly misinformed article if you wish, but here is just a taste of the AFL-CIO's madness fueled by ignorance:

Most cults are based in some sort of skewed spiritual vision or the worship of a charismatic leader, but there is a re-emerging cult that bows down at the feet of the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Many of them want to bring their cultish beliefs to the halls of Congress and are running for election this fall.

They’re called the “tenthers” and they say federal laws and rules like the minimum wage, Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Department of Education, even child labor laws and a laundry list of other federal laws and programs are unconstitutional.

Their rationale—irrationale would be a better word—is that if a federal power is not specifically spelled out in the Constitution, well the government doesn’t have it, according to their view of the 10th amendment....

Huh? How is it "irrationale" to interpret something as it is clearly written? For the cultists of the AFL-CIO, they hope that by insisting something isn't true, then it won't be true. That is some true anti-intellectual alchemy that only a cultist could appreciate.

You see of course how the article frames the argument: If you are against federal minimum wage laws, child labor laws, and the like, then you are against those kind of laws period.

No, no, no. If you want laws like that passed, then pass them at the state level. If you truly think that it should be a law that applies to the entire country, then by all means, work to get the Constitution amended to allow law to be passed in those areas.

Otherwise, all those areas of law that are revered in the article are indeed unconstitutional and should not have been passed or enacted. Instead, the federal government - with the support of a misguided and/or ignorant populace - passed laws in those areas, even though they had no power to do so.

Were I King for a Day, I would nullify all those laws mentioned, and leave those matters up to the several states as originally intended. But we don't need a King for a Day; we have an elected legislature and president to do the right thing - even though you know they won't.

I will just go on being a "Tenther."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Team Guts!

When I ran track and cross-country in college, it was quite evident that I was much better at the former. I hated cross-country with every fiber of my being, but I ran it because my coach believed it would give me a good base to build on when track speedwork began in the winter. My effectiveness in a race petered out after anything longer than a mile, so the four-mile races in cross-country were utter torture for me.

Of course, torture is the nature of cross-country running. There is a reason that emblazoned across the back our team t-shirts was, "TEAM GUTS."

Now that you know how tough cross-country running can be, watch this visual representation of the TEAM GUTS philosophy in action. Ladies and Gentlemen, this young lady has guts, and also a lot of heart:



Admittedly, you also have to have a few screws loose. I don't miss those autumn days of the early 1990s.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

How can you not love to watch this?

Simple game really: Make the half-court shot, win a car.



As one commenter said at the YouTube site, at least someone in Sacramento is making shots. You also gotta love the buddy who is just brimming with confidence. HA! He thought he was going to snag an easy $50.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson