LEE RODGERSJanuary 18 –
THE
COST OF A BOY'S TOYS …
SECOND TERM: NO DAY AT THE BEACH …
MANTI'S PHONY PHABLE
SECOND TERM: NO DAY AT THE BEACH …
MANTI'S PHONY PHABLE
By the last accounting, the average American taxpayer's annual income tax amounts to $4,030.36. Government figures say the cost of operating Air Force One is $180,000 per hour.
To gain a little perspective on the cost of just this one presidential perk, take a moment to figure how many taxpayers' entire annual income tax payment is required to keep that big bird in the air for just one hour. Then consider that the Obama used it for TWO round-trips to Hawaii within just a few days over the holidays. Never, under any administration, has their been such outlandish spending on personal luxuries by any president and never has any president racked up nearly so many miles on Air Force One.
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Bottom line …
“GUN-FREE SCHOOL ZONE: THE THEORY THAT MASS MURDERERS WON'T BRING THEIR GUNS IF TEACHERS AND PARENTS DON'T BRING THEIRS”
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“Because I have zero tolerance for blather, if I were a senator I would vote against Chuck Hagel because when Obama nominated him to be Secretary of Defense, he said he wanted to advance global freedom, decency and humanity, as “we help to make a better world for all mankind,” and I would nix John Brennan, Obama’s nominee to head up the CIA, because, on the same occasion, he said he wanted to make sure that” the CIA always reflected the liberties, the freedoms and the values we hold so dear.” I don’t want the guys heading up those two offices sounding like mushy-mouthed social workers. I realize they can’t help how they look, but I want them to at least try to sound like John Wayne, vowing to destroy anyone who gets between his thirsty cattle and the nearest water hole.” – Burt Prelutsky
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The great political philosopher P. J. O'Rourke's message for Obama …
"The worst thing that you’ve done internationally is what you’ve done domestically. You sent a message to America in your reelection campaign. Therefore you sent a message to the world. The message is that we live in a zero-sum universe. There is a fixed amount of good things. Life is a pizza. If some people have too many slices, other people have to eat the pizza box. You had no answer to Mitt Romney’s argument for more pizza parlors baking more pizzas. The solution to our problems, you said, is redistribution of the pizzas we’ve got—with low-cost, government-subsidized pepperoni somehow materializing as the result of higher taxes on pizza parlor owners. In this zero-sum universe there’s only so much happiness. The idea is that if we wipe the smile off the faces of people with prosperous businesses and successful careers, that will make the rest of us grin." – The Daily Caller
It was P. J., of course, who enunciated this piece of timeless wisdom: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
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Victor Davis Hanson surveys recent presidential history and predicts rough going for Obama in his second term …
“A rule of the modern age: all confident, reelected presidents trip up in the second term. LBJ was sunk by Vietnam. Reagan faced Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton had his comeuppance with Monica. George W. Bush was overwhelmed with the Iraqi insurgency and Katrina. And Obama will have his as well, obsequious media or not.
“Supposedly fundamental partisan swings of an era usually prove transitory: LBJ’s landside led to Nixon four years later, whose landslide then led to Carter in 1980, whose supposed new politics of humility and apology led to Reagan, whose small government-paradigm shift nonetheless by 1992 gave us Clinton, whose “middle way” after only eight years gave us Bush, whose “compassionate conservative realignment” ended with Obama. And so on until the end of the republic.
“Why these
second-term reckonings? Partly, presidential hubris leads to a
natural correction, as Nemesis kicks in; partly, one can dodge
mishaps for four years, but the odds catch up after eight; and
partly, the media and voters grow tired of a monotonous
presidential voice, appearance, and manner, and want change for
the sake of change.”
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Reader Lewis passes along this highly practical device on government debt control in Switzerland, arguably the most knowledgeable nation on the planet when it comes to fiscal policy …
“Americans looking for a way to tame government profligacy should look to Switzerland. In 2001, 85% of its voters approved an initiative that effectively requires its central government spending to grow no faster than trendline revenue. The reform, called a “debt brake” in Switzerland, has been very successful. Before the law went into effect in 2003, government spending was expanding by an average of 4.3% per year. Since then it’s increased by only 2.6% annually.”
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Do you believe that Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame football star, was the victim of a hoax about his non-existent, supposedly dead girlfriend that was so widely publicized and swallowed whole by a gullible media – and the tales he kept telling about the “tragedy” ever after he admitted knowing the story was fake?
I don't. It's absurd. But the Notre Dame sports publicity mill continues to support the whole outrageous lie. But the “real” media folk have no room to criticize the sports reporters who failed to check out Manti's story. After all, they've done virtually no checking on the pastiche of lies that constitutes Barack Obama's fake personal biography.
Meantime, we hear little to nothing about the 19-year-old student at St. Mary's College, which adjoins Notre Dame, who claimed rape by a Notre Dame football player and who committed suicide a few days later.
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Contrary to what our simple-minded gun-grabbers choose to believe, Britain's overall crime rate is far worse than our own, largely because the law forbids ownership of firearms, so honest people have no way of defending themselves. In fact, you may very well find yourself imprisoned for trying to defend yourself even with other means. So: Fewer guns mean less crime? Pish-tosh, says Mark Steyn in The American Spectator …
“Bill Clinton’s latest favorite statistic—that 12 “kids” a day die from gun violence—is bunk: Five-sixths of those 11.569 grade-school moppets are aged between 15 and 19, and many of them have had the misfortune to become involved in gangs, convenience-store hold-ups, and drug deals, which, alas, have a tendency to go awry. If more crack deals passed off peacefully, that “child” death rate could be reduced by three-quarters. But away from those dark fringes of society, Americans live lives blessedly untouched by most forms of crime—at least when compared with supposedly more civilized countries like Britain.”
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Personal note. I've called off my plans to vacation in Mali this year. Also Algeria.
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The interview I did with Rich Lieberman on KOMY is available in podcast form on their sister-station website, KSCO.
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A pronunciamento from reader Jeff …
"As an American citizen, I have the right to bear arms. I also have the right to bare arms and bare legs, especially in my own house. I do not have the right to arm bears, nor do I have the right to arm bears with bare arms and bare legs. I do have the right to bear arms in the presence of bears with bare arms and bare legs. This might be confusing, but please bear in mind that bears with bare arms and bare legs rarely occur in nature."
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News from the animal kingdom …
At a research facility in Kyoto, Japan, fifteen monkeys figured out how to escape over the fifteen-foot fence by using tree branches inside to launch themselves to trees outside. Once outside, they apparently found that world uninteresting and returned to the main gate to get back inside at lunchtime.
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Jimmy Fallon--
"President Obama’s inaugural parade will feature eight floats, including a Hawaii float to honor his birthplace, an Illinois float to honor the first lady’s home state, and a Kenyan float just to mess with Republicans."
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Jay Leno --
"This flu epidemic is just terrible. Experts say that those hit hardest are the very old and the very young. So that's especially bad news for Hugh Hefner and his new bride."
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."