GO "OCCUPY" A TOILET ... STOCK MARKET
"BUBBLE" BUILDING?
Now that two big-city liberal mayors, Bloomberg in New York and Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, have finally figured out that appeasement doesn't work with the "Occupy" loonies and had the police move them out, that's a likely sign that the end of the road is fast approaching for this communist-inspired "movement" and it's accompanying public bowel ... movements.
One taxpayer consolation for having to have tons of feces removed: at least the "Occupiers" left their brains behind.
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Marybeth Hicks of the Washington Times had the most colorful summation of the whole "Occupy" debacle ...
"As a culture columnist, I've commented on the social and political ramifications of the "movement" - now known as "OWS" - whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: 'Everything for everybody.'
"Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it's clear there are people with serious designs on 'transformational' change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel."
-- Thanks, Andy --
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Call me a 'fraidy-cat, but I strongly suspect yesterday's big stock market surge was occasioned by big traders still trying to outsmart each other, intending to sell and get out before the public figures out that plans to rescue Europe's trembling economies, involving pumping out more paper dollars, can't help but create ever-worse inflation.
I was stunned to hear the usually-astute Charles Krauthammer minimize the inflation factor, which is already present and obvious in the creation of money out of thin air in ever-expanding amounts by the Federal Reserve. That alone necessarily is inflationary. If that's too deep to be understood, a visit to any supermarket and comparison of prices of only a year ago will reveal the truth in stark terms.
And again, it is always to be remembered that higher prices don't CREATE inflation but are a RESULT of it.
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From a regular contributor ...
"There is a huge argument brewing over whether we should be bailing out Europe.
Dumbplumber says, 'We bailed them out twice, WWI and WWII, then helped them rebuild. Time for them to grow up and behave like adults'.”
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Smallest news surprise of the week: Gallup Poll finds Obama's job-approval among the public falling below even Jimmy Carter's. But we have to live another year-plus with his stupidity and/or treachery.
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Obama, rabble-rousing yesterday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, harangued the crowd, shouting, "I'm going to need another term to finish the job." Finish what job? Destroying the nation?
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Most memorable line of the week ...
“What the hell are we paying you for?” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, inquiring of President Obama.
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Herman Cain says he'll decide on whether to continue his presidential quest within the next week. Judging by all the polls, the public has already decided.
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The Egg-on-Face report today includes word from Iowa that Michele Bachmann confidently announced that she'd close the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Note to Ms. Bachmann: the U.S. broke relations with Iran more than twenty years ago and hasn't had an embassy there since.
Ill-informed presidential candidates are worrisome, as witness the present occupant.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is taking up -- again -- a case involving racial preferences granted to minorities seeking college entry. Such preferences are now allowed in the holy name of "diversity". The question lingers: do you want your next surgery performed by a doctor who got into medical school with reduced aptitude because of racial preferences?
Such fraudulent manipulation of standards does no favor for the recipients, because it reduces everyone else's confidence that their "education" has any substance.
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Congress has lifted the ban on slaughtering horses for meat.
I, for one, am repulsed. The two species that have been of greatest service to human beings are horses and dogs. It is disgusting that we humans would repay their loyalty in such a barbaric fashion.
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My longtime ABC colleague Jim Eason has some cautionary observations about big government projects ...
"First, this is one of the few statements that came from my observing eyes, and thinking brain. It reached fruition during the famous installation of BART in the Bay Area. I worked at KCBS, in the Sheraton-Palace, on lower Market Street, and commuted up and down the ravaged Market Street for several years. Observing how BART came to San Francisco, I learned three things about Government programs. These observations have NEVER failed to be true for at least the past 30-40 years.
Three things about ANY government program:
(1) It will take longer than they promise.
(2) It will cost much more than they promise.
(3) It will not perform as promised.
"BART was a classic example: it was delayed for several reasons, not the least a several-month period with either a strike or a absence of funds. Yes, it took much longer than promised. And BART was a budget buster. And, while it did not originally serve the citizens of San Francisco - operating as a cross-Bay tunnel between the East Bay and downtown San Francisco - it never performed as promised - those lightning-flashes of speedy travel turned out to be pretty quick, but short of the "minutes" guaranteed by the PR to get it approved. The original BART didn't even connect any airport in the Bay Area - not San Francisco, nor Oakland, nor San Jose. Additions have corrected some of the disappoints, but it took more time and money.
"Good luck with future government projects -- the high speed train from LA to Sacramento? It hasn't even seriously begun...and the price has doubled! When do they promise service? Will it do what they say it will? Right."
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Columnist Mona Charen (townhall.com) summarizes her reservations about Newt, including this ...
"No sooner had Republicans, with a huge boost from Gingrich, achieved the long-denied prize of control of the House of Representatives than Gingrich embarrassed the party by signing a $4.5 million book deal. Though an effective, even inspired, backbencher in Congress, Gingrich proved an incompetent and sometimes petulant leader. He explained that his decision to shut down the government in 1995 was in part motivated by Bill Clinton's failure to spend time with him on Air Force One when the two were returning from Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. 'It's petty, but I think it's human,' said Gingrich.
"Gingrich was the only speaker of the House in U.S. history to be removed by his own party. It wasn't a cabal of liberals who forced him out, but Dick Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay and John Boehner."
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Reader Duke offers this about Mr. Cain ...
"Herman Cain; The man is smart, no doubt, he also has significant financial resources so it is unforgivable (or unbelievable) that he would not hire a retired diplomat or professor to coach him seven days a week on his weak points. Only conclusion; he's not serious."
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Burt Prelutsky is bemused by the reading habits of Obama & Co. ...
"Am I the only person who appears to notice a strange pattern forming in our nation's capital? It appears that nobody involved with this administration will read anything but a menu. Several Democrats who voted for the trillion dollar Stimulus admitted they hadn't read the bill. Eric Holder confessed, after filing a federal lawsuit against Arizona's immigration bill, that he hadn't bothered to read the 13-page document. More recently, the Attorney General claimed he hadn't read any of several memos his underlings had sent him regarding "Fast & Furious."
Energy Chief Steven Chu, while defending the half billion dollars given to Solyndra, claimed he hadn't read any of the memos his underlings had sent him, warning him that Solyndra's chance of success weren't half as good as that snowball that somehow found itself in Hell.
"The most egregious example, though, is Barack Obama, who, rumor has it, once started reading the Constitution, but quit as soon as he saw that it didn't deal with the redistribution of wealth".
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The spell-check on one of my computers redlines Barack Obama's name every time I write it -- such as a few words back. Has it not yet recognized the name of the president? Or ... does it know something the rest of us don't?
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Great Orators of the Democrat Party past ...
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The buck stops here." - Harry S. Truman
"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy
Great orators of the Democrat Party today ...
"It depends what your definition of 'Sex' is?'' - Bill Clinton
"That Obama .... I would like to cut his nuts off." - Jesse Jackson
"Those rumors are false ... I believe in the sanctity of marriage." - John Edwards
"I invented the Internet." - Al Gore
"The next person that tells me I'm not religious, I'm going to shove my rosary beads up their ass." - Joe Biden
"I have campaigned in all 57 states." - Barack Obama
"You don't need God anymore, you have us Democrats." - Nancy Pelosi
"Paying taxes is voluntary." - Sen. Harry Reid
"Bill is the greatest husband and father I know. No one is more faithful, true, and honest than he." - Hillary Clinton
And the most recent gem of wisdom from the "Mother Moron":
"We just have to pass the Healthcare Bill to see what's in it." - Nancy Pelosi
-- Thanks, William --
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As a young man in broadcasting, I had sportscaster aspirations, like many in the business then and now. I did manage to fulfill a good part of that goal with assignments to broadcast major college football games at venues all over the nation and a lot of basketball work.
I soon came to realize, however, that the opportunities for lucrative work at the top levels of the field were limited. Guys like Harry Caray, Jack Brickhouse, Keith Jackson, Mel Allen and Red Barber were in no hurry to step aside. And how many young men have grown old waiting to replace Vin Scully?
Lesser jobs had a limited income potential because broadcast management people realized there were plenty of eager aspirants ready to fill them. So I directed my career in other directions.
Now I'm glad I did. Sports is, after all, a small universe with unlimited repetition and, to me, boredom. I'm reminded of this every time I turn on ESPN and hear yet another lengthy discussion about Tim Tebow's aptitude for pro football. I love sports, but the yawn factor occupies so much of broadcast -- or cable-cast -- time.
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I know that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but ... how horny must you be to find Jennifer Aniston sexy?
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I find it hard to believe that there are people so dumb that they fall for the so-called "Nigerian scam" (it now comes from all over the world) in which they're told by e-mail that they've either won some lottery they never entered, or have been chosen to benefit from money stashed away by some third-world embezzler. Inevitably, they will be asked for their bank account number and will wise up only after the account is emptied. Good! I subscribe to the philosophy that greedy people who are so stupid should not be allowed to have -- or keep -- money.
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Media news ...
"Progressive" talk radio has failed in -- of all place -- San Francisco. The station that was airing the view of the loony left had such pathetic ratings, it's being bumped down to a sub-channel on FM. In San Francisco! Some years ago when I was re-hired by ABC (after having voluntarily left) to resuscitate a dead AM they had bought in SF, they had also tried the "progressive talk" experiment, which had died a horrible death. We succeeded in reviving it, by the way; the only example of a dead AM station being brought back to life in any major market in the nation. Brought it back with commonsense conservative talk in the most liberal city in the nation! And yes, the death-threats from outraged liberal nut-jobs came frequently. A fringe-benefit.
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Much as we may detest people -- and businesses -- who can't bring themselves to say "Merry Christmas", some of us must exercise restraint and not respond to the tepid "Happy Holidays" with a heartfelt and hearty "(bleep) you!"
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From the Sky-guy ...
Halfway through Thanksgiving dinner last week, our friend Mike told us of his days playing football in college as a defensive linemen.
"Did you play sports in college, Sky?" his wife asked.
"Yes," I answered. "I was on the New Mexico Military Institute shooting team."
"That's great." she said, obviously impressed. "Offense or defense?"
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Jimmy Fallon --
"A woman in Germany gave birth to a baby boy named 'Jihad.' Or as the TSA put it, 'Hope you like Amtrak!'”
MITT LOSING HIS COOL? ... A FACT-CHECK
ON MORE OBAMA LIES
If Mitt Romney gets upset over a few utterly predictable questions from a hardly-hostile Bret Baier of Fox, it does not bode well for him as the campaign(s) heat up. Apparently peaking at 25% support among Republicans, when the heat rises and opponents realize he can be rattled, life is only going to get more difficult for him.
Gingrich is already killing him in Florida, which could be Mitt's political graveyard.
One remaining big question is whether Republicans, so contemptuous of the personal peccadilloes of Bill Clinton and assorted Democrats are willing to overlook some similar behavior on the part of Gingrich. Then there's all that loot he raked in from the government mortgage-lender guarantors at Freddie Mac. Keep the tissues handy, 'cause it's gonna get dirty!
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More naughty politicians? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a federal grand jury is investigating former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson over possible campaign-finance violations stemming from his 2008 presidential run, including allegations that he arranged for supporters to pay off a woman who planned to say they had been making "the beast with two backs". (I like to throw in a little Shakespeare, just to class-up the column.)
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RealClearPolitics maintains a running average of major polls. Here's how the Republican race stacks up nationally:
Gingrich --23.8% ... Romney --21.3% ... the fast-fading Cain --15.5%.
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From Len the haiku guy ... another classic-to-be in the Japanese style: three lines consisting of five syllables, then seven, then five again ...
The Cain Train breaks down.
First he's in and then he's out.
Too many tunnels.
Len, go to your room!
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Have you noticed it? Lately our gutless and gullible Big Media are trying to draw distinctions between Islamists and "hard-line Islamists". What?! By definition, an Islamist, "hard-line" or not, is committed to Islamic world rule and Sharia Law in all its oppressiveness.
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Sharon Bialek, the Chicago-area woman who got her fifteen minues of fame when she claimed her 13-year-old son had urged her to blow the whistle on ol' Herm for (allegedly) feeling-up her crotch and appeared on TV with leftist attorney Gloria Allred ... is back in the local news in Chi-town. The Tribune reports she was served with an eviction notice for $7,500 in unpaid back-rent. Actually, she wasn't home. The notice was served on the afore-mentioned 13-year-old.
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President Obama appointed a bi-partisan commission to recommend ways out of our debt crisis ... then ignored their conclusions. A reminder ...
“Once The Bipartisan Fiscal Commission Finishes Its Work, I Will Spend The Next Year Making The Tough Choices Necessary To Further Reduce Our Deficit And Lower Our Debt.” -- Barack Obama, Parma, OH, September 8, 2010.
“Obama Has Yet To Sign On To Any Of The Ideas, Even Though He Promised When Creating The Panel That It Would Not Be ‘One Of Those Washington Gimmicks.’” -- Associated Press Fact Check, January 26, 2011
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Do lies get any more blatant than this?
"I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration." -- Barack Obama, at a fundraiser Wednesday night in New York.
Male bovine excrement!
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More idiotic ravings from the Obamunists ...
Kathleen Sebelius, BO's Secretary of Health and Human services, told a nurses' convention that health care “really is an issue of national security.”
Oh, really? Then how did we win two World Wars long before the government got involved in health care at all?
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Marilyn Tavenner is Obama's new Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Just so you know, she is a former executive of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which was responsible for the largest single example of Medicare fraud in history, paid fines of almost $1.5 billion for their scams.
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What does it take to get some of these people prosecuted and imprisoned? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government's money-losing mortgage guaranty schlock-operations, spent more than $640,000 this fall to send 100 employees to a Chicago mortgage-industry conference and to host events there to wine and dine mortgage lenders who can't do business with anybody else for the same services, anyway! The employees also ran up some huge bills, themselves.
More of your money, peed down the drain of self-indulgence by government parasites.
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If Texas Governor Rick Perry isn't a dope, why does he keep acting like one?
In a speech at St. Anselm college, he urged students who will be at least 21 years of age to vote for him on Election Day. "As for those younger than 21, he merely asked them to work hard on his behalf," the AP story said.
Somebody should tell Gov. Goodhair that the voting age is 18, and has been since 1971.
Rick ... get out.
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An index of mutual funds that invest in solar companies is down 60% for the year. This is what happens when gullible investors put their money into loony fads based on fake science.
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Daniel Hannan in Britain's Telegraph newspaper expresses what seems to be growing remorse in that country ...
"If Britain had never joined the EU – if we had had the good sense to negotiate a Swiss-style free trade accord – do you imagine that either of the two main front benches (the major parties in parliament) would now be proposing membership?
"The European project was presented to us as an essentially economic proposition. Yes, we'd lose an element of our democratic self-government, but in return we'd get prosperity. Does anyone, looking at what is happening across the Channel, still believe that?"
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The "Wuss of the Week" winner, hands-down, is Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, former RINO Senator who ran for the governorship as an independent ... part of a left-wing (by whatever label) family with which Rhode Island voters have been besotted for decades.
He's a deserving winner of the "Wuss" award for caving-in to his PC urges and insisting that the state Christmas tree be called a "holiday tree". As if Christmas had no more meaning than, say, Groundhog Day. Unless prospective opponents have very short memories, he will pay a price at re-election time.
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I read and watch several news outlets, including -- but certainly not limited to -- Fox. Their morning show, like most of the genre, has a heavy component of non-vital "fluff" news, which I understand. It's showbiz, after all.
To me, the real weak-link in the offering is the female third of the host lineup, whose name escapes me. I'll limit my criticism to this: She is every blonde joke come-to-life. They have other very bright women in the Fox News lineup who would be a far better fit.
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This comes from Wisconsin writer/speaker Tim Nerenz ...
We used to make things here in Wisconsin. We made machine tools in Milwaukee, cars in Kenosha and ships in Sheboygan. We mined iron in the north and lead in the south. We made cheese, we made brats, we made beer, and we even made napkins to clean up what we spilled. And we made money.
The original war on poverty was a private, mercenary affair. Men like Harnishfeger, Allis, Chalmers, Kohler, Kearney, Trecker, Modine, Case, Mead, Falk, Allen, Bradley, Cutler, Hammer, Bucyrus, Harley, Davidson, Pabst, and Miller lifted millions up from subsistence living to middle class comfort. They did it - not "Fighting Bob" La Follette or any of the politicians who came along later to take the credit and rake a piece of the action through the steepest progressive scheme in the nation.
This is what a century of progressivism will get you. Wisconsin is the birthplace of the progressive movement, the home of the Socialist Party, the first state to allow public sector unions, the cradle of environmental activism, a liberal fortress walled off against common sense for decades. Their motto, Forward Wisconsin, should be changed to Downward Wisconsin if truth in advertising applies to slogans.
There is no shortage of activists, advocates, and agitators in this State. If government were the answer to our problems, we would have no problems. The very same people - or people just like them - who picketed, struck, sued, taxed, and regulated our great companies out of this state are now complaining about the unemployment and poverty that they have brought upon themselves. They got rid of those old rich white guys and replaced them with...nothing.
In the last decade alone we have lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs in this state - over 25%. And it's not just jobs that have been lost; the companies that provided them are gone. Those jobs are not coming back, no matter how long we extend unemployment benefits pretending they are.
Those great men of industry were not anointed at birth to be rich; they rose from nothing to great wealth through their own hard work and the value they added to their employees and their customers through choice, competition, and voluntary exchange. That is the only sure path to real prosperity; the debt economy is a temporary illusion.
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Because I broadcast for ABC in San Francisco over twenty-five years, I'm often asked how the empire that once was, KSFO/KGO, is doing these days. Here's the sad truth in the latest ratings.
KGO, longtime #1 in the ratings, is 7th and still sinking. KSFO, the station we brought back from the dead and returned to major-league status, has fared even worse since its lovable morning host -- that would be me -- departed. It is now in (gulp!) 17th place.
This is what happens when great stations are taken over by corporate morons.
NOW ... THIS JUST IN:
Yesterday all the KGO talk-show hosts (except Ronn Owens, who has some time remaining on his contract) were fired.
Word is, the station is going to an all-news format, doubtless run on-the-cheap. The industry is rife with speculation that it will fail against the established CBS brand. KSFO people are being "evaluated", which sounds like corporate-speak for "Merry Christmas, now get out!"
Thus the collapse of two once-great radio stations that, between them, dominated Northern California radio for more than fifty years.
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Call me cynical -- you won't be the first -- but I strongly suspect that the NFL's televising of the Thursday night games on their own cable-channel is the camel's nose under the tent, with the ultimate goal being ... you WILL pay to see games on TV.
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The Anderson Cooper talk show on CNN hasn't exactly caught fire in the ratings, wallowing in sub-mediocrity like everything else on the cable operation. Both executive producers have been fired.
Also sliding downhill ... Piers Morgan.
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Sheila contributes this report from Coral Springs, Florida ...
The woman applying for a job in a Florida lemon grove seemed to be far too qualified for the job.
She had a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan and had worked as a social worker and school teacher.
The foreman frowned and said, "I have to ask you, have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?"
"Well, as a matter of fact, I have! I've been divorced three times, owned 2 Chryslers and voted for Obama."
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Highly recommended reading. The American Spectator website ... entered Thursday ...
"The Democrats Find Machiavelli", by John H. Chettle
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Robert believes in our right to own firearms and forwards this ...
"I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said, 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!' To which I said, 'Of course it is loaded, it can't work without bullets!'
She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?'
My reply was, 'No not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too'."
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To borrow Dave Barry's oft-used line ... I am NOT making this up.
A Brtish company has developed an electronic game to occupy men using urinals, where protocol requires looking straight ahead at all times.
It's an electronic video game in which the participant scores depend upon accuracy in hitting certain targets in the ... appliance.
We await word that it's evolving into a team sport into neighborhoods like, say, the Castro in San Francisco.
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Timeless wisdom from Will Rogers ...
The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.
There are three kinds of men:
The ones that learn by reading.
The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
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Jimmy Fallon --
" Vice President Biden will travel to Turkey to speak at an economic summit. When he heard he was giving a speech to Turkey, Biden was like, ‘I am SO sorry about Thanksgiving.'"
FIGURES DON'T LIE? - HA! ... MRS.
CAIN, CAN HERMAN COME OUT AND PLAY?
Unemployment "down" to 8.6%? Bullfeathers! The reason the rate is down is because upward of 300,000 Americans have simply given up and aren't even looking for work. The fact remains that more than 13 million folk who DO want to work ... can't find jobs in Obama's economy. The report also reflects a temporary bounce in hiring brought about by retail stores' seasonal temporary hiring for the shopping crowds.
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Herman Cain says he'll decide whether to drop out of the presidential race after his talk with Mrs. Cain.
Two things he might consider: #1, he isn't going to win. #2, it's cheaper than alimony!
C'mon, Herman. You were giving Ginger White money for thirteen years and no nookie was involved? And all of those messages he exchanged with her? Are we idiots?
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"Mitt Romney admitted in People magazine that as a teenager he experimented with alcohol and cigarettes. He said at that age he could have gone either way...much like his political positions today." –Jay Leno
Ouch!
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I'm not a big fan of Newt Gingrich. I'm a cynic where politicians are concerned; I'm not a "big fan" of any of 'em. Nevertheless, I find it very entertaining that the politically-obsessed media creeps who now decry Newt's campaign with protestations that he can't sustain the momentum he's obviously built sound so much like all the football know-it-alls who say Tim Tebow of the Broncos can't succeed, even as he keeps winning.
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How much longer can the lying weasel at the Justice Department get away with his attempt to evade responsibility for the disastrous "fast and furious" gun-running operation that put more weapons in the hands of Mexican gangsters that were used to kill heaven-knows-how-many people, including Americans and at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent? More to the point, how much longer will his America-hating boss, the Dear Leader, protect him?
That department's latest assignment from BO: find ways to get around constitutional prohibitions against race preferences in order to put minorities (okay, blacks; Asians need no help) at the head of the line in college admissions, even if their SATs don't justify it.
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We're not hearing much from the liberal idiots who were ecstatic over the "Arab spring" and may be feeling a bit deflated now that the biggest Arab country, Egypt, has turned overwhelmingly to two Islamist (read, "Oppressive Sharia law for all, and more officially-sanctioned hatred for non-Muslims") parties that can best be described as (A) bad and (B) worse.
For those simple-minded folk who think the very word "democracy" embodies all that's good, be reminded that Adolph Hitler (his political party) was ELECTED to power in Germany and, in fact, got a 1% larger share of the vote than did Bill Clinton when he was elected president.
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Here we go again ...
The formula never changes. You give a sizable amount of money to a politician (in this case, Obama) and get back a much larger sum of taxpayer dollars.
This time it's another "solar" company called Abound. The big investor in the company is a billionaire (inherited) name Pat Stryker, ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 331st richest American.
She raised and gave to Obama political operations $173,800. In return, Abound got a $400 million guaranteed loan from the Department of Energy as part of Obama's "stimulus" program. Good deal, right?!
At best, the project was to create 400 jobs. Do the math: each job would cost a million dollars. Helluva way to revive an economy, isn't it?
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Another electric-car company bites the dust. California's Aptera Corp. just ... ran out of money before they could get a "stimulus" loan.
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So the Obamas are soon off to Hawaii for a two-week-plus vacation. Is poi usually served with arugula?
(Recalling BO's concern about its availability in a small town in Iowa during his first presidential campaign.)
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Obama's strategy for the election is clear -- and right out of FDR's playbook in the 1930's. It's a promise to the sheeple that "I'll protect you from the economic disaster I have largely created."
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Congressman Allen West, Florida Republican, at the annual Washington, D.C. Funniest Celebrity contest, talked about being the only black Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus --
"The first thing I got sworn into was the Congressional Black Caucus. Now you talk about being fun--being the only black Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, but I did kind of get a warm welcome. John Lewis...John Lewis from Atlanta, Georgia--same neighborhood that I grew up in down there...great time. And so I'm walking up behind John Lewis and he really let me feel like this is a family man, because I kept hearing him talk about some guy named Uncle Tom."
"There was Maxine Waters and I thought, "Man, Maxine Waters must really have a sweet tooth because she kept talking about Oreos. So I figured this was gonna be nice. I've got a family oriented guy here with John Lewis. I got someone who likes Oreo Cookies with Maxine Waters, but I'll tell you what, it's been a good experience being there with the Congressional Black Caucus."
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Burt Prelutsky views our national decline ...
"Here in America, which has generally been heading in the wrong direction ever since FDR adopted Norman Thomas's socialist platform as his own, we have seen the pathetic results in our own streets. We see young dunderheads demonstrating for the end of capitalism, the destruction of corporations, and the forgiving of student loans, while simultaneously demanding high-paying jobs, free health insurance and the latest products devised by the brain of corporate billionaire Steve Jobs.
"The fact that they're too stupid to even notice the inconsistency inherent in their loony agenda tells me all I really need to know about the state of education in this country. These lunkheads represent the predictable results of allowing school teachers to belong to left-wing unions and permitting tenured professors to become propagandists rather than practitioners of the Socratic Method."
I would suggest a survey of public school teachers to discover how many ever HEARD of the Socratic Method.
-- Burt's book "Portraits of Success" is a good read. Especially the chapter on your Lovable Host --
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Michelle Obama's latest fund-raising gimmick is another lottery for a chance to meet her. Her e-mail message says, "I want to meet you."
Will she be advertising next on Craigslist?
Or perhaps among the personals ads in some of the less-reputable papers sold out of street-corner racks?
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“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”
-- Oscar Wilde
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"This was the campaign that was supposed to be a Republican slam dunk, and maybe it will be, but only because Anybody But Obama is still the favorite at 3-to-2. The sweet-talking golden prince of Chicago continues to wallow in the excess of excess, too. Herman Cain was derided as ignorant because he hadn’t heard of the war in Libya, but President Obama, who earlier thought he had campaigned in “57 states,” only this week denounced the sacking of “the English embassy” in Tehran. Learning even the rudiments of geography and history are gone with the wind that long since blew through our schools, but you might think that someone at the White House could have told the president that British embassies replaced “English embassies” three hundred years ago (more or less)."
-- Wesley Pruden ... entire column at WASHTIMES.COM --
- - - - -
Craig Ferguson --
"It was windy last night in Hollywood. Demi and Ashton were accidentally blown back together."
- - - - -
Jimmy Fallon --
"A woman said she had an affair with Herman Cain that lasted 13 years. I don't know who the accuser is, but I think we can rule out Kim Kardashian."
THE PAIN FOR CAIN COMES MAINLY FROM
WHERE HE'S LAIN
... and the moral of the Cain story is ... if you're a Republican with White House ambitions, don't get caught -- or even accused of -- playing "hide the weenie."
Newt an exception? Remains to be seen. Maybe some people think he couldn't get laid in a Nevada cathouse with a hundred-dollar-bill in each hand.
But I'm no expert on these things ...
- - - - -
"Innocent until proven guilty" applies in courtrooms. It does not apply in the court of public opinion where voting decisions are made. It is naive to expect otherwise.
- - - - -
It's a quadrennial ritual. Incumbent presidents expressing concern for the future and claiming to be the best possible guarantor of your health, wealth and happiness.
Never forget this fundamental fact. It's a pretty sure bet that the only future that incumbent is concerned about is his next date with the voters. In his second term, he has no such date awaiting him, which probably explains why so many White House occupants have had such undistinguished second terms.
- - - - -
If you, like many, are desperately hoping to rid the nation of the Obama plague next November but find yourself less than enchanted with the choice of Mitt or Newt, try to find comfort in this observation made from a personal perspective.
I'm pretty sure I'm wiser now than twenty or even ten years ago.You probably are, too. Let's hope the two leading candidates have made similar progress. A few candid admissions of past errors might be therapeutic for both of them.
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John Podhoretz of the NY Post muses over Mitt's malaise ...
"Romney’s solid 20 to 25 percent in the polls all year hasn’t grown, no matter what else has happened. That is, his lead is a flatline. What’s more, Romney knows it, and is entirely at a loss about what to do. How else can one explain his peculiar level of agitation with Fox News’ Bret Baier during a respectful and sober interview?
"Baier asked a series of fair and judicious questions relating to his health-care plan in Massachusetts and his shifting stance on immigration. Romney acted as though Baier were Dan Rather calling him a wimp.
"Romney did well in the debates because he couldn’t be pinned down, and knew how to escape the noose when it was dangling over him. Sitting across from Bret Baier in a Florida warehouse, he couldn’t dance around his own ideological contradictions. He was trapped, and he acted that way."
- - - - -
The "moderate" Republican argument is that Mitt Romney's the most electable candidate. Maybe so, maybe not. Their position falls back on the Barry Goldwater experience and his landslide loss to Lyndon Johnson.
(Old political joke: "They told me if I voted for Goldwater, we'd wind up getting in a war. I did vote for him ... and we DID wind up getting in a war.")
But what about all those "electable moderates"? How about McCain, Dole, Ford ... going back to Thomas Dewey, the "man on the wedding cake" who ran twice -- and lost?
Goldwater did lose, which gave us the wretched LBJ regime and the Vietnam quagmire. But Goldwater's linear political descendant did pretty well. Fellow named Reagan, the last REAL president the nation has had.
- - - - -
The TSA airport Gestapo is completely out of control. A seventeen-year-old girl stopped at Jacksonville, Florida, airport because she had a gun ... DESIGN ... on her purse. In New York, a tiny 85-year-old woman using a walker, strip-searched by the TSA perverts. When will Congress, the courts, or both ... act to put a stop to this abusive insanity?
- - - - -
It isn't just U.S. burocrats that are totally devoid of common sense. In Sweden, a man was denied a powered wheelchair because the government morons decided his injury may not be permanent. The man has had both legs amputated. Leave it to some despicable government parasite to assume they'll grow back.
- - - - -
Climate change? For the record, the U.S. has now had its longest period without a major hurricane since 1906.
No big ones since Wilma in 2005.
- - - - -
If you know anyone dumb enough to buy into Obama's blatantly socialist class-warfare theme, suggest they read the wise words of Professor Walter Williams. Here's a small excerpt ...
"Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb, the phonograph, the DC motor and other items in everyday use and became wealthy by doing so. Thomas Watson founded IBM and became rich through his company's contribution to the computation revolution. Lloyd Conover, while in the employ of Pfizer, created the antibiotic tetracycline. Though Edison, Watson, Conover and Pfizer became wealthy, whatever wealth they received pales in comparison with the extraordinary benefits received by ordinary people. Billions of people benefited from safe and efficient lighting. Billions more were the ultimate beneficiaries of the computer, and untold billions benefited from healthier lives gained from access to tetracycline.
"President Barack Obama, in stoking up class warfare, said, 'I do think at a certain point you've made enough money.' This is lunacy. Andrew Carnegie's steel empire produced the raw materials that built the physical infrastructure of the United States. Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft and produced software products that aided the computer revolution. But Carnegie had amassed quite a fortune long before he built Carnegie Steel Co., and Gates had quite a fortune by 1990. Had they the mind of our president, we would have lost much of their contributions, because they had already 'made enough money.'"
-- The entire article is at Townhall.com --
But then, what would you expect from a poorly-camouflaged Marxist like Obama?
BTW, don't worry about Obama keeping occupied in retirement. He could always be elected mayor of San Francisco and several other urban concentrations of lunacy.
- - - - -
He won't win the Heisman Trophy, but Robert Griffin of Baylor should. Andrew Luck is a very good quarterback. Griffin is better, and has performed magnificently with far less support. But the Heisman voters are mostly big-city sportscasters/writers fixated on big programs and number among them too many jock-sniffers who give most of their attention to players at "glamour" schools NOT located in Waco, Texas.
A lot of coaches and players have a case of the "what ifs" today. At Wisconsin, "What if we hadn't lost the earlier game to Michigan State?" At Oklahoma State, "What if we hadn't been upset by Iowa State?"
One more football observation. Can't anybody make stadium game clocks that DON'T fail as did those at the LSU-Georgia game? It happens far too often. Perhaps a bigtime lawsuit or two would improve quality control.
- - - - -
Dan Sorkin contributes this useful list of Things a Burglar Won't Tell You ...
"Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator."
"Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste... And taste means there are nice things inside."
"Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it."
"If it snows while you're out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house.. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway that you are away from home."
"I always knock first. If you answer, I'll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters."
"Do you really think I won't look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet."
" Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook."
" The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors."
- - - - -
A rare, rare sight in southern Arizona this morning. First time I've seen it in the ten years I've been here. Fog!
- - - - -
From David ...
"A woman in Germany gave birth to a baby boy named 'Jihad.' Have you seen his mother's Baby Shower Gift List?
Suicide Bomb Vest (sizes 2 years to 5 years)
Protocol of Elders of Zion Coloring Book and crayons
My First Alphabet Book 'From Adolf to Zionists' "
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Mr. Cain ... the gift that keeps on giving for comedians ...
"Another woman has come forward. Herman Cain is starting to look like a black Tiger Woods." –Jimmy Kimmel
"Herman Cain is making news again. His poll numbers are down, but the number of women he's polling is up." –Jay Leno
FIRST QUESTION: DOES HE HATE US? ...
CLINTON'S CLIENT
We are obviously going to have to overlook flaws, some serious, in choosing our next president. The bottom-line question we must ask ourselves, after confronting and perhaps resolving other concerns, is: "Do I believe that this person viscerally dislikes America?"
If more people had asked themselves that question four years ago, I strongly suspect the White House would have a different occupant today. But a naive and largely uninformed public, which even today knows little about a president whose real background has been artfully concealed by a collaborative media, didn't insist on learning more about a truly odd "community organizer".
- - - - -
This quote from Barack H. Obama's book "Dreams From My Father" should tell you all you need to know regarding his attitude about the free enterprise system that built America. During the brief period in his life when he wasn't being supported by taxpayers, either directly or indirectly, he said he "felt like a spy behind enemy lines".
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Worth repeating: This article that first appeared in the Czech Republic newspaper Prager Zeitung, April 28, 2011.
"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of Idiots such as those who made him their president."
-- Thanks, Keiko --
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It is well past time to deliver this message to Europeans: "We bailed your asses out of two world wars. Your countries were largely rebuilt by American dollars earned by hard-working people paying taxes to do so. Now your childish socialist nonsense has you deep in debt and begging us to bail you out yet again. (Bleep)-off and solve your own problems! When have you leeches ever come to OUR aid?"
So Europeans might buy less Coca-Cola or attend fewer of our increasingly silly movies ... so what?
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Try to contain your shocked response at the very idea, but Human Events is reporting that Jon Corzine's failed MF Global commodities-trading operation that just collapsed in one of the biggest bankruptcies in history, with millions of stockholder dollars unaccounted for, was paying Bill Clinton's "consulting" company $50,000 a month. A former employee who is blowing the whistle says the payment was "to improve Corzine's image."
Perhaps Chelsea Clinton will do some investigative reporting on it for her new employer, NBC.
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Failed presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty referred to Michele Bachmann in a speech, calling her, "Sarah Palin's stunt-double." No wonder this pathetic wimp was the first to be forced out of the Republican race. Have Minnesotans' brains frozen, or is electing a certain percentage of utter crackpots a hobby up in the north woods?
(Take a look at their Congresspersons and Senators.)
- - - - -
As mentioned here recently, the biased and gullible American Big Media have taken to trying to draw distinctions between "Islamists" and "hard-line Islamists" -- in other words a distinction without a difference, as is made clear by Jeannette Bougrab, who is an official of the French government. She is from Algeria ... tells Le Parisien newspaper that she speaks as "a French woman of Arab origin".
She says, "I don't know of any moderate Muslim. There are no half measures with sharia." Sharia is Islamic law. She continues, "I am a lawyer and you can make all the theological, literal or fundamental interpretations of it that you like but law based on sharia is inevitably a restriction on freedom, especially freedom of conscience."
- - - - -
Cutting thru the fog of media nonsense ... Dr. Thomas Sowell ...
"The current Occupy Wall Street movement is the best illustration to date of what President Barack Obama's America looks like. It is an America where the lawless, unaccomplished, ignorant and incompetent rule. It is an America where those who have sacrificed nothing pillage and destroy the lives of those who have sacrificed greatly. It is an America where history is rewritten to honor dictators, murderers and thieves.
"Barack Obama has brought more destruction upon this country in four years than any other event in the history of our nation, but it is just the beginning of what he and his comrades are capable of.
"The Occupy Wall Street movement is just another step in their plan for the annihilation of America .
"Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
- - - - -
Ultraconservatives in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive, are all atremble with fear that Saudi women behind the wheel will inevitably lead to them having premarital sex.
Are there drive-in movies in Saudi Arabia?
- - - - -
Search your soul. Do you or don't you pronounce the "T" in "often"? If in doubt ... don't.
- - - - -
My friend Bob shares some adult truths ...
Part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
Map Quest really needs to start their directions on item #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
- - - - -
What will the Tebow critics say now? Of late, the sports talk shows have been rife with speculation that the Broncos quarterback couldn't win against an opponent who ran up, say, twenty points. The Vikings yesterday ran up 32. Timmy Terrific and the Broncos still beat 'em, 35 to 32.
The NFL "Idiot of the Week" award must go to Jason Garrett, Cowboys' coach, who called time just as his kicker was kicking the winning field goal. Then his kicker missed the second try ... the game went to overtime ... and the bungling Cardinals beat them! Wonder what Jerry had to say about that?
Another football observation. LSU-'bama is the logical championship game, as is the Fiesta Bowl matchup between Oklahoma State and Stanford. So is the standard booking of Big Ten-Pac 12 winners, Wisconsin and Oregon, in the Rose Bowl.
Other than that, the other two BCS bowls are a disgrace. Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl? Clemson-West Virginia in the Orange Bowl? And far better teams ignored?
Playoffs! Or admit the BCS is a farce!
Then there's the Music City Bowl, with two 6 & 6 teams. Yucchh!
- - - - -
Hard to believe. Candace Bushnell, creator of "Sex and the City" is divorcing her husband, a ballet dancer.
- - - - -
Ah, fickle fate ...
Titus Ncube of the African of Zimbabwe had a fight with his wife and, seeking consolation, contacted a purveyor of flesh and ordered a hooker. Imagine his surprise when she showed up and was ... his daughter.
- - - - -
Reader Barry offers this ...
I'd just left a restaurant that was serving some of the worst food I've ever tasted. A homeless man sitting outside said, 'I haven't eaten for two days.'
I told him 'I wish I had your willpower.'
CAIN ADMIRES THE BEAUTY OF NEWTIE ...
PUTIN POWER PROTESTED
So Cain endorses Gingrich. No surprise. But this must raise the tension level in the Romney camp, because it's yet another sign that the "Anyone but Mitt" attitude is a serious threat to him. His supporters may be correct when they contend he's the "most electable", but you can't get elected if you don't get nominated.
Wondering out-loud ...
If Cain's campaign is only "suspended", will he withdraw his endorsement if he resumes?
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Good question from Mr. Jim:
What about those women who came in front of the cameras and microphones and their lawyer/mouthpieces (and made allegations about Cain)? Will all their "allegations" just dissolve into dust?
Has Miz All-red carved another notch in her pearl-handled weapon?
Will those women shut the hell up and go away?
I suspect Mr. Cain will just forget about it and be quiet. But shouldn't there be some RESOLUTION to this chorus of complaints? Did he or didn't he? Did they or didn't they?
Is it sufficient to know that the charges (true or false) brought a good man into disrepute?
- - - - -
A further question for Mr. Cain, himself. What will he do with unspent campaign funds? -- which, by the way, he can continue to collect while his campaign is "suspended". Some has already gone to fund an operation that sells his books.
- - - - -
Ruth Marcus in the liberal Washington Post describes Gloria Cain as a "human prop" for standing beside her husband thru the charges of misbehavior.
And just what the hell would Ms. Marcus call Hillary Clinton? She stood by the Ol' Hillbilly Whorehopper when the evidence was far more compelling.
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Big Media "reporters" have taken to using the word "rumpled" to describe Newt. Maybe I've missed something, but I've yet to see him looking less than ... what's that antique word? ... "spiffy". Portly, yes ... but also spiffy.
- - - - -
Even a small taste of freedom whets the hunger for more, thus the anti-Putin demonstrations in Moscow. He'll doubtless succeed in taking power, but it may be a less-comfortable situation than he anticipated. Some Russians are already talking openly about getting out of the country. They might be wise to do it soon. The old fences preventing it could be rebuilt, and Putin may be just the guy to do it.
It must not be forgotten that there are always people who WANT a dictator. When Saddam Hussein was deposed in Iraq, reporters on the scene heard many Iraqis asking, "Who will tell us what to do?"
- - - - -
Gene Healy in the Washington Examiner observes the liberals' autopsy on the leadership of their hero ...
"If our fashion-conscious president still finds the time to read the lad-mags, December's GQ had to hurt.
"Obama made the magazine's list of 'The 25 Least Influential People Alive, along with Tiger Woods's ex-caddie, the prosecutor who couldn't convict Casey Anthony, and MTV tart Tila Tequila.
"Obama 'should be the most transformational figure of the century," GQ carped, "Instead, he wields all the power of a substitute teacher at night school.'
"Sure, the piece was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there's real venom behind the smirk. Now is the hour of liberal discontent with the Obama presidency."
- - - - -
The "Fast and Furious" plot and ensuing scandal have been so convoluted by the Obama Protectionist Media that the goal of the misbegotten gun-running scheme has been largely forgotten. The goal was to put more guns into the hands of Mexican drugs gangs to they could later be "found" at crime scenes to buttress the Obama administration argument for more limits on gun ownership by AMERICANS. See, "so many privately-owned weapons were finding their way into Mexican criminal hands, etc., etc." that our guns laws had to be further tightened, disarming more law-abiding Americans.
- - - - -
Another shoe drops in the case of the "consulting" firm that was getting big bux from now-bankrupt and possibly fraud-infested MF Global, Jon Corzine's scam-fund. Another partner in Bill Clinton's "consulting" firm -- his old buddy Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister.
Another illustration of why retired politicians seldom spend their declining years in a modest living standard.
- - - - -
You have just over three weeks to stock up on real 100-watt lightbulbs -- if you can find them -- before your nanny government abolishes them. Other sizes will be phased out year by year until you'll have nothing left but the expensive "compact flourescents" with their built-in environmental hazard.
Andrea Peyser of the NY Post revives a classic that may or may not bring comfort...
Question: How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: None. Mom says, “Don’t mind me. I’ll sit in the dark. Not that I have any letters to read, anyway!”
- - - - -
The New York Daily News reports that a second elderly woman claims she was humiliatingly strip-searched by Transportation Security Administration agents at Kennedy Airport.
Ruth Sherman, 88, of Sunrise, Fla., told CBS News she felt “invaded” after screeners at the JetBlue terminal took her to a private area to check the bulge caused by her colostomy bag.
“This is private for me. It’s bad enough that I have it,” she told the station.
I had too pull (the bag) from my sweat pants and I had to pull my underwear, my underwear down.”
How long before something is done to/about these airport Nazis?
- - - - -
The Obamunists continue to obsess about child labor to a ludicrous degree.
When I was under the age of ten, I picked cotton for three months in order to buy a runt of a horse that nobody wanted and a broken-down old saddle. I loved my horse and treasured my saddle, in great part because I knew I'd EARNED them.
This true story is one reason why I've always been amused by loony liberals who write me with their idiotic ravings that I must be a conservative because I was "born with a silver spoon in my mouth." My childhood was so poor, the wonder is that I survived it at all.
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Reader Bill forwards this item from the Santa Rosa (Ca) Press-Democrat ...
One day last summer, Catherine de la Cruz wrote a note to two teenage ranch hands outlining jobs that needed to be done. When the work didn't get done, de la Cruz of Santa Rosa walked over to where the two girls were standing and clutching the piece of paper.
“They were literally puzzling over this note,” de la Cruz said. “I was taught penmanship by the nuns, so I have a pretty decent hand.”
It wasn't the legibility that vexed the teenagers, it was the script. The note was written in cursive.
“The younger one said, ‘They don't teach us antique writing in school. Why didn't you just text me?'”
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A bulletin from Herb's News Service ...
This morning the Muslim Brotherhood warned the United States that if the United States continued meddling in Egypt , Libya , and other potential hot spots in the middle east, they intend to cut off America 's supply of 7-11 and Motel 6 managers.
If this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell, AT&T and AOL customer service reps.
Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened not to send us any more presidents.
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Madonna will star at the Super Bowl halftime show. And millions of teenagers will be asking, "Who's that old woman, anyway?"
Just as they asked when Paul McCartney appeared, "Didn't he used to be in a band called 'Wings?'"
An alternative suggestion for Super Bowl entertainment ...
Why not have Kim Kardashian marry somebody on the pre-game show, then get the divorce at halftime?
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Arlys overheard this ...
"President Obama's ratings are so low that the Kenyans are saying he was born in the United States"
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Mad Mike provides the following, which is NOT for the overly-sensitive ...
Three good ole boys died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.
'In honor of this holy season' Saint Peter said, 'You must each possess something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven.'
The cowboy from Texas fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. 'It represents a candle', he said. 'You may pass through the pearly gates,' Saint Peter said.
The logger reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, 'They're bells.'
Saint Peter said 'You may pass through the pearly gates'.
The Kentucky boy started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties. St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, 'And just what do those symbolize?'
The old Kentucky boy replied, 'These are Carol's.'
SEVENTY YEARS LATER ... SECOND
THOUGHTS ON FAST TRAINS
Today is December 7th. On this date in 1941, the SECOND-worst attack on America took place. It was avenged by destroying the Japanese Empire within four years. The worst attack took place on 9/11, 2001. Satisfactory resolution has yet to be achieved, ten years later. America used to have leaders with backbone.
- - - - -
U.S. Intelligence tells the House Armed Services committee ... which tells Defense Secretary Panetta ... that North Korea is moving ahead with the building of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States mainland.
One wonders if future historians will look back upon the blunder made by President Truman when he stopped General MacArthur from finishing the job of destroying North Korea -- it there are any historians left.
- - - - -
Survey says (Field Poll) ... more Californians have belatedly figured out another grandiose government scam. The latest public opinion polling finds that 64% of Californians surveyed want another public vote on the $98-billion high-speed rail project and 59% would oppose it.
Maybe more have figured out what would happen to 200 MPH trains when the San Andreas or a multitude of other earthquake faults inevitably crack, if only a few inches.
- - - - -
Big Government reports ...
"In a report to the National Committee of the Communist Party USA, which met in New York City, Nov. 12-13, Party National chairman Sam Webb, laid out his analysis of the current political climate and the role of the 'Occupy movement and the Communist Party in moving the “progressive” movement forward.
"Wrote comrade Webb:
This is a volatile period. Battle lines are being drawn. Not for a while have things been so unhinged.
A marked upswing, if not a qualitative turn in class and democratic struggles, is afoot.
Sustained mass actions, civil disobedience, new levels of solidarity and consciousness, innovative tactics and slogans, and a complex array of social forces and organizations are reshaping the political landscape in unexpected ways."
What?? You didn't realize the Communist Party was eyeball-deep in this Occupy crap??
- - - - -
The Dear Leader is lost again. Yesterday he told an audience, "It is great to be back in the state of Texas."
He was in Osawatomie, Kansas.
Then Comrade Obama went on to say that capitalism doesn't work ... and "fairness" is more important than liberty.
Anyone who voted for this subversive should admit, at least to themselves, that they are incapable of making rational judgments about serious political matters and quietly vow to never again vote. They are a menace.
- - - - -
Were I not the moderate, even-tempered individual that I am, I might advocate the public strangulation of any sleazy politician who uses the word "fairness". There is no more meaningless, subjective word in the English language. Fairness, far more than beauty, is truly in the eye of the beholder. I have to restrain myself from punching in the mouth any mealy-mouthed liberal who advocates my forced contribution of rewards for my own labor to some lazy, worthless leech.
I do -- and will -- contribute willingly to deserving persons and causes that I -- alone -- adjudge to be deserving. Being forced to support the slothful is nothing less than blatant thievery. There is fundamental truth in the saying that liberals enjoy nothing more than giving away other people's money, thus I detest them and hold them in total contempt.
- - - - -
How insane liberals are turning the world upside down. A seven-year-old Boston boy was being attacked by a bully last week. The bully began choking him. The seven-year-old did the logical thing. He kicked him in the nuts, which ended the assault. Result: The seven-year-old is being charged with ... sexual assault!
It remains to be seen if parents in the neighborhood have the guts and sense to seek out the idiot who made this charge and gave him/her/it similar treatment.
- - - - -
Greece imploded economically when its debt reached 126% of annual Gross National Product. John Stossel runs the numbers and finds that we're on-track to go off the same cliff in ten years. Thanks, liberals, for bringing us to the brink.
- - - - -
Is Joe Biden the stupidest human being on the planet? A good argument for that position can be made based a quote he used at a conference in Turkey. Here's what Obama's pet idiot said:
“'It was an Irish poet named William Butler Yeats, who describing the transition taking place in his Ireland in 1916, wrote a poem that had the following line in it, a line that was intended to describe his Ireland at the moment, said Biden. 'But I would respectfully suggest it describes the Middle East and the world today even better than it described his country at the moment. And here’s the line from that poem. He said, ‘All has changed, changed utterly. A terrible beauty has been born.’”
Terrible BEAUTY??!!
- - - - -
Frank Gaffney (townhall.com) casts a wary eye on the Muslim Brotherhood election win in Egypt ...
"The President and his subordinates appear determined to ignore the Brotherhood’s virulently supremacist and jihadist creed. They are also evidently indifferent to the strategic plan issued in 1991 by the MB’s American arm and the phased approach for realizing its goal of 'eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.' (Documents enshrining these ambitions were introduced uncontested into evidence by federal prosecutors in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.)"
- - - - -
The Hill newsletter has this from journalist Bob Woodward about being seated next to Al Gore at a dinner ...
"The investigative reporter asked the politician, more than five years after leaving office, how much the public knows about what went on during the Clinton administration. Gore replied, 'One percent.'”
We are left to draw our own conclusions about the other 99%.
- - - - -
Is Mittens feeling the heat? He's been wary of all media appearances, especially Fox, throughout his now-sputtering campaign. Change of mind. He's doing Chris Wallace's show Sunday.
- - - - -
There are some RINO media folk who just can't give up on the idea that for those like themselves who believe Mitt Romney is too conservative (?!!) and Jon Huntsman is thus the ideal Republican presidential candidate.
I know. Hard to believe.
This is what happens when media RINOs live too long on scraps from the table of the dominant media liberals.
- - - - -
Is Vladimir Putin actually a Chicago Democrat? Reports from Russia implicate him in gigantic voter fraud. Obama's friends would be proud.
- - - - -
The Chevy Corvair was a nice little car that got a bad reputation because of "reporting" by Ralph Nader, a man who couldn't even DRIVE a car.
Now it appears the Chevy Volt, the wildly overpriced (even with taxpayer subsidies!) electric car is a dangerous piece of junk being protected by Government Motors and a media coverup of battery failures -- overheating and fires.
We who have long expressed concerns about the possibility of a real hazard from those batteries in an accident were right all along; the liberal whelps who ridiculed such worries were, as always, stupid.
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Los Angeles and Miami have to be two of the worst sports markets in the nation. Five pro football teams have failed in Los Angeles. The Rams, the Raiders, Dons, Express and Chargers. Yes, the Chargers began as the Los Angeles Chargers, owned by Barron Hilton and named to promote his Carte Blanche credit card -- a CHARGE card. The lightning-bolt image came subsequently. And if the Lakers ever become losers, look for thousands of empty seats at their games.
In Miami, the Dolphins packed the Orange Bowl in their glory years; ditto for the University of Miami Hurricanes when they were winning national championships. A few losses by either team, and their stadia became vacant lots. See the Dolphins game last weekend? Empty seats by the thousands.
What is the common denominator for both cities? Good weather inviting other outdoor activities and an abundance of entertainment diversions. The same factors contribute to the thousands of empty seats upstate every time the Tampa Bay Rays play.
By the way, I recently heard LeBron James of the Miami Heat basketball teams refer to playing in "South Beach." Look around you, dope! You're in MIAMI. Look across Biscayne Bay and you can see South Beach, a small neighborhood in the city of MIAMI BEACH, which is NOT part of MIAMI.
As a former resident of adjacent (to Miami) Coral Gables, home of the University of MIAMI, I know that local folk resent the geographical ignorance so often displayed. So. Who volunteers to pound some sense into the 6-foot-8 Mr. James?
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'Splain it to me.
A football player (Buffalo Bills) is fined for mocking Plaxico Burriss shooting himself in the leg in an ill-advised post-TD celebration.
But players who have mocked Tim Tebow praying are unscathed by the league office.
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New definition of hell: Seated next to Alec Baldwin on an airliner for eternity.
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Craig Ferguson --
"Herman Cain dropped out the Republican presidential race. Cain said he wants to spend more time with the wife. Not HIS wife ..."
Jimmy Kimmel --
"Now that he's back home, Cain has a huge to-do list for himself, such as cleaning out the garage and living in it."
CORZINE & THE CoBAMUNISTS ...
DEMOCRAT VOTERS WISING-UP
Some may conclude that it's indicative of the character of the Obama administration that Jon Corzine, of whom Joe Biden proudly boasted, "This is the guy we turn to for financial advice," is expected to plead the Fifth Amendment when he testifies before a congressional committee about the collapse of MF Global, the commodities trading firm he headed. There's also the little matter of $1.2 billion of investors' money that's ... uh ... missing.
These are the kind of people who've been advising the Marxist Muslim on how to spend YOUR tax money!
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"Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as one percent. One percent. That is the height of unfairness. It is wrong. It's wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50 million." -- Barack Obama in his Kansas speech this week.
An outright lie. The LIBERAL Washington Post's own fact-checker asked the White House to substantiate this absurd claim. They couldn't. And admitted they couldn't.
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Unless the Republicans find a creative way to blow the election -- always a possibility -- the indicators continue to turn in their direction. National Journal reports that more than 825,000 registered Democrats in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have departed the party rolls since President Obama's election in 2008. Those are serious swing-states, and Obama has no chance without them.
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The Joe Biden idiocies never end. Did you see the video of him introducing our tax-evading Secretary of the Treasury, Timmy Geithner, to officials in Greece? He said Geithner was bringing with him "billions of dollars".
That's OUR money the fool was talking about, jokingly or not.
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Funny, isn't it? Attorney General Eric Holder couldn't be bothered to read memos about his department's gun-running operation to Mexico, but apparently read in detail the Alabama state law on immigration that he so vehemently opposes.
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David Harsanyi nails it in Reason Magazine ...
"In Teddy Roosevelt's era," President Barack Obama explained to the nation this week, 'some people thought massive inequality and exploitation was just the price of progress. But Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you want from whoever you can.'
"And he's right. Even today there are people who believe they should have free license to take whatever they want from whomever they can. They're called Democrats."
- - - - -
Is Hillary Clinton's fund-raising letter to her 2008 presidential campaign supporters an opening of a campaign to replace Obama as next year's nominee? Or is it a gesture toward replacing Biden in the powerless #2 slot on the ticket? Enquiring minds want to know ...
- - - - -
I have long held the view that most presidential endorsements are meaningless. Nevertheless, here's mine.
I will vote for any breathing creature running under a major-party label (i.e., Republican) over the grinning disaster called Barack Hussein Obama.
A third party? Sure it would make a contribution to the dialogue -- if it's another leftist vehicle to split the Obama vote.
Bottom line: Anything to replace the dangerous demagogue who's given sweetheart deals worth billions to his left-wing friends and wants to (more) drastically cut our military strength.
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Remember the Muslim Major Nidal Husan, who slaughtered thirteen fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more back in 2009. Yes, he's still breathing. And in another example of the disease of Obamunism spreading even into the military, the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as ... get ready: workplace violence!
Let me state categorically the view that allowing ANY Muslim in the United States military is suicidal madness. Their deepest loyalties lie elsewhere. Their own religion tells them so, and killing their fellow soldiers is seen as an honorable goal. Denial of that Muslim tenet is an outright lie -- which is also encouraged by their faith, if it furthers the cause of Islam.
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Tony Blankley reflects on the fantasies about the "Arab spring" ...
"Back in spring, the leading experts -- from the Obama administration to the neoconservatives on the right to the major liberal media to most of the academic area specialists -- were all overwhelmingly predicting that all those great secular, liberal, college-educated kids with their iPhones in Tahrir Square represented the new Egypt and would bring all their wonderful values to the revolution. It was primarily us cranky right-wingers who have been writing on radical Islamic politics (and, of course, the Israelis, who can't afford to get it wrong on Muslim political habits) who warned that this was all going to end in the rise in still-ancient Egypt of radical Islamist, anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti American and anti-Western governance."
There is also "the little matter of the Brotherhood's credo: 'God is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.' But it's OK. They are the moderate wing of the upcoming Egyptian parliament."
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The ridiculous Nancy Pelosi, who has relatives getting big "stimulus money" for building solar projects, says that anyone who doesn't buy into the "global warming" rip-off is "endangering humanity". A rational person might well make the argument that the presence of grasping nincompoops like Pelosi in our political power structure is a far greater threat to humanity.
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Here's what Jackie, our travel agent, has found for us on the Panama Canal cruise schedule. Best deal seems to be on Princess October 28 ... two weeks, Los Angeles to Ft. Lauderdale. Rates for the cruise (with travel insurance included) start at $2,152 per person. If you'd like details, e-mail me at RADIORODGERS1@YAHOO.COM.
Early bookings obviously get the best cabins.
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Readership for this modest little column reached -- for it -- a new record high this week.
If you find it worthwhile, please forward the column or link to people who might either (A) enjoy it or (B) benefit from it.
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The terminally ill (cancer) Christopher Hitchens writes in Vanity Fair, "One thing that grave illness does is to make you examine familiar principles and seemingly reliable sayings. And there’s one that I find I am not saying with quite the same conviction as I once used to: In particular, I have slightly stopped issuing the announcement that 'Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.'”
Having had a prolonged near-visit with the Grim Reaper a year ago, I concur. I also fear the void less than before, and having had close calls before, never feared it very much. I do, however, share to some degree Woody Allen's observation: "I'm not afraid of death ... I just don't want to be there when it happens."
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Jane presents these cases from the files of the Wyoming Highway Patrol ...
A Laramie , Wyoming, policeman had a perfect spot to watch for speeders, but wasn't getting many. Then he discovered the problem--a 12-year-old boy was standing up the road with a hand painted sign, which read 'RADAR TRAP AHEAD.' The officer also found the boy had an accomplice who was down the road with a sign reading 'TIPS' and a bucket full of money. (And we used to just sell lemonade!)
A motorist was mailed a picture of his car speeding through an automated radar post in Cheyenne, Wyo. A $40 speeding ticket was included. Being cute, he sent the police department a picture of $40. The police responded with another mailed photo of handcuffs.
A young woman was pulled over for speeding. A State Trooper walked to her car window, flipping open his ticket book. She said, "I bet you are going to sell me a ticket to the State Trooper's Ball." He replied, "Wyoming State Troopers don't have balls." There was a moment of silence. He then closed his book, tipped his hat, got back in his patrol car and left.
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Advance notice from Peter ...
In the coming year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day.
This is an ironic juxtaposition of events.
One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.
The other involves a groundhog.
* * THIS COLUMN WILL BE CONSPICUOUS BY
ITS ABSENCE FOR A FEW DAYS. EXPECT A FRESH OUTPOURING OF WIT,
WISDOM AND SHEER MALICE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14. * *
A smart move by Newt Gingrich. He's announced that he'd ask John Bolton to be his Secretary of State. Immediately Democrats complained that making such an announcement is an unfair political practice.
Nevertheless, I state emphatically and without fear of rational contradiction that John Bolton would be a great choice. He's a no-BS realist, a quality desperately lacking in our diplomatic corps.
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Here is the most frightening public opinion poll seen in a long time.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 26% of American adults believe the appropriate role of government is to manage the economy, but 23% say it's better for the government to stay out of economic decisions altogether.
A quarter of Americans think the GOVERNMENT should run the economy? Heaven help us! Have these fools learned NO history? The frightening thing is, people so stupid are allowed to vote!
I apportion full blame for this idiocy to America's so-called "educators" who, taken as a group, are a bunch of brainwashed communists -- and are, in many cases, probably too dumb to know it!
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It's commonplace for political candidates seeking the same office to disclaim any intention to attack rivals. They are lying. When the going gets tough, the fangs come out.
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Re Obama's premature Hannukkah party: will liberal Jewish voters EVER learn?
- - - - -
"You Know, 'Lying' Is Such A Complicated Concept" -- U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
No, it isn't.
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CNS reports on the latest pro-Islam move by our Marxist-Muslim-in-Charge ...
"The Obama administration says a meeting in Washington next week seeks to make progress in combating religious intolerance, but critics say the U.S. is pandering to an ideological agenda aimed at restricting speech critical of Islam."
Having long been personally targeted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) I can confidently assure you that is precisely the goal.
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Daily Caller reports that an Egyptian news outlet has a report that is causing an unusual stir. According to the Bikya Masr news service, an Islamic cleric in Europe has ordered Muslim women to prevent “sexual thoughts”by staying away from bananas, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, and other phallic produce.
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More government insanity. The EPA, contender for the title "Biggest Swindler Department in the Government," is giving away another million dollars to local "activist" groups promoting "environmental justice," whatever that is.
Rational people would like to know at what point the people who advocate throwing away tax dollars on such nonsense are going to be prosecuted and severely punished. Nothing less will stop it.
A prayer for sanity. Please let the next administration hire one of the designated head-choppers from Cumulus Broadcasting that just eviscerated ABC Radio to go to EPA headquarters and perform the same duty there.
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The erudite Victor Davis Hanson reflects on Pearl Harbor seventy years ago and finds an analogy today ....
"The growth of Japan in the 1920s and 1930s and the alarm that it caused in the Pacific, its increasingly illiberality and nationalism, the enormous industrial and military progress that it had made in emulating European economies and Western armed forces, the concurrent impressions that a Depression-era America was a sinking rather than a rising power, and a general sense that the Japanese model was superior to the alternatives offer some general parallels to the current comparative status of China and America in the Pacific. Let us hope that we learn the lessons of Pearl Harbor, namely that anything is possible at any time, that deterrence ultimately keeps the peace, and that deterrence is a combination of known superior military strength and a certainty among concerned parties that such overwhelming power will be used in defense, and thereby will assure the aggressor that its attack will prove suicidal."
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A few days ago, Barack Obama pronounced the absurdity that his administration had been the best friend Israel has ever had.
Caroline Glick reponds in the Jerusalem Post: "Under Obama, the US is no longer Israel's ally."
She's right. He's either delusional or, far more likely, an outright liar.
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Something to smile about as you next begin calculating your income taxes ...
Egypt, after voting 79% of the time against the United States in the UN, still receives $2,000,000,000 annually in US Foreign Aid. Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid. Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Makes you just feel good all over, doesn't it?
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William L. Gensert in The American Thinker is a realist ...
"There has been much talk lately about the need for the Republican presidential nominee to move to the center. This is a mistake. The only way to beat Barack Obama is to oppose him rigorously, relentlessly, and without remorse.
"The man to defeat Obama must present the nation a clear choice between further socialism under Obama's control or prosperity through economic freedom, but that's not all; he will need to show the world who Barack Obama is.
"Americans may be inattentive, or even self-involved, but we are not idiots. Anyone can see the almost three years of failed Obama governance and know that the meme which the legacy media is trying to sell is a lie. Obama is not just a failure; he is a spectacular failure -- and it's not George Bush's fault, or that of an obstructionist Congress."
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Reader Pete poses a pertinent question about our drone-plane down in Iran ...
"So now Iran has their sleazy mitts on a top secret drone, and there are concerns that it might be sold to the highest bidder (Russia, China, ???). Wouldn't it be a logical idea to incorporate some kind of self destruct mechanism, in the event that this type of scenario occurs? If not the airframe and/or powerplant, at least the components that will fetch a pretty penny -- or ruble!
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Jonah Goldberg asks Republicans, "What's the rush?" ...
"The sense I get from talking to large numbers of conservatives is that the base doesn't like their choices, but they don't actually hate the candidates. In other words, they want to be swept off their feet. That's why for most of the past year, the voters have been listening to the official contenders but somewhat rudely refusing to make eye contact as they look over their shoulders hoping someone more exciting -- Chris Christie! Paul Ryan! Marco Rubio! -- just might enter the room.
"... in 2008 Hillary Clinton didn't endorse Obama until a couple months before the Democratic convention. And, after a bruising primary battle, Obama inherited an energized base eager to retake the White House. I am positive the GOP nominee will enjoy a similar inheritance, whoever that might be."
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Craig Ferguson --
"The former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich got 14 years in prison. He was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat. If he had waited a few years, he could probably sell it back to Barack Obama."
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I suspect some of her colleagues at CBS News are annoyed that Sharyl Atikisson reported this ...
"Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales.
In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
"ATF officials didn't intend to publicly disclose their own role in letting Mexican cartels obtain the weapons, but emails show they discussed using the sales, including sales encouraged by ATF, to justify a new gun regulation called "Demand Letter 3". That would require some U.S. gun shops to report the sale of multiple rifles or "long guns."
It is/was what we told you all along. A scheme by Obama's gun-grabbers to further restrict the rights of AMERICANS to own firearms. And every responsible Obama department-head has consistently lied about it.
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Jay Leno --
"According to reports, one of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons had an elaborate plan to sneak into Mexico. Authorities broke up the plan before it took place. Believe me, if there's one thing Mexico will not stand for, it’s people sneaking over their border."
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Our next annual group cruse is October 28, LA to Ft. Lauderdale via the Panama Canal ... two weeks ... with port calls at Los Cabos, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia and Aruba. Prices, including travel insurance -- a major plus -- start at $2,152. That also includes the usual add-ons like port charges. taxes. etc.
If you'd like to join our usual crowd of congenial conservatives, e-mail me ASAP for more information at
RADIORODGERS1@YAHOO.COM
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Likely entrants in the next (inevitably) rock-radio "where's the strangest place you've had sex?" contest ...
the Polish couple caught gettin' busy as they drifted thru an amusement park water slide.
Unanswered: Who goes on a water-ride in Poland in December?
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I have an ongoing and unresolved feud with my friend The Wordman, Richard Lederer. He is the expert, I am not. Conceded. Nevertheless, I contend that he bends with the popular wind in insisting that always, in all circumstances, the period must come inside quotation marks. I contend that there are exceptions, and exercise my discretion.
This attitude comes from being taught by a purist, my high school senior English teacher, Miss Bell, a purist who taught English-English. I may also have been influenced by the fact she had what we gland-driven teenage lads used to say, "The kind of shape the world ought to be in."
A few years later she fulfilled the dream of many a horny high-schooler; she married one of our classmates.
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More wisdom from readers ...
"Liberals, Progressives and other assorted left-wing Loons keep portraying Conservatives as “haters“. Well Dumbplumber is here to tell you that this is a bunch of malarkey.
"Lefties are confusing ‘hate’ with concern; hate with disappointment; hate with antipathy; hate with revulsion; hate with exasperation and hate with disgust. But “hate”? No way.
"If you want to see hate, wait until the moonbats stop receiving their formerly unending unemployment checks; stop receiving food stamps (the sale of which supports their drug addictions, tattoo collections and alcohol consumption); stop receiving their free healthcare (exacerbated by all the above); stop receiving their SSI benefits because it is discovered that their PTSD, ADD, ADHD and any other form of “D” disability has been deemed ‘manufactured’; stop receiving Section 8 housing subsidies, because the original beneficiary, ‘Mom’ has been dead for five years, etc.,etc..
"You will discover then, and only then, what true 'hate' is!"
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Reader Katherine offers this ...
"I've been observing a bumper sticker that reads "Take back the Wealth - Tax the Rich". I would love to speak to someone I see getting out of the car bearing such a sticker and suggest that their car be taken from them as there is someone down the street who doesn't have one. "
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Worth remembering ... from Andrew Breitbart ...
“Our children are graduating with the worst degrees in the history of humanity. If you have a humanities degree, take your comparative literature degree and try and get a barista job in 2011. There is going to be a line around the block.”
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From Gene ... probably apocryphal but nevertheless pertinent in today's lib-dominated meda ...
DEAR ABBY:
"I have always wanted to have my family history traced, but I can't afford to spend a lot of money to do it.Any suggestions?" -- Sam in California.
DEAR SAM:
"Register as a Republican and run for public office." -- Abby
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Jay Leno --
"Due to the bad economy, the Queen of England’s salary will be frozen for the next four years. In fact, to make ends meet the queen is thinking of having a yard sale. Getting rid of a lot of stuff they don't use anymore, like Canada."
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Jimmy Fallon --
"This week, a designer in New York unveiled a bottle of perfume that costs $1 million. Yeah, a million bucks for a few ounces of liquid. Which explains its name: Starbucks'.”
... AS I WAS SAYING ...
We all need a break from time to time, and there's no better way to spend one than in the company of good friends.
John and Trish Parker (authors of "The Best of Our Lives"; website of the same name) host a great party, and did so again at their annual pre-Christmas gathering in their home on Discovery Bay, California. The boat parade on the bay was better than ever with incredible Christmas light decorations. Best of all was the opportunity to renew old friendships. It was all great fun and ... memorable. In the best way.
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A time-honored saying in the travel industry is, "If you have time to spare ... go by air."
My neighboring pretty-big-town is Tucson, which has a nice airport and good airline service to most big and many smaller cities. However, to reach our Bay Area destination for the weekend get-together, we had to fly to Phoenix and connect there. The actual flight-time is 22 minutes. Up, down and it's over. On our return, I timed the taxi time from the gate to the takeoff runway. It took 24 minutes. To make a flight lasting 22 minutes.
On the bright side, the four-course lunch and champagne served in-flight were just yummy.
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What are the chances? When we left Northern California, the weather was chilly and rainy. When we arrivied at PHX (Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix) it was ... chilly and rainy.
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Danger zone! Anywhere near an airport jetway door as a plane unloads. By actual count, half the disembarking passengers are blind to persons in front of them because their heads are bowed as they rush to contact someone via cell-phone.
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"After observing President Obama for the last three years, it has become obvious to me that the president might prefer to be a university professor rather than do the job he holds today. While he might not realize that he feels this way, the evidence is very clear to those who work with or watch him closely.
"Early in his administration, President/Professor Obama repeatedly referred to “teaching moments.” He would admonish staff, members of Congress and the public, in speeches and in private, about what they could learn from him. Rather than the ideological or corrupt “I’m above the law” attitudes of some past administrations, President Obama projected an arrogant “I’m right, you’re wrong” demeanor that alienated many potential allies.
"One former administration official told me directly that the people in the White House “NEVER TALK TO REAL PEOPLE.” Another former Obama staffer confided to me that it was clear to him that the president didn’t mind giving speeches (lectures), but really avoided personal contact with members of Congress and folks outside the Beltway."
-- Congressman Dennis Cardozo, DEMOCRAT, California ... in The Hill
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Glenn Beck wants to support a third-party candidate? Then he's as nuts as his detractors have long said. I hope he at least got a thank-you note from Obama. I've always thought there was an uncomfortable touch of Elmer Gantry in Beck.
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Is NBC's hiring of Chelsea Clinton as a "reporter" really some kind of disguised political contribution? Based on the early reviews of her work, it certainly has nothing to do with talent.
The liberal Washington Post's Hank Stuever took this shot in his review ...
"... what was surprising to see on Monday night's show is how someone can be on TV in such a prominent way and, in her big moment, display so very little charisma - none at all. Either we're spoiled by TV's unlimited population of giant personalities or this woman is one of the most boring people of her era."
Re Steve Kroft's interview of Obama on "Sixty Minutes": Does the word "shill" still have meaning?
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The most craven cowardly act of the week -- so far -- by our spineless Dear Leader: asking Iran, "Pretty please with sugar on it, can we have our drone aircraft back?"
Not for the first time, the liberals' bete noire, Dick Cheney, is correct while Obama is a wuss. Instead of begging for the return of the drone, we should simply have bombed and destroyed it. And if bystanders, i.e., Iranian military folk, got in the way ... too bad.
Word has been around for some time that we, the Israelis or both parties have caused problems for Iran's nuclear program by hacking into their computers. Now the question arises in reverse about our drone aircraft being brought down. Intact. In Iran. Is this caused by a computer-warfare success on their part? If so, we'd better find an answer -- fast.
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Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times explains why some of us only reluctantly watch the "debates" ..
"The 'debates'—it’s an insult to the memory of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas to call them “debates”—are actually only occasions for television moderators to parse, preen and demonstrate how little actual wit and learning you need to pretend to knowledge of public affairs. The “debates,' with their emphasis on' the unimportant, have taken the selection process away from the party without actually shaping either the race or the candidates.
"The flickering television screen, which is all about illusion, is thus allowed to define what passes for reality."
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Andrew McCarthy in National Review Online sounds an alarm that liberals would rather you not hear ...
"Senator John Kerry (D., Mass.) is in Egypt, meeting with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood — the Islamist organization whose goals are to destroy Israel, “conquer Europe” and “conquer America” (to quote its most influential jurist, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi). The Brotherhood, which operates throughout the world, seeks the imposition by governments of strict sharia law (as outlined in Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law) and, eventually, a global caliphate. Naturally, the Obama administration describes it as a 'largely secular' and moderate organization.'"
- - - - -
Rudy Giuliani questions Mitt Romney's ability to "connect" with so-called Reagan Democrats. A larger concern should be whether he's able to bridge the yawning gap between himself and Reagan REPUBLICANS. He's even more "flexible" than G.H.W. Bush.
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Thomas Sowell (Townhall.com) presents a grim possibility ...
"Washington gridlock may turn out to be the salvation of the Obama administration.
Not only does gridlock allow the president to blame Republicans for not solving the financial crisis that his own runaway spending created, the inability to carry out as much government intervention in the economy as when the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress means that the market can now recover on its own to some visible extent before the next election.
"Such a recovery would of course be credited as a success of the Obama administration's policies. With this theme being echoed throughout the pro-Obama media, enough voters might be sufficiently impressed to give the president a second term."
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Draw your own conclusions about the news report that a woman has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia for ... sorcery.
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The Sky-Guy recalls the joy of dealing with the public in the retail business ...
"Years ago I worked at Sears in the Customer Service department during the holidays. A customer walked in to the store looking for Christmas lights. I showed her our top brand, but, she wanted to make sure each bulb worked. She asked me to take them out of the box and plug them in. I did, and each bulb lit up. 'Great!,' she said.
'I carefully placed the string of lights back in the box. But as I handed the box to her, she looked alarmed. 'I don't want this box,' she said abruptly, 'It's been opened!'"
- - - - -
The best entertainment on TV has to be all the football "experts" still arguing that Tim Tebow has no NFL quarterbacking skills, even as he wins and wins and wins ...
Getting any bets down on Jason Garrett's future as coach of the Dallas Cowgirls? Yes, I know Jerry says he's safe and solid, but ...
- - - - -
From Barbara, an explanation of Obamanomics ...
It's a slow day in the small town of Pumphandle and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit..
A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night
As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
(Stay with this....and pay attention)
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
(Almost done....keep reading)
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.
And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works!
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Dan Sorkin always ends his e-mail missives with a pithy quote. Here's the latest ...
"A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents."
...georg christoph lichtenberg
- - - - -
Conan O'Brien --
"An executive from the E! Network has stated that there could be as many as four new Kardashian spinoff shows. He then added, 'Unless our demands are met.'”
WHAT WOULD SIOUX CITY SUE DO? ...
IS THERE A PIPELINE TO REPUBLICAN VICTORY?
IS THERE A PIPELINE TO REPUBLICAN VICTORY?
Another debate tonight. This time the traveling political carnival stops in Sioux City, Iowa. Will the agony never end? And will we hear anything we haven't heard repeatedly already?
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The Rasmussen poll, which has an outstanding record for reliability, has Romney jumping ahead of Gingrich in Iowa. Poll reputations are made -- and lost -- on such things. It should not be forgotten, however, that Iowa's caucuses are largely bought-and-paid-for votes (legally) and operate basically as a fundraiser for the party (you pay -- or a campaign pays for you -- to vote). This political "beauty contest" doesn't have a particularly impressive record in selecting the ultimate presidential nominee. John McCain came in fourth four years ago, when Mike Huckabee was the winner.
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So the Great Warrior in the White House now declares the Iraq war officially over.
Let's do this: mark the date on our calendars ten -- no, five -- years from now and look back at just how well things have evolved. If you're an optimist, perhaps a wager can be arranged.
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If Republicans can't perform a political crucifixion on Obama over his stalling of the huge pipeline project that would both benefit consumers of petroleum products and create a multitude of jobs, they ought to quit politics forevermore. The White House weasel is wiggling furiously in an effort to avoid making a decision that will alienate either enviro-nuts or union workers badly needing jobs. At least until after next year's election. The man is a profile in Jello.
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Americans ain't buying what Obama's selling. Michael Goodwin in the NY Post summarizes the reasons the Big Zero is in trouble ...
"The latest bad news for him comes in a Gallup poll showing that a huge majority of Americans aren’t buying what he’s selling. It’s a 'fear' survey, and Big Government turns out to be the scariest thing that goes bump in the night for most of us.
"The poll finds that 64 percent of adults believe government is the largest threat to the country, far more than those who fear business or organized labor.
"It’s not just Republicans (82 percent) and independents (64 percent) who feel that way. Now, 48 percent of Democrats also fear government most, up from 32 percent when Obama took office."
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Most black Americans assume that Barack Obama is "one of us" and vote accordingly. But is he REALLY a friend of his own racial group? Prof. Walter Williams (Townhall.com) is black -- and begs to differ ...
"Probably the most unfair thing that happens to most blacks is the grossly rotten schools they attend. Often, fraudulent high-school diplomas are conferred that certify they can read, write and compute at the 12th-grade level when in fact they can't perform at the seventh- or eighth-grade level.
"The president is against school choice for low-income parents while his own children attend Sidwell Friends, one of the most prestigious private schools in D.C."
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Care to know what Ben Bernanke and the secretive Federal Reserve bank(s) have been up to?
The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year.Here's part of where they sent $16 TRILLION dollars:
Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more ...
Makes you proud to be a taxpayer, doesn't it?!
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Peter Ferrara in The American Spectator with a brief summary of the Obama background that far more Americans should have given far more attention in 2008...
"His mother was an unabashed hippie from 1960s central casting. His father was an openly avowed Communist from Kenya. While his father wasn't around much, his devoutly progressive grandparents arranged for him to be mentored during his adolescent years by a dues paying member of the U.S. Communist Party, Frank Marshall Davis.
"When he went to college, he was attracted to the Marxist professors and student activists, according to his own published memoirs. When he graduated, he moved to Chicago and became an instructor for the left-wing extremist organization ACORN in the social manipulation methods of radical Marxist agitator Saul Alinsky. He attended for close to two decades the Trinity United Church of Christ, which practiced neo-Marxist Black Liberation Theology. That church was headed during those years by the openly socialist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who declared that the 9/11 terrorist attack on America was "America's chickens coming home to roost." He also famously preached from his pulpit, "Not God bless America, God damn America…."
Given that personal history, why should anyone be surprised that his presidency has been a colossal failure?
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Mitt Romney, for all his years of campaigning, still seems unable to break thru a ceiling of Republican support that tops out around 25%. Perhaps it's because he reminds too many people of that old political litmus test, "Would you buy a used car from this man?"
That may explain why, with all his many and well-examined faults, Newt Gingrich is pulling away.
As Jonah Goldberg put it regarding Newt ...
" ... what are you going to say about the guy that people don't already know? Just as it's OK to speak openly about the fact that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, Gingrich's backstory provides no spoilers. Herman Cain was undone because people were still forming their first impressions of him. Everything bad about Gingrich -- the flip-flops, the wives, the ego -- is known. Once voters have convinced themselves they can overlook that stuff, it's hard to change their minds simply by repeating it."
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The public furor apparently awakened the stupid leeches who are thick on the ground in Congress. A House-Senate conference committee has put the military prohibition on sodomy and bestiality back into the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act.
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In case you missed it ...
The two leading hurricane forecasters have announced they're quitting the business of making such predictions.
Why? Because their track record is abominable, and they've decided that the factors upon which their forecasts were made were unreliable indicators.
Further, the science and operations officer of the National Hurricane Center, Dr. Chris Landsea, admits that "climate change" as a factor has also been a failed meteorology religion.
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Terry Jeffrey (Human Events) with something to annoy the teachers' union ...
"Public school teachers receive greater average hourly compensation in wages and benefits than any other group of state and local government workers and receive more than twice as much in average hourly wages and benefits as workers in private industry, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Public primary, secondary and special education teachers are paid an average of $56.59 per hour in combined wages and benefits. That is slightly more than twice the $28.24 in average hourly wages and benefits paid to workers in private industry."
No wonder Michelle Obama urged young people not to go into that awful world of private enterprise but become teachers, instead.
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FBI statistics show a big jump in gun sales. People are getting tired of the lax attitude toward criminals and are making the wise choice not to be dependent on 9-1-1, which means a person is effectively defenseless.
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Just asking ... does anybody care anymore about Time Magazine's "Person of the Year"?
Irrelevant. That's Time. And it's about ... time.
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I admired her work as Governor of Alaska long before most Americans had heard of her, yet I must ask:
What ever became of Sarah Palin?
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Another leftist shill loses her network TV roost. The plummy-sounding Christiane Amanpour will no longer be grandstanding for Obama on ABC's "This Week" propaganda-fest.
Boy George Stephanopoulos, who used to be Clinton's town-crier (remember him repeating the litany, "The president has SAID ..." as if it guaranteed the truth from a prodigious liar) is taking over the host chair. Little change in substance is expected.
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Peter reminds us of the dizzying hypocrisy of our government with this quote ...
“Try to fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured ... but not prove they are a citizen."
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Sheila with a romantic story ...
A little old lady was sitting on a park bench in a Florida retirementcommunity. A man walked over and sits down on the other end of the bench. After a few moments, the woman asks, 'Are you a stranger here?'
He replies, 'I lived here years ago.'
'So, where were you all these years since then?'
'In prison,' he says.
'Why did they put you in prison?'
He looked at her, and very quietly said, 'I killed my wife.'
'Oh!' said the woman. 'So you're single...?!'
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Conan O'Brien --
"Newt Gingrich released a statement promising he would not cheat on his wife. Even better, he said he wouldn't cheat on his next wife either, or the one after that."
RATE THE DEBATE ... OBAMA STILL
SLIP-SLIDIN' AWAY ...
EUROPE STILL MOOCHING
EUROPE STILL MOOCHING
Debate impressions ...
Romney regained his footing; his most impressive performance to date.
Newt garnered big response for his attacks on the U.N. and judges legislating from the bench. His response to Bachmann's attacks were unsatisfactory and were his worst moments yet in the political rasslin'-matches.
Bachmann herself was strong, but likely didn't improve her own prospects.
Perry seems to have belatedly learned how the "debate" game is played and seemed sure of himself -- for a change. His part-time Congress proposal resonates; the less they're gathered, the fewer screw-ups they can make.
Santorum seemed strong in his convictions, as usual, but just can't catch on with the public.
Huntsman is wasting his time. His total demeanor screams, "snake-oil salesman".
And Ron Paul took another long step toward convincing rational people that he's totally nuts. His attitude toward the very real threat from Islamic fanaticism is reminiscent of the most disgraceful political figure of the 1930's, Britain's Prime Minister Chamberlain, a naive imbecile who believed he could make friends with Adolf Hitler via appeasement.
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After the Iowa caucuses come three primaries. New Hampshire is followed by South Carolina and Florida. That likely means that by the end of January, the Republican field will be winnowed-down to three or possibly a futile fourth (but hopeless) entry. Ron Paul figures to hang in with a small core of fanatical supporters, along with Gingrich and Romney; Perry has the money to continue his run, but unless he makes a powerful showing somewhere in the first month of the new year, he's inconsequential.
It's difficult to see any of the rest of the field surviving beyond January.
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They're doing something right in Texas. The state comptroller says the Lone Star State will have a $1.6 billion surplus. Anyone paying attention in Sacramento or any of several other state capitols?
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The answer to this question is a pretty good indicator of an incumbent president's chances for re-election: "Is the country headed in the right direction?"
The latest Rasmussen poll finds 19% of likely voters answer "yes", 73% say "no".
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A poll of voters ages 18-29 conducted by Obama's alma mater, Hah-vuhd, finds that 36% of that cohort think Obama will lose next year while 30% think he won't.
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Dan Sorkin copied me in on his Christmas greeting to the Big Nothing ...
Dear Pinocchio-in-Chief,
Wars end in either Victory or Defeat. We have neither in Iraq.
Because of you we have left half the population at risk of terrible reprisals because they aided us in the combat that allowed the elections to take place.
The power vacuum that will exist after the last American military unit leaves will be replaced by Iran.
Is that what we fought & died for?
Your hollow words at Fort Bragg reek of insincerity at the least and treasonous at best.
Please do the country a favor & resign and take your America-hating spouse with you.
Merry Christmas!
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There's a "plus" for Israel in the winding-down of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. If they do decide to hammer Iran's nuclear facilities with bombing raids, the short route to their enemy is over Iraq and the U.S. no longer has to decide whether to permit that route to be used. Iraq has no air force to deter them, so the freeway-in-the-sky is open.
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News item carried by Breitbart ...
"US mayors sounded an alarm Thursday over deepening economic woes after a survey of 29 cities from Los Angeles to Washington showed worrying rises in homelessness and poverty-related food aid."
But wait! Aren't we only supposed to hear such news stories when there's a REPUBLICAN in the White House?!
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The head of the International Monetary Fund, to which we contribute big dollars, says the world is headed for a terrible 1930's - style depression unless "somebody" steps in to resolve Europe's debt crisis. The "somebody" he means, of course, is U.S. -- us. In other words, our own beyond-bankrupt country is supposed to tax itself further in order to bail out even more-idiotically-run nations.
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The bill eliminating foreign aid to Pakistan has passed the House and may well pass in the Senate, given the widespread public revulsion at the idea of further support to this very dubious "ally".
Naturally, Pakistan has a heated reaction.
Of COURSE they do!
I mean, just because they gave Osama bin Laden a hideout for years and provide shelter for Afghanistan's murderous Taliban, why shouldn't they expect the world's most gullible country, led by a weak-kneed nothing, to continue supporting them with tax money extracted from a bankrupt economy?
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The wise Burt Prelutsky on Obama-style socialism ...
"In Obama's case, he only resents rich people who don't kick in to his re-election war chest. But even he, who is a multi-millionaire, believes that other wealthy people should hand over their money to the poor. And not in the form of charity, which has always been the American way, but through taxation and federal redistribution.
"There are several reasons why this should be abhorrent to everyone. For one thing, an awful lot of poor people are leeches. They don't work even when jobs are readily available. And when they're given money, food stamps and housing, they aren't even grateful. They regard it as their due.
"Those who have less than others are told that the only reason for the imbalance is that they've been cheated. It has nothing to do with their sloth, ignorance and lack of initiative, everything to do with a system that allows the rich to steal what is rightfully theirs.
"Thomas Edison once observed in pre-inflationary times: 'From his neck down, a man is worth a couple of dollars a day; from his neck up, he is worth anything his brain can produce.'"
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The Obamas' proclivity for traveling separately is a costly fetish for the taxpayers. Separate flight, separate limos and assorted accoutrements, another Secret Service security detail -- all expensive. But, of course, Michelle's sheer preciousness is worth it -- isn't it?
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An idea for Obama? In Caracas, Venezuela, a Nativity scene has the usual cast, plus one. Dictator Hugo Chavez.
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Investors Business Daily examines the gigantic fraud we call "public education" ...
"Does anyone poor-mouth their pay more than public school teachers? A new study finds that to the contrary, teachers make 50% more than comparable private workers. So what do taxpayers get for this premium?
The short answer is poor schools, falling test scores, high dropout-rates, foolish policies, a free ride for the academic bottom dwellers and a growing home-school movement fleeing the system.
In sum, a Big-Labor dominated system that serves itself — not the public.
Yet a joint study by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute found teachers are overpaid by 50% when all their perks, benefits, tax breaks, vacations, pensions and job protections are added in."
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Janet Robinson, CEO of the New York Times, is out as of the end of December. Readership, and thus advertising revenue, continues to drop. Perhaps if the left-wing Times rebuilt its credibility to the level of, say, the National Enquirer, its fortunes would turn.
I hear Russia's Pravda isn't doing all that well anymore, either.
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A question to consider: Which would you choose to protect you from crime -- Sheriff Joe Arpaio or any department head in Obama's administration?
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Impress friends and annoy strangers with your vast knowledge ...
No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times. Oh, go ahead... we'll wait...
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
The King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache.
Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. Probably most of it yours.
Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks. (So, watch your Ass )
Now you know everything important ... so go back to sleep.
-- Thanks, Sheila! --
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Thanks to Gordon for passing along a Willie Nelson quote ...
"A wise man, Ray Price, told me recently that there's one thing he's learned in life. In fact, he called me on the phone to tell me this, and I said, 'What is it?'
"He said, 'Money makes women horny.'
"I personally have observed nothing that would cast doubt on the veracity of that statement."
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Jay Leno --
"Ron Paul is in favor of letting states legalize marijuana, prostitution, and cocaine. So even if he doesn't win, that's going to be one heck of an election night party."
PIPELINE BENDS OBAMA ... LET THERE BE
(incandescent) LIGHT!
Worth repeating. And repeating:
There are pipelines criss-crossing this country from coast to coast. Obama's stall on the vital pipeline from Canada to transport petroleum to the Gulf Coast refineries was a blatant case of political whoring to the deranged environmental wackos. Congratulations to the House Republicans -- and some Democrats -- for developing the backbone to force his hand.
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Obama's former "auto czar" who oversaw the government takeover of GM now says the taxpayers will lose about $14 billion on the deal. Anybody surprised? Oh, yes: he calls it a "success".
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A visiting friend, originally from Hong Kong but now living in Toronto, says the housing market in Canada is still solid. Obvious reason: the Canadian government, unlike our own collection of fools in Washington, was never so stupid as to guarantee (with taxpayer dollars) stupid loans made to purchasers who were not credit-worthy.
Anyone who ever supported this idiotic scheme would, in a sane country, be imprisoned for fraud.
Even in comfortable financial circumstances, home-ownership isn't always a wise choice for many. And the idea that it's an investment vehicle sure to rise in value is a fantasy that the government-manufactured housing bubble should have dispelled for another generation.
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Hard to believe, but there was a momentary outbreak of sanity in Washington and Congressional negotiators made a deal that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of incandescent light bulbs beginning next year and would have forced use of the high-priced, environmentally hazardous compact flourescent lights (made in China).
Now -- when can we attend the public hanging of the dopes who dreamed-up this scam in the first place?
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The Washington Times has learned that members of Congresswho submit official mailings for review by the congressional franking commission that reviews all congressional mail to determine if it can be "franked," or paid for with tax dollars, are being told that no holiday greetings, including "Merry Christmas," can be sent in official mail.
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The tyrannical "liberal" mindset never changes. It is not sufficient for them to ignore audio or video programs that they dislike or writings with which they disagree; they doggedly insist that nobody else should see/hear/read such content.
Thus we have another outbreak of their annual rage against all things Christmas. Ignoring such traditions themselves is unsatisfactory; they want to deny them to everyone else.
I strongly support an outspoken reaction to such abusiveness, beginning with a hearty "Merry Christmas" to any craven "Happy Holidays". And to anyone who objects to Christmas carols, I endorse a cheery, "Go to Hell!"
All offered in the spirit of brotherhood, of course.
Bottom line: I don't try to disrupt YOUR holidays, so leave mine alone!
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Carl Cannon (RealClearPolitics) has this on the differences between Obama's youth support in 2007 vs. now ...
"It was the first week of February 2007 -- early in the cycle for a presidential event -- and the Johnson Center at George Mason University was in a fervor for a freshman U.S. senator who had been in office all of 25 months. The warm-up speakers were all students; the headliner, Barack Obama.
"But reaching young voters is one thing: Recapturing the unbridled optimism of 2008 in the midst of this lengthy economic stagnation and political gridlock is quite another.
"You often meet your 'first love' in high school or perhaps college. But you don’t usually marry that person. You date them. And if things don’t work out, you break up."
We live and learn, and apparently many naive young people have learned that their "dream boy" wasn't remotely qualified to be president, and still isn't.
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With a half-dozen former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives facing lawsuits for securities fraud, Newt Gingrich's profitable ($1.6 million) relationship with those two disgraced entities could be fatal to his presidential hopes. Michele Bachmann's attack over that connection during this week's debate lit a fuse. Newt's effort to define "consulting" as different from "lobbying" seemed to many a distinction without a difference.
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We might wonder whether South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s endorsement of Mitt Romney will gain more votes for him, or lose more votes for her when she's up for re-election. Newt's the big favorite with the state's Republicans.
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A note about Gingrich's attack on Romney regarding bankrupting companies when he ran Bain Capital, an investment company. Some companies HAVE to go thru bankruptcy in order to survive. An example comes from the airline industry. Until last week all major U.S. airlines had gone thru the process except for American ... which was finally added to the list.
And the plain fact is, some companies shouldn't survive. If they've become outdated by products, practices and policies or technology, keeping them alive to "save jobs" was the blueprint for the failure of communism.
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What do you think it says about Iraq's present "leadership" that no officials of the current regime even showed up for the farewell of the U.S. troops? Those "leaders" are in power only because the U.S. military made possible the elections that placed them in their positions. Yet they offered neither a thank-you or goodbye.
Only a fool would believe that Iraq's future will be one built around liberal, tolerant democracy. A far safer bet is that in the readily foreseeable future it will be Iran's handmaiden in foreign affairs and repressive, intolerant and murderous internally.
Perhaps then more Americans will realize we bungled the conclusion of our involvement by giving the kid-gloves treatment to people who hate us non-Muslims to the very core of their being.
Now let's see how the geniuses in Washington can screw-up dealing with the vicious Iranian regime and its incessant threats to annihilate us. Of course, Ron Paul thinks they're just kidding.
In wartime, there is much to be said for the unofficial Marines' motto: "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
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Another sign that the world, and especially its bureaucrats. are in the grip of utter insanity ...
The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said Thursday there are “serious suspicions” that the death of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was a war crime. Luis Moreno Ocampo said “The death of Moammar Gadhafi is one of the issues to be clarified — what happened — because there are serious suspicions that it was a war crime.”
Yeah ... the guy was just a SWEETHEART ...
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The headlines from the Rasmussen Poll tell us everything our corrupt, stupid politicians should know but don't -- or won't acknowledge -- about Americans' views of illegal immigration ...
"60% Think Federal Government Encourages Illegal Immigration"
"52% Support Arizona-Like Immigration Law in Their State"
"Voters View Holder More Negatively Amid Calls For Resignation"
"New High: 65% Oppose Automatic Citizenship for Children Born Here to Illegal Immigrants"
"63% Favor Immigration Checks On All Routine Traffic Stops"
"61% Favor A State Law That Would Shut Down Repeat Offenders Who Hire Illegal Immigrants"
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Our racist Attorney General, Eric Holder, claims that voter fraud is rare. He's lying, of course. Otherwise, he might start acting responsibly with something easy to confront, possibly perpetrated by liberal whites in Wisconsin. They've been registering to vote in the effort to oust the governor; registering under such names as "Mickey Mouse" and "Adolf Hitler" -- and their registrations have been accepted. But Mr. Holder has expressed no interest.
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So former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was in no hurry to forward to authorities a witness' report of a sexual abuse of a young boy because he didn't want to "interfere with their weekends," according to a deposition read in court. What?!
The image of Saint Joe is irreparably and justifiably ruined.
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Remember the movie "Rudy"? Reuters reports that Daniel Ruettiger, the legendary Notre Dame football underdog who inspired the 1993 movie couldn't do an end run around the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC on Friday charged Ruettiger and 12 others with running a stock scam associated with Rudy Nutrition - a company Ruettiger founded to try to compete against Gatorade in the sports drink market. The company sold modest amounts of the sports drink "Rudy" with the tagline "Dream Big! Never Quit!", but the company was primarily a pump-and-dump stock scheme that created more than $11 million in illicit profits, the SEC said.
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Islamic fundamentalism in action. The Daily Mail (London) reports that a jealous husband is facing life in prison after chopping off his wife's fingers because she began studying for a degree without his permission. Rafiqul Islam, 30, blindfolded his wife Hawa Akhter, and taped her mouth, telling her he was going to give her a surprise present. Instead he made her hold out her hand and cut off all five fingers.
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Etta James, who sang THE version of "At Last" ... terminally ill with many and complicated diseases. She's 73.
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Put it on pay-per-view and I'll gladly ante-up to watch Joe Arpaio bend Brian Williams' (NBC) nose in the other direction for gleefully reporting that (Eric Holder's) Justice Department charged the Arizona sheriff with violating the "civil rights" of illegal aliens. As if anything that comes from Holder's department is unimpeachable.
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A quadrennial reminder from Mike ...
There is less than an year until the election, an election that will decide the next President of the United States. The person elected will be the president of all Americans, not just the Democrats or the Republicans.
To show our solidarity as Americans, let's all get together and show each other our support for the candidate of our choice. It's time that we come together, Democrats and Republicans alike. If you support the policies and character of the Republican party, please drive with your headlights on during the day. If you support Obama, please drive with your headlights off at night.
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Early warning! We approach the season for scam-artists to send e-mails to potential victims. The e-mails are purportedly from the IRS, requesting correction of a tax ID, Social Security number or other personal data ... information that could help them with stealing your identification and/or emptying your bank account.
Remember: the IRS does NOT contact people by e-mail!
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The NY Post reports a heart-warming story for Christmas ...
A British teenager has written to Santa threatening to kill him if she doesn’t get a BlackBerry, money, a new dress — and Justin Beiber.
The 13-year-old also threatened to “hunt down’’ Santa’s reindeer and “serve their meat to homeless people.’’
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From the annals of medicine, Nurse Barbara offers this tale from a doctor in Corvallis, Oregon ...
"While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient, I asked, ' How long have you been bedridden? '
After a look of complete confusion she answered . . . ' Why, not for about twenty years - when my husband was alive. '
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The Sky-guy provides another winner ...
While working in the TV sales department of a major retail store a customer called our department demanding help with her TV set, which wouldn't come on?
"I'm sorry", I told the lady, "but we can't send out a service man today due to the blizzard."
Unsatisfied, she barked, "I need my TV fixed today! What else am I supposed to do while the power is out?"
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Jimmy Kimmel --
"Barbara Walters named her 10 most fascinating people of the year last night here on ABC. The list included the Kardashian family, Donald Trump, Simon Cowell and Katy Perry. Is that a list of the most fascinating people or a list of the reasons the terrorists hate us?"
JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED ... NEWT
EXPOSES "PALESTINIAN" FRAUD
It's not difficult to find Americans who are fed up with judges "legislating from the bench", i.e., inventing laws to fit their own inclinations. However, Newt Gingrich's statement that he would ignore Supreme Court decisions that conflicted with his powers as commander in chief may have appeal to many, but it could set up a constitutional crisis that could, in turn, lead to unforeseeable consequences.
It's not unprecedented. Andrew Jackson did it. But even the most remote possibility of a president demanding unrestrained powers should make us uneasy about even broader consequences than could be exercised by a power-mad judge.
On the positive side, a clear message to judges that their whims are not always necessarily the last word could be therapeutic in an era of over-reaching courts.
After all, the Supreme Court itself has an extensive historical record of overturning the decisions of its own predecessors.
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Mitt Romney's happy now to have the endorsement of former Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole. He ridiculed Dole's endorsement of McCain four years ago. Frankly, Dole was such a stumblebum loser as a presidential candidate, who should give a rat's patoot about his endorsement, anyway?
Being a war hero is not, per se, a qualification for the presidency. Dole, like McCain, was in a long line of men who distinguished themselves in the deadly test of warfare but were failures in presidential politics. Ulysses S. Grant, a great general and one of the worst presidents in history, comes to mind.
(Addendum: The title "Worst President" now belongs in perpetuity to the present occupant of government housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20500. There is no confusing him with a hero of any kind.)
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Wonder how Obama likes the "Occupy" punks now that the rectal orifii are harassing his campaign office in Des Moines?
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Robert Knight in the Washington Times asks ...
"Is it racist to require people to show a photo ID when they vote? You need a photo ID for nearly any meaningful transaction, such as cashing checks, including government checks. If this simple requirement “suppresses” the vote, maybe we need to ask why it’s such a great idea to push for universal suffrage for every adult who is merely breathing. Of course, even this latter requirement would suppress the vote in Chicago and New Orleans, where dead people get to vote all the time - and do so cheerfully."
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Here's what it costs you, dear taxpayer, to fund a Hawaii vacation for the biggest pack of freeloaders ever to inhabit the White House.
The Hawaii Reporter has research showing the total cost for the President’s visit for taxpayers far exceeded $1.5 million in 2010 – but is even more costly this year because he extended his vacation by three days and the cost for Air Force One travel has jumped since last assessed in 2000. In addition, Hawaii Reporter was able to obtain more specifics about the executive expenditures.
The total cost (based on what is known) for the 17-day vacation roundtrip vacation to Hawaii for the President, his family and staff has climbed to more than $4 million.
Makes George Bush's vacations at his own ranch in Texas look like a bargain, doesn't it?
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Full marks to Newt Gingrich for stating a fact that Muslim activists, liberals and the leftist media have tried to obscure -- or bury -- when he pointed out that, “There was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places.”
"Palestinian" IS a made-up word about a politically-created group of people. Try to examine their history with any research tool you choose and you will find an artificially-contrived people, invented to give disgruntled Muslims a "cause" to which they could rally and express their dissatisfaction with their sorry lot in life -- self-created, at that.
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David Bass in the American Spectator elaborates on the cult of permanent adolescence that Obama cultivates ...
"Never underestimate the human proclivity for wanting more, and wanting it for free. President Obama is building his re-election campaign around that theme. 'Obama money' doesn't exist, but our 44th president will do everything in his power to convince Americans that everyone deserves the trappings of a middle-class lifestyle, only achieved if we return to a 90-percent tax bracket for the wealthiest among us.
"It's a cult of adolescence. Teenagers demand the privileges of adulthood without paying for it. Parents provide a car, and teenagers wreck it; parents hand over a credit card, and teenagers spend like profligates. It's human nature. By the same token, a large share of voters in the United States feel entitled to the fruit of their neighbors' labor, and they select public officials accordingly."
We'd better hope the latter group still outnumbers the would-be lifetime freeloaders with their "Occupy" signs.
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Pass this along to anyone you may know who wants us to be more tolerant of Islamic law and traditions.
This is happening in Afghanistan. Right now. Agence France Presse, the French news agency, reports on the plight of a young woman named Gulnaz who is 20 or 21 -- she doesn't know for sure. She was raped. By her cousin's husband. She was put in jail for the "moral crime" of being raped. She was pregnant from the rape and now has a baby daughter.
She has agreed to marry the rapist, because her father and brothers have threatened to kill her for "disgracing" them. She has no place to live. She will marry the rapist when he is released from prison in order to have some measure of security for her baby. And to restore her family's "honor".
This is one of many instances of abuse of women that should be remembered when some "liberal" demands tolerance for these barbaric bastards.
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Since the question was asked, "What kind of name is 'Newt' ... it's short for Newton, Mr. Gingrich's first name.
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I know, I know; there's always something else to worry about. No need to dwell on this one, because there's little you could do about it. Ever hear of an electro-magnetic pulse? It could be set off by a high-altitude nuclear blast.
Ed Feulner (Townhall.com) elaborates on the consequences ...
"With an EMP, almost everything powered by electricity would be effectively wiped out -- not physically, but practically. They would simply cease to work.
"Imagine the havoc this could cause. Your cell phone? Useless. The same goes for your TV, radio and computer. Your car might still run, but good luck driving on roads with no working stoplights, accessing your GPS devices for directions, or buying gasoline from pumps that won’t pump. We’d be in the dark, literally -- plunged into the early 19th century in a matter of seconds.
"Everyday life would grind to a halt. Almost every feature of 21st century life that we’ve come to rely on, from fully-stocked grocery stores to fire and ambulance services, would be gone in an instant."
Never mind the ability of Russia or China to precipitate such a disaster. How about North Korea ... or Iran? But they wouldn't do such a thing -- would they? At least folk like Ron Paul won't lose any sleep over it. After all, according to fools like Paul, such nations have a "right" to nukes.
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Having also lived in Miami, life in Arizona (for the past ten years) is my second experience of living year-around in a "snowbird" destination. The term "snowbird" as used here applies not to the visiting tourist in the area for a few days or weeks, but the affluent folk who maintain a winter home here.
They are a welcome boost to the local economy and thus ease taxes on permanent residents while being very little burden on social services, but some could use a serious attitude adjustment.
Little of the following, by the way, refers to our many Canadian visitors. Whether it's innate or simply being considerate guests in another country, those folk are generally respectful of the host population.
Hereabouts it is widely recognized, however, that some folk from the northern U.S. who come for only a few winter months bring with them the sheer rudeness that seems endemic -- in their larger cities, especially.
They seem to feel that the local permanent residents somehow exist only to assure that the snowbirds' every whim is attended and given priority. And while hospitality is a common characteristic among Arizonans, some of these part-timers would not be flattered to hear remarks made outside their presence. Those remarks are similar to references made in other countries about "ugly Americans".
Incidentally, even those visitors with abrasive edges are notably more polite when they encounter certain types of local folk in the small towns of ranching country. Those are the local folk whose rough ranch-hand work in hard country requires the wearing of a holstered handgun in case hostile critters like rattlesnakes or larger need to be dispatched. And they can and do take their guns to town.
A footnote: While the term "ugly American" has come to mean rude, arrogant and usually loud American tourists, the original Ugly American in the book by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer was the good-guy hero, a physically unattractive man named Homer Atkins doing good work in an Asian country.
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Should Joe Paterno's age and exalted (and phony) reputation as a paragon in the football coaching field preclude his being charged and possibly imprisoned for his calculated cover-up of child sexual abuse?
- - - - -
Kobe Bryant's wife has filed for divorce after eleven years of marriage ... claims Kobe's been playing hide-the-weenie with many babes for many years.
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A reminder to journalists, bloggers, etc. "Sight" is vision or something visible. "Site" is a place, a location.
And yes, I have seen both used with the opposite intended meaning.
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Reader Rick provides this heartwarming tale ...
Four retired guys are walking down a street in Yuma, Arizona. They turn a corner and see a sign that says,"Old TIMERS BAR - ALL DRINKS, 10 CENTS".
They look at each other and then go in, thinking, this is too good to be true.
The old bartender says in a voice that carries across the room, "Come on in and let me pour one for you. What'll it be, gentlemen?"
Each of the men orders a martini. In no time the bartender serves up four martinis and says, "That'll be 10 cents each, please."
They pay the 40 cents, finish their martinis, and order another round.
Again, four excellent martinis are produced, with the bartender again saying, - "That'll be 40 cents, please." Their curiosity gets the better of them. Finally one asks, "How can you afford to serve martinis as good as these for a dime apiece?"
"I'm a retired tailor from Phoenix ," the bartender says, and I always wanted to own a bar. Last year I hit the Lottery jackpot for $125 million and decided to open this place. Every drink is a dime. Wine, liquor, beer, it's all the same."
As the four of them sip at their martinis, they can't help noticing seven other people at the end of the bar who don't have any drinks in front of them and haven't ordered anything the whole time they've been there. One of the men asks the bartender, "What's with them?"
The bartender says, "They're retired people from Florida. They're waiting for' Happy Hour', when drinks are half-price".
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Jay Leno --
"According to a new CBS poll, 33 percent of Americans say they won't have enough money to cover their holiday spending. I believe these people are called Congress."
KIM JONG IL, R.I.H. (Rest in Hell) ...
NO THUMBS-UP FROM SARAH
Is it even possible there are brain-dead Democrats who don't recognize the grotesquerie of the Obamas taking a $4 million Hawaii vacation at taxpayer expense and even using two separate flights for themselves and their entourages in a time of deep financial crisis? Can even an Obama be that insensitive -- or outright stupid?
Yes.
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Warning sign to watch for in any election which features an unopposed incumbent on one side: voters from that party crossing over to vote in the other party's primary elections (where permitted to do so) and cast ballots for the candidate they expect to be easier to defeat. The tactic will be rampant this time around.
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I repeat what I've said and written many times before about the Iowa caucuses. They are fodder for the media and political junkies, but because participants PAY to vote (or a candidate pays FOR them to vote), as a reading on the national mindset, they are meaningless. It is foolish to get excited about an Iowa winner.
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To use a pair of his favorite words, the latest polling indicates that Gingrich may be "fundamentally" and "profoundly" losing that ol' Mo ... mentum.
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Make of it what you will, but Sarah Palin says she isn't prepared to endorse anybody in the current Republican field. And since that field is unlikely to expand, she'll evidently not offer her blessing to anyone. For whatever it's worth.
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Perhaps this explains why Democrats oppose voter ID laws. This year there have been investigations, indictments or convictions for vote fraud in California, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Maryland. In all but one case, the alleged fraudsters were Democrats.
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Whichever candidate is the object of your affections -- if any-- remind yourself of this absolute truth. If your chosen presidential aspirant is elected, you WILL be disappointed eventually. To expect otherwise is childish fantasy.
This warning is directed specifically to the kind of folk who are hyper-critical of writers or vocal commentators who opinionate; the kind of people who write, "How DARE you criticize my favorite candidate!" Better they be prepared for the inevitable letdown by knowing in advance of errors made and peccadilloes perpetrated instead of hyperventilating about having their soap-bubble fantasies penetrated. But they don't want their illusions disturbed by truth.
In short, they need to grow up. If they get a president who does no major damage to the country -- in other words, unlike the poseur presently in office -- they should count themselves fortunate.
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Mutual funds investing in the stock market have always sold themselves as your financial security blanket. The blanket is a little tattered. USA Today reports that the average diversified U.S. stock mutual fund has fallen 5.9% this year. Then there are those management fees, etc.
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From Sweden ... news that the Saab automobile company has gone bankrupt.
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From Gene, who just returned to his Bay Area home from Hawaii ...
"Arrived safe and sound from our little jaunt to HI last night to find the house temperature was 50 something instead of the usual 70° F. I called up the PG&E and asked them to send a technician to reset a pilot light. I also looked at my meter outside and found a "spanking-new" SMART-METER. (It was installed on the day we left). Team Obama 1, me 0.
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As in many towns, mine has a neighborhood where neighbors compete to build the most elaborate Christmas-lighting displays. It's not a wealthy neighborhood, but it's festive and dazzling at this season.
Like many from miles around, I drove thru the neighborhood last night. While sparkling with multi-colored lights, more houses than usual were sparsely decorated -- or not at all.
Absent any other logical explanation, I conclude that the dismal economy is at the root of the patches of darkness.
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Reuniting with friends unseen for a long time can be a disappointment or a reassurance that the friendship was well-founded.
We enjoyed the good outcome in a visit by a friend long out of sight, but not out of mind, when Ms. Wong arrived from Toronto.
She is an uplifting reminder of the adaptability of people with brave hearts.
Her parents were orphan refugee children who were left to their own devices in China many decades ago. They found their way -- alone -- to a place hundreds of miles away they'd only heard about. Hong Kong. There they grew up, married, built successful lives and raised children, all of whom are university graduates.
We met Ms. Wong when she was a University student in Hong Kong, working as a guide to help pay her way thru school. We bonded in unlikely ways, remained in touch, and she visited us a few years later when we lived near San Francisco.
When the impending takeover of Hong Kong by the Peoples' Republic of China loomed, her family moved to Toronto, investing their savings in a business there. It has thrived.
Consider this. Statistics show that most Americans live their entire lives within fifty miles of their place of birth.
For all the fact that millions move every year, far more DON'T relocate.
Consider then the choice to uproot family and move to a different hemisphere and a far different culture and language, settle in, work and make a go of a life in a totally different world.
Ms. Wong and her family chose to do so. And succeeded.
Her interest in other lands and peoples is unabated, although she is happily settled and a Canadian citizen. She is soon off to South America for a few weeks to learn about another part of the world she's never explored.
We had a farewell dinner at a small Mexican-American restaurant south of Tucson, near the border. A local Mexican-American singer did "Sabor A Mi" and other Spanish and English favorites and a good time was had by all.
Such reunions are among life's most fulfilling moments.
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Rick in Lucas Valley, California, forwards this advice ...
"I’m passing this on because it worked for me today. A doctor on TV said to have inner peace we should always finish things we start & we all could use more calm in our lives.
"I looked around my house to find things I'd started & hadn't finished, - so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Vodka, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiuminun scriptins, an a box a chocletz.
"Yu haf no idr how fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner pese. An telum u luvum"
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From the Crimefighters' Notebook ...
A couple of adult shoplifters were caught in Ogden, Utah, and given a police citation for their crime.
When they returned to their car, they found some other criminal had broken into it and stolen their stereo and other stuff.
The items they'd stolen were worth about $25; the stuff they lost was worth about $60.
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Mad Mike inflicts some Socially Unacceptable Humor ...
I saw a poor old lady fall over today on the ice!! At least I presume she was poor - she only had $1.20 in her purse.
A wife says to her husband you're always pushing me around and talking behind my back. He says what do you expect? You're in a wheel chair.
I was explaining to my wife last night that when you die you get reincarnated but must come back as a different creature. She said she would like to come back as a cow. I said, "You're obviously not listening".
The wife has been missing a week now. Police said to prepare for the worst. So, I have been to the thrift shop to get all of her clothes back.
Being a modest man, when I checked into my hotel on a recent trip, I said to the lady at the registration desk, "I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled." To which she replied, "No, it's regular people-porn, you sick bastard.
The Red Cross have just knocked at our door and asked if we could help towards the floods in Pakistan. I said we would love to, but our garden hose only reaches the driveway.
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Gary contributes this touching moment ...
I pointed to two old drunks sitting across the bar from us and told my friend, “That’s us in ten years.”
He said “That’s a mirror, dope!"
AN ELECTION DECIDED BY HACKERS? ...
NOVAK WAS A BETTER KIM ...
OBAMA'S LEFTIST MEDIA FAN-CLUB
OBAMA'S LEFTIST MEDIA FAN-CLUB
The Iowa Republican Party is expressing concern about the threat of computer hackers manipulating their caucus vote.
If that's a legitimate worry about the vote-count in one state's primary, why should it not be a concern regarding the nationwide general election? Since hackers have demonstrated the ability to get into some of the most secure government and military computer systems, is it utterly far-fetched to expect attempts to manipulate the outcome of a presidential election? Would they even be detected?
Having once lived in Chicago, where residents of the graveyards have been voting for years, I can't help but view the possibility with alarm. Shuffling computer data seems a lot less labor-intensive than stuffing ballot boxes.
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Sarah Palin has surfaced again with a pronouncement that it's not too late for "somebody" to enter the Republican presidential race. With great respect ... yes, Sarah, it is.
And frankly, who would want a president so indecisive as to wait until only a few weeks before the first votes are cast to suddenly decide to run for the most powerful office in the world?
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The Manchester, New Hampshire UNION LEADER is unquestionably a conservative paper with large influence in that first-primary state. Its editorial view of Ron Paul should be of interest to Republican voters ...
"Paul has perfected the art of delivering applause lines to Republican voters sick of seeing their party squander money on big-government boondoggles, pork-barrel giveaways and questionable national security initiatives. Often, his criticisms hit their mark. But let him keep talking and eventually he reveals that his thoughts on some of the most important issues of the day are less than serious.
"On foreign policy, Paul makes heads nod by lamenting that Congress has ceded too much power to the President. Then he says that all foreign military bases should be closed, no matter their strategic importance, and that the United States is and always has been the aggressor in the War on Terrorism.
"Paul is so deluded by his orthodoxy that he refuses to see the serious threat posed to this country by radical Islamists, including the ones who control the government of Iran."
A less civil but equally accurate way of putting it would be ... Paul is a wacko and a threat to national security.
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Callista Gingrich, First Lady? Well, there WAS Hillary ...
- - - - -
Thomas Sowell (Townhall.com) is willing to overlook Newt's ... peccadilloes ...
"In a world where we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available, the question is whether Newt Gingrich is better than Barack Obama -- and better than Mitt Romney.
"Can you name one important positive thing that Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone? Does a candidate who represents the bland leading the bland increase the chances of victory in November 2012? A lot of candidates like that have lost, from Thomas E. Dewey to John McCain.
"Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Newt Gingrich's past, rather than on the nation's future, should remember what Winston Churchill said: "If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means lost big time."
- - - - -
Accuracy in Media says that a new report to be issued in January by the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future predicts that most newspapers will be dead in five years, with only the largest and smallest surviving.
Oh, dear! What will we use to line our bird cages?
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As the world takes note of the passing of one North Korean tyrant who is succeeded by the next-in-line Kim family dictator, one might reflect once again on President Truman's unwillingness to let General MacArthur finish the job on North Korea. Given twenty-twenty hindsight, it's obvious that was a colossal mistake and the world would have been a far better place without the accursed Kim dynasty.
Now a 25-year-old bully has his finger on a nuclear trigger.
- - - - -
Len the haiku master has this ode to the North Koreans who actually HAVE had to eat the bark off trees ...
Kim Jong IL is dead.
North Koreans celebrate.
Ummmmm, tree bark parties !!!
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The stated policy at Walter Reed Hospital, the nation's most prominent military medical facility, is as follows in memo form: "No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit."
Right. You can't take a Bible into the place, per the memo, which now has some serious back-tracking going on after the predictable furor over the policy. Now the Army "can't find" the person responsible for this piece of idiocy, but is withdrawing the rule, which they also insist was never enforced.
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Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that left-wing media types enjoyed a get-together with Obama at the White House yesterday. They included the Washington Post‘s Ezra Klein and Greg Sargent, MSNBC anchors Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, and Chris Hayes, the Nation’s editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, the New York Times‘ Frank Bruni, and stars of the interwebs Arianna Huffington, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, Faiz Shakir of ThinkProgress and Joy Reid of The Reid Report.
Obama suck-ups, each and every one. Leftist shills embraced by the Dear Leader.
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Two major power outages at the Monday night football game in San Francisco. The electricity ... and the Steelers' offense. Of course, when your quarterback is playing on one leg, not a lot can be expected.
The Niners have a ferocious defense, but how far can they go with Alex Smith at quarterback?
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CNBC calculates that the average American family has spent $4,155 on gasoline this years. In case you've forgotten, the price has about doubled since voters foolishly put the "community organizer" in the White House -- and he still wants to stall the pipeline that would bring abundant oil supplies from just over the border in Canada.
And somewhere in Moscow, Vladimir Putin is rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation of the fun he's going to have, dealing with the Washington nonentity.
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Reader Peter is acting up again ...
"Shot my first turkey yesterday. Scared the heck out of everyone in the frozen food section…
It was awesome!"
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The dismissive "whatever" has been adjudged the most annoying word for the third straight year.
Good choice. Were I not the tolerant chap that I am, I might advocate the savage beating of anyone who uses it.
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What d'you mean, "Have I done my Christmas shopping?" Check with me on December 24th. At 4:45PM.
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"What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?"
"I don't know ... and I don't care."
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Health tip, obviously from a teetotaler ...
When you drink vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.
When you drink rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.
When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems.
When you drink gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.
Apparently, ice is really bad for you.
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From my friend A.O ... who is a woman ...
Men Are Happier People Because ...
When you get married, your last name stays put.
Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.
People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look..
You can do all your Christmas shopping on December 24 in 20 minutes.
EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back..
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.
MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need -- but it's on sale.
ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.
DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the trash, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.
OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.
A LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND ... DOCTORS
DEPRESSED
Have you ever seen such sheer egomania displayed as in the out-takes from Obama's "Sixty Minutes" interview in which is scores himself the 4th-greatest president EVER?! Just ... stunning. Megalomania running wild. Delusions of grandeur. A shrink could have a field-day with this narcissistic head-case.
- - - - -
What next in North Korea? Former U. S. Ambassador to the U.N., straight-talking John Bolton, believes China and the U.S. should be quietly working together to keep a potentially explosive situation manageable. China has an obvious interest in not having a flood of hungry North Korean refugees flooding across its borders; we have an obvious interest in some sort of (further) madness in North Korea leading to an unleashing of nuclear weapons.
China's leadership is probably smart enough to act in its own self-interest. Whether that quality exists in our own president is open to question. If so, it's been well-concealed.
- - - - -
If you have a date with your doctor soon and you're a Medicare patient, don't expect him/her to be in a good mood. Unless the idiots in Washington act, doctors face a 27% cut in Medicare reimbursement as of January 1. Some say they'll take no Medicare patients if this isn't fixed -- pronto.
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There's political gossip about the possibility of a "brokered" convention -- political deal-making -- if the race between Gingrich and Romney stays tight thru the primaries. I'd be surprised, thinking it more likely that one or the other will either fade slowly or implode rapidly well before next summer's convention.
- - - - -
What's next? Guns and knives? Exactly as expected, now that Romney and Gingrich are in a battle for survival, all the nice words about keeping it clean with no personal attacks are becoming distant memories. It's down 'n dirty time.
It's as sure as sunrise: the trailing candidate in any race will ALWAYS "go negative". Then the leader will respond accordingly.
- - - - -
Byron York of the Washington Examiner addresses speculation that Jeb Bush, G. W.'s younger brother, might be a late entrant in the presidential sweepstakes, but thinks it unlikely. So do I. While it's long been common knowledge that Jeb, successful as governor of Florida, was believed by his parents to be the rising political star in the family, there's justifiable concern that even after three years of Obama the very name Bush is still poison to a lot of swing voters -- and those ARE the voters who usually decide presidential elections.
- - - - -
CNBC headline: "Investors Lose Faith in Stocks As Billions Pour Out of Funds".
The stock market is reminding people -- again -- that it's still a Big Casino. Win some, lose some -- but the house always collects its piece of the action.
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Survey says ...
Seventy percent (70%) of likely U.S. voters believe voters should be required to show photo identification such as a driver’s license before being allowed to cast their ballot.
That's from the Rasmussen survey and doubtless dismays Attorney General Eric Holder, the racist who objects to such a requirement.
Who else is opposed? Political operatives, almost entirely Democrats, who plan to extend their long tradition of voting illegals, fictitious persons and dead people.
(This observation is made with the well-seasoned cynicism of a former resident of Obama's present hometown, Chicago.)
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Just wondering ...
Will Joe Biden's sanity hearing be held before, or after, the Democratic convention?
- - - - -
Jonah Goldberg elucidates a few of potential President Ron Paul's problems ...
"Paul routinely says that he's the only candidate who promises real change. For instance, he proposes cutting $1 trillion from the budget in the first year of his presidency. Now, show of hands: Who thinks Ron Paul could get those kinds of cuts through Congress? Anyone?
"I like, even love, many of Paul's proposals: turning Medicaid into block grants, getting rid of the Department of Education, etc. But he's not the man to get them accomplished, largely because the president doesn't have unilateral authority.
"Presidential power is the power to persuade -- Congress, the media and, ultimately and most important, the American people. The power of the purse, meanwhile, resides on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
"Paul has been in Congress, off and on, for nearly 30 years. In that time, he took to the floor and delivered passionate speeches in protest convincing ... nobody. He authored precious little legislation of any consequence.
"Paul's supporters love to talk about how he was a lone voice of dissent. They never explain why he was alone in his dissent. Now he insists that everyone in Washington will suddenly do what he wants once he's in the White House. That's almost painfully naive. And it's ironic that the only way the libertarian-pure-constitutionalist in the race could do the things he's promising is by using powers not in the Constitution."
Ron Paul also says the soldier who slipped thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks is a "hero".
You don't have to be a liberal to know that the explosively racist comments sent out in his newsletter (comments he now disavows) would be suicidal in a general election. Comments like, "...order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
- - - - -
Some interpretations of the Maya calendar say the world ends one year from today.
Others say it's simply the end of an era -- whatever that means. "In one era and out the other?"
- - - - -
Now THIS isn't nice, reader Phil ...
"Doesn't Callista (Gingrich) look like a bad Madame Tussaud's wax replica of Cindy McCain?"
- - - - -
One president had this to say about hyphenated Americans ...
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907 --
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We've all had bad first dates, but ...
There's the lady in Florida who accepted an invitation for a movie date. She drove. Once in the theater, the dude told her he'd left something in her car and asked for the keys so he could go out and get it. Then left. With her car.
The police caught him a few days later.
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Reader Zan recalls the timeless wit of Bob Hope ...
ON TURNING 70 -- "You still chase women, but only downhill."
ON TURNING 80 -- "That's the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing."
ON TURNING 90 -- "You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake."
ON NEVER WINNING AN OSCAR -- "Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it's called at my home, 'Passover'."
ON HIS FAMILY'S EARLY POVERTY -- "Four of us slept in the one bed. When it got cold, mother threw on another brother."
- - - - -
Another from the annals of medicine ...
An eighty-three year old lady finished her annual physical examination whereupon the doctor said "You are in fine shape for your age.. but tell me.. do you still have intercourse?"
"Just a minute .. I'll have to ask my husband," she said. She went out to the reception room and said:
"Jake do we still have intercourse?"
Jake answered impatiently........"If I told you once I told you a thousand times... We have Blue Cross !!"
- - - - -
Conan O'Brien --
"It was leaked that Tiger Woods' divorce settlement ending up netting his wife almost $100 million. The news was leaked to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Kobe Bryant's wife. "
CARTER COMFORTS A COMMUNIST ...
BAGHDAD BOMBINGS BEGIN
... RON PAUL'S "PATRIOT"
... RON PAUL'S "PATRIOT"
Bill Clinton endorses Jon Huntsman for the Republican presidential nomination?
Since when does any Republican give a rat's butt about a Clinton endorsement?
A kiss of death, guaranteed.
- - - - -
The Washington Times reports that former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished "every success" to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country's state-run news agency.
A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il's son and heir apparent.
Anybody surprised?
- - - - -
It didn't take long. The American troops are barely out of Iraq, and the Muslim factions have begun slaughtering each other again. Yesterday alone ... just in Baghdad ... the score from bombings was 57 dead, almost 200 wounded.
Yes, indeed. We sure brought the blessings of civilization to that misbegotten hell-hole, didn't we?
- - - - -
From the Wall Street Journal ...
"A group of hackers in China breached the computer defenses of America's top business-lobbying group and gained access to everything stored on its systems, including information about its three million members, according to several people familiar with the matter.
"The break-in at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the boldest known infiltrations in what has become a regular confrontation between U.S. companies and Chinese hackers. The complex operation, which involved at least 300 Internet addresses, was discovered and quietly shut down in May 2010.
"It is possible the hackers had access to the network for more than a year before the breach was uncovered."
Let us hope the Pentagon has better computer security.
- - - - -
Have even some of his hard-core Iowa supporters figured out that Ron Paul is a nut-job?
Rasmussen poll has him dropping five points behind Romney. It's 25-20, with Newt third at 17%.
- - - - -
Canada Free Press gives exposure to a story only lightly touched-upon by our domestic Big Media ...
"As homosexual Army soldier Bradley Manning’s treason trial continues at Fort Meade, Maryland, the support he has received from Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been curiously ignored by the major media, now touting Paul as someone who could win the January 3 Iowa Republican Caucuses. Paul has called Manning, a crossdresser with acknowledged mental problems, a “hero” and “patriot” for stealing government secrets and providing them to WikiLeaks."
- - - - -
Artur Davis, a former member of the Congressional Black Caucus from Alabama on voter fraud --
". "If you try to cash a check in his country, you better have an ID. If you want to get on a plane, you better have an ID. If you want to get in a building in New York or Washington, D.C., chances are you better have an ID -- whether it's a government building or a private building in many cases. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that if we have this standard for all the other things that we do, that we should have them for voting too."
- - - - -
A big movie-star Obama supporter bails out. The London Daily Mail quotes Matt Damon:
He said: 'I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, "Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician".'
- - - - -
Liberals and their media allies forever bemoan the prospect of cuts in the government funding of the arts. They somehow overlook the fact that the great art created in the Renaissance was the result of private funding, or no funding at all. Ditto the presentation of Shakespeare's plays.
- - - - -
Is Joe Biden exchanging Christmas cards with the Taliban this year?
- - - - -
Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online has a correction for, well, many ... regarding the short version of "microphone". Broadcasting folk might also take note ...
"Mic, as a word in English, must have a short i. It is an unpleasant little monosyllable, perhaps an obscure metric unit, or a small coin in some Balkan country.
"The abbreviated form of microphone is MIKE. The change of spelling honors the spirit of the language."
Throughout ABC studios microphone volume controls are labelled "Mic 1", "Mic 2", etc. Wrong, wrong, wrong. But the barbarians are inside the gates.
- - - - -
More misused words ...
Some folk, including media people who should know better, confuse "dribble" with "drivel". Drivel is pointless talk/writing. Dribble is something you do with a basketball or spill liquid from your mouth.
- - - - -
Sleep well tonight. The hours of darkness are about to begin growing shorter.
- - - - -
Peter takes note of a most pertinent observation by Mark Steyn ...
"Perhaps the single most repellent feature of the political class that has served America so disastrously in recent decades is its shameless venality in parlaying 'public service' into a guarantee of an eternal snout at the trough."
- - - - -
From several contributors ...
Twas the night before elections,
And all thru' the town,
Tempers were flaring
Emotions ran up and down.
I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap,
Had shut off the TV,
tired of political crap.
When all of a sudden,
There arose such a noise,
I peered out my window,
Saw Obama and his boys
They had come for my wallet,
They wanted my pay
To hand out to others
Who had not worked a day!
He snatched up my money,
And quick as a wink,
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink.
He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart.
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!
On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, on Pelosi'
He screamed at the pairs!
They took off for his cause,
And as they flew out of sight,
I heard him laugh at a nation
Who wouldn't stand up and fight!
So I leave you to think
On this one final note...
IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE !!!!
- - - - -
From reader Barry ...
"I hate all this terrorist business. I used to love the days when you could look at an unattended bag on a train or bus and think to yourself, 'I'm going to take that.'"
- - - - -
Jimmy Fallon --
"I heard that the Kardashian family just released a special 3-D Christmas card. And this is nice — the card even plays Kim’s favorite Christmas song: 'The 12 Days of Marriage.'”
"PAYROLL TAX" REALITY VS. FANTASIES
... RATHOLES FOR YOUR MONEY ...
RINO SHILLS IN THE SENATE ...
RINO SHILLS IN THE SENATE ...
This, alas,was an exercise in futility.
Congressman John Culberson of Texas explained the Middle Class Tax Relief & Job Creation Act, the focus of the present Republican House vs. Democrat-run Senate dispute.
The House bill keeps everyone’s payroll taxes stable for one year. The Senate bill allows everyone’s taxes to go up in two months.
The House bill requires people who get an unemployment check to prove they are looking for work or completing a GED or college degree. The Senate took this out.
The House bill allows states to require you to submit to a drug test to receive unemployment benefits. The Senate took this out.
The House bill stops welfare recipients from using their welfare benefit cards at ATM machines in casinos, strip clubs and liquor stores. The Senate took this out.
The House bill cuts off unemployment and food stamps payments to millionaires. The Senate took this out.
The House bill protects doctors from a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement payments for two years. The Senate only protects them for two months.
But the House Republicans caved, with pressure from the Senate -- including many Republicans there. The Senate version prevails.
Why this exercise in futility? Because Obama and the Democrats have done a better sales job to the largely inattentive, superficially-minded public which now largely believes that the Democrats are their tax-cut friends!
This serves to remind us again of the timeless wisdom of H. L. Mencken, who said, "Nobody ever went broke by UNDERestimating the American public."
- - - - -
When Scott Brown, wearing a Republican label, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, I heard from several gullible Republicans gushing over him as a hot presidential prospect. Beyond absurd.
I wonder if his siding with the Senate Democrats (not the only RINO to do so) over the payroll tax debate has wised-up any of them.
- - - - -
Louis Woodhill explains in Forbes why the so-called "payroll tax" -- actually, a worker's payment for Social Security funding -- is cut only by enlarging our already enormous fiscal crisis ...
"America has a two-party system. We have a Stupid Party (the Republicans) and an Evil Party (the Democrats). Every so often Congress does something that is both stupid and evil, and we call this 'bipartisanship'.
"The Social Security tax cut is both stupid and evil. Stupid, because it increases the deficit, while actually retarding economic growth and job creation. Evil, because it turns Social Security into even more of a welfare program than it already is, while pretending that this is not what is happening."
- - - - -
The “Wastebook 2011” report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) gives 100 examples of what he called “the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted.” Among them ...
A $113,000 federal grant was spent on a “detailed conservation survey” of the video-game collection at the International Center for the History of Electronic Games in upstate Rochester.
$550,000 for a 90-minute documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
$923,000 to build robots that look like dragons and mimic human interaction to help preschoolers learn language skills.
$198,000 for two researchers at University of California-Riverside to study whether Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace make people happy.
$10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan. (PAKISTAN?!!)
One might reasonably fear that this insanity will never stop until the perpetrators are dragged into the street and beaten senseless. I know; that's so ... insensitive ...
- - - - -
So Ron Paul is going to cut a trillion dollars from the federal budget in his first year as (in his dreams) president. And just where, exactly, is he going to find the Congress that will vote for such drastic, instant cuts?
And to think we have fellow citizens who are so utterly stupid as to believe such nonsense.
Idiocy.
- - - - -
Rasmussen poll finds that 22% of likely voters believe the country is headed in the right direction. If Obama has us headed in the right direction, they would doubtless think the total collapse of the nation would be a triumph.
- - - - -
The disintegration of ABC Radio, my longtime home base, continues. Now that new owner Cumulus Broadcasting has taken apart longtime giant KGO in San Francisco, sister station KSFO is losing Rush Limbaugh. He'll soon be on KKSF, where Gene Burns and Len Tillem, ousted in the KGO bloodbath, will also be heard.
Between the mismanagement and myopia of the two most recent ABC owners, those two legendary San Francisco stations have LOST more listeners than most big-city radio stations have ever HAD.
- - - - -
Argentinians must have a taste for oppressive fascism, because they keep electing presidents who are political descendants of the Perons, Juan and Evita. The current president, Cristina Fernandez, is annoyed by criticism in the media. Her latest effort to silence opposition is to control the amount of paper available to newspapers that oppose her political positions.
- - - - -
Part of the disgraceful legacy of Bill Clinton is that his administration helped China gain access to U.S. military technology, aided by a scientist-exchange program. Now Obama is renewing that program, which will give scientists from China entry into our nuclear weapons facilities.
A nation that is foolish enough to elect such "leaders" has a suicide urge, whether or not it is realized.
- - - - -
If the European nations insist that all foreign airlines, including U.S. flag-carriers, pay their bogus "carbon tax" for flying there, a sane U.S. government (okay--we don't have one) would immediately prohibit all airlines from those European nations from landing in -- or flying over -- this nation. That would end this money-grubbing extortion scheme instantly.
- - - - -
Violating the spirit of his infamous "social media" photos sent to various women, the New York Post headlines the arrival of a baby son to disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner and wife Huma with this headline:
"Little Weiner".
- - - - -
"Care for a nice cabernet sauvignon with that slider?"
White Castle, home to the addictive mini-burger, is now testing sales of wine and beer in one of its outlets in Indiana.
We assume at $4.50 a glass, one can expect a 1973 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. From a box.
- - - - -
Will we have a fresh column on Christmas Day? Yes. Will you miss much if you don't read it? Probably not.
Candor is SO refreshing, isn't it?
- - - - -
From Arnold ...
I drove over to our Post Office this morning. I got up to the counter and asked the clerk for "50 Hanukkah stamps, please."
"What denomination?" asked the clerk
I said, "Six Orthodox, 12 Conservative, and 32 reform."
- - - - -
Investors Business Daily has an apt new name for GM's Volt, the hugely taxpayer-subsidized battery powered car: the Electric Edsel.
- - - - -
Jay Leno --
"As they do every year, al-Qaida has threatened to disrupt and ruin Christmas. You know, we already have a group that disrupts and ruins Christmas every year. They're called relatives."
SHOES NEWS BLUES ... GETTING A MOVE ON
... THE LAWYERS' PARTY
How stupid are American parents to pay $180 per pair for the re-released old "Air Jordan" basketball shoes? Fights and even gunfire at shopping malls to get ... shoes??!! Is this the new "Christmas spirit"??!! Anyone who doubts that our culture is being warped by barbaric savages need look no further.
- - - - -
Getting in ... and getting out. Bloomberg biz-news reports that New York, California and other high-cost states may lose residents as the economy recovers, continuing a trend during the past decade of Americans searching for more affordable regions to settle.
The U.S. population climbed 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to Census Bureau data. Five states -- Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Idaho -- grew at more than twice the national pace.
- - - - -
Two words for Boehner and McConnell: GET ... OUT!
And take Reid and Pelosi with you.
The nation can't stand much more of any of your "leadership". Out, spineless nothings!
- - - - -
Newt has reaffirmed his support for the ethanol fuel scam. Conservative? I don't think so!
- - - - -
Reader Arthur sends along food for thought in the form of "The Lawyers' Party" by Bruce Walker ...
The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers Party.
Barack Obama is a lawyer. Michelle Obama is a lawyer.
Hillary Clinton is a lawyer. Bill Clinton is a lawyer.
Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate).
Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress:
Harry Reid is a lawyer. Nancy Pelosi is a lawyer.
The Republican Party is different.
President Bush was a businessman.
Vice President Cheney was a businessman.
The leaders of the Republican Revolution:
Newt Gingrich was a history professor.
Tom Delay was an exterminator.
Dick Armey was an economist.
Current Speaker of the House John Boehner was a plastics manufacturer.
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill First is a heart surgeon.
Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago.
The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.
The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich. The Lawyers Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America.
Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail?....Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers and anyone producing anything of
value in our nation. This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers.
Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation.
Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.
When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association go to the
Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high!
- - - - -
Jim Eason passes along this sentimental Christmas message ...
"Twas the week before Christmas and those sly little elves,
Our congressmen, labored to better themselves.
They cared not a whit what the public might think
"Let them eat cake," some said with a wink.
And putting their thumbs to the tip of their nose,
they waved as they shouted "Anything goes!"
They've got prerequisites-franking, per diem, and more --
bargain-priced haircuts and gyms (three or four!)
Paid speaking engagements and meals on the cuff,
celebrity status -- (they've sure got it tough!),
Yet they claim they're in touch with the man on the street,
as John Q. Public struggles to make both ends meet.
But while we take cutbacks or raises quite small,
and one out of twelve has no job at all,
In this season for giving, our Congress is taking.
We've had it with them and our backs are breaking.
Oh jobless, oh homeless, oh desperate and needy -
dare anyone say our Congress is greedy?
If in this feeling I'm not alone,
take up your pen or pick up your phone.
Indignant, outraged, appalled and beset
let your congressman know that you won't forget!
When election times comes -- and certain it will --
you're voting him out for passing that bill.
More rapid than eagles, their elections assured
they toasted each other and laughed at the herd.
And I heard them exclaim with adjournment at hand,
'Merry Christmas to us, and the public be damned!'"
- - - - -
Paul Mulshine of the Newark Star-Ledger summarizes the debacle that IS the Chevy Volt ...
"Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
"Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government."
It's another enviro-nut scam, facilitated by the silly, unqualified White House socialist.
- - - - -
The Big Media suck-up continues. Baba Walters on last night's "20-20" put on her knee-pads and asked Obama (honest-to-God!), "If you were a superhero and you could have one super power, what would it be?"
- - - - -
The Christmas spirit is notably lacking among some Seattle cops, who were caught on tape berating a jogger who'd been hit by a truck. One officer was saying, "Don't jog to work, you dumb (bleep)!"
- - - - -
Christmas in Arizona ...
Snow crowning the Santa Rita mountaintops from 5,000 feet altitude up to almost 10,000 feet ... Andrea Bocelli on the stereo ... Susan preparing goodies ... Calvin-the-cockapoo catching an extra nap ... our street glowing with colored lights in a peaceful little town ... neighbors exchanging nibbles of seasonal treats ... my heart still beating for a second Christmas since a half-dozen doctors said it was going to stop.
All in all, Christmas is good in this house in this part of southern Arizona!
- - - - -
Jay Leno --
"If there were a government shutdown, 800,000 nonessential federal employees would have been suspended. You know, maybe that's our budget problem right there. We have 800,000 nonessential federal employees."
- - - - -
Happy holi .... NO! ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
SOME HOLIDAYS FACTS -- AND DIVERSIONS
"The Commander in Chief directs that divine Service be performed every Sunday at 11 O’clock in those Brigades to which there are Chaplains; those which have none to attend the places of worship nearest to them. It is expected that Officers of all Ranks will by their attendance set an Example to their men."
-- General George Washington, May 2, 1778 --
- - - - -
From the Gallup Poll ...
"This Christmas season, 78% of American adults identify with some form of Christian religion. Less than 2% are Jewish, less than 1% are Muslim, and 15% do not have a religious identity. This means that 95% of all Americans who have a religious identity are Christians. These results are based on a compilation of 327,244 interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking from January-November 2011. The detailed breakdown shows that about a third of American Christians are Catholics, while two-thirds identify as Protestants or some other non-Catholic Christian religion."
Is it not, therefore, utter foolishness to claim that this is not a predominantly Christian nation? Certainly not a theocracy; a tolerant but largely Christian nation. The intolerance of those who try to deny this self-evident status is most apparent at Christmas-time.
- - - - -
Spirit-of-the-season report ...
WBBM-TV in Chicago reports a major surge in thefts of baby Jesus figures from Nativity scenes. The term "unclear on the concept" might apply.
- - - - -
While holiday travel weather has been mostly good at airports across the country, I wonder how many people humming "White Christmas" resort to indelicate language when frustrated by snow-caused airline delays and flight cancellations?
- - - - -
Newt Gingrich is complaining of his failure to get on the Republican primary ballot in Virginia because he didn't submit the requisite paperwork and voter signatures in time. It does not speak well for a man who wants to be president not to have done such obviously necessary preparation.
Rick Perry also failed to make the ballot.
- - - - -
The irreparable flaw in socialist thinking is the advocacy of equal results from unequal effort and the unwillingness to recognize that, at some point, those who provide the greatest contribution will insist upon a larger reward for doing so. Thus the chant of "inequality" becomes a transparent demand for more-more-more from the lesser contributors.
- - - - -
Are the spam-artists taking the holiday off? My (highly effective) spam filter is doing less business than usual.
- - - - -
Probably the best wish for all of us at Christmas:
The wish that we got what we wanted rather than what we deserve.
- - - - -
Barbara offers some thoughts on growing older ...
~Your Kids are becoming you...and you don't like them...but your grandchildren are Perfect!
~Going Out is good.. Coming Home is better!
~You miss the days when everything worked with just an "ON" and "OFF" Switch.
~You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet .... 2 of which you will never wear.
~Now that you can afford expensive jewelry, it's not safe to wear it anywhere.
- - - - -
A startling sight in our little town. While cotton is grown in abundance -- multiple annual crops -- in the flat spots in southern Arizona, spotted among the outdoor Christmas decorations ... a single cotton plant, bearing enough cotton to make a headband, at least.
- - - - -
Susan and I are feeling extra-virtuous. We went to the gym for a workout mid-morning on Christmas Eve. It was, as anticipated, almost empty. Yet we were there, pushing the heart-rate and perspiring. Such virtue must surely be rewarded! I think we'll go again this morning; hold the eggnog ...
The parking lot yesterday was also virtually deserted, yet one elderly man managed to hit one of the few cars present. But at least he 'fessed-up and promised to pay for the damages. Pay out-of-pocket, since like many sensible people, he realized that even a parking-lot scrape on his record would drive up his insurance costs more than the repair would cost.
- - - - -
My friend Sheila offers these bumper-stickers for senior citizens ...
"Young at heart. Slightly older in other places"
"I don't think about dying. It's the last thing I want to do."
"I'm speeding because I have to get there before I forget where I'm going."
"At my age, 'Gettin' any?' means sleep."
"Goodbye tension ... hello pension!"
- - - - -
It should be stated here more often, but nevertheless ...
I'm grateful to the regular contributors to this space whose contributions make it more interesting and entertaining -- especially for me.
They include two fellow longtime broadcasters, Jim Eason and Dan Sorkin.
- - - - -
From an unruly niece ... a few Christmas songs you may not have heard: songs for the emotionally disturbed ...
For schizophrenics -- "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
For those with multiple personalities -- "We Three Kings Disoriented Are"
For narcissists -- "Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me"
For the paranoid -- "Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me"
For the obsessive-compulsive -- "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells ..."
RULE TO RUIN ...
A question to contemplate.
If Barack Obama were out to undermine the United States as a world power -- I know, lefties, I know; an ABSURD assumption -- what would he do differently? Starting with running up more debt than all previous presidents combined ... weakening our military ... reducing our chances for energy independence ... making every American dependent on a government bureaucracy for their very lives in a health-care system most hate?
- - - - -
Obama's giving back seventy grand in campaign money he got from Jon Corzine, who masterminded MF Global into one of the biggest bankruptcies in history. But that other hundred thousand the Big O got from MF Global sources ... maybe, maybe not.
After all, it's not as if the MF management "misplaced" over a billion dollars of investors' money. Oh, wait -- yes it is!
- - - - -
The flaw in the "Occupy" crowd's "soak the rich" argument: If every penny of Bill Gates' giant fortune was taken by the government, it would cover the deficit for ... fifteen days.
- - - - -
A lot of your fellow Americans are either fools or hypocrites. A new Pew Research poll shows that 67 percent say most members of congress should not be re-elected. And yet it's 100% certain, based on all historical precedent, that the overwhelming majority of incumbents WILL be re-elected. So what they're REALLY saying is, "Everybody else's member of Congress is awful, but MINE is okay."
- - - - -
Thanks to reader Martin for passing along this highly useful definition of our prevailing government ...
"Ineptocracy: A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers."
- - - - -
Another crack in the wall ... another cave-in to CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations.
The Defense Department is going to allow Muslim and Sikh students to wear the Islamic hijab (head scarf) or turban to take part in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). Political correctness triumps again, although the argument might be made that -- given the incidents of Muslim soldiers murdering their fellow U.S. soldiers -- such attire might make it easier to keep an eye on them.
By the way, the Muslim mass-murderer of Ft. Hood has yet to be tried. But I'm sure there's a good reason why not. After all, there were only dozens -- hundreds? -- of eye-witnesses to the slaughter.
- - - - -
Unsurprisingly, the Islamists won big in the second round of Egyptian elections. That virtually assures a government based on repressive medieval Sharia law and a dedication to the principle that the entire world must ultimately be ruled by an Islamic caliphate.
Now, liberal media dupes ... tell us again what a wonderful thing the "Arab spring" was.
- - - - -
Honk if you know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. The earlier rumors had him interred beneath the Meadowlands football stadium in New Jersey ... then dumped in Lake Michigan ... and now comes the rumor that he's part of the foundation of Detroit's giant Renaissance Center.
- - - - -
Andy reminds us of the timeless wisdom of the Bard of Baltimore, H. L. Mencken ...
"As democracy is perfected, the office of President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright moron."
Mission accomplished.
- - - - -
This didn't take long. A week after the U.S. military pulled out of Iraq, Iran's military chief announces that his country is ready to expand "military and security" ties with the nation we supposedly saved for democracy.
- - - - -
Credit to Jeff Carter (Townhall.com) for assembling some of the memorable quotes of 2011 ...
"I don’t know where the money is" -- Jon Corzine
"My dog has created more shovel ready jobs than this administration" -- Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico.
"Let’s pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let’s pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion." -- Cong. Paul Ryan on Democrat budgeting.
"It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high." — Paul Ryan
"Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large." -- Thomas Sowell
- - - - -
This should improve your morale ...
Remember the irascible old coot in Virginia who was castigated by his homeowners' association for flying the flag on his property? After much antagonistic public attention, the association backed down. This may explain why they belatedly figured out that they'd picked the wrong guy to hassle.
On May 23, 1944, near Carano, Italy, Van T. Barfoot,who had enlisted in the US Army in 1940, set out to flank German machine gun positions from which fire was coming down on his fellow soldiers. He advanced through a minefield, took out three enemy machine gun positions and returned with 17 prisoners of war.
If that wasn't enough for a day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions.
For his heroism, he was awarded the nation's highest medal for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
After serving in both Korea and Vietnam, he retired as a Colonel.
- - - - -
Nominee for "Mother of the Year" ...
Eighty-year-old Josefa Lopez of Florida who saw a man beating her 61-year-old daughter with a pistol in their driveway and drove him off by pounding on him with her aluminum walker, shouting, "I'm gonna kill you, you sonofabitch!"
- - - - -
There's the cost of living. And the cost of loving. Both of which can seem high.
Then there's the cost of leaving, which can be even higher. Ask Mel Gibson. The price of his divorce -- $425 million.
And his Russian tootsie is also gone. With more of his money.
- - - - -
Keep this handy for next year. Dan Sorkin helpfully provides a guide to the difference is between Christmas and Chanukah ...
Christmas is one day, same day every year, December 25. Chanukah is 8 days. It starts the evening of the 24th of Kislev, whenever that falls. No one is ever sure. Jews never know until a non-Jewish friend asks when Chanukah starts, forcing us to consult a calendar so we don't look like idiots.
Christmas is a major holiday. Chanukah is a minor holiday with the same theme as most Jewish holidays. They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.
Christians get wonderful presents such as jewelry, perfume, stereos... Jews get practical presents such as underwear, socks, or the collected works of the Rambam, which looks impressive on the bookshelf.
There is only one way to spell Christmas No one can decide how to spell Chanukah, Chanukkah, Chanukka, Channukah, Hanukah, Hanukkah, Hannukah, etc.
Christmas is a time of great pressure for husbands and boyfriends. Their partners expect special gifts. Jewish men are relieved of that burden. No one expects a diamond ring on Chanukah.
Christmas brings enormous electric bills. Candles are used for Chanukah. Not only are we spared enormous electric bills, but we get to feel good about not contributing to the energy crisis.
Christmas carols are beautiful...Silent Night, Come All Ye Faithful.... Chanukah songs are about dreidels made from clay or having a party and dancing the Hora. Of course, we are secretly pleased that many of the beautiful carols were composed and written by our tribal brethren.
Christian women have fun baking Christmas cookies. Jewish women burn their eyes and cut their hands grating potatoes and onions for latkes on Chanukah. Another reminder of our suffering through the ages.
The players in the Christmas story have easy to pronounce names such as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The players in the Chanukah story are Antiochus, Judah Maccabee, and Matta whatever. No one can spell it or pronounce it.
- - - - -
A U. S. military fighter aircraft en route from a base in Europe to Dubai, flying over Iraq near the Iranian border.
Ground-to-air radio traffic ...
Iranian Air Defense Site: 'Unknown aircraft you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.'
Iranian Air Defense Site: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!'
Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send 'em up, I'll wait!'
Iranian Air Defense Site: ( .... total silence)
OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN: PURE ENVY ... ARE
YOU BETTER OFF? ...
... PLUS SOME SOWELL-FOOD
... PLUS SOME SOWELL-FOOD
The class-warfare campaign tactic clearly being embraced by Barack Obama recalls a tale from the darkest days of life in the Communist Soviet Union, which itself reflects one of the most unsavory sides of human nature. Sheer envy.
The story goes that during the days of communal farms, peasant farmers often survived only by growing small private crops and livestock, a practice the commissars eventually legalized.
One farmer managed to aqcuire and raise a goat for milking. A neighbor, seething with envy, reported the farmer to the local agricultural commissar. The commissar, trying to bring peace to the commune, tried to placate the envious neighbor and said, "Would you like me to arrange for you to also get a goat?"
"No," said the envious one, "I want you to kill HIS goat!"
Obamunism, in a nutshell.
- - - - -
A couple of insightful gems from Thomas Sowell ...
"Do people who advocate special government programs for blacks realize that the federal government has had special programs for American Indians, including affirmative action, since the early 19th century -- and that American Indians remain one of the few groups worse off than blacks?"
"People who live within their means are increasingly being forced to pay for people who didn't live within their means -- whether individual home buyers here or whole nations in Europe."
- - - - -
Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post with a clear view of our political/economic dilemma ...
"There are moments when our political system, whose essential job is to mediate conflicts in broadly acceptable and desirable ways, is simply not up to the task. This may be one of those moments.
" Liberals still want more spending, conservatives more tax cuts.With a few exceptions, Democrats and Republicans haven't embraced detailed take-away policies to reconcile Americans' appetite for government benefits with their distaste for taxes. President Obama has provided no leadership. Aside from Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, few Republicans have.
"Conservatives look at the required tax increases and say: "no way." Liberals look at the required benefit cuts and say: "no way."
"Liberals imply (wrongly) that taxing the rich will solve the long-term budget "problem. It won't. For example, the Forbes 400 richest Americans have a collective wealth of $1.5 trillion. If the government simply confiscated everything they own, and turned them into paupers, it would barely cover the one-time 2011 deficit of $1.3 trillion. Conservatives deplore "spending" in the abstract, ignoring the popularity of much spending, especially Social Security and Medicare".
The 2012 election may well be decided by which candidate is most adept at convincing voters in the other camp that they have deluded themselves and need to re-evaluate their beliefs.
- - - - -
I said it on-air at the beginning of the Iraq war, and I grow more confident daily that I was correct when I suggested that the wise approach to Iraq was to go in, kill Saddam Hussein and anyone who sided with the barbaric SOB ... then leave. Leaving behind this message: "We don't care what you people do with this rat-hole, but don't do ANYTHING that causes us to be concerned or we'll come back and finish the job."
Naturally, libs and Muslim pressure-groups became hysterical.
- - - - -
We have a year of ferocious presidential campaigning ahead of us. During the political battle, Republicans must not for a moment forget to use the defining question posed by Ronald Reagan in his successful quest to oust the hapless Jimmy Carter, who was nevertheless favored to win re-election.
Reagan simply asked the American people, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
They considered the question and dumped Carter in a huge landslide.
In today's America, how many could honestly answer that question in the affirmative?
- - - - -
Fox News has uncovered a (now deleted) Newt Gingrich newsletter from 2006 in which he enthused about the health plan unveiled by then-Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
When these two have an old western movie-style "Showdown at Credibility Gap", which will survive to walk away?
... and where did Newt get the sheer gall to compare his failure to make the ballot in Virginia with Pearl Harbor?
Egomania run wild ...
- - - - -
For many years -- and generations -- Sears was the standard for American middle-class retailing. The sign over the door said it all: "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back."
Then some wiseguys in Sears management decided to go upscale, with designer clothes, etc. And the business went downhill. It never occured to all those MBAs that folk who shop for "prestige" goods were not going to do it at Sears.
Ultimately the floundering company was taken over by K-Mart, although they kept the Sears name.
Now comes word that upward of a hundred Sears and K-Mart outlets are going to be closed.
- - - - -
A reader who signs himself Dumbplumber wants to make our understanding of the Constitution a bit more clear ...
If you think the Constitution should be a “living” document, you’re an Idiot. (This is what amendments are for.)
If you think the Commerce Clause allows the Federal Government to regulate every aspect, every product, every service, every segment of business, you’re an Idiot. Six year old girls don’t need a permit to run a lemonade stand. Get over it.
If you think that providing food, money, healthcare, scooters, housing, tattoos, booze and drugs to every irresponsible dirtball, the perpetually unemployed, the chronically-chemically ill (booze and drugs) and whoever else has figured a way to ’game’ the system ... falls under the Welfare Clause, you’re an Idiot.
If you think the EPA has the Constitutional authority to pick and choose who does what and where, at their whim, you’re an Idiot. They are in the midst of having their foreskins caught in the Judicial Zipper for dictating to mere citizens how to run their lives, businesses, cars and homes .
If you think we’re going to get out of this mess ignoring, mangling and prostituting our Constitution, you’re an Idiot.
Other than those, he has no strong opinions.
- - - - -
It's not vacationing on the Obama level, but the hardly-impecunious Nancy Pelosi reportedly spent the holidays at the Four Seasons hotel on Hawaii's Kona Coast ... in a suite that goes for $10,000 per night.
- - - - -
London's Daily Mail newspaper carries yet another warning about the CFL lightbulbs our idiotic government is forcing upon us in order to placate the enviro-thugs ...
"Compact fluorescent lamps, which will gradually replace traditional incandescent bulbs, are a fire hazard that could burn down your home, experts have warned. The lamps (CFLs) use electricity to heat an element in the lamp’s base that leads the mercury vapor gas in the coils to emit light. But when a CFL can no longer produce light, the electronics in its base will still try to function, sometimes leading to overheating, smoke and fire. Fires from the old incandescent bulbs, on the other hand, are virtually nonexistent."
- - - - -
The Chargers must rank right down there with the Rams and Cardinals as among the worst-managed franchises in the NFL. They got themselves a good quarterback when they drafted Phillip Rivers; they gave up a great quarterback in Drew Brees.
- - - - -
Making an unfortunate choice of targets, 36-year-old Amina Greer of Chicago, charged with DUI, drove his Chevy right into a police station.
- - - - -
If you're interested in joining our annual cruise in October -- two weeks, LA to Florida via the Panama Canal in October -- please e-mail soonest to RADIORODGERS1@ Yahoo.com. Prices for the cruise, including port charges, taxes and -- very important -- travel insurance start at a bit over $2,000.
- - - - -
Dan Sorkin reminds us of the twisted wisdom of Steven Wright ...
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?
- - - - -
From my Irish friend John ...
I would like to share an experience with you all, about drinking and driving. As you well know, some of us have been known to have had brushes with the authorities on our way home from these parties over the years.
A couple of nights ago, I was out with some friends and had my regular martini- and a very nice merlot. Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I did something I've never done before – I took a bus home.
I arrived back safely and without incident, which was a real surprise, as I have never driven a bus before and am not sure where I got this one.
"FORE!" ... NEWT'S LOBBYING ... HOW
YOU BEEN, BEN?
Today's magic number is -- 90!
That's how many rounds of golf Barack Hussein Obama has played in less than three years as president.
Blessings should be counted; think how much more damage he could've done if he'd spent those 450 hours actually on the job.
- - - - -
Leading Virginia Democrats, including the party chairman, are trying to help Newt Gingrich get on that state's primary ballot, despite his flubbing of the entry process. Gee, wonder what their motive could be?
- - - - -
Newt has, in the words of Ricky Ricardo, "Got some 'splainin' to do."
The Des Moines Register reports that Newt Gingrich personally urged members of Congress to vote for a controversial Medicare expansion bill in 2003, two Republicans who were in the room said this week. Gingrich has said he never lobbied members of Congress after he resigned as House speaker in 1998. But U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake and former congressman Butch Otter told The Des Moines Register this week that Gingrich helped persuade reluctant Republicans to vote for the Medicare prescription-drug program, which barely passed.
That program is highly disliked by conservatives for its contribution to the national debt.
- - - - -
It's looking more and more as if Florida's Republican primary will set the tone for the rest of the nominating process. It follows South Carolina ... which follows New Hampshire ... which follows the Iowa caucii. (I'm contributing a needed word to our national vocabulary. My lasting contribution to the culture and far superior to the clumsy-sounding "caucuses".)
- - - - -
Another Democrat Senator is calling it quits, possibly anticipating a Republican-controlled Senate that would render him powerless after next year's election. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska (a moderate by Democrat standards although he voted for all the major Obama programs) is retiring at the end of this term.
- - - - -
Why should anyone be surprised that the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area is that rarity, a housing market where prices have actually increased as most of the rest of the nation's real estate values decline? After all, your federal government keeps hiring more parasite flunkies at ever-higher salaries, so they can afford those higher prices.
Example: A 20- to 24-year-old auto mechanic working for the federal government started at an average of $46,427 this year, up from $36,750 five years ago. (Source: USA Today)
No, I'm not saying mechanics are "flunkies"; just pointing out the increase in salaries that also applies to people performing far less vital functions.
- - - - -
Jed Babbin is, as usual, spot-on regarding the rapid disintegration of Iraq ...
"Less than two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta presided over the final withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Since then, Iraq has been dissolving as quickly as an Alka-Seltzer tablet in warm water.
"Last Thursday, in a series of coordinated attacks, more than seventy people were killed in Iraq.
"This carnage is not Iraq's "new normal." It is a return to the old normal that will continue until some new strongman asserts control over Iraq or Iraq is broken up into sectarian regions and swallowed by its various neighbors.
"Now we have to face the fact that there is neither any way for us to stop Iraq's dissolution nor any reason for us to try.
"Neoconservatives will say, truthfully, that nation-building doesn't always fail. They will point to post-World War II Germany and Japan to prove the point. But implicit in those examples is that the defeated Axis powers were comparable to Iraq and Afghanistan, which they were not. In neither Germany nor Japan was there an undefeated enemy. In neither was there a dominant religious imperative that prevented democracy from taking root. And in neither were there third-party nations with the power and motivation to prevent nation-building from succeeding."
-- Full article at The American Spectator website, Tuesday entries --
- - - - -
To the dismay of absolutely no one, I have no predictions for 2012. I just hope it lasts the full 366 days. Yes, it is a Leap Year. So be sure to wish an extra-happy birthday to any friends who celebrate a birthday on February 29.
After all, they don't get to celebrate often.
- - - - -
Reader Rick reminds us of a classic, painful but true ...
I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her.
She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried.
Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1960s:
1. Teaching Math In 1960s (when I was in school) [or maybe the 1950s]:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?
2. Teaching Math In 1970s:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
3. Teaching Math In 1980s:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit? Yes or No?
4. Teaching Math In 1990s:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Math In 2000s:
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok).
6. Teaching Math In 2011:
Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?
ANSWER: His profit was $375,000 because his logging business is just a front for his pot farm.
- - - -
Obituaries today include ...
Cheetah, the chimpanzee who played Tarzan's hairy buddy in the old jungle movies (Tarzan, Jane, Cheetah). He passed away of kidney failure at the advanced age of eighty. He was a rarity ... an actor whose goal was never "... to direct".
- - - - -
The NY Post reports that scalpers are getting up to $7,000 for a ticket to the Giants-Cowboys game Sunday night.
Nice to know there are some people obviously NOT being affected by the recession.
- - - - -
If the Atlanta Falcons are ticked-off over Drew Brees breaking the passing record against them, the obvious response is, "Play better defense!"
Are these high school athletes whose feelings mustn't be hurt because they play poorly?
- - - - -
The Sky-Guy reviews some of life's lessons ...
"When attending a funeral never clap after the eulogy, regardless of how meaningful and heartfelt it was."
"When running errands where one stop involves going to the bank and one involves dropping off a firearm, drop off the firearm first."
"When holding a DVD in one hand and food in the other, remember which hand has what when you take the first bite."
- - - - -
From All Comedy Radio ...
"(Singer) Sinead O'Connor ends her 4th marriage…after 16 days. Said Sinead: As the hours went by…we just grew more and more apart." Sit back, Kim Kardashian and watch a real pro at work."
IRAN AND DIRE STRAITS ...
AFGHANISTAN'S NEW BEST FRIEND
... A CLASSIC: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOSSIP
... A CLASSIC: THE IMPORTANCE OF GOSSIP
The big, big question: Will Obama stand up to Iran over their threat to close an international waterway, the Straits of Hormuz, thru which flows a quarter of the world's oil? The more immediate concern is whether the Iranian regime BELIEVES he will. Nothing he has done so far (threatened "sanctions" that haven't been carried out) would lead them to think they have anything to fear from him.
And history wouldn't give them anything to fear from the European wimps who are the most dependent on middle-east oil.
- - - - -
Now that Obama's effort to "engage" with countries that viscerally hate us has been a demonstrated failure, those who claim that it's far better to have adversaries and enemies fear us than be treated as "equals" clearly have the better argument.
1. In an ideal world, it would be best if everyone loved us.
2. Alternatively, it would be sufficient if they simply respected us.
3. Absent either of the above -- always a reality regarding some countries -- it is bottom-line vital that they at least fear us.
Quick! Smelling salts for fluttering liberals who are distressed by the very idea!
- - - - -
We invest American lives and billions of dollars in trying to save Afghanistan from the medieval ravages of the murderous Taliban. Our repayment? The Afghans have signed a deal for the first oil development project in the nation with -- the People's Republic of China!
This follows on the heels of the refusal of any top-level officials in Iraq, who are in power only because the American military made elections possbile, to even show up for the farewell ceremonies as American troops were leaving.
Ingratitude is the obvious consequence and hallmark of every effort to try to help Muslim nations break away from the virtual slavery imposed upon them by their "leaders". Nation-building in that culture is a doomed venture. Even Ataturk's secularizing of Turkey is slowly sliding toward oblivion because of Islam's hold on the populace.
- - - - -
The Chief Operating Office of the spectacularly bankrupt MF Global investment firm is/was a man named Bradley I. Abelow. He, like his boss, Jon Corzine, answered congressional questions about the missing $1.2 billion of customer money with, "I don't know."
Mr. Abelow neglected to mention that he's the chief financial advisor to the tyrannical Environmental Protection Agency.
With clowns like this running the store, is there any wonder our insane federal government keeps diving deeper into debt?
- - - - -
"They pick corn in Iowa. They pick presidents in New Hampshire." -- Jon Huntsman.
And they pick you in neither, dude.
- - - - -
The stock market as a whole seems headed to ending the year lower than it was at the beginning of the year. This will make it more difficult for brokers and other peddlers of stock investments to convince clients that the market is their sure pathway to economic security.
That philosophy may be true in the long run, but the now-widely-discredited liberal economist John Maynard Keynes was doubtless right about one thing: "In the long run we are all dead."
- - - - -
Why I will never again buy Girl Scout cookies:
The Blaze newsletter has found that in 2010, the Girl Scouts of the USA published a book called “MEdia.” The publication, designed for girls in grades six through eight, is a guide that apparently offers insight into how young people should process and understand the media messages surrounding them.
Considering the pervasive nature of popular media, this seems like a viable tool. However, there’s a problem — the book refers young readers to Media Matters for America as "one of the primary sources for debunking lies and deceit."
For the unaware, Media Matters is a left-wing propaganda mill funded by George Soros.
- - - - -
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who made no headway as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has volunteered his services as a political hitman for Obama. He's planning to run as a Libertarian candidate. Of course the result can only be the draining of some votes from the eventual Republican nominee.
Johnson says he expects to get 64% of the vote in the presidential election. That presumably includes the Easter Bunny's vote.
- - - - -
Why the wise observation by H. L. Mencken that "nobody ever went broke UNDERestimating the American public" still rings true ...
When liberals decided to re-label themselves "progressive" as the very word "liberal" fell into disrepute, they made a marketing move that turned out to be a shrewd one. The dumb oxen who make up a majority of the population (I know, I'm a cynic ... so sue me) turn out, according to a Pew Research poll, to approve of the new designation for an old mental disorder. Approve at a 67% level.
It's no wonder we live in a land run by morons. They're ELECTED by morons. Another reminder of Churchill's observation that "democracy is the worst form of government -- except for all the others."
- - - - -
Who's going to break the bad news to the punks who rioted to get Michael Jordan basketball shoes at around $200 a pair -- and have even beaten people to steal them.
The bad news for the silly dupes who think shoes will make them play like Jordan can be condensed to three words: "It ain't happenin'!"
- - - - -
Victor Davis Hanson has some observations about our love-hate relationship with Europe, where their flirtation with Utopian socialism has led to a parade of disintegrating economies ...
"Most European grandees recently felt that the American cowboys got what they deserved in Iraq and during the financial panic of 2008. Then they blamed their own fiscal meltdown on imported Wall Street viruses -- only to appeal for bailouts when southern European defaults threatened to destroy the European Union. In response, we habitually declare our independence and isolation. We promise never again to get involved in their squabbles and war -- only to find ourselves drawn knee-deep into them."
-- Investors Business Daily --
- - - - -
A common complaint to -- and about -- commentators in response to pointing out candidates' history and sometimes-questionable activities is, "We all make mistakes."
True, of course. And supporters of a particular candidate would naturally prefer that any stumbles, errors or questionable decisions not be made public.
However, ignorance is a poor basis for choosing either local politicians or presidential candidates. Voting blindly -- as was largely the case with the Obama fad of 2008 -- is a recipe for disaster. Better we should know as much as possible about our would-be officeholders, warts and all.
Just to be clear: I am not enthusiastic about any of the current contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. However, any -- other than the ludicrous Ron Paul -- would be far preferable to the present occupant of the White House.
- - - - -
Whoever is ultimately the nominee had better be prepared for savage attacks, both personal and political, not only from the Obama campaign but its media allies. Anything damaging, real or imaginary, will be given maximum exposure -- and exaggeration. There's no point complaining about "media unfairness"; any Republican entering the race has to know, going in, that media support of the most liberal candidate is a given. There is a pervasive attitude among media folk, among whom I've worked most of my life, that they have a mission to save the world -- with somebody else's money.
- - - - -
Thomas Sowell --
"What do you call it when someone steals someone else's money secretly? Theft. What do you call it when someone takes someone else's money openly by force? Robbery. What do you call it when a politician takes someone else's money in taxes and gives it to someone who is more likely to vote for him? Social Justice."
- - - - -
Any radio station manager who permits the use of a siren on the air, be it in a commercial or whatever, should be fired instantly, imprisoned and subjected to daily beatings.
How many times has that sound coming thru your car radio caused you to take a panicky look around?
- - - - -
Sam offers a cautionary note about gossip ...
Keep this in mind the next time you are about to repeat a rumor or spread gossip.
In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.
One day an acquaintance ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied, "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?" asked the acquaintance.
"That's right," Socrates continued, "Before you talk to me about Diogenes let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it."
"All right," said Socrates, "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about Diogenes something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued, "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about Diogenes going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even useful, why tell it to me or anyone at all?"
The man was bewildered and ashamed. This is an example of why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.
It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was banging his wife.
- - - - -
John has this story about domestic bliss ...
Husband picks up a case of beer and puts it in cart. Wife barks, "What do you think you're doing?"
The husband replies, "They're on sale, only $10 for 24 cans."
The wife says, "Put them back, we can't afford them."
A few aisles further the woman picks up a $20 jar of face cream and puts it in the basket.
"What do you think you're doing?" asks the husband.
The wife says, "It's my face cream. It makes me look beautiful."
Her husband fires back, "So do 24 cans of beer ... and they're half the price."
POLL-CAT FODDER ... A FRIGHTENING
PREDICTION ...
AN OLD, OLD GLOBAL-WARMING SCARE
AN OLD, OLD GLOBAL-WARMING SCARE
Rasmussen Reports poll, which has an excellent track record, finds that among likely voters, Romney beats Obama, 45% to 39%. Belaboring the obvious ... this could influence uncommitted Republican voters who are less concerned about which Republican gets the nomination than about beating Obama.
- - - - -
I don't think it too early to state the obvious. Rick Perry is the Fred Thompson of 2011.
- - - - -
Among blessings counted: Next Wednesday, Iowa can go back to sleep and not be annoyed by the media for another four years. Of course, fewer luxury hotel rooms will be occupied and fewer expense-account dinners served.
- - - - -
Robert Reich of UC-Berkeley and a former member of Bill Clinton's cabinet predicts that Hillary will be Obama's running mate next year, with Joe Biden trading jobs to become (heaven help us!) Secretary of State. Why the prediction? ...
"The deal would also make Clinton the obvious Democratic presidential candidate in 2016 -- offering the Democrats a shot at twelve (or more) years in the White House, something the Republicans had with Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush but which the Democrats haven't had since FDR. Twelve years gives the party in power a chance to reshape the Supreme Court as well as put an indelible stamp on America."
And if THAT prospect doesn't give you nightmares ...
- - - - -
I have no predictions for 2012, but I can guarantee one thing. Regardless of which candidate of which party succeeds in winning the presidency, that person will be unable to fill most of the promises made to achieve the victory.
It won't happen for one of two reasons:
1.--The candidate was just blowing smoke on various issues to garner votes, or ...
2.-- Such promises had no chance of getting thru Congress.
Many are the voters who think, somehow, a president can magically achieve all his stated goals. Therefore, the disappointment of many supporters is inevitable. A reminder of the cynic's mantra. "Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed."
- - - - -
Yes, we are a little late today. Computer problems. (Repair tip: strong language DOES work. And I say again, if automobiles were as trouble-prone as computers, we'd all still be riding horses.)
- - - - -
The Girl Scouts got the message. No longer will the organization recommend that Girl Scouts evaluate what they get thru the media by going to the left-wing propaganda factory run by George Soros money, "Media Matters".
Let us hope whatever idiot made such a recommendation is no longer employed by the Girl Scouts, in which case we can resume purchase of Girl Scout cookies.
I'll take the mint chocolates, please.
- - - - -
The Beaufort (SC) Observer has reprinted an essay entitled "The Gun is Civilization", from which come these quotes ...
"Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.
"In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
"When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force."
"The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender."
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Once again, Lake Superior State University of Michigan has made a major contribution to the preservation of civilized language by publishing its annual list of words and phrases that are -- or at least should be -- banned.
Among this year's entries: "amazing" ... "baby bump" ... "occupy" ... ''ginormous" ... "win the future" ... ''man cave" ... "the new normal".
I hear that "23 skidoo" is also losing favor.
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Reader Rick excavated this from the archives of the Washington Post ...
The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway .
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.
Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.
Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.
Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.
NOTE -- This report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post - 89 years ago.
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Len, who celebrates the Japanese poetry form called "haiku", is inspired by the possibility that Mr. Schwarzenegger is courting his ex ...
Arnold woos the ex.
Why take a Kennedy back?
Million$ of reasons.
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Sky-guy contributes another touching story ...
An older couple was doing after-Christmas shopping at the mall and the mall was packed.
Walking along, the surprised wife looked up and noticed her husband had suddenly disappeared.
She used her cell phone to call her husband and ask him where he was?
The husband in a calm voice said, "Honey, remember the jewelery store we went into 20 years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we could not afford and I told you that I would get it for you one day."
His wife, crying, replied, "Yes! Yes! I remember that jewelry store."
He said, "Well, I'm in the bar next to it."
"SARAH, SAVE ME!" ... THE END OF A
GOVERNMENT BOONDOGGLE
...OBAMA'S FASCIST ECONOMICS
...OBAMA'S FASCIST ECONOMICS
I was one of the early admirers of Sarah Palin when she was the feisty reformist governor of Alaska. Nevertheless, I wonder if Newt's sudden advocacy of her being a running-mate or cabinet member isn't a desperation move on his part as he watches his poll numbers decline.
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Long overdue, Congress has finally ended the subsidy for corn-based ethanol. During the thirty-year lifespan of this scam, it siphoned off $6 billion a year of taxpayer money. The tariff barrier to importation of ethanol from Brazil has also been ended.
Among the legacies of ethanol: worsened performance for motor vehicles, poor mileage and an increase in smog. Plus heightened food costs because corn that normally would have gone for livestock food was funneled into the subsidized ethanol producers. Good riddance to the subsidy and -- here's hoping -- the junk "fuel" as well.
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The Virginia Republican Party is requiring voters in their primary to sign a pledge that they will support the ultimate nominee. Since there is no way of enforcing such a pledge, it seems absurd.
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Businesses continue to flee California for more hospitable states. The Orange County Register gives one good reason why the outflow in an editorial ...
"Democratic reaction to the news that Waste Connections, a $3.6-billion company and major Sacramento-area employer, is headed to Houston to seek a friendlier business climate tells other businesses all they need to know about the attitudes of those who run California's government.
"State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, gave these clueless and snarky remarks in response to the news: 'In this instance you have a company that is, in fact, profitable, making significant revenue gains in 2011 and 2010. That doesn't speak to a bad business climate here in California when a good company is able to thrive in that way. So whatever Mr. Middelstaedt's (company CEO) reasons are to leave the great state of California, I know I'm pushing back.'
"Is it really the Senate president's role to determine the proper profit margin for a privately owned company?"
This stupid attitude echoes Obama's decision that HE knows how much money a person needs, or needs to make. And imagine this coming from a man who's spending $4 million (of other peoples' money) to go on a Hawaii vacation!
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Forbes magazine examines the car-buying habits of the upper-income folk ...
"Luxury models led the list of the 10 most popular cars for people earning over $250,000: The Mercedes E-class, Lexus RX 350, BMW 5 Series and 3 Series had the top four spots. But most surprising is the cars that rounded out the top 10: Three Hondas, a Toyota, an Acura and a Volkswagen."
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GM selling Chevys without brake pads? Not hard to believe; after all, it IS a government-run operation.
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The city in which, statistically, you have the greatest chance of getting murdered: Philadelphia.
What happened to that "City of Brotherly love" thing?
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This may not be an easy argument to follow, but I have expressed in this space the view that Obamunist economics is essentially fascist in nature. Crista Huff at Townhall.com expands upon the premise ...
"While looking at a list of Fortune 500 companies -- American companies ranked by annual revenues -- I noticed something odd at the top of the list that made me shudder.
"Five of the ten biggest companies in America are Fannie Mae, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway, General Motors and Bank of America. Anything strike you as not-quite-right on that list?
"These are companies which have become intimately tied to American government; either run by our government or in bed with our government. And what do they call it when governments and corporations work hand in hand to control wealth and power, and pick winners and losers? They call that fascism."
"Fascists have an agenda that is primarily economic. As the Free Dictionary notes, fascism/corporatism is 'an attempt to create a 'modern' version of feudalism by merging the 'corporate' interests with those of the state.' " -- The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here" by Thom Hartmann
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I can't help but wonder about people athiests ridicule; religious people -- like, say Tim Tebow -- who profess faith in a creed that advocates love for fellow human beings. I can't help but wonder if, in the deep recesses of the scoffers' minds there might be a small voice asking, "What if those folk are right?"
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Dan offers comforting thoughts with which to face the new year ...
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement ..
He who hesitates is probably right.
If you think there is good in everybody ... you haven't met everybody.
The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble..
There's always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it. For example I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt.
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We have company this weekend. We've taken in a lost -- or abandoned -- little Scottie terrier. We got her groomed and checked out and hope to find her mommy and daddy -- if they want to be found. Calvin isn't crazy about sharing his house, but they seem to get along quite well.
***Late bulletin!**
The distraught owner was located and has been reunited with her dog. Visiting lady from Seattle. I didn't reminisce about my year at KIRO, then the CBS powerhouse of the Pacific Northwest. While I increased the ratings by 40% in a few months, I did antagonize the liberals in the Emerald City (part of my charm) and didn't want to further upset her, in case she happened to be one of that dismal breed.
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The disintegration of the ABC empire in San Francisco continues apace. More bad news from the KSFO division yesterday. Details forthcoming.
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Surprisingly, according to the computerized counting device, this column had a record-high readership yesterday, even though posting was delayed. Thank you.
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From reader John ...
I was driving back from Trader Joe's, and there is this car in front of me with a bumper sticker which read;
To a liberal "Gun control" means confiscating your guns.
To a conservative "Gun control" means using both hands.
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The Sky-guy offers this ...
For our family Christmas dinner party I bought a quart of Haagen-Dazs ice cream at our supermarket. As the cashier rang it up, I asked, "How do you pronounce that?"
Speaking slowly and distinctly, she said, "Four dollars and seventy-eight cents."
...and this ...
My wife and her next door friend were talking about labor saving devices as they pulled into our driveway. Our next door neighbor said,
"I love my new garage door opener."
"I love mine too." my wife replied honking twice. That was the signal for me to come out and open the garage door.
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BE MODERATE IN YOUR IMMODERATION TONIGHT, AND SEE YOU IN 2012!
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."