SHORT DAYS, LONG NIGHTS
…
WHY WORK? LIVE OFF THE TAXPAYERS …
THE (BROKEN) ARAB SPRING
WHY WORK? LIVE OFF THE TAXPAYERS …
THE (BROKEN) ARAB SPRING
Consider it: Three weeks hence, we will experience the shortest (daylight) day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Conversely, folk in the southern hemisphere will experience their maximum sunlight day (readers in Antarctica, don't forget your sunscreen!).
Also, according to the Mayan calendar, three weeks from now the world will come to an end. If you sincerely believe it, party-hearty!
- - - - -
Reader Rodger perceptively analyzes the Democrats' tactics ...
"In reference to the 'fiscal cliff' discussions in congress: 'Give us a tax increase now and we will give you spending cuts later' ...
"This reminds me of Lucy on the Peanuts comic strip holding the football for Charley Brown to kick. She jerks it away at the last second every time and Charley Brown always falls for it.
"Can the Republicans be as naive as Charley Brown? Answer: Yes."
-
- - - -
With the ongoing growth of middle-class entitlements, even as life becomes more difficult for the shrinking number of actual workers supporting those programs, the next looming tipping point is when a majority of working people decide they're suckers when they can have a standard of living as good -- or better -- by switching to the freeloader side.
That point is coming. Fast.
- - - - -
Interesting coalition of supporters for higher taxes on upper-income folk.
People who are already wealthy, like the hypocritical Buffett, who's built an empire on tax-avoidance tactics, and similar limousine liberals who don't want others to have the opportunity to become rich. Supported by low-income people motivated largely by envy.
- - - - -
“ Why does Obama insist upon raising taxes? Not because he believes it will improve the economy, and not because he believes it will increase receipts to the Treasury. The proposed taxes would bring in about $80 billion a year, a trivial number compared with our 1.3 trillion deficits. Making the books balance is (obviously) not Obama's goal. In 2008, when it was pointed out to him that President Clinton's cut in the capital gains rate increased the revenue from the tax (because lower rates encouraged more transactions), Obama was unmoved. He'd still favor an increase in the capital gains rate, he explained, for the sake of "fairness." – Mona Charen
- - - - -
The first two having spectacularly failed and driven us far deeper into debt, Obama wants yet another “stimulus” program. Perhaps he has supporters who feel they haven't dug deeply enough into taxpayer pockets and need to build some more fantasy “green” projects and non-existent “shovel-ready” programs.
- - - - -
Burt Prelutsky, quoting …
“James Carville, the cadaverous-looking political operative who helped unleash Bill Clinton on an unsuspecting world. In a quote that went viral, he was alleged to have said that '80% of Democrats are politically clueless. Truth is relative. Truth is whatever you can make the voter believe is the truth. That’s why I’m a Democrat. I can make Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.'"
“When I first read it, my reaction was that even a creep like Carville can be honest if you get him drunk enough. But upon further investigation, I discovered that, one, either he never said it; or, two, that he decided to deny he said it once he sobered up.
“But isn’t it always that way with liberals? The only time they seem to make any sense at all is when they’re drunk or you are.”
- - - - -
A masochistic liberal, self-defined if he/she reads this column (unless seeking enlightenment), complains that "You must think most American voters are ignorant or dumb."
Yes.
- - - - -
Cindy Adams –
“What do they call an intelligent politician in France? Answer: a tourist.”
Change the location to Washington and it's even funnier. Or more painful.
- - - - -
The high cost of college, Part Two ...
The Washington Times reports that Purdue University has on the payroll: A $313,000-per-year acting provost ... six vice- and assistant-provosts including a $198,000 “diversity officer” and 16 deans and 11 vice-presidents, among them a $253,000 marketing officer and a $433,000 head of the business school. And the situation is worse at other schools.
- - - - - -
Liberals, take note of the fruit of your much-applauded “Arab spring”: Egypt's new constitution, dictated by President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood supporters, abolishes any rights for minorities or women, per Islamic law, and lifts the ban on owning slaves. Yes. Legal slavery is back in Egypt.
- - - - -
The astute Prof. Paul Greenberg assesses Egypt: New boss, same as old boss(es) ...
"No doubt many an Egyptian misses Hosni Mubarak and the familiar tyranny they had grown accustomed to, the way some Russians still pine for Stalin's oppressive rule. At least there was no question of who was in charge back then -- even if the next knock on the door might mean a government-paid vacation in Siberia, or worse.
"As for this supposedly new Egypt, the names of the rulers may be different but the old Egypt of Hosni Mubarak, Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel Nasser persists, as reliable as the annual flood of the Nile. The pattern goes back to a time when the names chiseled in stone might be Amenhotep IV or cruel Khufu of the fourth dynasty. Egypt's history may no longer be written in hieroglyphics, and its rulers are now called Presidents instead of Pharaohs, but it remains remarkably unchanged."
- - - - -
Why you want to get rich and live in Monaco. The tiny country has the world's longest average life-span. More than 89 ½ years.
- - - - -
Ineptitude in crime dep't. …
Arthur Brundage of Syracuse, New York, robbed a bank – successfully. Then, enraged because he discovered the teller had short-changed him on the $20,000 he'd demanded, returned to get the remainder. The police were already there and … well, you can guess the rest.
- - - - -
Argus Hamilton –
“Chicago Bears receiver Brendan Marshall said some NFL players are taking Viagra to give themselves a performance edge. That's very scary. At last we know what Troy Aikman means when he says you don't want to be on the bottom of that pile after a fumble.”
- - - - -
Annoy a liberal. Forward this column.
REPUBLICANS' DILEMMA …
YOUR COMPUTER, IRS's PIGGYBANK …
A (NEAR)-DEATH IN VENICE
YOUR COMPUTER, IRS's PIGGYBANK …
A (NEAR)-DEATH IN VENICE
Republicans are going to face an even more daunting choice over the next two years.
The reality is that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is the only obstacle to Obama imposing the most left-wing government policies in the history of the nation. That pertains if, and only if, that majority stonewalls his extremism.
The choice and its resolution depend upon the confidence of a huge majority of those Republican members of the House that by 2014 most voters will see the folly of Obama policies and maintain or expand that Republican majority; perhaps even return control of the Senate.
One thing certain: the party cannot afford more exercises in stupidity such as nominating the sort of candidates who echo the idiocy of the two fools in Missouri and Indiana who went wandering off into the wilderness of incoherent rhetoric about the relationship between rape, pregnancy and abortion. Those two cost the Republicans two easily winnable Senate seats. Such nonsense must be avoided.
- - - - -
Mark Steyn takes a clear-eyed look at the “fiscal cliff” …
“As America hangs by its fingernails wiggling its toesies over the vertiginous plummet to oblivion, what can save her now? An Even More Super Committee? A bipartisan agreement in which Republicans agree to cave and Democrats agree not to laugh at them too much?
“The problem facing the United States government is that it spends over a trillion dollars a year that it doesn’t have. With the best will in the world, you can’t interpret the election result as a spectacular victory for less spending. A few months ago, I dined with a (pardon my English) French intellectual who chortled to me, 'Americans love Big Government as much as Europeans. The only difference is that Americans refuse to admit it.'”
“My Gallic charmer is on to something. According to the most recent statistics: government expenditures per person in France, $18,866.00; in the United States, $19,266.00.
“Generally speaking, functioning societies make good-faith efforts to raise what they spend, subject to fluctuations in economic fortune: Government spending in Australia is 33.1 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product – the value of all goods and services produced within a year), and tax revenues are 27.1 percent. Government spending in the United States is 42.2 percent (of GDP), but revenues are 24 percent — the widest spending/taxing gulf in any major economy.”
Gee … a cynical person (like me) might conclude that America has become a nation dominated by self-deluding deadbeats.
- - - - -
Given that a leftist government like our own can never resist the temptation to get its grubby mitts on any possible source of “revenue,” can anyone doubt the following?
It's only a matter of time until liberal Democrats find a way to tax not only internet purchases, but use of the web itself, including e-mails and web-browsing. You WILL pay, the likely rationale being something like, “After all, a postage stamp costs 45 cents, so paying a nickel or dime to send an e-mail is still a bargain, etc., etc.” Count on it . They will try it.
- - - - -
Democrats, hypocrites as always, find it unacceptable for Republicans to oppose Susan Rice's possible nomination to Secretary of State on grounds of devious incompetence. However, they had no problem with calling Condoleezza Rice George Bush's “house nigga.”
- - - - -
A life in radio ... and travel (cont.) ...
There is a century-old novel, much later made into a movie, called "Death in Venice." I only know the title; never read the book or saw the film. But I had the experience. Almost.
I was Operations Manager at WGBS in Miami. It was during a key rating period (live-or-die time in broadcasting) and I was putting in long days and weeks at the station. Meantime, back in Chicago our travel agency was organizing a tour that involved a first stop in Venice. Since I was the well-known "face" of the agency, I was to meet the group in Venice and join them for part of the European odyssey.
I had mentioned the forthcoming trip to friends in Miami, one of whom knew a teacher who had a friend, a fellow teacher, in Venice. Somehow it was arranged that I would meet the Venetian lady on my first evening in that magical place and pick up some information unavailable to most tourists; information that would be useful for entertaining my clients in greater depth among the labyrinthine streets of the city.
After a long, long day at work in Miami, I flew to New York, changed planes, flew overnight to Paris and connected there to a Venice flight. I'd barely caught a nap when it was time to take the group on a morning boat-trip out to the glass-blowing shops on Murano Island in the Venetian lagoon.
While watching the artisans at work, I suddenly felt crushing pain in my chest and collapsed. When I awakened, I was in a totally dark room; no light anywhere. My first though was, "I'm dead." While pondering the possibilities of my present location, grateful there was no intense heat, a door opened and a small person, barely visible, muttered something in Italian -- and left.
Shortly thereafter the door opened again, a man entered and turned on the lights. He was a doctor who informed me I'd been brought to this canal-side hospital in a water ambulance. In passable English he told me I had not, contrary to my own suspicions, had a heart attack. He said I was suffering from the most severe exhaustion he had ever seen in a human being. He'd shot me up with vitamins and by now I did, in fact, feel quite well. He told me I could leave. A nurse -- the nun who had entered earlier -- would get a water-taxi to take me back to my hotel near the Doge's Palace.
By the time I arrived at the Hotel Londra Palace my group had gone to a restaurant for a prearranged dinner. I understand the evening went well with no diminished appetites, although there were a few toasts to "Poor Lee ... he died so young."
Meantime, back at the hotel, the Italian teacher called me from the lobby and, after I assured her that I was quite well despite the events of the day, she insisted on showing me "her" Venice; areas not on the beaten tourist paths.
We returned to the hotel about 11PM and were having a nightcap in the lobby bar when my tourists come trooping in after their dinner. They were much surprised to see the ghost of their tour leader enjoying the company of a (yes, she was attractive) lady.
- A vital footnote: On
our stroll around Venice, the glass-blowing capital of the
world, the Venetian lady suggested we stop at a small shop
owned by a friend of hers, where she insisted on buying me a
small souvenir. I have it to this day, despite Susan's
(pretended?) annoyance at some imagined symbolism and despite
my protestations of total innocence.
After all, only a person suspicious to the point of paranoia would read anything questionable into a gift of a small glass ... rabbit.
- - - - -
Chris Matthews, MSNBC's reincarnation of Karl Marx, had an on-air gas attack and was burping. At least he said it was burping.
-
- - - -
Alex Smith of the 49'ers has reasonable grounds to tell Coach Jim Harbaugh and the management, “Play me or trade me.”
Kaepernick has the hot hand and perhaps that does justify his promotion to #1 QB, but Smith has put together a sterling record and deserves to be a starter – somewhere.
Let's see … the Jets are facing a total rebuild, doubtless under a new coach. As are the Eagles … maybe the Dallas Cowgirls ...
Possibilities abound.
- - - - -
Marjie contributes a seasonal tidbit …
Three men 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 Englishman fumbled through his pockets
and pulled out a
lighter. He flicked it on. “It's a
candle,” he said.
“You may pass through the pearly gates,”
Saint Peter said.
The Scotsman 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
Irishman started searching desperately through his pockets
and finally pulled out a pair of womens' panties.
St.
Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow and asked, “And
just what do those symbolize?”
The paddy replied, “These
are Carol's.”
And So The Christmas Season Begins......
DEMOCRAT POLICY:
“WHAT'S
YOURS … IS MINE”
THE BIG MIDDLE-CLASS TAX SURPRISE ...
GOV'T HEALTH-CARE – WHAT'S COMING
THE BIG MIDDLE-CLASS TAX SURPRISE ...
GOV'T HEALTH-CARE – WHAT'S COMING
At the very heart of
Democrats' political philosophy is this: Money you've earned is
not
yours. ALL money belongs to the government, and you should be
grateful for whatever portion of it you are allowed to keep.
Barack Obama enunciated it slightly
differently with his "You
didn't build that" remark, but his observation was totally in
keeping with the core belief of liberals. The government is all
...
the individual is insignificant.
- - - - -
Only the truly dumb (i.e.,
Obama sycophants) could fail to understand the following:
The
median (half higher, half lower) net worth of American
households has
dropped to its lowest point in 43 years.
Time again for the
mantra ...
"We live ... in a land ... run by morons."
- - - - -
About that "fiscal cliff" thing...
"Let's cut right to the end of the
story: Ordinary people have already tumbled off the
precipice. However much they deny it, your tax bill is going
up. Dramatically.
"Along with the promised tax increases for
the rich, Obama is promising something special for you
too. $600 billion in 'additional' taxes. Merry
Christmas,
"And, really, it was never going to end any
other way than taxes for EVERYONE.
"It's not class warfare they are after; it's
your money. The class warfare rhetoric was the fable they
told you just to lull you to sleep.
"You can't finance everyone's home,
everyone's retirement, everyone's healthcare, everyone's student
loan, everyone's bank, everyone's brand new clunker and
everyone's greed fad and not expect to pay.
"We know the math as well as the economists
do. It doesn't take higher mathematical functions to
understand that outgo can't dwarf income forever. So...it
has all the hallmarks of a sophisticated, well thought out,
intentional Obama economic plan. here's another
hallmark: You can expect another crisis - every day."
--John Ransom, Townhall.com --
- - - - -
Anyone who presumes to have
constructed a new political formulation (e.g., the college
student who believes communism a great idea that "just hasn't
been done right yet" or the Obama who thinks "debt doesn't
matter") might well pause to consider these wise words...
British Historian, Paul Johns
--Thanks, Dan --
- - - - -
Since
Obamacare is modeled on Britain's National Health Service,
perhaps
you'd like a preview of what you can expect. This report comes
from a
major British newspaper, the Telegraph ...
"In the
worse cases staff have overseen 'a kind of normalisation of
cruelty',
(Britain's Health Secretary) Jeremy Hunt told an audience of
health
professionals.
"Managers were so
'buried in spreadsheets' that they had become 'blind' to the
fact
that patients were not being treated with dignity or respect, he
said.
"Poor care had
become 'perhaps the biggest problem of all facing the NHS', Mr
Hunt
claimed in his strongest speech yet on the NHS, almost three
months
into his tenure as Health Secretary.
"In a passionate
speech, Mr Hunt cited numerous examples of appalling NHS care.
He
said: 'Just look at what has come to light in the last few
years:
patients left to lie in their own excrement in Stafford
Hospital,
with members of the public taking soiled sheets home to wash
because
they didn’t believe the hospital would do it.'"
More … from the London Daily Mail newspaper …
“Sick children are
being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in
hospices on
controversial ‘death pathways’. Until now, end of life
regime the
Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only
elderly and
terminally-ill adults. But the Mail can reveal the practice
of
withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young
patients as
well as severely disabled newborn babies.
“One doctor
has
admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the
neonatal
unit of one hospital alone. Writing in a leading medical
journal, the
physician revealed the process can take an average of ten
days during
which a baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’. The LCP –
on
which 130,000 elderly and terminally-ill adult patients die
each year
– is now the subject of an independent inquiry ordered by
ministers. …Earlier this month, an un-named doctor wrote of
the
agony of watching the protracted deaths of babies. …‘I know,
as
they cannot, the unique horror of witnessing a child become
smaller
and shrunken, as the only route out of a life that has
become
excruciating to the patient or to the parents who love their
baby.’
“
- - - - -
Burt
Prelustsky counterpunches conventional wisdom...
“For years now, we
have heard people bemoan the fact that, thanks to the profligate
ways
of Barack Obama, we will be leaving our children and
grandchildren
with enormous debt. Considering the way the young have flocked
out
twice to help elect Obama, I say it serves them right. In fact,
I say
let’s pile it on!”
- - - - -
A contribution from Mad Mike
…
A
mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a
Harley
motorcycle when he spotted a well-known heart surgeon in his
shop.
The surgeon was there, waiting for the
service manager to come
and take a look at his bike.
The mechanic shouted across the
garage, "Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?"
The
surgeon a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic working
on the
motorcycle. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on
a rag
and asked, "So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart,
take
the valves out, fix 'em, put 'em back in, and when I finish,
it works
just like new. So how come I get such a small salary and you
get the
really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the
same work?"
The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over,
and whispered to the
mechanic...
"Try doing it with
the engine running."
THE BOEHNER SELL-OUT
BEGINS …
COSTAS: THE GUN-GRABBERS' PARROT …
YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE (part 3)
COSTAS: THE GUN-GRABBERS' PARROT …
YOUR FUTURE UNDER OBAMACARE (part 3)
People who sagely express their faith in the political philosophy, "The majority rules," are simple-minded fools who have never considered the lesson implicit in the observation that pure democracy is two lions and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner. After all, that is “majority rule.”
In short, pure democracy is mob rule with no protection for the rights of dissenters, even if the vote is 101 to 100.
- - - - -
Warning sign: House Speaker John Boehner, the highest-ranking Republican in government, has removed conservatives from key House committees with responsibility for guiding – and controlling – government spending.
- - - - -
Be not surprised that “sports” commentator and smug/silly leftist Bob Costas unleashed an anti-gun tirade following the Kansas City Chiefs' player killing his girlfriend and himself. After all, Costas' paycheck comes from the most left-wing of the three old alphabet networks, NBC … which is also parent of bastard stepchild, MSNBC.
Many in broadcast circles also view Costas as a pompous, self-important little pr .. otuberance.
By the way, if you think CNN leans liberal now, just wait 'til the new honcho gets a firm hold on the reins there. He used to run NBC News.
- - - - -
Try also to contain your surprise at this: Egypt's new constitution, based on Islamic Sharia law, calls for the oppression of women and minorities and removes the ban on owning slaves. It was concocted by the new dictator, Morsi, and the Muslim Brotherhood and will give the power of interpreting the law to al-Azhar University.
That institution was lavishly praised by Barack Obama during his 2009 apology tour of the middle-east as being “a beacon of Islamic learning for over a thousand years.”
- - - - -
Among those likely not to be surprised by Hillary's latest attack on Israel while expressing sympathy for the Palestinian rocket-launchers: Dick Morris, famously described once by the sensitive Hillary as “that dirty Jew.” He was working for her husband as a political strategist at the time.
- - - - -
Thomas Sowell reinforces what intelligent people already know …
“First of all, despite all the melodrama about raising taxes on 'the rich,' even if that is done it will scarcely make a dent in the government's financial problems. Raising the tax rates on everybody in the top two percent will not get enough additional tax revenue to run the government for ten days.
“'We are just asking the rich to pay a little more.' This is an insult to our intelligence. The government doesn't 'ask' anybody to pay anything. It orders you to pay the taxes they impose and you can go to prison if you don't.
“Then there are all the fancy substitute words for plain old spending-- words like 'stimulus' or 'investing in the industries of the future.'
“Referring to the Federal Reserve System's creation of hundreds of billions of new dollars out of thin air as 'quantitative easing' makes it seem as if this is some soothing and esoteric process, rather than amounting essentially to nothing more than printing more money.
“Debasing the value of money by creating more of it is nothing new or esoteric. Irresponsible governments have done this, not just for centuries, but for thousands of years. It is a way to take people's wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.
“All the pretty talk about how tax rates will be raised only on 'the rich' hides the ugly fact that the poorest people in the country will see the value of their money decline, just like everybody else, and at the same rate as everybody else, when the government creates more money and spends it.”
All this simply proves that, based upon election results, most Americans like politicians who lie to them.
- - - - -
Reader Len offers this …
“If John Kerry is to be Secretary of State, then shouldn't Jane Fonda be Secretary of Defense?”
Yes, he refers to the Tokyo Rose of the Vietnam war – that Jane Fonda.
- - - - -
Since Obamacare is based upon Britain's government-run healthcare system, the National Health Service, here's an update from London's Daily Mail newspaper on how that's working …
“The elderly are being denied life-saving treatment for heart attacks and surgery following breast cancer, a report warns.”
“It reveals the extent of age discrimination across the NHS, with doctors making ‘inaccurate assumptions’ about patients based on their dates of birth. A report today warns that patients in their 50s are three times more likely to be offered an emergency treatment for heart attacks than those in their 80s.”
Condensed conclusion: Decision-making government burocrats say, “If you're old, hurry up and die and get out of the way.”
To those who are unconcerned: Check back with us when you pass age 65.
-
- - - -
I wonder what the few Democrats capable of thinking that far ahead think of the prospect of Joe Biden as their presidential nominee in 2016.
- - - - -
Argus Hamilton --
"Pew Research's poll said the birth rate among newly arrived Mexican couples in the U.S. has plummeted. It says they quickly acquire separate careers and birth control. By spring they're so Anglicized they're skipping church to catch the last round of the Masters."
- - - - -
Let's get behind Carine Felizardo. Carine, 25, won the contest and was adjudged to have the most beautiful butt in Brazil.
- - - - -
Democrat, thy name is demagogue ... (a continuing series) ...
The IRS has released its Federal Employee and Retiree Delinquency Inventory, and it shows that 36 of Obama’s aides owe a total of $833,970 in back taxes.
- - - - -
Jeff Foxworthy's clues to Canada and Canadians ...
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Canada.
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Canada.
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Canada.
If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' In the same day and back again, you may live in Canada.
If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Canada.
If you have more miles on your snow-blower than your car, you may live in Canada.
-- Thanks, Gene! --
- - - - -
Advice to women from Mike …
Ladies, if a man says he'll fix it, he will. There is no need to remind him about it every six months.
CATHOLICS FOR OBAMA …
MUSLIM MURDERER NOT YET TRIED …
WHY OBAMA IS JOKE-PROOF
MUSLIM MURDERER NOT YET TRIED …
WHY OBAMA IS JOKE-PROOF
How serious are these Catholics about their own church's position on forcing Catholic church-run institutions to provide medical coverage including birth control and abortion?
According to Federal Election Commission data, ninety-one percent of the employees at 23 different Catholic schools gave campaign contributions to Obama.
- - - - -
Another reminder of the collapse of American civilization as we know it: Major Nidal Hassan, the murderous Muslim who slaughtered thirteen soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas, more than three years ago...is still breathing. He has yet to even be tried, despite scores of witnesses who saw the traitor do it.
- - - - -
Note to the silly, ridiculous Bob Costas: Guns are so plentiful in most of the world, anyone who wants one will get one, law or no law. Further, there are people aplenty, otherwise defenseless, who live in neighborhoods so dangerous they would be stupid not to have one. You're a rich idiot. Shut up.
- - - - -
It may be paranoia, but there are conspiracy theorists claiming the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya was a botched plot to kidnap him, then exchange him for the imprisoned Blind Sheik Muslim who planned the first attack on the World Trade Center. A plot in collaboration with...Barack Obama.
Then there's the theory that the Benghazi consulate was a cover for a CIA operation, etc., etc.
The only certainty: we will never get the truth from the Obama administration.
- - - - -
Economics professor Walter Williams makes yet another (doubtless vain) attempt to inform an ignorant, stupid public about “taxing the rich” vs. reality …
“Recent IRS data show that individuals earning $66,000 and more a year have a total adjusted gross income of $5.1 trillion. In 2011, corporate profit came to $1.6 trillion. That means if Congress simply confiscated the entire earnings of taxpayers earning more than $66,000 and all corporate profits, it wouldn't be enough to cover the $8 trillion per year growth of U.S. liabilities.
“Given this impossible picture, the message coming out of Washington, especially from our leftist politicians and the news media, is that we solve our budget problems by raising taxes on the rich. If Americans were more informed, such a message would be insulting to our intelligence.”
But the suckers still believe Obama.
- - - - -
“One of the consequences of such notions as 'entitlements' is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.” – Thomas Sowell
- - - - -
Folk in my part of Arizona are wary of California transplants, suspecting they might carry the disease that's turned the “Golden State” into what is measurably the worst-run state in the nation.
Thus we were both amused and gratified that a recent arrival announced to neighbors a few days ago that she was moving back to California because “the weather is better.”
This was while, day after day, wind and rain and chilly temperatures dominated the California weather news. During that same period we were suffering daily sunshine and temperatures in the upper-70's. Californians …
- - - - -
Jay Leno --
"President Clinton and President Obama played a round of golf over the weekend. President Clinton asked Obama what his handicap was, and Obama said, 'Joe Biden.'"
- - - - -
Victor Davis Hanson (National Review) assesses the charges that opposition to Susan Rice, UN ambassador, blatant liar (on the murders in Libya), being considered for elevation to Secretary of State … is based on racism/sexism …
“It also was recently announced that Susan Rice reported a net worth of somewhere between $30 and $40 million – information that appeared in the popular media only after one of the nastiest campaigns in modern memory, whose central theme was that Mitt Romney and his supporters were 1 percenters whose affluence was prima facie proof of some sort of moral or legal failing.
“There is nothing in Rice’s past to suggest that her own race, gender, or class was a disadvantage in her cursus honorum. In the nexus of elite universities and Democratic politics — whether Stanford University, the Rhodes Scholarship, or the Clinton administration — being black, female, and elite is far more advantageous that being white, male, and poor. In postmodern America, it is considered noble to prejudge people on the basis of their race and gender, but it can be ignoble to postjudge them on the basis of merit. Note, in this regard, that no one seems worried that Susan Rice and her husband have ample investments — among them energy companies involved in the Keystone-pipeline project — that might have posed a conflict of interest for a high-ranking State Department official.”
- - - - -
Argus Hamilton --
“The U.N. voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a state against the objections of the U.S. and the Israeli delegates in the General Assembly. One thing will remain the same. The weather forecast in Tel Aviv today is cloudy with a
chance of rockets.”
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Byron York (Townhall.com) looks ahead to 2016 and the possibility of another Bush (Jeb) candidacy …
“The bottom line is that a Jeb Bush candidacy could turn the Republican presidential race into a forward vs. backward contest, not because Bush's policies would be backward (they might be just the opposite), but because his family tree, both personal and political, reaches far into the GOP past and would force Republicans to decide whether it's time to move on or whether it's possible to go to the well one more time.
“Of course, in the wake of a devastating defeat, people often say they want a fresh new face the next time around. And then, somehow, an old face wins the race.
“With Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Democrats had a backward vs. forward fight in 2008. After an epic struggle, they chose forward. Another Bush run for president could set off a similarly desperate fight inside the Republican Party.”
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“Liberals don’t want to make fun of Obama because they feel that it will weaken him if they honestly point out his foibles and his shortcomings. The narrative is that Obama is sort of a god (in fact, Evan Thomas of Newsweek said exactly that.) Gods don’t have any flaws. Thus, if they point out a single flaw, they are entirely destroying the narrative.” – Conservative comedian/writer Evan Sayet, author of : "The KinderGarden of Eden: How the Modern Liberal Thinks and Why He's Convinced That Ignorance Is Bliss."
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'Tis the season of gluttony, so reader Wes reminds us …
“Don't forget to set your scales back ten pounds at midnight tonight.”
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Besse Cooper of Monroe, Georgia, listed as the world's oldest woman, has died at age 116.
Fortunately, the baby lived.
I'M SORRY! I'D PROMISED NEVER TO USE THAT JOKE AGAIN. NEVER!
- - - - -
Steven Wright --
"I'm writing a book about reverse psychology. Please don't buy it."
SYRIAN WMDs -- SADDAM'S LEGACY? ...
OBAMA'S TAX-EVADING TAX ADVISOR ...
DEMOCRATS' WINNING FORMULA
OBAMA'S TAX-EVADING TAX ADVISOR ...
DEMOCRATS' WINNING FORMULA
About those WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Syria's dictator may use on opponents of the regime …
Some will recall that at the outbreak of the Iraq war (A) it was a fact that Saddam Hussein had WMDs in the form of chemical weapons which meet that definition; he'd used them on his own people. Further, it was known by knowledgeable people that (B) he'd smuggled them out of Iraq and into Syria.
Think there might be a connection between these two events? Guarantee: Big Media will totally ignore this obvious “coincidence.” As will the Obama administration and Democrats in general.
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The NY Post takes note of one of Obama's advisors on tax policy …
“Do you think Al Sharpton appreciates the irony of his being invited to the White House Tuesday to talk taxes with President Obama? That is, to talk about Obama’s plan to ram through steep tax hikes on the “rich” to resolve the fiscal-cliff crisis?
“Sharpton’s all about taxes — for others. For himself, well, maybe not so much.
“As The Post’s Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein reported last year, Sharpton 'owe[d] the IRS $2.6 million in income tax, and nearly $900,000 in state tax.' And his personal pride and joy National Action Network owed more than $880,000 in unpaid federal payroll taxes, interest and penalties, Vincent and Klein found.
“Which makes Obama’s decision to invite Sharpton (and several other MSNBC hosts) baffling. Why ask a man with a terminal case of tax allergies to make the case for higher rates for everybody else?”
What else should be expected? After all, Obama hired the tax-dodging Tim Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury. Crooks and crazies are running the country.
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Paul Ryan is a very bright fellow and a Republican Party asset. He clearly has eyes for the top spot on the 2016 ticket. I'll venture an early prediction that he won't get it. After this year's defeat, I doubt that most Republicans will want to go with the bottom half of a losing ticket.
My guess is that the early favorite is – and should be – Senator Marco Rubio. Of course, plenty could happen over the next three years to change that calculation.
Addendum: Seldom has a presidential candidate disappeared from the public stage as rapidly as has Mitt Romney. It's re-mindful of the quick exit of Michael Dukakis.
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Meantime … the Democrat formula for political success becomes more obvious.
Part One: Burden employers, large and small, with so many taxes, “fees” and regulations that hiring becomes financially impossible and layoffs increase.
Part Two: Those losing jobs, or unable to find them, become dependent upon more and larger government aid programs, which are …
Part Three: Promoted and expanded by Democrats!
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Admit it: There are few things more annoying than watching the person ahead of you in the checkout line at the supermarket pay with food stamps, then load a nicer car than yours with groceries and drive to a bigger house than yours in a better neighborhood.
But there's a valuable lesson to be learned. You've just observed Obama's winning political formula in action. Sucker.
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Republican political candidates need to be reminded of the timeless quote by the late journalist Finley Peter Dunne who, writing thru his invented “Mr. Dooley” character, memorably said, “Politics ain't beanbag.” The latter being a reference to a harmless childrens' game of the time.
While Democrat politicians, especially those of the Chicago school of dirty tricks, have no problem using dirty, lying, underhanded tactics and slanderous personal attacks, most Republicans are reluctant to stoop to that level.
Get over it! If it's fair to attack a decent, generous man like Mitt Romney as being a Scrooge-like Mister Mean, then it's more than fair to attack a Barack Obama as a sly, devious liar with a hidden past and a demonstrated affinity for communist policies and Muslim insanity.
Until Republicans are ready to engage in hard-nosed political warfare, their only hope is that a media-besotted American public will wise-up to where Obama & Friends are leading them. Despite a wretched economy, weakened defense and embarrassingly stupid foreign policy, that hope failed in the November election. It's well past time for the present Republican Party leadership to get tough – or get out. Gentlemanly political tactics don't work.
- - - - -
… but look on the bright side. If that Mayan calendar is correct, only a little more than two weeks until the end of the world.
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Longtime reporter Bernard Goldberg has some advice for Republicans, starting with John Boehner, Speaker of the House ...
"What should the Republicans do? Here's my free advice: Tell the American people that the Republican Party will not raise any taxes unless President Obama gets serious about cutting spending. Yes, I know, they've already said that.
"But they haven't said this: We know that you, the American people, will blame us, the Republican Party if we go over the cliff. We know that if a giant meteor falls out of the sky and kills a pussy willow in Wyoming you will blame us for that, too. Good thing we no longer care what you think.
"So let us, the Republican Party, make this very, very clear: We don't give a damn if you blame us. Blame the hell out of us if it makes you feel better. BUT WE WILL NOT SELL YOU, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DOWN THE RIVER, SO BARACK OBAMA CAN MAKE HIS LEFT WING BASE HAPPY. WE WILL DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE SENSE TO APPRECIATE IT.
"The American people have never heard such a clear, unvarnished message from politicians. It might wake them up. Or it may not. If it doesn't, no harm-no foul. They were going to blame Republicans anyway, so the party will have lost nothing by being blunt.
"I hope that every small business operator whose taxes go up, fires somebody — or several people — to make up for their lost revenue. First, they should find out if, during the presidential campaign, the employee thought raising taxes on the rich was a good idea. If yes, fire him or her and make sure he or she understands why you did it
"Barack Obama doesn't understand how the economy works and neither do the slugs who voted for him. They deserve each other — and the consequences of their actions."
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Again: Isn't it comforting to know that Obama's been consulting MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Al Sharpton on raising taxes?
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Argus Hamilton –
“U.S. Open tennis ref Lois Goodman was cleared of murdering her husband with a coffee mug. It turns out he fell down the stairs. NBC's Bob Costas took back his call for a ban on coffee mugs and he declared that home elevators are a civil right.”
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A perfect illustration of the Democrat mentality at work: The Detroit city council member who tells Obama, “We voted for you, so you should bail us out.”
In other words, deadbeats – be they individuals or cities – have a right to demand of a politician, “Since we voted for you, you now have an obligation to force other citizens to give us money.”
And since most politicians are whores … it works.
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Conan O'Brien-
"The Obamas have decorated the White House with 54 Christmas trees. It's all part of their 'For the last time, we're not Muslim' campaign."
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Wes Pruden, editor emeritus, Washington Times, cuts to the core of the endless Israel-Arab conflict ...
"Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can't go anywhere good. Both Arab and Jew know it. Barack Obama poses as the honest broker, but he, too, knows that talk of a lasting resolution of differences is 100-proof moonshine.
"The Palestinians won't settle for anything less than all Israelis dead, or shipped off to somewhere far away. The Israelis, unreasonable as they may seem in the salons of the West, are determined not to settle for anything less than survival.
"The fashionable opinion ... is that the dispute is all about land, territories and borders, considerations that could be negotiated by civilized men of good will. If the Israelis give a little, the Palestinians give a little, then all can be reconciled. But the dispute is not about land. It's about Israeli survival. The Palestinians and their radical Islamic allies insist they have one goal in mind, the destruction of the lonely outpost of civilization in a region of mindless violence, where trying to keep your head has a very specific meaning."
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Since the Obamunists think taxpayers should pay for birth control for women, how long before the demand for taxpayer-paid prostitution? After all, shouldn't this human “need” also be a civil right? In some parts of Europe, it's already being done. I am NOT kidding.
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Is this “green” enough? Sandy, Utah, (not to be confused with the hurricane of the same name) has an aquarium that is lighted by the electricity provided by their tank of electric eels.
Now … just how many eels would be required to power an electric car?
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Sudden thought: Can I be the only one tiring of videos of these fake “flash mob” musical events? You know; those where musicians/singers just wander into a public place and “spontaneously” begin to play or sing. Enough, already!
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Craig Ferguson -
"Prince William and his lovely bride are pregnant. Kate is said to be very nervous about giving birth. Giving birth to a baby wearing a crown is very hard."
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Bumper-sticker philosophy …
“My sex life is like a Ferrari.
I don't have a Ferrari.”
DROWNING IN DEBT --
OWE, MY!
…
“GREECE” – NOT THE MUSICAL ...
CALIFORNIA IS #1 …
“GREECE” – NOT THE MUSICAL ...
CALIFORNIA IS #1 …
Barack Obama's demand that he be allowed to run up unlimited national debt is the real-world manifestation of P. J. O'Rourke's admonition that “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
FYI, the share of the national debt owed by each U.S. citizen of all ages is now 35% higher than the per-person debt of … GREECE.
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Victor Davis Hanson with a reminder of what our White House Marxist has done to/for us .
"We are still borrowing more than $1 trillion a year. Barack Obama has added more than $5 trillion to the national debt in just his first term alone. Such massive borrowing is unsustainable. Someone somehow at some time has to pay it back.
"Obama would agree. He once alleged that George W. Bush's much smaller deficits were 'irresponsible' and 'unpatriotic.' Obama himself vowed to cut the budge deficit in half by the end of his first term. Instead, Obama's annual deficits have never gone below $1 trillion."
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Only the gullible dupes who actually believed that manipulated nonsense about the pre-election unemployment rate dropping fractionally below 8% could be surprised that it's now being shown as 8.3%. Which actually far understates the mess Obama's made of the economy, because it doesn't take into account those who've given up and quit looking for work, or those working part-time or "off the books" (cash payments unreported to the IRS).
The Marxist demagogue is destroying the nation, yet fools follow him. Just ... incredible.
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Jay Leno --
"President Obama met with leaders of the American Indian tribes and they honored the president by giving him his own Indian name: 'Running Deficit.'
"There was one really awkward moment with the American Indians. In the middle of the meeting, Joe Biden walked in wearing a Redskins jersey."
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If – or when – the rebel opposition in Syria succeeds in ousting Assad, don't expect things to get better there. More likely is a government run by Muslim terrorist groups bent on yet another war with Israel, and they're not shy about saying so.
Any more stupid American liberals blathering about the wonderful fruits of the “Arab Spring” should be placed in a mental institution.
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“The main reason there isn't, and may never be, a solution on the fiscal cliff is that Barack Obama doesn't know how to do a political compromise. Where in his career did Barack Obama ever learn the art of the political deal? Nowhere.
“Liberal commentators like to cite Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill as a case study in political compromise. Barack Obama has become a case study of a president unable to compromise—with John Boehner or anyone else.” – Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal
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The gun-grabbers (like Little Bobby Costas) can't wrap their tiny minds around one reality: The people most likely to commit crimes with guns are the very people least likely to obey laws banning guns. A triumph of wishful thinking over common sense.
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Congratulations, Californians! The launch over that much-talked-about “fiscal cliff” that brings about expiration of the Bush tax cuts will mean YOU'RE #1! Number one in taxes, that is, in the entire nation with a top bracket tax-load, state and federal, of 51.9%.
Now there's an incentive! Work hard to succeed, and the government will take more than half of what you earn. Part of the credit goes, of course, to Prop 30, passed by a majority of California voters. Way to go, comrades!
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… more …
Call it karma, poetic justice or just plain stupid politics, but here is a list of cities and states that will be hit hardest by Obama tax increases:
Top metro areas with most $250K households: Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington DC.
States with highest average housing values / mortgages: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Washington DC.
Metro areas with highest average housing values / mortgages: Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco.
States with the highest percentage of people taking itemized deductions: California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Washington DC.
All of which have one thing in common. They all voted for Obama -- big-time!
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Sign of the times? Michigan's state legislature – both houses – has passed a right-to-work bill. The governor has indicated he'll sign it. The unions that have destroyed much of the state's economy are going bat-dung.
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An observation from reader Ken …
“Isn't it comforting to know that Obama's been consulting MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Al Sharpton on raising taxes? For once, Obama was the smartest man in the room.”
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Democrat politics, Chicago style …
“Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel disbanded the city's ethics board after a 25-year run in which it never found an alderman in violation -- even though, during that time, 20 aldermen were convicted of felonies.” – JWR
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Jay Nordlinger has been writing an excellent series at National Review Online regarding the takeover of our culture by the left. He offers this as one example ...
"Later this month, a new Matt Damon movie will come out. According to reports, it will portray hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as evil. The movie is bankrolled by Gulf Arabs — what a surprise. Fracking would be a boon to American energy, and is, to the degree it’s allowed. Don’t you think Damon & Co. should be embarrassed by the backing of Gulf Arabs?
"But who would do the embarrassing? Who would shame them? The keepers of the culture are on their side, right?
"The really depressing thing is, far more people will watch a Matt Damon movie than will bother to learn anything about oil production, including fracking."
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A friend makes the (unkind?) observation that hard-living has taken a toll on Lindsay Lohan to the point where “she's looking like an aging hooker who might give discounts and 'extras'” – whatever that means.
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Jazz great Dave Brubeck missed his 92nd birthday by one day. It was Thursday. He died on Wednesday. My wife, Susan, played harp and cello on one of his serious-music works, “Truth is Fallen.”
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Craig Ferguson --
"The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show' usually gives CBS a big boost in the ratings. That might get CBS to start sexing up some of their other shows, like putting the cast of '60 Minutes' in bathing suits."
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Jimmy Fallon --
"Barbara Walters has released part of her 'Most Fascinating People' list. This year Hillary Clinton and Honey Boo Boo are both on it. That's right. The woman who may soon be president -- and Hillary Clinton.
*** HEAR YE, HEAR YE! THIS VITAL SPACE WILL BE VACANT FOR SEVERAL DAYS. THE HOST WILL BE ON A FACT-FINDING MISSION, RETURNING 12/16 OR 12/17. ***
__________________________________________________________________
OUR POLITICALLY-CORRECT
AIR
FORCE …
THE HILDABEAST – STILL IN DEMAND …
MORE BASIC POLITICAL TRUTHS
THE HILDABEAST – STILL IN DEMAND …
MORE BASIC POLITICAL TRUTHS
In the news ...
"Commanders and supervisors in all corners of the Air Force will conduct a widespread sweep of all work spaces and public areas, looking for pictures, calendars and other materials that objectify women.
"Pictures of scantily clad women in calendars, posters or in briefing slides have no place in a professional workplace, said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh."
Of course, given present politically-correct trends, we can expect the next order will mandate pictures of scantily-clad men.
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Why big government keeps getting bigger, despite debt and deficits ...
Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (CNS News)
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If Hillary runs for president, as surveys of Democrat opinion indicate she should, I can confidently predict two words that will never be uttered or written by Big Media "reporters."
Vince. Foster.
A woman who rode her husband's coattails thru a shady law career and questionable investment opportunities (think cattle futures) and a political career whose "highlights" included making a fool of herself pressing a misspelled (in Russian) "re-set" button and hiding from charges that she bore some responsibility for the lack of security that got the U.S. ambassador to Libya murdered ...
... that this person is somehow qualified to be president is an idea so absurd it could only be held by the stupid human cattle who raised a subversive, anti-American nonentity to the highest office in the land. The same kind of Democrats who are clamoring for Michelle Obama to run for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.
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Reader Hank points out a tragedy involving the woman who may replace Hillary as Secretary of State ...
"Susan Rice doesn't know ... beans."
After all, who DOESN'T like ... rice and beans?
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John Ransom (Townhall.com) blows the whistle on another Obama boondoggle …
“A Congressional Budget Office report released in the fall tells Obama what the rest of us have known for some time: Your bet on electric cars wasn’t an investment, but a gamble; a dumb gamble.
“That’s because electric cars don’t save gas, they don’t save money and they don’t save the 'planet.'
“'Assuming that everything else is equal' says the CBO, 'the larger an electric vehicle’s battery capacity, the greater its cost disadvantage relative to conventional vehicles—and thus the larger the tax credit needed to make it cost-competitive.'
“Three months ago industry insiders revealed that General Motors was taking a loss of around $50,000 per Chevy Volt sold. That was assuming a sales price without the new and improved $10k discount. If you add in the $7,500 government subsidy, the Volt’s cost to the consumer is around $22,500. Cost to the taxpayers is much, much higher.”
Footnote: Now Obama wants to put more taxpayer money into research to develop a better battery for electric cars. Obviously, if such a project had a predictable – and profitable – market, wouldn't it make sense for private companies to eagerly pursue such a project and the potential goldmine from patents? This is about funneling more money to politically-favored friends.
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Today's political dictionary ...
"Investment" -- Favorite Obama term meaning, "We want to collect more taxpayer dollars to give to my big-money Obama supporters. They will invest it in blue-sky projects like Solyndra while pocketing large sums with no financial risk to themselves. Meantime, they will funnel a substantial portion of those taxpayer dollars back into my campaign fund or other personal rewards."
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Another fact of bureaucratic life that Democrats never learn: Any government agency created to solve a problem is highly UNlikely to ever solve it, simply because doing so would render the agency unnecessary and its personnel unemployed.
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Valuable insights from the invaluable Burt Prelutsky ...
"Why do Obama and the flakier environmentalists oppose oil derricks, but promote windmills? Oil is not only a far better and more reliable source of energy than wind, but they don’t massacre birds by the thousands. When there’s an occasional oil spill and it gets goo on seagulls, these people become as crazed as the loons at PETA; but when windmills mutilate even protected classes of birds, such as eagles, you don’t hear a peep out of them.
"Some two thousand years ago, Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote 76 words that might have been written (about Obama) yesterday: 'Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.'
"For a long time, I was also puzzled by the fact that so many liberals sided with Muslims, treating them with the sort of respect generally reserved for such sacred cows as urban blacks, illegal aliens and the New York Times editorial board. After all, these are people whose religion promotes intolerance in the extreme. Free speech, women’s rights, gay rights, democracy, and even science and art, are all alien concepts everywhere in the Middle East except in Israel. Over the past three decades, except in a few isolated instances, every act of terrorism in the world can be traced to these barbarians."
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Argus Hamilton --
"North Korea announced plans to test-fire a long-range nuclear missile that can reach the West Coast. Their past efforts all ended in failure. They also built a nuclear bomb that can fit into a suitcase and be smuggled into this country but the airlines keep losing it."
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It's the time of year -- and NFL season -- when rumors are rife about which football coaches could/should/will be fired after the last game.
What's surprising is the utter silence about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell possibly being fired by HIS bosses, the team owners.
He hasn't had a good year. First, the fines and suspensions handed out to New Orleans players and coaches, some of which he later rescinded, making him widely disliked around the league. Then his latest silliness, advocating the abolition of the kickoff which would mean killing the most unpredictable and exciting element in the game, the kickoff RETURN. Dumb. Really, really dumb.
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News bulletin: Lobsters practice cannibalism!
That should absolve us of any guilt the next time we devour one of the murderous little SOBs. Just think, "Serves him right!"
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Jay Leno --
"The engagement between 86-year-old Hugh Hefner and his 26-year-old girlfriend Crystal Harris is back on. I don’t want to say that Hefner is old, but the ring boy is Larry King. I guess she has agreed to sign a pre-nup, but only if he agrees to sign the 'do not resuscitate'” order.
THE
MORE THINGS CHANGE …
LIBERALS PREFER DEFENSELESSNESS ...
THE SAGA OF SILLINESS CONTINUES
LIBERALS PREFER DEFENSELESSNESS ...
THE SAGA OF SILLINESS CONTINUES
A week of limiting oneself to a very few minutes each day devoted to following the news reaffirms it: The more things change, the more they do remain the same.
More mass shootings. Liberal fantasists regurgitating the same refrain about more restrictive gun-ownership laws, blind to the fact that any place declared to be “gun-free” is an admission of vulnerability to attack by bloodthirsty crazies.
It should be – but apparently isn't – obvious to even the most ignorant among us that a firearm in the hand of, say, a teacher (or ten) adjudged to be a responsible person willing and able to use it would at the very least minimize casualties.
We are never going to be able to prejudge and thus deter outbursts of homicidal craziness and criminals, by definition, are not going to obey gun laws. Have Americans, as a group, lost the backbone to admit that the obvious immediate response to a killer, crazed or otherwise, is simply to shoot the SOB? Is this hard to figure out?
If our ancestors had been so lily-livered, the United States today would consist of a few trembling wimps cowering in caves. Assuming they'd ever have had the guts to cross an ocean to get here in the first place.
Footnote: As firearms instructor Peter Friedman points out, no “assault” weapons were used in this latest massacre in a “No Guns” zone, contrary to media reports. The media morons evidently think anything that goes "pow!" is an "assault weapon."
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Gun-obsessed liberals, please address the following: Why is it that Chicago, America's gun-murder capital. with so many shootings the local news media run a daily scoreboard, has some of the tightest gun-control laws in the nation?
Conversely, how do you explain that, overall, cities and states with the highest rates of legal gun ownership have the lowest crime rates?
What could just one teacher, with guts and a gun, have done to stop the slaughter in Connecticut?
Footnote: The town and immediate area where I live, total population about 25,000, has had one murder in its entire history going back about seventy years. A man who'd gotten into drug-dealing came back to visit his mother ... she learned of his activities and ordered him out of her house ... he stabbed her to death.
The sheriff's deputies came and shot him dead on the spot. Saved the taxpayers lots of money that would have been wasted on a trial. Yes, I like Arizona justice.
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Liberals suffer from such a mind-fog that they can't even see the logic in this question: Since far more people die in car wrecks than by gunfire, why are they not pushing for a ban of automobiles?
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After yet another tragedy, politicians bloviate “we must come together.”
Please … in the name of common sense … just what the hell does THAT mean?
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Jim Eason's take …
“When a horrible shooting takes place, conservatives ask: 'Why? What makes a person do that?'
Liberals ask: 'Where did he get the gun?'”
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Events noted during my week of R & R ...
Ben Bernanke, colluding with the subversive in the White House, further reduces the value of every dollar you've earned by printing more (and increasingly worthless) paper money.
Hillary conveniently faints and suffers a concussion just as Congress is about to ask her questions regarding her dereliction of duty in making American diplomats vulnerably to murderous Muslims in Libya. How convenient.
Susan Rice, doubtless surprised that her blatant lies about that same incident were met with widespread disapproval, finds herself thrown under the bus by the same president for whom she made a fool of herself.
One-time entertainer and current Marxist idiot Harry Belafonte, the perfect Obama stooge, declares that the Dear Leader should make it illegal to speak ill of him and jail all his critics.
It's true, as the axiom goes: “Different day, same old … crap.”
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I talked a few days ago with a man from Turkey, the nation which was liberated from regressive and repressive Islamic nuttiness by a hero name Ataturk in the early 20th century. The same Turkey that is now reversing itself under the direction of a president who wants that nation to return to its former “glory” of medieval madness under Sharia law. A current Muslim president who is admired – and consulted – by Barack H. Obama.
The Turkish gentleman wanted to make two points:
1. The situation in his country is now far, far worse than depicted by American media, to which he has had ample exposure. The suppression of dissent by anyone opposed to Muslim oppression is brutal.
2. His exact words in reaction to Obama's cuddling with the Muslim madman now running Turkey: "Your president is a fool."
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The indispensable Paul Kengor takes note of how Obama is, in his own words, “fundamentally transforming America” …
“The latest unemployment figures are again depressing, but not for the usual reasons. They provide further confirmation of Barack Obama's fundamental transformation of America, specifically through his creation of a growing government class.
“The numbers show a massive increase in government jobs created over the last five months—621,000, to be exact, dwarfing private-sector job growth. Those new government jobs account for a staggering 73 percent of overall job growth. In all, 21 million citizens now work for government.”
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“In a recent newspaper column in Pravda, the old Soviet propaganda rag ('The Truth') now published by post-Soviet era conscripts of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a popular writer, Xavier Lerma, had this observation on our most recent presidential election: 'The Communists have won in America with Obama. ... Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society.'" – Mark Alexander, The Patriot Post
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
Jeanne played trombone. She was the first -- and only -- trombone-playing woman I ever knew. There were others, but women musicians are largely attracted to the strings and woodwind instruments, as well as the piano. My wife used to play cello and harp -- not simultaneously -- in a symphony orchestra. In fact, she's on one of Dave Brubeck's albums of "serious" music.
But Jeanne played the trombone and played it well. Played jazz.
She was born and raised in Kansas City but had migrated to Los Angeles where she found fairly regular work playing in that city's jazz clubs. When her mother needed assistance,Jeanne moved back to KC. Needing a more reliable source of income, she took a job in the traffic (i.e., commercial scheduling) department at WDAF Radio & TV where I was doing a daily radio show, a weekly hour-long TV show, emceeing nightclub shows and doing major-college football broadcasts that had me traveling nationwide.
One summer Friday, Jeanne invited a handful of us at the station to come to her modest bungalow in an old Kansas City neighborhood for a Saturday cookout.
As burgers were grilling and beverages being passed around, a limousine pulled up in front of the house. From it emerged one of the signature musical groups of all time, the Four Freshmen, instruments in hand.
Seems they were in town for a couple of concerts with -- as I recall -- the Stan Kenton orchestra and June Christy, whose "Something Cool" remains a jazz classic.
It turns out the Jeanne and Bob Flanagan, one of the founders of the group, were old friends and fellow trombonists.
The Freshmen spent the entire afternoon in what was obviously a pleasant break for them from the tedium of life on the road. As sunset approached, they brought their instruments out into the backyard and played virtually their entire concert program for us. Called it a rehearsal.
To this day, I can recall few days as pleasant as spending a lazy summer afternoon in a small Kansas City backyard with neighbors gathering to peek over the board fence as Bob Flanagan ripped off his classic trombone solo on "Day by Day," with Jeanne following him and repeating it, note for note plus flourishes of her own.
For a jazz lover, bliss.
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Conan O'Brien --
"The Spice Girls debuted in London. Turns out the Mayans were off by just a few weeks."
Craig Ferguson –
“A love letter written by a young Mick Jagger sold at auction for $300,000. You can tell that Mick's an old man because the letter begins, 'Dear Cleopatra ...'”
ASSAULT ON “ASSAULT” WEAPONS …
SHOOTERS: IMAGE VS. REALITY …
OBAMA'S SANDY SCAM
That Mayan calendar predicts the world will end Friday. Cashed in your mutual funds yet?
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It bears repeating: NO “assault” weapon was used in the Connecticut school massacre. Such weapons are defined as being automatic, continuous-firing guns. Nevertheless, posturing politicians are trying to hoodwink a gullible public by banning such weapons.
Law or no law, criminals will continue to get guns and victimize the defenseless. And crazies will continue to murder people.
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In Chicago, a city with some of the nation's tightest gun-control laws, ten people were shot between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
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Dan Sorkin forwards this pertinent observation …
“Did you ever notice that when the anti-gun crowd on the coasts and in the cities wants to put down gun owners as dangerous they point to pictures of unkempt rural men in camouflage clothing shooting things up and teaching their kids about guns, as a bad example?
“When a tragedy occurs, such as in Connecticut or in a Colorado theater or an Omaha Mall , it usually turns out to be a misguided city or town kid with no father in the house that ever took his kid hunting or shooting that ends up as a mass murderer?
“Adam Lanza's father is vice president of taxes for GE Energy Financial Services and also an adjunct professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
“So much for Bubba and his buddies...”.
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What decades of union power and Democrat political leadership have done for Detroit: 34.5% of the population are on food stamps, 45.7% are not in in the labor force.
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“The verdict: Americans are certifiably nuts. The clinching piece of evidence to convict Americans: they are engrossed in an argument over $800 billion in taxes over ten years while spending a trillion dollars every year more than they bring in.” – Fritz Pfister, Townhall.com
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Is anyone surprised that Hurricane Sandy is being used by Obama as just another way to defraud taxpayers? The NY Post finds that President Obama’s $60.4 billion request for Hurricane Sandy relief has morphed into a huge Christmas stocking of goodies for federal agencies and even the state of Alaska.
The pork-barrel feast includes more than $8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments. It also includes a whopping $150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.
Obama is still obviously observing Rahm Emanuel's dictum: “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
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James Robbins' highly relevant observation on Obama's cave-in re Susan Rice's prospective appointment to replace Hillary as Secretary of State …
“It turned out Rice really was an easy target. Obama lamely accepted the ambassador's withdrawal, complaining about 'unfair and misleading attacks.' But the significant takeaway was not that Rice came under fire from Obama's political opponents, which was to be expected. It was that the president chose not to fight for her after pledging that he would.
“Obama's failure to defend Rice feeds the perception that the president may talk a good game, but will cave under pressure. He's a talker not a brawler. As Dan Rather (Ed. note—DAN RATHER?!) said on MSNBC, it shows that 'President Obama can be rolled for his wallet and his watch. He's not a guy that's going to put up much of a fight.' Even with the momentum of his reelection, the president refused to back up his strong words with resolute action. When the going gets tough, Obama gets going -- on vacation.” – USA Today
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“The White House allowed Susan Rice to withdraw her name from consideration for Secretary of State. No one doubts her ability. Susan Rice lied to the American people on all five Sunday talk shows, breaking Hillary Clinton's one-day record by two interviews.” – Argus Hamilton
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Whither John Kerry now? State Department? Obama was considering him for Secretary of Defense. Presumably Honey Boo Boo wasn't available.
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Pssssst … Barack …
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson, Democrat
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Burt Prelutsky, in a myth-puncturing mode …
"I can’t help noticing that there seems to be a renewal of interest in Abe Lincoln lately. He is suddenly the subject of movies, books and TV specials. What confounds me is that he is invariably depicted as a saint.
“For openers, he didn’t wage the war in order to end slavery, but to preserve the Union. And we’ve all lived to see how well that worked out. These days, we’re about as united as the two Koreas.
“Not only was Lincoln not out to free the slaves, but he disciplined those generals who tried to liberate them in the four states that did not take part of the rebellion. They were Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland and Missouri.
“In 1861, there were roughly 31,000,000 people in the U.S., four million of whom were slaves. When the War was over, roughly 700,000 Americans were dead. That doesn’t count the enormous number who had been maimed and mutilated. It is estimated that 10% of the North’s population of men between the ages of 18-29, were killed during those four years; 30% of the South’s.
“Imagine comparable numbers today. Imagine a war that left seven million dead, all of them Americans. And yet in spite of those horrific facts, we all have to pretend that the man with all that blood on his hands was our greatest president, the conscience of this nation.”
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Reader Greg forwards this …
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government -take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." – Henry Ford
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Politicians, often targets of such charges, will be gratified to learn that a court in Hamburg, Germany, ordered that a plaintiff be paid $75,000 compensation by another man who called him an … uh … well, a rectal orifice … in an argument over a parking space.
(Is truth a legal defense in such cases?)
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Jay Leno --
“If it turns out that the Mayans are right and the world is going to end, you know what this means? Lindsay Lohan is a genius. She’s been partying her brains out. She owes taxes. She’s crashing cars. She’s a genius!
“A judge in Los Angeles revoked Lindsay's probation and she could get 5 to 10 behind bars. Not years, that’s minutes. This is L.A. jail time.“
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Conan O'Brien –
“Taylor Swift just turned 23. Taylor said she's at that age where she just wants to settle down, then break up, and then write a hit song about it.”
TSA,
THE MOST USELESS GOV'T AGENCY …
ISRAEL'S PROTECTION OF SCHOOLS …
WHY ONE RICH GUY WANTS HIGHER TAXES
ISRAEL'S PROTECTION OF SCHOOLS …
WHY ONE RICH GUY WANTS HIGHER TAXES
Chew on it, Democrats: The new black member of the U.S. Senate is Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina!
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If you have holiday plans that involve air travel, remember this: The TSA Gestapo that hassles and delays people at the airport are part of an agency that has never caught even one terrorist. Yet it eats up seven billion tax dollars per year. Plus, of course, whatever “prohibited” items its agents can steal from travelers. (We don't really believe many of those items don't go home with the airport TSA agents, do we?)
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Consider this. Israel, subjected to endless terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, is a place where children are no more immune to mindless murder than anyone else. Yet schools seem to be off-limits to Muslim murderers. Why? The answer is obvious. Schools are protected by guards with GUNS.
If we shed some of the deadweight teachers and administrators – there are plenty of both – armed guards wouldn't even increase costs.
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Among the many disgraceful excesses by the media in their coverage of the Connecticut massacre, fraught as it is with misinformation, is their treatment of autism and its victims. Autism, in and of itself, is not an indicator of a hidden proclivity for violence.
I know from experience in my own family that there are many autistic people who live quiet, unthreatening – and often productive – lives while handicapped by a little-understood condition that needs far more attention than it has gotten.
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Some perspective from Wes Pruden …
“'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs . . . yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and which is more, you'll be a man. . . '
“Well, maybe. But Kipling is an old guy who has nothing to say to us. Being a man is not even the proper 21st century response to crisis. We’re all modern here, so we must emulate frightened, hysterical old women like Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, who thinks he knows how to silence the guns. President Obama should ignore Congress and write out an executive order tomorrow morning to make the streets safe for everyone, including all the little kitties.”
… and on the media frenzy ...
“Bob Schieffer of CBS News is relieved that the Connecticut shooter is a good Judeo-Christian American: 'If this person had had, I’m sorry to say this, but if he had had an Arab name people would be going nuts about what we ought to do right now.' What an odd thing to say. People with Arab names have done evil things sometimes – the Fort Hood massacre comes to mind – and there’s no record of anybody going nuts over it. But it sounds like the right thing to say.”
Of course, anyone with a functioning brain knows that Schieffer is an aged punk leftist boot-licker.
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I've talked many times with John Lott, a college professor who was once opposed to legal gun ownership then did a total turnaround once he seriously studied the relationship between guns, crime – and defenselessness.
Now Prof. Lott tells Newsmax that gun-free zones become “a magnet” for deranged killers who hope to burn their names into the history books by running up a big body count.
He said there is a “very good chance” the Connecticut school shooting could have been averted, if teachers there were permitted to carry concealed handguns. It is no accident, he said, that mass shootings repeatedly have occurred in designated gun-free zones, which attract lunatics looking to murder as many souls as possible before they turn their guns on themselves.
Of course.
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Call me paranoid, but take note that even as Obama is arming a “civilian” force for unspecified purposes, he is trying to disarm citizens, using the Connecticut tragedy as a launching platform for more anti-gun ownership laws.
Bonus tip to Obama: If you're going to wipe away a tear on TV, remember -- they come from the inside corner of the eye, not the outside. If you're going to phony it up, at least be accurate.
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Only the willfully blind can fail to note that many of those who grieve over the killing of school children have no problem with the murder that is disguised as “partial-birth” abortion, the procedure in which a living baby being born is stabbed in the brain by scissors.
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Reader Art offers this …
“At this time of year we are constantly reminded of the 'division of church and state.' Nativity scenes are banned from the public square, we are told that those decorated evergreens are 'Holiday Trees' and prayers in school have long been prohibited.
“Yet in the response to the tragedy in Newtown, politicians ask us all to pray for the victims and their families. The president said he delivered 'the love and prayers of a nation' and reminded the people that 'God had called them all home.' He also promised to use 'whatever power this office holds' to safeguard our children, and presumably the rest of us as well.
“Is there any chance that these actions might include a new acceptance and allowance of a religious based morality that isn't mandated, but is no longer generally acknowledged."
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If Republican House Speaker John Boehner gives in and allows Obama tax increases with no cuts in government wasteful spending, there is one word that describes him. Whore.
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Of course I believe Hillary fell and got a concussion (even though she didn't even go to a hospital) and is thus unable to testify about her role in the Beghazi, Libya, murders of Americans.
Now, excuse me while I make up my list for Santa …
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Two days ago in this space I related a conversation with a gentleman from Turkey, who said the situation re oppression of even fellow Muslims in his country by the supporters of medieval Sharia law – including the current Turkish president – was far worse than reported in the U.S. because that man and Obama are friends.
Now comes word of the latest step backward. Students applying for admission to universities in Turkey are being subjected to a rigid test on Sharia law and other aspects of Islamic fundamentalism so that those fanatics who have attended the Turkish equivalent of the madrassas that turn out terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere are favored.
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Warren Buffett and assorted other rich hypocrites are pushing for a higher death tax. So are life insurance companies that make big bucks selling the life insurance policies to people who want to protect their families from the robbery that is the “inheritance tax.”
We can be sure it's just coincidence that Mr. Buffett owns seven insurance companies.
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Michael Goodwin (NY Post) reflects upon the martyrdom of St. Susan ...
"When it comes to metaphors for the Obama administration, it is hard to top the rise and fall of Susan Rice. Her ascension to the inner circle was born of her loyalty to candidate Obama, and she failed to become secretary of state because she was loyal to President Obama instead of the truth.
"The sacrifice of Rice is just another bump in the road to shielding Obama from accountability for the Benghazi debacle. Her loss is his gain. He wanted her to have the job, but not at his expense, so she fell on HIS sword.
"Even better, he could blame Republicans. It’s another convenient lie, with even liberal human-rights groups accusing Rice of coddling African warlords and genocidal maniacs. False, too, was the bid to paint her critics as racists and sexists. The shock is that so many yahoos still swallow such boob bait."
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"One of the great lessons in the age of Obama is that wealth and poverty will always remain relative. Happiness is now defined not as having the basics I need, but as ensuring that someone else does not have more. Obama has successfully appealed to the oldest and basest of human emotions — envy and jealousy, masked with the notion of enforced fairness — and for now they trump even the human desire to be free." -- Victor Davis Hanson
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Adam Carolla on the tactics employed by Democrats ...
"They always say tax 'the rich.' Who's 'the rich'? I'm not rich. I'm successful. They never say 'tax the hard-working' or 'tax the successful.' They say 'the rich' because it's easier to deal with their inability to be successful by attributing others' success to luck."
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Wesley Pruden's thoughts on the Obamunism of our military ...
"Barack Obama says he's a Christian. Good for him (and for the Gospel). But rarely has a Christian paid such obeisance to another faith and ideology. The president's bow and scrape to Islam knows no end. That's not so good.
"The U.S. Army is soon to issue a handbook instructing soldiers to copy Mr. Obama's example of when and how to defer to an alien ideology that stands against everything Americans are taught, whether by faith, ethics, morals or another code of good conduct.
"The new manual, which runs to 75 pages, orders American military personnel to refrain from saying anything to offend the Taliban in Afghanistan, to be careful not to criticize the practice of sexual relations with children, the abuse of women, beheadings, massacres of girls and the killing of 'unbelievers' and Muslims who Taliban enforcers regard as insufficiently devout in the faith. Holding to what they have been taught, whether at Sunday school or a mother's knee, is presumably OK for American soldiers, at least for now. But they must keep such ideas to themselves."
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As the Jets lost to Tennessee, even the diehards must admit a couple of things …
#1 – Rex Ryan is a terrible, dumb coach.
#2 – Mark Sanchez is yet another big-name college quarterback who only looked like a star only because he played on a powerhouse college team, USC.
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Sage advice from the sagacious Mr. Eason …
"Alcohol does not solve any problems, ...but then neither does milk."
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The Sky-guy circulates this one …
After a tiring day, a commuter settled down in her seat and closed her eyes as the train rolled out of the station.
As the train moved out, the guy sitting next to her pulled out his cell phone and started talking in a loud voice: "Hi sweetheart. It's Eric. I'm on the train. Yes, I know it's the six-thirty and not the four-thirty, but I had a long meeting. No, honey, not with that blonde from the accounts office. I'm with the boss.”
“No sweetheart, you're the only one in my life. Yes, I'm sure, cross my heart!"
Fifteen minutes later he was still talking loudly, when the young woman sitting next to him had enough and leaned over and said into the phone, "Eric, turn that phone off and come back to bed."
Eric doesn't use his cell phone in public any longer.
LIBYA
LIES PERSIST …
GUNS & HYSTERICAL FOOLISHNESS …
MOTOWN: A MODEL FOR AMERICA?
GUNS & HYSTERICAL FOOLISHNESS …
MOTOWN: A MODEL FOR AMERICA?
As expected, the review board's report to Congress on the Benghazi murders states that while security measures there were “grossly inadequate,” it was nobody's fault. Such bureaucratic BS should lead to liars going to prison. Won't happen, of course. Government hacks always find a way to cover each other.
Hillary, who's been using every evasive maneuver imaginable to dodge any questions about what is, after all, her ultimate responsibility as head of the department, continues to do so. However, cynics suggest her primary motivation for the reported "concussion" is to get workers' compensation.
In her campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination, Hillary warned us about response to that “3AM phone call.” Now we know how she'd respond: Fake a fall and concussion (without going to a hospital!) and refuse to answer it.
And Democrats want this lying phony to run for president! It's a habit they can't break: falling in love with self-glorifying demagogues who are all “show” and no substance.
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“The IMF calculates that to maintain present spending trend the United States will have to nearly double (88 percent increase) all federal taxes to maintain theoretical solvency.” – John Hawkins, Townhall.com
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Jimmy Fallon --
"It's rumored that John Boehner and President Obama are considering a partial deal to avoid the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. Yeah, it's RUMORED that a PARTIAL deal is being CONSIDERED -- or to put that in layman's terms: We're going off this cliff."
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“When in danger, when in doubt … run in circles, scream and shout!” That seems to be the operative philosophy of posturing politicians and media cretins in response to the Connecticut school shooting. Thus the rush to pass more “gun control” legislation, despite the fact that Connecticut already has stringent laws that obviously failed to deter a crazed murderer. And, as usual, overlooking the fact that criminals and homicidal maniacs will always get guns (or knives or axes or poison or …) while such laws, carried to the extreme, leave the law-abiding citizen defenseless.
It's all so predictable: Fools wringing their hands and blaming the weapon instead of the crazy SOB who pulled the trigger.
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Again: There were NO legally-defined “assault” weapons used in the Connecticut massacres. Politicians and the hysterical media mental defectives are simply lying. And that state already has very restrictive firearm laws. So what would a renewed ban on “assault weapons” really accomplish? It's all bull-bleep.
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Those who encourage anti-gun action by presidential “executive order” had better be careful what they wish for. That way lies dictatorship.
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Just wondering …
Are those foolish enough to encourage “gun-free” zones – schools, shopping malls, etc. – also dumb enough to place a sign at their own places of residence announcing to any passing criminal that “This is a a gun-free zone,” or do they even realize such silliness announces, “I am ready to be your victim?”
My own sign would say, “I have a weapon, loaded, handy and prepared to make large holes in you.”
I remember helpful (but doubtless illegal) advice given me by a police officer in Coral Gables, Florida. A burglar had attempted entry thru a bedroom window, realized the place was inhabited and hastily departed. I called the police. The officer told me, as expected, they had little success in catching burglars.
He also said, “He probably won't come back. If he does, try to wait until he's inside before you shoot him. If that seems risky, shoot him as soon as he sticks his head inside … call me … and I'll help you drag the body inside so there'll be no legal problems for you.”
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“Criminals obey gun laws in the same manner politicians follow their oaths of office.” – The Patriot Post
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Thomas Sowell has a reality-check for the anti-gun mob …
“Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of "gun control" advocates?
“The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.
“If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.
“Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, D.C., is a classic example, but just one among many.”
… and there's the cultural factor …
“In the middle of the 20th century, you could buy a shotgun in London with no questions asked. New York, which at that time had had the stringent Sullivan Law restricting gun ownership since 1911, still had several times the gun murder rate of London, as well as several times the London murder rate with other weapons.
“Neither guns nor gun control was not the reason for the difference in murder rates. People were the difference.
“Yet many of the most zealous advocates of gun control laws, on both sides of the Atlantic, have also been advocates of leniency toward criminals.'
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Useful reminder in times of panicky grasping for answers ...
“For every problem there is a solution which is simple, clean – and wrong.” – H. L. Mencken
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Economics Professor Walter Williams, who is black, faces some unpleasant realities ...
"JoAnn Watson, Detroit city council member, said, "Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president, and there ought to be a quid pro quo." In other words, President Obama should send the nearly bankrupted city of Detroit millions in taxpayer bailout money. But there's a painful lesson to be learned from decades of political hustling and counsel by intellectuals and urban experts.
"In 1960, Detroit's population was 1.6 million. Blacks were 29 percent, and whites were 70 percent. Today, Detroit's population has fallen precipitously to 707,000, of which blacks are 84 percent and whites 8 percent. Much of the city's decline began with the election of Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor and mayor for five terms, who engaged in political favoritism to blacks and tax policies against higher income mostly white people.
"Policies that ran whites and other more affluent people out of Detroit might have been Young's and his successors' strategy. After all, why not get rid of people who aren't going to vote for you anyway? The problem is that getting rid of these people left Detroit with a lower tax base, fewer jobs and fewer consumers.
"Fewer whites might be good for the careers of black politicians, but it's not in the best interests of ordinary blacks.
"Detroit topped Forbes magazine's 2010 list of America's Most Dangerous Cities. That year there were 345 homicides, but that's going to be topped with this year's 365 homicides so far.
"Most homicide victims in Detroit and elsewhere are black, and 95 percent of the time their murderers are black. But far more important to black leaders and white liberals than blacks murdering blacks are charges of police misconduct and racial profiling.
Detroit's predominantly black public schools are close to being the worst in the nation, perhaps with the exception of those of Washington, D.C.
"Detroit's social pathology is seen in other cities with large black populations such as Philadelphia, Newark, Baltimore and Chicago. These are cities where blacks have for years dominated the political machinery in the forms of mayors, police chiefs, superintendents of schools and city councilmen, plus they've been Democrats."
Ed. note: Perhaps you've seen the internet photos contrasting Detroit with Hiroshima, Japan, the city reduced to ashes by the first atomic bomb used in World War II. I've visited Hiroshima twice in the last dozen years and seen the recovery miracle first-hand. It is a monument to perseverance and intelligent planning. Detroit, on the other hand, is a monument to … what?
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If you can do this, I'm impressed.
Chen Siyuan of Handan, China, can write with both hands at the same time. In different languages. While she writes in Mandarin Chinese with one hand, she writes in English with the other.
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Insanity is not limited to U.S. courts and judges …
An Australian woman on a business trip engaged in some extracurricular mattress-bouncing in a motel so enthusiastically that the shaking bed caused an overhanging lamp to fall on her face. She suffered not only a short-circuited orgasm but injuries to her nose and mouth.
The entire event, she claimed, caused her to suffer from depression and thus unable to continue in her government job.
The court agreed and has awarded her worker's compensation benefits.
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Argus Hamilton –
“Egypt banned the playing of love songs on radio and TV this past week. Also banned were jokes about Egypt's president. The White House characterized Egypt's ban on love songs as inartistic and the ban on jokes about the president as something to consider.”
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Craig Ferguson –
"A list of the world's best cities came out. The highest-ranking American city is Honolulu at number 28. They got points taken off for bad public transportation, but apparently it's a great place to get fake birth certificates."
“WILL
THEY GET THE CARD?”
…
OBAMA: “KIDS KILLED, SO RAISE TAXES” ...
WHERE'S THE FUROR OVER MAJOR HASAN?
OBAMA: “KIDS KILLED, SO RAISE TAXES” ...
WHERE'S THE FUROR OVER MAJOR HASAN?
We have now reached that terrifying part of the season when we ask ourselves, "Will that greeting card I sent to the person who wasn't on my list but sent me one so I had to respond ... actually arrive before Christmas?"
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Survey (Rasmussen) says … 60% of Americans now think … think … their home is worth more than the mortgage on it. That's encouraging, but the reality is the same as always: It's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and every realtor and agent knows that people almost always think their home is worth more than the actual market value.
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GM is buying some of its stock from the government, which financed the bailout of the company – or, more accurately, the union. The taxpayers are losing billions of dollars on the deal.
Biiiig surprise.
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Just when you think Obama has hit bottom in demagogic sleaze, he finds a new bottom. How can any rational person not be offended by his demand that the Republicans acquiesce to another insane, debt-expanding budget based upon the slaughter of children by a crazed murderer?
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To all the posturing pols and media hyenas demanding precipitate action to stop mass murder: Why are you not demanding that Muslim U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, who slaughtered 13 of his fellow soldiers and injured 29 others at Ft. Hood, Texas, more than three years ago finally be tried?
Note to Boob Schiefer of CBS, whose latest rant about demands for more gun control in the wake of the school killings in Connecticut include his absurd observation that the outcry would be louder if a Muslim were the killer: Have you forgotten Ft. Hood, in your own native Texas? And you dare pose as a “journalist”?
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A fact-check from Jacob Sullum (Reason Magazine) …
“Although Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School has prompted renewed calls for reinstating the federal 'assault weapon' ban, we know for a fact that such a law would not have stopped Adam Lanza or made his attack less deadly, because it didn't. The rifle he used, a .223-caliber Bushmaster M4 carbine, was actually legal under Connecticut's 'assault weapon' ban, which is similar to the federal law that expired in 2004.”
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Jonah Goldberg's warning about hasty action in heated response to the Connecticut tragedy …
“I think we need better mental-health screening and treatment for potential murderers. I’m also completely open to gun laws — limiting the sale of large clips perhaps — that would reduce this kind of slaughter. I don’t know how to implement such ideas in ways that would actually work. Indeed, all I’m sure of is that we should be very careful about making big decisions when we are so angry and mourning so deeply.”
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People ask, “Are there more of these awful mass-murder incidents – or do we just hear more about them?”
Consider this, then decide: There were 42 such incidents in the decade of the '90's … 26 in the first decade of this century.
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Peter Ferrara (The American Spectator) summarizes Prof. John Lott's in-depth study of armed citizens vs. crime …
“What the results show is that in localities where there are more guns, there is less crime. That is because criminals avoid victims who are or might be armed, and prefer to prey on the defenseless and unarmed. It is this unparalleled scholarship that has swept the states with newly enacted 'concealed carry' laws. Those laws require local authorities to issue permits to carry concealed handguns to those who meet the specified qualifications (known as 'shall issue' laws). Lott describes the sweeping change in his latest Third Edition of More Guns, Less Crime:
“There are large drops in overall violent crime, murder, rape, and aggravated assault that begin right after the right to carry laws have gone into effect. In all those crime categories, the crime rates consistently stay much lower than they were before the law. The murder rate for these right to carry states fell consistently every year relative to non-right-to-carry states.
Lott adds:
“All the results indicate that violent crime falls after right-to-carry laws are passed…. There is a large, statistically significant drop in murder rates across all specifications. The before-and-after average comparison implies that right-to-carry laws reduce murder by roughly 20 percent. In all cases, right-to-carry laws cause the trends in murder, rape, and robbery rates to fall.”
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If, as many suspect, the "Fast & Furious" plot by Eric Holder's Justice Department allowed the sale of guns they knew were going to be smuggled to Mexican criminals, his supporters can dwell on this:
The murdered Mexican beauty queen who was evidently being used as a hostage and human shield by a crime gang was found dead where they shot it out with police. One of the guns the murderers left behind was -- guess what! -- one of the guns Holder's people sold to a smuggler who then sent it on to Mexico.
And Holder and his Big Boss still blather about "gun control" ...
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So VP Joe Biden is assigned by Obama to come up with a solution to mass murder. Wonder which reporter will be first to ask Joltin' Joe if this job is also “A BFD,” to use the term he once applied to one of his boss' grand ideas?
Joltin' Joe is going to head a “task force” to discuss gun-control issues. And we know from long experience just how effective “task forces” or “blue ribbon panels” are when it comes to getting actual results. They're just a way of appearing to take action. Just more Washington bullfeathers.
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Piers Morgan is the ratings-deficient British talk-show host on CNN (his is consistently the lowest-rated show in prime-time among the “news” cable networks). He is virulently anti-gun.
One might suspect he'd like to make his views retroactive to 1776, in which case the American colonists would still be British subjects … unarmed in the face of tyranny.
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The slowly dying Time Magazine (Newsweek's already dead) chooses Obama as their “Man of the Year.”
Of course.
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Actors, authors and assorted other showbiz riff-raff are proclaiming their wish that NRA members die by gunfire.
Has no one told these simpletons that it is unwise to antagonize armed people?
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The Chinese government news agency is demanding that all U.S. citizens be disarmed. Perhaps someone in the Chinese government recalls that the Japanese warlords of the 1940's decided against invading the U.S. mainland precisely because of all those armed Americans. One said to his colleagues at the time, “If we do that, we will find an American with a gun behind every tree.”
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Tim Tebow has asked for his release from the wretched Jets. If he weren't such a decent man and gentleman, he'd probably be harboring an urge to beat hell out of that stupid Rex Ryan on his way out. Anybody taking bets on whether “coach” Ryan will get another head-coaching job in the NFL – if the idiotic Jets' management fires him, as expected?
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The Mayan calendar says it's all over for the world tomorrow. Finished. Kaput. Time to put on that sandwich board and run thru the streets screaming, “The end is near!”
If true believers are putting their houses up for sale, there may be some excellent real estate buys.
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Jim Eason offers a wager on that Mayan calendar doom-date …
“You bet me one dollar the world WILL end on Thursday (Friday in some time zones);
“I'll match that bet with A THOUSAND DOLLARS...for I don't believe it will end.
“So, if the world doesn't end...I win and collect your dollar.
“If the world DOES end...you win and collect from me.”
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Cindy Adams' (NY Post) report on the state of the nation's youth …
“HOT & Crusty on 23rd and Eighth, NYC. Young girl’s purse opens. Out flies a floorful of coins. She exits leaving more than $5 strewn all over. She says: 'I’m too tired to pick it up.'”
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Re the ongoing war against Christmas: Recommended reading for today is the latest column on the subject by Burt Prelutsky. Rather than excerpting the highlights, I recommend reading the entirety at BURTPRELUTSKY.COM
I would appreciate hearing/reading your reaction.
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Wisdom from Wes, a reader …
“I see where some computer folks are trying to prove whether or not we (our universe) exist as a computer simulation program being run by a much more advanced species. That really does make a whole lot of sense and explains a lot... a whole bunch of the idiots around us are just programming errors!”
… so now we know how Obama got elected. – LR
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Argus Hamilton --
"Les Miserables opens on Christmas about the French Revolution. The musical is set in a period of random violence, social upheaval, mob rule and execution of the rich. The studio is releasing it on Christmas Day so it'll be eligible for an Oscar for best documentary."
BOEHNER'S
FUTURE:
DOES HE HAVE ONE? …
TAN MAN'S PLAN KAPUT …
MARTIN LUTHER KING'S WORDS FORGOTTEN
TAN MAN'S PLAN KAPUT …
MARTIN LUTHER KING'S WORDS FORGOTTEN
As this is written, the Mayan calendar forecast that the world ends today has not yet materialized. Nevertheless, I write this while cringing beneath my desk and wondering if I should have blown every last cent I have on a final party.
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After the collapse of his “Plan B” for dealing with taxes and government spending, it grows ever more evident that John Boehner's days are numbered as Speaker of the House. Don't be surprised if/when he makes an announcement that he's giving up those duties in order to spend more time with his family. Or his tanning lamp.
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As Obama continues to grow that giant, slavering beast we call “government,” a couple of timely quotes from the man regarded as a founder of the Democratic Party:
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." - Thomas Jefferson.
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Today's Washington Post carries an article about the red-hot Washington, D.C., area housing market. People bidding far above asking prices for houses.
One could hardly ask for clearer evidence that those on the bloated government payroll are rolling in money, while the taxpayers across the nation are still mired in a recession prolonged by a profoundly stupid -- or anti-American -- administration.
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Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed. Official crime figures (compiled by the European Commission and the UN) and show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries. – London Daily Mail
Will somebody please tell Piers Morgan, the British blowhard on CNN who carries on a crusade against American citizens' right to own a gun?
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Anticipating Obama joining the anti-gun-ownership crusade, customers have bought out Walmart's entire stock of weapons. Similar sales surge reported by other outlets.
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"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." -- Cesare Beccaria, quoted by Thomas Jefferson, Democrat (Credit: Patriot Post)
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Former ABC reporter (and failed radio talk-show host) Sam Donaldson has been arrested for drunk driving. Some thought he was also drunk during Reagan press conferences, judging by his behavior.
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The backwardness of "forward": a reality check from Thomas Sowell ...
"The political slogan "Forward" served Barack Obama well during this year's election campaign. It said that he was for going forward, while Republicans were for 'going back to the failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place.'
"It was great political rhetoric and great political theater. Moreover, the Republicans did virtually nothing to challenge its shaky assumptions with a few hard facts that could have made those assumptions collapse like a house of cards.
"The word 'forward' has been a political battle cry on the left for more than a century. It has been almost as widely used as the left's other favorite word,'equality.'
"The seductive notion of economic equality has appealed to many people. The pilgrims started out with the idea of equal sharing. The colony of Georgia began with very similar ideas. In the midwest, Britain's Robert Owen-- who coined the term 'socialism'-- set up colonies based on communal living and economic equality.
"What these idealistic experiments all had in common was that they failed.
They learned the hard way that people would not do as much for the common good as they would do for their own good. The pilgrims nearly starved learning that lesson. But they learned it. Land that had been common property was turned into private property, which produced a lot more food.
"Similar experiments were tried on a larger scale in other countries around the world. In the biggest of these experiments-- the Soviet Union under Stalin and Communist China under Mao-- people literally starved to death by the millions."
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It isn't just former Senator Chuck Hagel's anti-Israel (i.e., pro-Arab) position that has his prospects for becoming Secretary of Defense being questioned. A constant turnover of his staff while in the Senate and his reputation as being aan abusive total rectal orifice in behavior toward them raise questions about his ability to work with people.
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Jay Leno
-- "It looks like President Obama is going to pick John Kerry to be our next secretary of state. This is a very strategic move when it comes to foreign policy. Obama plans to use Kerry to bore our enemies to death."
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As Judge Robert Bork passes into eternity, it should be remembered that he was the target of vicious and unfounded slander by one of the most despicable politicians ever to disgrace the U.S. Senate, the Chappaquidick killer, Ted Kennedy.
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What happened to Martin Luther King's hope that people would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin? Obviously, a lot of blacks don't share that goal. Victor Davis Hanson elaborates …
“There is a different sort of racialist derangement spreading in the country -- and it is getting ugly.
Here is actor Jamie Foxx joking recently about his new movie role: 'I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that?' Reverse white and black in the relevant ways and even a comedian would hear national outrage. Instead, his hip 'Saturday Night Live' audience even gave Foxx applause.
"Actor Samuel L. Jackson, in a recent interview, sounded about as unapologetically reactionary as you can get: 'I voted for Barack because he was black. ... I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years.'
“The Rev. Joseph Lowery -- who gave the benediction at President Obama's first inauguration -- sounded as venomous as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a speech that Lowery delivered to a black congregation shortly before this year's election: 'I don't know what kind of a n----- wouldn't vote with a black man running.'
“The president himself urged Latinos to 'punish our enemies.'
“If the new racialism grows unchecked, it will eventually lead to cycles of backlash and counter-backlash -- and some day to something like the Balkans or Rwanda.”
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I read. A lot. One thing that is glaringly apparent in the writing of liberal “journalists” – and equally evident in the words of their counterparts in the electronic media – is that their focus is heavily weighted toward who wins a political battle rather than whether the outcome is positive for the nation.
A current example is their obsession with Obama ”winning” the political battle over the budget, even if it burdens the taxpayer more heavily with what is already an unsustainable debt load.
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Getting personal …
Like most, I have some wonderful memories of Christmas with family and friends. One year's holiday, however, stands out from the others. Not better, but certainly different.
I got fired for Christmas.
Some broadcasting executives, like some in other fields, like to fire people at Christmas. I, being a noble sort, often did holiday double-duty during my bachelor on-air years by also filling in for co-workers so they could spend the day with family. Later, in management, I often did on-air work on such occasions because I thought it good for staff morale.
My firing in Chicago was not unexpected under the circumstances. WIND had been #1 in the city for years. I'd been there eight years and my contract was up in January. A new General Manager had arrived. He told me about his grand ideas for improving upon success. When he concluded, he asked for my reaction. I told him I thought he was a (bleeping) idiot. Thus, it was hardly surprising that he responded, "You're thru here." Some people just can't take constructive criticism.
Side note: When I was re-hired by WIND seven years later, I was moving into my new office there as the idiot (who'd run the station down from #1 to below the top ten) was cleaning out his desk after being fired. Reminding him that "What goes around, comes around," was a delicious moment. Yes I can be a vengeful person. It is a character failing for which I'm profoundly sorry - but not sorry enough to change.
But I digress.
Within 24 hours after being fired I had a (higher-paying) management job in St. Louis. However, as moving-van schedules developed, I had to meet the movers there on Christmas Eve. So, while wife and baby were having a holiday visit with her family, I had to be in St. Louis, preparing our new home. Of course, the moving-van guys were also far from home.
A friend volunteered to help me and our Christmas Eve was spent getting household goods in order in the new place. At around 4PM, after a long, tiring ten-hour day of furniture-moving with no break for lunch, we were in need of nourishment.
By then, we couldn't find a restaurant not already closed -- even fast-food places had closed early for the holiday. Being unpresentable, we dared not enter one of the upscale hotel restaurants serving a few unfortunate guests also away from home for the holiday.
Then we found our Christmas blessing in the form of a 7-11 in a disreputable part of town (North Kingshighway, if you know St. Louis), probably open to serve the wino clientele. The shelves there were already nearly bare.
So Christmas Eve lunch/dinner consisted of slices of pimento-loaf processed sandwich "meat" with Kraft cheese slices on white bread, accompanied by a bottle of screw-top "champagne" consumed in my car in a St. Louis 7-11 parking lot.
Obviously memorable. And no banquet ever tasted better.
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A contribution from reader Andy...
A wife asks her husband, Would you please go shopping for me? Buy one carton of milk and, if they have avocados, get 6."
A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.
The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"
He replied, "They had avocados."
If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again. Men will get it the first time.
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Jimmy Kimmel --
"Christmas is on Tuesday, provided that the world doesn't end on Friday, which is the end of the Mayan calendar. Some believe there will be massive earthquakes and floods. Others think a planet will collide ith the earth. I believe the end of the world will come about in a much stupider way, like Joe Biden spilling a Mountain Dew on the nuclear launch panel."
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A sign of the season from the Sky-guy...
A couple Christmas shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve. The mall was packed. As the wife walked through the mall she was surprised to look up and see her husband was nowhere around.
She was quite upset because they had a lot to do. Because she was so worried, she called him on his mobile phone to ask him where he was.
In a calm voice the husband said, "Honey, you remember the jewelry store we went into about 5 years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we couldn't afford and I told you that I would get it for you one day?"
The wife choked up and started to cry and said, "Yes, I remember that jewelry store."
He said, "Well, I'm in the bar right next to it."
KERRY:
ANOTHER LEFTIST MOVES
UP …
ARMED DEFENSE IN SCHOOLS? MEDIA CRINGE …
FISCAL CLIFF-NOTES
ARMED DEFENSE IN SCHOOLS? MEDIA CRINGE …
FISCAL CLIFF-NOTES
Re the Kerry nomination to Secretary of State:
It's an amazing evolution. Historically, incompetent or otherwise questionable political allies of presidents were given appointive positions; ambassadorships to Luxembourg or Mali, perhaps. Somewhere they could cause little harm. Now they're handed the post of Secretary of State. A better illustration of the Peter Principle – people being promoted to their level of incompetence – could hardly be found.
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Perhaps the new Secretary of State should give some consideration to this:
1.- China has provided materials and expertise for Iran's nuclear program, while …
2.- Demanding that the U.S. government disarm its citizens.
Hold no such expectations for the Hero of Vietnam, leftist demonstrator, the man who was “for the Iraq war until I was against it” and good friend of Assad, the Syrian dictator.
One thing consistent about Kerry: America's avowed enemies adore him, going back to his playing footsie with the Viet Cong while we were at war with them and accusing fellow GIs in Vietnam of atrocities.
And the sick joke that IS the Obama administration continues ...
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If you think things are bad now, just wait until Obama gets to pick a fifth liberal for the Supreme Court. America will become unrecognizable.
Word to the wise: Keep your passport updated. You can't board a plane out of the country without it.
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Reader David foresees parts of the forthcoming confirmation hearings on John Kerry's nomination to be Secretary of State …
When asked if he was familiar with Al Qaeda, Mr. Kerry responded... "You bet! He hosts the all night jazz show on NPR. Never miss it."
Regarding an earlier observation of the French Escargot, the senator reaffirmed ..."Well, until they come out with an SUV, I'm probably stickin' with the Escalade."
When quizzed on how America should be dealing with climate change, candidate Kerry advised..."Personally, I'd go with tank tops and huaraches. But that's just me."
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Time to revive the joke popular during Kerry's abortive run for The Big Job …
Horse walks into bar. Bartender says, “Why the long face?”
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Is public common sense actually overriding the political posturing and media madness in the wake of the Connecticut school massacre?
The Gallup poll asked people what was the best among several choices to deal with the threat. The winner: An armed police presence. “Armed” being the key word.
Meantime, the internet is circulating a number of photos show the solution adopted by Israel, a nation under constant terrorist threat but whose schools are rarely targeted by Muslims who are otherwise not reluctant to kill children. The Israeli answer is simple: Teachers with guns and the ability to use them.
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"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." – National Rifle Ass'n. CEO Wayne LaPierre
For all the media criticism of his remarks, that remains an indisputable fact.
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Mark Steyn looks past the media/politico hysteria to a vital truth …
“The media's stampede for meaning in massacre this past week overlooks the obvious: that the central meaning of these acts is that they are without meaning.”
… and from history …
“(King) Herod and the Pennsylvania Indians murdered children in pursuit of crude political goals; the infanticidal maniac of Sandy Hook was merely conscripting grade-school extras for a hollow act of public suicide. Like most mass shootings, his was an exercise in hyper-narcissism.”
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Argus Hamilton --
"L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck announced that his officers will begin making daily patrols at schools in L.A. It's a combustible mix. The L.A. cops are all fit and in uniforms and when the schoolteachers fall for them, their jilted student lovers could become violent."
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One can only speculate on when Obama organizes the Big Media “journalists” into a government agency called something like “The Ministry of Truth,” an appropriate name for a bureaucracy dedicated to lying on behalf of the administration. Virtually every dictatorship has such a department.
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Small wonder government payrollers don't worry about the wretched economy …
According to Bureau of Economic Analysis data analyzed by the Cato Institute, federal civilian employees in 2011 averaged $128,226 in total compensation ($84,671 in wages and $43,555 in benefits).
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Burt Prelutsky views the “fiscal cliff” – in the rear-view mirror …
“All the talk about going over the financial cliff strikes me as sheer balderdash. Obama and the Democrats, with their outrageous spending and their refusal to even pass a budget, took us over the edge a long time ago. Just because we haven’t quite reached the rocks below doesn’t mean we’re not going to go splat in the near future.
“We’re exactly in the same position that Wile E. Coyote is in every time he runs off the cliff’s edge and for a second or two seems to have vanquished gravity as he hovers in mid-air. But no matter how quickly he kicks his feet, the ground is his destiny.”
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“Standard and Poor's won't degrade U.S. credit ... but they did name Confederate bonds their Pick of the Week.” – Argus Hamilton
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Another liberal example of, “Do as I say, not as I do” …
"The New York Times reports 'Charlie Rose and his production company have agreed to pay as much as $250,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by a former unpaid intern who claimed minimum-wage violations.'" – Media Research Center
Wondering out-loud …
Does Charlie keep those bags under his eyes to avoid airline luggage charges?
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Jonah Goldberg's observations on the Democrat obsession with race – as a campaign tool …
“When will liberals stop living in the past? Specifically, when will they accept that they aren't all that stands between a wonderful, tolerant America and Jim Crow?
“I was in the room when, during the Democratic convention, civil rights hero John Lewis suggested that Republicans wanted to "go back" to the days when black men like him could be beaten in the street by the enforcers of Jim Crow. I thought it an outrageous and disgusting bit of demagoguery. The audience of Democratic delegates cheered in a riot of self-congratulation.
“It's bizarre. I spend most of my time talking or listening to fellow conservatives, and I never hear anybody talk about wanting anything of the sort. But to listen to liberals, that's all we care about.”
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A three-time member of the U.S. Olympic team, Suzy Favor Hamilton, admits a second career of selling her … ahem … favors … for $600 per hour. This puts her on the same moral level as many of the members of the International Olympic Committee, who've been alleged to be whores for decades.
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Reader Robert contributes this parable …
The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.
1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.
2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.
4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.
6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area.
7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
8. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training re: the nature of coyotes.
9. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State.
TEXAS :
The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.
1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.
And that is why California is broke and Texas is not.
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Dismaying news from India, where a man has been living in a tree since learning his wife had been unfaithful.
He says he won't come down until she apologizes.
The wife won't even visit his tree, evidently preferring to get her wood elsewhere.
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Craig Ferguson --
"Actress Anne Hathaway was photographed stepping out of a car last week with no underpants on. That's still not as embarrassing as the time she hosted the Oscars. You know the economy is bad when the most successful celebrities can't afford underwear."
OBAMA A MARXIST? OF COURSE …
THE FUTILITY OF “GUN CONTROL” ...
NOTHING WILL COME OF BENGHAZI MURDERS
Peter Ferrara in FORBES with the bottom-line reality that many Americans can't admit ...
“President Obama says that income taxes must be raised on the rich because they don’t pay their fair share. The indisputable facts from official government sources say otherwise.
“In 2009 the top 1% of income earners paid 39% of all federal income taxes, three times their share of income -- 13%. Yet, the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, paid just 2.7% of total federal income taxes on net that year, while earning 15% of income. That means the top 1% paid almost 15 times as much in federal income taxes as the entire middle 20%, even though the middle 20% earned more income.
“The bottom 40% of income earners, instead of paying some income taxes to support the federal government, were paid cash by the IRS.
“So why does President Obama keep saying that the rich do not pay their fair share?
“The answer is that to President Obama this is still not fair because he is a Marxist. To a Marxist, it is not fair unless more is taken from the top 1% until they are left only with what they “need,” as in any true communist system. That is the only logical explanation of President Obama’s rhetoric, and it is 100% consistent with his own published background.”
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If those obsessed with “gun control” were capable of logical thought, they might consider this quote from a man who knew what it was like for a disarmed citizenry at the mercy of a tyrannical government …
“What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin´s thirst; the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!" -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
- Thanks, Kevin -
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A reader with a law enforcement background offers his view on guns and crime ...
"I was a deputy sheriff for 27 years. The last 16 years I was a crimes against persons detective. That included everything from harassing phone calls to murder.
"I have been lead investigator on a lot of homicides, robberies and assaults with deadly weapons. Of all of those crimes that were committed by the use of a firearm, I cannot recall any of them, in which it would have been legal for the person who committed the crime to possess that particular firearm had they not been committing a crime. In other words, it was already a crime for the person to possess the gun before they committed a ciolent crime. It did not seem to deter them one bit.
"I have been to some suicides where a firearm was used and in every one of those the firearm belonged to the victim. But, I have been to far more suicides where the victim hanged themselves or overdosed on legal drugs than those where the victims shot themselves."
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“The (Connecticut) school was already a 'gun free zone;' so obviously that wasn't effective. Of course, the sort of people who would respect a ;gun free zone' in the first place are the very ones you wouldn't have to worry about carrying a gun; so it's an almost useless designation.” – John Ransom, Townhall.com
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The investigation and revelations regarding the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in that country should continue. It is, however, unrealistic to expect even the most incendiary results to affect most Democrats' attitude toward their Dear Leader and his ideology-driven left-wing administration.
Democrats, specifically including those in Congress, are so determined that nothing tarnish their delusional image of Obama that they will blind themselves to any malfeasance or misfeasance by him or any of his underlings. They would do so even if they found blood on his own hands. Look at old newsreel film of the deranged mobs that worshiped demagogues from Stalin to Castro and you'll see the same wild-eyed adoration accorded Obama.
Further, neither will revelations of her own incompetence in the Libya affair hurt Hillary with Democrats in 2016.
By the way, wasn't it interesting that neither her loving husband nor daughter rushed to her bedside, with attendant publicity by a slavering media, after her "fall" and "concussion?"
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I couldn't have said it better ...
"I see the every time I hear a politician tell me what the 'American People' want or don't want. The latest being some bozo saying,'What the American people don't want is armed guards at schools.' I don't remember being consulted. Could it be what he/she doesn't want? I also have heard 'American People' preferences from the likes of Bob Schieffer.
"I am also offended by canned laughter in comedy shows. I shouldn't have to be told what is funny. I would enjoy the networks' evening news more if it did have canned laughter." -- Bob, reader
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A life in radio -- and travel (cont) ...
I was on my first visit to the island of Samos, the last in the string of Greek Islands across the Aegean Sea, only about five miles off the coast of Turkey. Small population and, at the time, off the beaten tourist path. It's also not far from the island of Lesbos, where certain kinds of girlish frolic are said to have originated.
I stayed in the (then) largest hotel in a little village on Samos, the picture-postcard town of Pythagorio, named for the mathematician Pythagoras. The largest hotel had three guest rooms, with a restaurant/bar downstairs. The price was under $10 per night.
The seafood was fabulous, the wine delicious. My late partner in our travel business had relatives on the island, which was his motivation to fly over from Athens for a couple of days, leaving our large group of tourists in the capable hands of local guides in the capital. I tagged along, just to see something new.
I loved Samos and thought it would be a restful retreat from the hustle-bustle of Chicago. I inquired about property for a vacation home and was introduced to the owners of a beautiful two hectares near the only airport on the island. No problem with noise; there was only one flight per day, around noontime.
After an evening of over-indulgence in ouzo, the lethal national drink of Greece, I met the owners' representatives. It seems the property belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, and was supervised by a local community of monks.
"No," I was told, "We can't possibly sell the land."
Dipping into my limited fund of knowledge about such matters, I asked about obtaining a 99-year lease. The monks had never heard of such a concept and were skeptical, but we finally settled on a 66-year lease for a modest price.
The deal was done, the money paid.
I returned to my busy life in Chicago and ever-expanding interests and other complications. Those factors, plus the difficulty of dealing with contractors far away in a language I barely understood (to this day, written Greek looks to me like something assembled from broken bits of alphabet soup) became more than I wanted to deal with. Thus I kept postponing building my dream cottage. And postponing again ... and again. Finally, in the face of a volatile political situation in Greece – not a rare event -- I gave up on it.
I do retain my fantasies, however. And occasionally I take a satellite look at my little place on that faraway island. If you'd like to join me, use Google Earth ... enter "Samos, Greece" ... zoom in on "Pythagorio" on the southeast end of the island ... then pan left to the airport. Just to the right of the airport is a patch of land with a large fishpond and the ruins of an ancient small family chapel alongside it. It's easily visible on Google Earth.
To the lower right of the property there is a cluster of houses, a couple of which seem to have spilled over onto my land. Mine for a few more years, at least, until the monks reclaim it. In any event, I doubt I could persuade a Greek court to evict Greek citizens from land leased by a foreigner thousands of miles away, even if I were so inclined.
Nevertheless, it still pleases me to occasionally fantasize about what might have been. It also reminds me that it's probably not a great idea to do a business deal in the wake of a repeated visits to bottles of ouzo.
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Roger Tulgren is 42. He lives in Sweden. Off the taxpayers. He collects disability payments because he convinced the state welfare bureaucracy that his addiction to heavy-metal hard-rock music has rendered him unable to work.
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Argus Hamilton --
"Danish historians found a previously unknown book written by Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen. It's a never-before-published fairy tale. It tells the story of an American president who convinces fifty-one percent of the country that higher taxes will create jobs."
ON WHAT IS USUALLY A “NO NEWS” DAY,
A POTPOURRI OF PARABLES, PRINCIPLES, TRIVIA AND MIND-FOODAre governors, on average, smarter than Barack Obama? Of course they are.
Only 18 governors out of 50 (not 57, as B.O. once stated) have agreed to go along with his idiotic Obamacare. Those declining to do so include eight Democrat governors.
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“If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast."
– William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General
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Burt Prelutsky is fed-up with the useless and the parasitic ...
"If someone can please explain why we continue to literally house the U.N. and pay at least 25% of its expenses, I’d appreciate a call.
"Another large group of ne’er-do-wells are to be found in the liberal arts faculties of colleges and universities. They’re the self-righteous numbskulls who regard themselves as elitists for no other reason than that they managed to survive endless years of boring lectures.
"A recent study confirmed what most of us already assumed: those with the most education have the least exposure to those holding conflicting opinions.
"It’s no secret that these academic boobs hold themselves in extremely high regard and hold those who don’t see eye-to-eye with them in contempt. But what does an advanced degree actually amount to? What does a PhD in French literature of the 19th century or ancient Chinese ceramics actually prepare you for beyond parroting what you’ve been taught to those who have an equally narrow field of interest and, of course, boring the pants off the other guests at dinner parties?
"These are the same louts who are always yakking about diversity on the college campus, by which they merely mean a diversity of pigmentation, the very difference that the rest of us are supposed to ignore. When it comes to real diversity, even when it’s merely opinions voiced by students in their classroom, they are about as open-minded as Cotton Mather and Chris Matthews."
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A reader, Michael, offers a checklist that we should find frightening …
The theme is … “You know you live in a country run by idiots IF...”
You can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.
Your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more of our money.
A seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for calling his teacher "cute" but hosting a sexual diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable.
The Supreme Court of the United States can rule that lower courts cannot display the 10 Commandments in their courtroom, while sitting in front of a display of the 10 Commandments.
Hard work and success are rewarded with higher taxes and government intrusion, while slothful, lazy behavior is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones.
The government's plan for getting people back to work is to provide 99 weeks of unemployment checks to not work.
You pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor defaults on his mortgage (while buying iPhones, TV's and new cars) and the government forgives his debt and reduces his mortgage (with your tax dollars).
Being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you "safe".
You have to have your parents signature to go on a school field trip but not to get an abortion.
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Actual headlines that prove we'll miss newspapers as they slowly die out ...
"Missippi's literacy program shows improvement" -- Note spelling of the state.
"Statistics show teen pregnancy drops off after age 25" – Let's hope so!
"Federal agents raid gun shop, find weapons" – Surprise!
"Marijuana issue sent to joint committee" – They should know how to handle it.
"Homicide victims rarely talk to police" – As every cop knows.
"Study shows frequent sex enhances pregnancy chances" – We're amazed. Who knew?!
"Barbershop singers bring joy to school for deaf" – No doubt.
"Hospitals resort to hiring doctors" – We knew it would come to this.
"Man with 8 DUIs blames alcoholism" – Know thyself.
"Parents keep kids home to protest school closure" – That'll show 'em!
"Rally against apathy draws small crowd" – Remember the difference between ignorance and apathy: “I don't know … and I don't care.”
"Student excited dad got head job" – Kids today ...
-- Thanks, Barry --
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One way to beat airline luggage charges ...
Emulate the chap in China flying to Kenya. He WORE all his clothes aboard the plane. Sixty shirts, nine pairs of pants, with his other belongings stuffed in the pockets.
Now -- a moment's pause to pity the middle-seat passenger in that row.
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Okay, who did it? Who wrote this on the wall? – “The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.”
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I join Dan Sorkin in passing along this seasonal greeting …
To all my Democrat friends ...
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2013, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To all my Republican and independent friends ...
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
… and a special greeting to the people of Tucson Heart Hospital and Cornerstone Acute Care Hospital. They helped make possible a second Christmas that many medical experts said I'd never see.
December 25 –
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
…. from Lee, Susan and Calvin ...
“GUN-FREE
ZONE” NONSENSE
…
MORE OF YOUR OBAMACARE FUTURE …
A DIFFERENT AMERICA: IT'S HERE
MORE OF YOUR OBAMACARE FUTURE …
A DIFFERENT AMERICA: IT'S HERE
Wonder when Obama will advocate for armed guards in schools? After all, Sidwell Friends, the exclusive D.C. private school attended by his daughters, has eleven armed guards for protection.
Certainly beats a sign inviting killers to come right in: “Gun-free zone.”
Note to both sides of the great – and endless -- firearm debate: Do you seriously expect that a “blue ribbon panel on gun control” headed by Joe Biden is going to do anything substantive? (See below)
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"I guarantee you Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey. Don’t buy that malarkey. They’re (Republicans) going to start peddling that to you. I own two guns and if Obama tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem. I like that little over and under (shotgun), you know? I’m not bad with it. So give me a break. Give me a break." -- VP Joseph Biden, 2008
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We keep you advised on developments in Britain's National Health Service because it is the model for Obamacare. Major British newspaper The Telegraph offers the latest on the treatment of older people ...
"Widespread ageism throughout the NHS means elderly cancer patients are sometimes being written off as 'too old for treatment', doctors and nurses have admitted.
"About half of those surveyedl (48 per cent) said they thought 'stereotypes and assumptions' about older people were resulting in some patients not getting the best treatment for cancer.
"A similar proportion (45 per cent) said they had dealt with a cancer patient who had been refused treatment on the grounds of age. And two-thirds (67 per cent) said they had heard other health workers speaking to older cancer patients in a 'condescending or dismissive way'.”
Take a good look at your future.
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Felipe Moreno of San Bernardino, California, went to a party last week; a party to celebrate the predicted (by the Mayan calendar) end of the world.
For Mr. Moreno, it was. He was shot and killed at the party.
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“South Carolina's conservative Republican governor, Nikki Haley, is the daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab. US Representative Tim Scott of Charleston, a Tea Party hero who was raised in poverty by a divorced single mother, is South Carolina's first black Republican lawmaker in more than a century.
“An Indian-American governor appoints an African-American to the US Senate. Man, that lily-white GOP racism never ends, does it?" – Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
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As we contemplate the “fiscal cliff,” a concept bemoaned by many and understood by few, some points to consider …
"Fixing an ailing economy can be difficult in a democracy. Politicians running for office, pundits, and incumbent administrations will always be tempted to promote quick fixes, which aren’t really fixes at all. Indeed, as history shows, many popular responses to economic crises—closing borders to immigration and free trade, hiking taxes, or printing money excessively and driving up inflation—can do incredible damage to long-term growth.
"In the current sluggish economic environment, the remarkable history of American dynamism is thus more instructive than ever. America’s economic might is rooted in an entrepreneurial culture and a passion for innovation and risk-taking, traits nourished by the nation’s commitment to the rule of law, property rights, and a predictable set of tax and regulatory policies. Policymakers have lost sight of these fundamental principles in recent years." -- Guy Sorman, author of "Economics Does Not Lie: A Defense of the Free Market in a Time of Crisis."
I would only add, "Which immigrants?"
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Argus Hamilton –
“The Senate held hearings on the administration's failure to protect the U.S. consulate in Benghazi from attack last fall. Cables show the attack was predicted and ignored. The White House has admitted that mistakes were made, but maintains that no one made them.”
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Bernard Goldberg (JWR) with a disturbing view of the Republican status – and future ...
“John Wayne became a giant in our culture, a genuine make-believe hero, because more than anything else he was the embodiment of American rugged individualism.
“Whatever we are in America these days, we're not that anymore. If we were, Barack Obama — a left-wing pol who sees answers to just about everything not in individuals but in big government — couldn't have been elected once, let alone twice.
“Republicans are right when they say we have a spending problem — not a taxing problem. And yes, most Americans also think the federal government spends too much. But they also think President Obama is right when he says we need to raises taxes on the so-called rich.
“If the economy heads south again and we go into another recession and more people lose their jobs, some Washington insiders are already saying that President Obama will no longer be able to blame George Bush for the mess. This time, he will own the economy and have to take the blame for whatever goes wrong. If the experts are right, Republicans would have a chance to come back from the dead. If the experts are wrong ... oh, wait: is that Hillary Clinton I see off in the distance taking the oath of office?”
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Bob Schieffer, racing full-tilt into senility, on CBS's “This Morning,” said of actor Ben Affleck, who has political ambitions, "He's a very committed – a very serious person. You know, he went to Harvard and majored in Middle Eastern studies."
More Schieffer bull-bleep. Affleck never went to Harvard; dabbled a little bit in some college at the University of Vermont and Occidental.
Affleck has since announced he won't be running for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts now occupied by John Kerry, likely to be moving to the office of Secretary of State.
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Speaking of which …
Is there a Marxist, Muslim, terrorist or any other anti-American group on the planet that isn't an object of John Kerry's affection?
Ponder that as his nomination by Obama to the office of Secretary of State proceeds to Senate hearings – where he will doubtless succeed.
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Confidential to my longtime colleague and ardent golfer Ossifer Vic: Scored that long-awaited that hole-in-one yet? No?
Then we won't dwell on the story of Sam Jones, 76, of Nashville, Tennessee who just scored two. In the same round.
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-
Reader Sam sends along a perfect illutration of the bureaucratic mind at work ...
At a high school in North Dakota , a group of male students played a prank.
They let three goats loose inside the school. Before turning them loose, they painted numbers on the sides of the goats: 1, 2 and 4.
School Administrators spent most of the day looking for goat No. 3.
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Conan O'Brien --
"Scientists announced they have found the world's oldest dinosaur. It had a collar on it that read, 'If lost, please return to Larry King.'"
O'Brien --
"Scientists announced they have found the world's oldest dinosaur. It had a collar on it that read, 'If lost, please return to Larry King.'"
PHONY
“RESIGNATIONS” …
THE NATIONAL DISEASE: STUPIDITY …
GUN OWNERS BITE BACK AT NEWSPAPER
THE NATIONAL DISEASE: STUPIDITY …
GUN OWNERS BITE BACK AT NEWSPAPER
Those four State Department officials who “resigned” to take the fall for the murder of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans … didn't. The whole story was phony. They all now have other job titles, but they're still working at the State Department. Just another Obama administration lie.
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A nation of fools ... an ongoing series ...
Analysis of post-election polls shows that a majority of Americans thought Mitt Romney more competent on every tangible quality needed in a president, beginning with ability to guide the economy.
Yet he lost on the basis of one judgment call by a majority of voters: "He understands and/or 'cares about' people like me."
Yes. A majority of Americans found a greater self-identity with a man born in Hawaii (?) ... raised partly in Indonesia by an Indonesian stepfather ... mentored by communist grandparents and a shadowy father-figure who was a diehard communist … and advanced in politics by the infamous Daley machine in Chicago.
A man whose personal life revolves around lavish living financed by the taxpayers on a level that far surpasses the budget of the entire British royal family.
As compared to a man of impeccable moral credentials, successful in the world of business and generous in charitable giving and generous with his own time devoted to helping people in need and serving as a governor without salary.
We truly do live in a sick, sick, sick country.
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I can't prove it, but I deeply suspect that most Obama supporters agree with Harry Belafonte's expressed view that the president -- THIS president, that is -- should imprison anyone who disagrees with him.
They are, after all, "liberals."
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The people who crank out the White Plains, New York, newspaper that published the names and addresses of all registered gun owners in two counties are getting a taste of their own medicine.
A Second-Amendment advocate with computer smarts has assembled an interactive map showing the names and addresses of every employee of the paper, presumably for the benefit ofsupporters of gun ownership rights who might have something to say to them.
Let's see how employees of that rag like THAT. Perfect.
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Burt Prelutsky reflects on the Connecticut killer …
“Unlike some, I don’t blame society because Americans love their guns and, as a result, there are millions and millions of guns running around loose. I fault society because there are so many evil lunatics like Mr. Lanza being allowed to run around loose.
“Every time I hear about a person who requires meds in order to achieve something resembling mental stability, lest he lapse back into schizophrenia or paranoia, I say to myself, that person should be institutionalized because crazy people can’t be depended upon to faithfully take their medications. And anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to let them roam free is crazier than they are.”
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After episodes of mass murder, both Britain and Australia went into spasms of anti-gun fever and passed very rigid laws against gun ownership, including confiscation. The result: Those criminally-inclined still kept or obtained firearms … and the crime rate went up. But, of course, American liberals are incapable of absorbing the lessons of real-world experience.
Further … the nationwide murder rate in the U.S. last year was the lowest since 1961. Don't expect the manic media to report that.
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How hard is this to figure out? The real motivation for requiring firearms to be registered is ... if/when the anti-gun fanatics achieve their goals, it makes confiscation easier.
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Best line of the month on the Great Gun Control debate comes from Kurt Schlichter at Townhall.com …
“Let’s start with the most obvious omen that this tsunami has peaked. President Obama thrilled his base by grandstanding at the memorial, and then promptly washed his hands of it by handing it over to a 'blue ribbon commission.' Making Joe Biden its chairman was like staking a vampire through the heart, then hosing him down with holy water before burying his body beneath the Gilroy Garlic Festival.”
Five stars.
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While Democrat liars persist in telling their gullible dupes that “Social Security is financially secure for years to come,” here's a reality check: The Social Security program ran a $47.8 billion deficit in fiscal 2012. SS brought in $725.429 billion in cash and paid $773.247 billion or benefits and overhead expenses. Source: Official date from the Social Security Administration.
Clear enough? Social Security is already running in the red.
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Prof. Walter Williams with a reality check for disillusioned goo-goos who expected the “Arab spring” to bring more freedom and human rights to the oppressed …
“The human experience should have taught us that just getting rid of a particular dictatorship is only half the struggle. We must always ask what's going to replace it. The 1917 Russian revolution got rid of the Czars only to be replaced by the far greater brutality of the Bolsheviks under Joseph Stalin and his successors. In China, Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorial rule was replaced by Mao Tse-tung's unprecedented barbarity, which became responsible for the deaths of 76 million Chinese. Cuba's Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship was replaced with that of Fidel Castro. The injustices of Western colonialism in Africa were replaced with homegrown brutal dictators who murdered their citizens.
“What should the West do about the gross violations of human rights so prevalent in North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere? My short answer is: mind our own business and only intervene when there are direct threats to our national defense or economic interests. Otherwise, what they want to do to one another is none of our business.”
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Here's what new instructions from above tell American troops in Afghanistan not to even mention to our "allied" Afghan forces ...
Anything related to Islam
Mention of any other religion and/or spirituality
Debating the war
Making derogatory comments about the Taliban
Advocating women’s rights and equality
Directing any criticism towards Afghans
Mentioning homosexuality and homosexual conduct
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Thomas Sowell's invaluable observations ...
Some people seem to think that, if life is not fair, then the answer is to turn more of the nation's resources over to politicians -- who will, of course, then spend these resources in ways that increase the politicians' chances of getting reelected.
The annual outbursts of intolerance toward any display of traditional Christmas scenes, or even daring to call a Christmas tree by its name, show that today's liberals are by no means liberal. Behind the mist of their lofty words, the totalitarian mindset shows through.
If you don't want to have a gun in your home or in your school, that's your choice. But don't be such a damn fool as to advertise to the whole world that you are in "a gun-free environment" where you are a helpless target for any homicidal fiend who is armed. Is it worth a human life to be a politically correct moral exhibitionist?
The more I study the history of intellectuals, the more they seem like a wrecking crew, dismantling civilization bit by bit -- replacing what works with what sounds good.
If someone wrote a novel about a man who was raised from childhood to resent the successful and despise the basic values of America -- and who then went on to become President of the United States -- that novel would be considered too unbelievable, even for a work of fiction. Yet that is what has happened in real life.
Many people say, "War should be a last resort." Of course it should be a last resort. So should heart surgery, divorce and many other things. But that does not mean that we should just continue to hope against hope indefinitely that things will work out, somehow, until catastrophe suddenly overtakes us.
After watching a documentary about the tragic story of Jonestown, I was struck by the utterly unthinking way that so many people put themselves completely at the mercy of a glib and warped man, who led them to degradation and destruction. And I could not help thinking of the parallel with the way we put a glib and warped man in the White House.
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Reader Margaret says her son created this season haiku …
Lovely Christmas day,
Family, food and fellowship.
Remembrances, too.
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Argus Hamilton --
"The Drug Enforcement Agency reports that Mexican drug cartels have mounted cannons near the U.S. border. They're are shooting bales of marijuana over the border into the U.S. This explains why Willie Nelson just bought a house in Arizona in the shape of a catcher's mitt."
SHE'S
NOW THE LISA MY WORRIES
…
MORE GUN-GRABBER HYPOCRISY …
AS WE APPROACH THE “CLIFF”
MORE GUN-GRABBER HYPOCRISY …
AS WE APPROACH THE “CLIFF”
Sane people are celebrating the departure of raving loony Lisa Jackson as head of the madhouse that is the EPA.
Can Obama find someone even worse and more anti-business to run that power-mad bureaucracy? Don't bet that he can't!
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Looking on the bright side ...
That New York newspaper that published the names and addresses of registered gun owners in two counties may have done a favor for those listed. It tells criminals, “Better to stay away from these folk; they can bite back!”
Of course, this optimistic conclusion relies on the shaky assumption that most criminals even read newspapers.
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Rahm “Tiny Dancer” Emanuel (one-time ballet dancer), Chicago mayor and former hatchet-man for Obama, ridiculed the idea of having an armed police presence in school when it was raised after the Connecticut massacre.
Rahm Emanuel's own children go to an expensive private school. With armed guards present at all times.
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Some aspects of human nature never change.
Consider: Most of us learn the lessons of the playground in childhood, including the fact that the nasty little thug will only increase his bullying if not stopped early. This rule of life applies to nations as well as individuals.
Yet far too many adults in leadership positions forget that lesson. Thus we have, for example, an Iran issuing endless threats and North Korea boasting they have weapons that can reach the U.S. mainland.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that the murderous regimes of both should have been obliterated in their infancy. Alas, common sense is a quality seriously lacking by the poseurs in Washington -- and the people who elect them.
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Charles Gasparino (NY Post) contemplates the “fiscal cliff” …
“Going over the cliff sure won’t be pretty. Even for families earning as little as $50,000 a year, income taxes are to rise from a 13 percent rate to 17 percent — an estimated increased federal income-tax burden of more than $2,000 a year if there’s no cliff deal, according to the Tax Foundation. Of course, the more you make, the more you will pay. All those 'billionaire' families earning $250,000 a year will pay $9,730 more.
“What’s so frightening about these numbers is that they don’t take into account all the other taxes President Obama has in store for the country, including those to pay for his ObamaCare mandates.”
The painful lessons to come will be an educational experience for a lot of dummies.
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The incisive Arnold Ahlert addresses the fiscal ignorance that pervades …
“If you ask a hundred people who's lending America more money than anyone else to finance that debt, you'll one hundred incorrect answers. It ain't China, folks, and the correct answer to the question reveals just how little the so-called fiscal cliff matters.
“The correct answer is America. In other words, we're buying our own debt. How? By printing money to purchase it. If I had a nickel for every blank stare I get when I try to explain that concept to people, I could retire. Most people cannot comprehend the utter monstrousness of debasing the currency in order to maintain the fiction that spending isn't the problem. They don't understand that until America's spending addiction is forcefully addressed, every other aspect of the fiscal cliff negotiations is meaningless.
“Does anyone seriously believe the even $4.6 trillion of cuts over the next ten years, which is the largest number being considered — even as it remains politically un-doable — can even remotely make up for more than $5 trillion of deficit spending that just took place over the last four years? Can they possibly be so oblivious that they don't know Republicans and Democrats are negotiating grains of sand, even as the genuine problem is a large as the Sahara?”
Yes. They can be so oblivious – and are.
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“The NRA reported getting thousands of new applicants a day since the White House called for gun control. WalMart stores are selling out of guns. The Automobile Dealers of America just issued a plea to President Obama asking him to call for car control.” – Argus Hamilton
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Is there any remaining doubt about where Obama stands vis a vis Israel and the Muslims who threaten it with extinction? He's sending 200 tanks and a full squadron of F-16 fighters to the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egypt, which just enacted a constitution under which medieval, repressive Sharia law becomes the guide for governing and whose overt hostility to Israel continues to grow.
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“Did you know” dep't …
The Obamacare bill and its regulations take more pages and words than the entire Bible.
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Suggestion from reader Phil …
“Parents are so glad that Obamacare will keep the 'little tykes' on their health insurance policies up to age 26 ... let's take it one step further. Let's also make parents who have their kids on their own health policy legally liable for any and all actions of that 'child' up to the age of 26.”
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Victor Davis Hanson reflects on 2012 and speculates on 2013 …
“Obama once had mused that he wished to be the mirror image of Ronald Reagan -- successfully coaxing America to the left as the folksy Reagan had to the right. Instead, 2012 taught us that a calculating Obama is more a canny Richard Nixon, who likewise used any means necessary to be re-elected on the premise that his rival would be even worse. But we know what eventually happened to the triumphant, pre-Watergate Nixon after November 1972; what will be the second-term wages of Obama's winning ugly?
“The so-called fiscal cliff offers more examples of 2012 dreams giving way to reality. Obama will probably get his long-promised taxes on the rich. But so what? There are not enough caricatured 'millionaires and billionaires' even to make a dent in his administration's fifth consecutive $1 trillion-plus deficit.
“What will stop the massive borrowing is not the myth of bipartisan cooperation, but the reality of returning high interest rates that will make the current splurging simply unsustainable.
“The year 2012 should have taught us that dreaming is no answer to reality; 2013 will determine how well we learned that lesson. ”
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“Those who laugh at Santa are the same ones who believe in campaign promises.” – Cindy Adams
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If you want to understand why fools think it acceptable, or even wonderful, to pour endless amounts of money into government, ponder these words from the late, brilliant economist Milton Friedman from eight years ago...
"There are four ways to spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why you really watch out for what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well then, I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost. Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m going to have a good lunch! Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it costs, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40 percent of our national income."
-- Thanks, Lewis --
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Melissa Nelson is the Iowa woman who lost her job because, while her behavior was never improper, she was adjudged by her boss to be so sexy in appearance that she was a distraction. She lost her discrimination lawsuit.
I can sympathize with her predicament, having many times suffered unspoken discrimination over the same issue. They'd never admit it, of course, but I knew it was there at some subliminal level. (Laughter by the reader at this time would be in bad taste and hurt my feelings.)
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Desk motto, location unreported …
I WANT ONE OF THOSE JOBS WHERE PEOPLE ASK, “DO YOU ACTUALLY GET PAID FOR DOING THIS?”
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Gems from reader Herb ...
I was devastated to find out my wife was having an affair, but by turning to religion I was soon able to come to terms with the whole thing. I converted to Islam, and we're stoning her in the morning.
***
The
cost of living has now gotten so bad my wife is having sex with
me because she can't afford batteries.***
A
man called 911 and said "I think my wife is dead".The operator says, "How do you know?"
The man says "The sex is the same, but the ironing is piling up."
THE
DEVIOUS DUPE THE DOPES …
FIREARMS FOOLISHNESS …
GREETINGS, SNOWBIRDS!
FIREARMS FOOLISHNESS …
GREETINGS, SNOWBIRDS!
How long will it take for Republicans to figure out that, lamentable as it is, their fellow Americans' interest in foreign matters is very limited?
Since most are products of one of the sorriest public education systems in the "advanced" world, successful politicians accommodate themselves to the sad fact that, short of a domestic economic catastrophe or an attack on the nation (9/11 apparently wasn't enough for a permanent awakening), most Americans care about little that doesn't impact them, personally, in a very direct and immediate way.
That's why, as has been pointed out in this space, it was unfounded expectations that led Republicans to believe the bloody mess of the Benghazi, Libya, murders would impact the election. It should have, but it didn't. And only those with tunnel-vision believed it would.
As every good salesperson knows, knowing your customer and market are fundamental to success. Believing that a largely uninformed, uninvolved electorate would take such matters seriously was nothing more than a vain hope.
What Obama understands that Republicans largely don't: His market consists of short-sighted dummies -- and the people who benefit by manipulating them. The election results prove that cohort is now sufficiently large to elect a president. Nothing will change until the nation hits the wall of reality in a disaster, either economic or worse.
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If you have a taste for political comedy, observe the oh-so-gentlemanly Republicans' reaction to Secretary of State Hillary's strenuous effort to avoid questions about her role in the Benghazi murders of our ambassador and three other Americans: “Oh, noooo … I don't believe she'd fake a concussion,” (with no hospital examination to make such a diagnosis). Amazing that they can keep a straight face while telling such a blatant lie when you know very well they suspect exactly such an evasive tactic.
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Those opposed to the ongoing effort to deprive law-abiding citizens of the right to own guns for either hunting, sport (target-shooting) or self-defense seem to divide into two camps.
The first, which depends upon logic and common sense by the gun-banners, says, "Let's allow them to have their way and then, as experience has shown all over the world, they'll learn that the results won't fulfill their hopes. Instead, criminals will continue to get guns and those who obey such laws will be further victimized, and those who would abolish gun-ownership rights will see the error of their ways."
The fallacy, of course, is that the gun-banners are married to an ideology and will not be swayed by real-world results.
The second school of thought knows that there's no point employing logic or demonstrable results in dealing with such people, and that their ultimate goal is a totally disarmed citizenry at the mercy of both criminals and any potentially tyrannical government. Especially in a country whose current president has publicly stated that he wishes he could impose his will without the bother of dealing with an elected Congress.
Only fools say – or believe – "I never thought it could happen here," the lament heard after every particularly gruesome episode of murder and among populations who awakened to find their freedoms gone.
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“All of the armed Secret Service people that surround the President while carrying those very dangerous guns should be disarmed and replaced with smiling people carrying signs that say 'This is a gun-free zone. Please don't shoot the President. Have a nice day!'" – Dennis (reader)
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Burt Prelutsky analyzes Obama's budget fakery ...
"I’m surprised that Obama doesn’t simply state that he has decided to spend $100 trillion building a railroad to the moon. Then, when he holds a press conference to announce the cancellation of the project, he can claim that he not only wiped out our $16 trillion national debt, but that we now have $84 trillion of found money in our rainy day account.
"Speaking of the economy, have you noticed that every time the unemployment rate falls, it’s because so many people have removed themselves from the work force? Ever wonder where they went? With the space program shut down, we know it wasn’t to another planet. They went on welfare. After all, what else would explain the huge upsurge in folks collecting food stamps and disability insurance? What’s more, Obama couldn’t be happier. On the one hand, it makes it appear that more people are working and, on the other, it places an additional burden on taxpayers, hastening the day when the entire nation will go the way of Greece, Spain and California."
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“If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else – including themselves.” – Thomas Sowell
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"Snowbirds," we call them here in the Sunbelt. In the part of Arizona where I live, near Tucson, they start arriving after Thanksgiving and the stampede really gets underway after Christmas. All those fine folk from cold country whose presence is largely welcomed, with some reservation by local folk who are accustomed to a higher level of civility than exhibited by a small portion of winter-only residents.
In my little town, where a three-car backup at one of our few traffic lights is regarded as a traffic jam, the additional cars are very noticeable. Nevertheless, most of us year-rounders are appreciative of the snowbirds' contribution to our local economy.
They're easily recognizable on the street or at the local shopping center. When we have one of our two or three annual chilly spells, locals who have lost their cold-weather immunity are wearing sweaters or jackets, while the temporary winter transplants stroll about in shorts and tee-shirts.
A few mornings ago, when the temperature was 48 degrees on the car thermometer, I passed one of our community pools and saw a half-dozen people swimming. The pool is heated but ... good lord! Guaranteed: No locals in that crowd! My own pool, which also has a heater, gets a rest from November to April.
I have coined a name for those folk who hit the pool under those conditions. NAACP. National Association of American Crazy People.
The snowbirds, however, have made a wise choice to choose Arizona as their winter sun place. We don't have hurricanes, tornadoes, humidity, blizzards, earthquakes or any of those other unpleasant events that occur in less blessed places. And we even have the southernmost ski resort in the nation. I can see Mt. Lemmon in suburban Tucson from my house thirty miles away. You literally can go from skiing to getting sun by the pool within a half-hour.
One suggestion: As a transplant from California eleven years ago, I strongly recommend that anyone choosing to move to 'zona from that benighted state not mention your place of origin until you're well-established as a sane person in your new neighborhood. Arizonans are rightly suspicious of newcomers from California, afraid they may carry the virus that's turned the former "Golden State" into the wretched wreck it is today.
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"Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values." – Joshua Liebman, quoted in JWR
That is why the two wisest words ever imparted to a young person regarding money management are … “Deferred gratification.”
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Have you paused to observe and appreciate that the daylight hours are again growing longer?
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Reader Sheila with funnies for the small folk who may be getting bored with the Christmas toys ...
How Do You Catch a Unique Rabbit? Unique Up On It.
How Do You Catch a Tame Rabbit? Tame Way.
What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall? Dam!
What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours? Nacho Cheese!
What Do You Get When You Cross a Snowman With a Vampire? Frostbite.
What's The Difference Between Roast Beef And Pea Soup? Anyone Can Roast Beef.
Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils? Because They Have Big Fingers.
Adults are also permitted to giggle. Quietly. In privacy.
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… and speaking of the youngest generation …
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone.
“Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle.”
“I
SPEND, YOU PAY” –
OBAMA …
CHARISMA TRUMPS ABILITY …
TV/RADIO: IT'S ABOUT RATINGS, $
CHARISMA TRUMPS ABILITY …
TV/RADIO: IT'S ABOUT RATINGS, $
An arrogant president orders that raises be given to government officials and federal government employees. Obama obviously subscribes to the philosophy of the teachers' union: “Pay us more despite our failures, and we promise to do a better job. Or not.”
Implicit is the message to the diminishing number of taxpayers: “Ante up, suckers!”
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That evanescent quality called “charisma” is a poor basis for selecting a person to take on the serious responsibilities of the presidency. Nevertheless, given the ridiculous public worship of celebrity, the Republicans had better select someone with a generous measure of that charismatic quality as their next nominee. The most recent election proved beyond doubt that competence and integrity alone are insufficient for the majority of voters who choose to live in a fantasy world.
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David Keene, President of the NRA, observes the madness surrounding the latest chapter in the gun debate …
“In response to Columbine, then-President Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress enacted a program called Cops in Schools. Today, 23,000 public and private U.S. schools provide armed security for our children. Yet when National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre suggested that armed security officers in our nation’s schools would help prevent the next Newtown, he was greeted immediately and unthinkingly with derision and hostility. A New York rag called him the 'Craziest man in America'; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dismissed the idea out of hand, and teachers’ unions went berserk about any hint that their members could protect their young charges.
“Away from the madding crowd, not everyone rejects the idea simply because the NRA suggested it. Mr. Christie was dismissive immediately, but the head of school security in Camden, N.J., must not have heard his governor’s comments before telling a reporter that he thought providing armed security was a good idea. Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer announced that she favors putting armed National Guardsmen in our schools. Ms. Boxer's far more radical suggestion caused barely any media ripple.”
– Washington Times
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Given the performance of most media stooges thru the presidential election campaign and the Connecticut school massacre, let us never again connect the words "objective" and "reporter."
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“The hope that four years of failed policy would be enough to repudiate the liberal/progressive ideology of the Obama administration ended when the majority of the American public voted to maintain their entitlements -- so long as someone else paid for them.
“It's time for conservatives to give serious thought to what they believe and how they can make a more persuasive case that conservative principles offer the best path for America. Conservatives have to do more than invoke small government, lower taxes and protection of the family. They have to explain the principles on which such policies are based and why those principles are more likely to fulfill the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on which the nation was founded.
“The idea that it is right and just for one group of persons to take from another the fruits of their labor simply because they have more political power would strike most people as unjust. Yet, the debate around raising tax rates on the rich ultimately boils down to that.”
– The admirable Linda Chavez, offering a vain hope. The freeloaders have won. The productive have lost.
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How the language is corrupted by inflation …
Historically, the term “millionaire” meant the total net worth of a person or family exceeded one million dollars – cash, investments, house, car(s) – everything accumulated.
Now the dollar is so devalued, thanks to endless printing of money by Obama's stooge Bernankecthat it has come to refer to an annual gross income of a million dollars.
Another example of how inflated money by an irresponsible government is the worst hidden tax. Or, more accurately, blatant thievery.
If Obama's suck-ups were honest, if asked who should be taxed more, they'd say, “Anyone who makes more money than my own income.”
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Len, the haiku master, strikes again …
Fundamental change.
Barack has more than one plan.
Year of many cliffs.
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I am endlessly bemused -- and amused -- by people who believe broadcasters whose radio stations offer talk-shows and commentary are guided by the political preferences of sinister "owners."
Having done on-air work in that genre for thirty-plus years, plus more on the management side, I can assure you that with a few minor exceptions, that is utter nonsense -- even though there are people in the lower ranks of the industry who are gullible enough to believe it.
I plied my trade for some of the biggest companies in the industry: ABC, Group W (which now owns CBS), Storer, RKO, Disney, Transcontinent, Pulitzer, Bonneville. Their management people had one thing in common. A determination to satisfy stockholders with an ever-growing return on investment. Only silly children (of whatever age) believe otherwise.
Given that most broadcast stations, cable and satellite operations are corporate owned with a vast and varied shareholder base made up of people of all political persuasions, to believe in an overriding political bias that drives programming is nonsense on the face of it.
Radio/TV is a BUSINESS. It runs on advertising dollars. Those dollars come if, and only if, the facility is running programming that will attract an audience that, either through sheer size or audience demographic profile, attracts those dollars.
If yodeling programs suddenly developed mass appeal, I assure you that many of today's stations that broadcast all-news, conservative talk, liberal talk, 24-hour sports or rock music would tomorrow be scouring the mountains of Switzerland for yodelers.
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
I once killed a man. Maybe. Inadvertently. Indirectly.
Fritz Wunderlich was a German operatic tenor with an incredible voice. On a whim, someone at the record company which marketed his work released a single recording of him singing a Christmas song in English. It may have been "Silent Night"; my recollection is not entirely clear.
I was doing a daily radio program in Chicago. The record caught my ear and I began playing it. I was always on the lookout for something unlikely to be heard of any other station or program.
Requests to repeat it poured in and it became a big local hit in Chicago. Some other big-city stations heard about the stir it was causing and also began playing it.
Soon a concert promoter made a deal for Fritz to do what would surely be a lucrative American tour.
The night before he was to fly to the U.S. to begin his series of appearances, he was celebrating at a farewell party with a group of friends. Rumor had it that that beverages were flowing freely. Perhaps Fritz over-indulged.
In any case, he fell down a flight of stairs, broke his neck ... and died. Too young. He was just short of his 36th birthday.
An ironic footnote: A few weeks later, I got a very touching letter from his father. He wrote to thank me for all I had done for his son.
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Argus Hamilton --
"Psychology Today warns that post-holiday blues may trigger depression as people return to their normal lives next week. The good news is, researchers at NYU have discovered a technique that erases fear and bad memories in humans. It's called whiskey."
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The reader who signs himself The Lone Writer submits a treatise on the philosophy of ambiguity ... (with, I suspect, a bow due Steven Wright) ...
DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.
ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR.
ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.
I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, "WHERE'S THE SELF- HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.
WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?
IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?
CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?
AMERICAN
LIARS …
ARGENTINA: OUR ROLE MODEL …
YOUTHFUL RESOURCEFULNESS
ARGENTINA: OUR ROLE MODEL …
YOUTHFUL RESOURCEFULNESS
My New Year's resolution: Never take a stock-market tip from a Mayan.
I might also borrow this one from Mark Twain: I resolve to live within my income, even if I have to borrow money to do it.
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The American public consists largely of liars. Survey (Rasmussen) says …
Only five percent (5%!) think Congress is doing a good job.
Yet 90% of House members who sought re-election were returned to office … 91% of Senators.
Obviously, the relevant question for the giant, dumb beast that is the American public is this: If Congress is so awful, why do you keep re-electing your own members? Is yours the only virgin in the bordello?
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Alejandro Chafuend and Daniel Bunn, Investors Business Daily, get serious about the idiocy that is guiding our economic
policies ...
"There is some dispute on who was the first person to come up with one of the most popular forecasts of all time: 'après moi le deluge,' or, 'after me, the flood.' Was it Madame de Pompadour or Louis XV?
"We sometimes use the term in economics to criticize the attitude of those who focus only on the short term.
"The 'cliff' scenario argues that if there is no action, spending will be cut by 3%, tax revenues will go up by 16%, unemployment may jump to 8.5% and this sluggish recovery might turn into a mild recession.
"The worst 'flood' forecasts would be based on a continuity of a policy of monetary expansion and high government spending: going the Argentine way.
“A combination of both could occur if the final outcome presents us with policies that make only marginal cuts in government and a few cosmetic revenue enhancements. The Fed will continue printing money with little restraint until it sees some improvement in the macroeconomic measures.
"The authors of this op-ed come from very different backgrounds. One lived 30 years in Argentina and witnessed the deleterious effects of similar inflationary and statist policies as those being implemented in most sectors of the U.S. economy."
Regular readers of this space will recall that I have previously mentioned the Argentine analogy. The economy is approaching the crisis point in that short-sighted, economically chaotic country. If the present madness in Washington continues, we face the same fate. And probably sooner rather than later.
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My friend Kevin reminds me of a timeless statement ...
"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
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Michael Goodwin of the NY Post looks at our sick economy, bloated and ever-larger government and chaotic foreign policy and reaches a conclusion …
“This being the season for predictions, mine is that millions upon millions of Americans who voted for Obama will be disappointed in 2013. But most will not blame him. They will agree with him that the solution is to double the dose of Washington power.
“Never mind that the patient is dying. The Obama operation is a great success. Just ask him.”
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I admire resourcefulness. It is often evident in imaginative but impecunious youth. More than a few of us have, in our school days, learned to use many ketchup packets and piles of free crackers to stretch a small bowl of soup or chili into lunch or dinner.
Several years ago, a friend who worked at a major radio/TV operation in Chicago told me about a young intern or low-wage employee -- probably himself -- there who anticipated the "Wedding Crashers" movie by many years, turning up uninvited at receptions to chow-down on hors d'oeuvres and occasionally comfort a friend of the bride. He occasionally got busted and escorted out, but more often managed a substantial intake of groceries.
He also confided that the best freeloader feasts were to be found at the well-attended after-funeral gatherings that were common when friends, admirers and hangers-on of deceased popular politicians congregated. He often returned from such events with plastic bags of food sufficient for three days stashed in his pockets. He said his major health concern was the possible effect of excessive consumption of peeled shrimp.
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Jim Eason reminds me of yet another corruption of the language common even among media mouths who should know better ...
The word is REAL-TOR, not REAL-AH-TOR.
To the many on-air people who have added that extra syllable: Go ... and sin no more.
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I'm a football fan. No particular team, since the pros – and many college players – are simply hired mercenaries. I just like the game. As a fan (and former broadcaster of major-college games) I hereby state without fear of rational contradiction that this is the worst college bowl game season ever.
The thousands of empty seats at virtually every game so far are a clear indication that my lack of interest in watching a team with a 7-5 record playing a 6-6 team is widely shared. How demoralizing it must be for players to see only a handful of spectators in the stands.
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Again as a fan … I hope Larry Fitzgerald, one of the half-dozen best players in the NFL, finds a way to extricate himself from the wretched Arizona Cardinals organization and their joke of a coach.
In all their years starting in Chicago, St. Louis and finally Phoenix, this bungling family-run circus has had success only once. That single brief period of football glory happened largely by accident, when Kurt Warner rolled off the discard pile and found himself as a player. Otherwise, to call the Cardinals' operation “professional” football is a corruption of the very word.
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A moment of mourning for Jerry Jones, whose Dallas Cowgirls again folded like a wet sock when the chips were down. RG-III and the Washington Redskins took 'em to school last night. Face it, Jer; your team sucketh.
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Reader Jack calls our attention to a medical item …
“When your gecko is broken, you have a reptile dysfunction.”
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Dan Sorkin assembled this collection of classic country song titles …
I Hate Every Bone In Her Body But Mine.
I've Never Gone To Bed With an Ugly Woman. But I Woke Up With a Few.
If The Phone Don't Ring ... You'll Know It's Me.
I've Missed You ....... But, My Aim's Improving.
I wouldn't Take Her To A Dogfight, Cause I'm Scared She'd Win.
I'm So Miserable Without You, It's Like You're Still Here.
She Took My Ring, and Gave Me the Finger.
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."