The scariest Halloween photo ever!

The scariest Halloween photo ever: a scene from January 20, 2013:

The electorate reacts!

How to write like Thomas Friedman

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Create Your Own Thomas Friedman Op-Ed Column.

It is a lot easier than you think. Just make sure you don't actually say anything.

‘Joe the Plumber’ launches bid for Congress

‘Joe the Plumber’ launches bid for Congress – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Good on yer, Joe.

Unfair, unfair, unfair!

A Dr. Sanity diagnosis:

Occupy Wall Street's Code of Omerta

Back in the '60s they called it cooperating with your oppressor. The NY Post reports on the crime-ridden Zuccotti Park:

Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security- team members said.

Rumors swirled that one homeless man had pulled a knife in a dispute the night before -- and that there had been yet another case of groping.

But protesters and a cop on duty told The Post that most of the crime goes unreported, because of a bizarre “stop snitching” rule.

“What’s happening in there is staying in there,” said the cop.

"Godfather, what happens in Zuccotti
Park stays in Zuccottii Park!"

Ah yes, the code of Omerta, the Mafia's infamous code of silence that what happened among the families stayed among the families.

But this tidbit is only at the trail end of the Post's story, which points out that Zuccotti Park's squatters are a bunch of - gasp! - freeloaders!

The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

The real problem is that there is a vast organization, well funded by unknowns, supporting the squatters to enable them to eat quite lavishly for free. And now other folks want in on the squatters' dolce vita, the chronic underclass of New York who were there long before the OWS squatters ever came and will be there when they finally leave. They understandably don't see why these whippersnapper newcomers can eat like gourmands free at OWS kitchens while they cannot. But OWS alone has purity of heart and motive, so they feel qualified to judge the motives of everyone else.

And why should they be turned away? Cannot anyone who shows up at Zee-Park simply claim 99 percent status and get in the chow line? If not, why not? Well, the answer is easy: OWS is a bunch of commies. And they won't let New York's ordinary underclass join the revolution. The revolution, you see, is only for the "right people," the overwhelmingly white, Gentile sons and daughters of the middle class who want to live freely while others foot the bill.

How this makes them different from the old line of New York's freeloaders and panhandlers is quite beyond me.

Fantastic online file synchronization

I have three computers on which I need to keep a few gigs of files synchronized all the time. Rather than lug them around on a thumb drive (and you know what a pain that is), I use a free service called SugarSync.

Once installed, SugarSync automatically uploads your specified files to your password-protected sub-site of sugarsync.com (syntax is www.your-logon-name.sugarsync.com) and also downloads the files to your other computers where you set up the software. All your computers are sync'd at all times.

You can also install the software on your smartphone or tablet. This app lets you access a directory of your sync'ed files and download files to the device if you wish. You can email files from every device you have installed the software without regard to file-size limits; what you send in the email is a permalink to the file which the receiver uses to download it. You can do this directly from the web site, too. Here's an example - in Windows Explorer I right-clicked on a file and selected the SugarSync menu, then clicked on "Get Public Link." That yielded this permalink, which you can click on and download yourself (the file is PM's used car checklist): https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6661692_8692402_649070

You can also designate a whole folder to be shared.

And that's my tech tip for today. If you want to give it a try, just click here.

Is this really a good idea?

Knoxville dad finds city's best kept secret | No Silence Here | knoxnews.com

At first glance it looks like a great idea. But is it really? You decide.

My first thoughts: Might work great for the consumer, but is it a viable business model? The volume of business (only two customers at a time) might not be high enough to make profitable revenue, and the likelihood of customers buying more than a few items at a time seems pretty low. I'd like to know how it will work in cold weather, too.

OWS = Tea Party

Woman Threatened For Reporting Assault At #Occupywallstreet » American Glob

The Occupy movement and the Tea Party are just alike, yes? Well, maybe not . . .

Update: "Claim: Occupy arrests top 2,500"

A running total of the Occupy related arrests. Tweet at #occupyarrests and @occupyarrests to add your numbers to the total. I am not a bot. Current Total: 2511. -- More.

And there's this: Believe it or not, the "Occupy" movement is now bragging about the total number arrests since the whole "Occupy Wall Street" charade began a month ago. They set up a twitter bot called @OccupyArrests that is keeping a running total of the amount of arrests these left wing kooks have accumulated. At the time of this posting, the total number of Occupy Wall Street arrests (from all over the world) stands at 2,222.

"Herman Cain's amazingly bad ad"

Michael Silence has the straight skinny - and yeah, it really is a bad ad.

Republicans want you to die, part 3

Here is the video of Vice President Biden saying explicitly that rape, murder and burglaries will all rise because the Republicans won't let the federal government give $36 billion to the states. Note that in the video he first denies ever talking about rape, then repeats again the assertion he made that rapes will rise.

Finally, he walks away when asked whether it is appropriate for the vice president to be using such inflammatory language.



So what are we to conclude but that the Republicans just want you to die? And now they want you to die at the hands of a burglar who breaks into your house, rapes you and then murders you. It's a Biden hat trick!

Maybe Biden was thinking of this Republican operative:



Biden has asked for an investigation of whether the reporter in the video, Jason Mattera, broke Senate rules in his questioning of the VP.

Vice President Joe Biden is not happy about his exchange with a conservative journalist that went viral last week. In fact, The Hill reports he has voiced an official complaint to the Senate press gallery and is calling for an investigation into whether rules were broken when he was confronted about his comments about increasing rapes and murders if the president‘s jobs bill wasn’t passed.

Biden has since taken to the Senate press gallery to complain about the confrontation. The Hill reports that Biden aides have asked whether Senate rules were broken by the inquisitive reporter, and Biden’s office has also contacted the standing committee of correspondents, which over sees the gallery, to question if Mattera broke any rules.

So Mr. Mattera is getting the Full Alinsky. Meanwhile, the Washington Post's fact checker checked facts: "Biden’s absurd claims about rising rape and murder rates."

Interestingly, Flint Police Chief Lock has repeatedly asserted that cuts in staffing had little effect on the crime rate.

As the Flint Journal reported in May: “Officials said the fact that 46 police officers were laid off last year had little to do with the escalating crime. Most of the crimes were between people that knew each other. ‘No matter how many officers we have, we can't stop disputes between two people in their own homes,’ Lock said.”

Lock made a similar assertion in September, 2010, when FBI statistics were released showing violent crime in Flint had decreased in 2009. The Flint Journal reported: “A smaller police force doesn't automatically mean more crime, said Flint police chief Alven Lock. ‘There's been years when we had 300 officers and we still had more homicides,’ he said, referring to 1986, when he was in the homicide division and homicides hit an all-time high of 61.”

The WaPo's writer cites many more authorities showing pretty much no linkage between the number of police on duty and the number of murders or rapes, then concludes,

In any case, the vice president should know better than to spout off half-baked facts in service of a dubious argument. Even if one believes there is a link between crime and the number of police—which is debatable and subject to many caveats—there is no excuse to make the dramatic claim that more people will die or be raped without additional funds for police. When making such a breathtaking charge, you had better have your facts straight.

Four Pinocchios

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New Atheism: New Irrationality

British sceptic Daniel Came of The Guardian takes New Atheist Richard Dawkins to task for refusing to debate with " intellectually rigorous theist" Daniel Craig.

Given that there isn't much in the way of serious argumentation in the New Atheists' dialectical arsenal, it should perhaps come as no surprise that Dawkins and Grayling aren't exactly queuing up to enter a public forum with an intellectually rigorous theist like Craig to have their views dissected and the inadequacy of their arguments exposed.

Ironically, there is nothing substantively new about the New Atheists either. Despite its self-congratulatory tone, The God Delusion contains no original arguments for atheism. ...

As a sceptic, I tend to agree with Dawkins's conclusion regarding the falsehood of theism, but the tactics deployed by him and the other New Atheists, it seems to me, are fundamentally ignoble and potentially harmful to public intellectual life. For there is something cynical, ominously patronising, and anti-intellectualist in their modus operandi, with its implicit assumption that hurling insults is an effective way to influence people's beliefs about religion. The presumption is that their largely non-academic readership doesn't care about, or is incapable of, thinking things through; that passion prevails over reason. On the contrary, people's attitudes towards religious belief can and should be shaped by reason, not bile and invective. By ignoring this, the New Atheists seek to replace one form of irrationality with another.

That's because New Atheists are ideologists, not honest inquirers.

Update: Dennis Prager shows how university professors are more irrational than evangelicals.

The real fat cats on Wall Street

The real fat cats on Wall Street are the OWS squatters:

AFTER nearly two weeks of living among the Occupy Wall Street protesters in downtown Manhattan, Ellis Roberts, 25, a Pennsylvania garbage collector laid off last year, looked scruffy and dazed.

He was not, however, hungry.

“I’ve been here for 12 days, and I’ve put on 5 pounds,” he said, sitting on the ground in front of a handmade sign that said “Class War Ahead.” “I’m eating better than I do at home.”

Like the rest of his anti-corporate comrades, Mr. Roberts learned soon after arriving in Zuccotti Park that his meals would be taken care of. All he had to do was amble toward a ramshackle cluster of tables and boxes in the middle of the park and, without paying a cent, grab a slice of pizza or a warm slab of homemade vegan casserole. Last Thursday he had encountered “a bunch of Katz’s Deli sandwiches,” he said. “That was good.” ...

Tom Hintze, 24, was volunteering in Zuccotti Park last week. “Just now there was a big UPS delivery,” he said. “We don’t know where it comes from. It just appears, and we eat it."

And this is, incredibly, how they think all of society should operate all the time. Everything for the good life should just appear.

Occupy Secessionists?

With the fragmented ideology and bureaucratic monstrosity that OWS has become, I have to wonder just how long it will be before the movement splinter and some of the squatters at Zuccotti Square decide to secede. Consider, "How Do You Like the Revolution Now, Comrade?"

Even in Zuccotti Park, greed is good.
Occupy Wall Street’s Finance Committee has nearly $500,000 in the bank, and donations continue to pour in—but its reluctance to share the wealth with other protesters is fraying tempers.

Some drummers—incensed they got no money to replace or safeguard their drums after a midnight vandal destroyed their instruments Wednesday—are threatening to splinter off.

Well, you see, the basic rule of socialist-communal movements was identified by George Orwell about 70 years ago: "Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others." It's a tossup whether OWS is more like Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies, or both.

Bryan Smith, head of Zuccotti Park's squatters comfort committee, complained that one day his group raised $2,000, kept $650 for committee operations and turned the rest over to the finance committee. But finance flat declined his later request for funding. "... I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash."

So I am imagining this conversation will occur in the near future:

Finance Enforcer: Comrade Smith, I see you have raised a lot of money today.

Smith: Two thousand dollars.

Finance: The Finance Committee thanks you. Place the money in the bank bag and I will give you a receipt.

Smith: No, can't do that. It's our money, not yours.

Finance: All fundraising is done for the common good and all money is held by the Finance Committee!

Smith: For those people [gesturing toward the squatters' camp] but not for us. My group and I are not part of your movement anymore.

Finance: What? You can't do that!

Smith: Already have, tovarich. We are now an independent movement called the Comfort Committee Local 001. When you need soap or toothpaste or hygiene articles, come see us. Oh, cash and carry, no credit. We have found that socialism doesn't work, so now we are free-market capitalists. You have to pay to play.

Wouldn't it be nice?

The Tim Tebow Prophecy

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me" - Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 5.11.

NFL Analysts: Tim Tebow Hated Because of His Faith

Outspoken Christian athlete Tim Tebow, now the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, has been widely criticized by many in the media. NFL analysts are starting to admit that criticism, in large part, has been because of his faith.

''Inside the NFL'' analyst and former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth concluded that much of the hatred against Tebow was based on his religious beliefs. Responding to a question from fellow host James 'JB' Brown, Collinsworth showed his disgust for Tebow's treatment: ''It's unbelievable, though, JB, that one of the best kids - just pure kids that's ever come into the NFL - is hated because of his faith, because of his mission work, because of the fact that he wears it on his sleeve, because of the fact that he lives his life that he talks about.''

This isn't the first time the issue has come up. Many sportswriters and fans have mocked Tebow and hoped to see him fail - in large part, his defenders have argued, because of his strong Christian beliefs. Other football analysts are starting to agree with that assessment.

NBCsports.com commentator Jelisa Castrodale argued: “The NFL's other backup-turned-starters don't generate this type of negativity.” And CBS analyst and former 49ers offensive lineman Randy Cross blamed the media for anti-Tebow coverage: ''People, especially the media, root against him because of what he stands for.''

Occupy Camelot, 932 A.D.

Even King Arthur had problems with the Occupy movement, although the Occupy Camelot gang at least had a coherent political philosophy:



Compare to what really is happening at New York's Zuccotti Park.

All belongings and money in the park are supposed to be held in common, but property rights reared their capitalistic head when facilitators went to clean up the park, which was looking more like a shantytown than usual after several days of wind and rain. The local community board was due to send in an inspector, so the facilitators and cleaners started moving tarps, bags, and personal belongings into a big pile in order to clean the park.

But some refused to budge. A bearded man began to gather up a tarp and an occupier emerged from beneath, screaming: “You’re going to break my [snip] tent, get that [snip] off!” Near the front of the park, two men in hoodies staged a meta-sit-in, fearful that their belongings would be lost or appropriated.

Animal Farm, live and in person.

This seems relevant, too.

Show Gerard some love!

Message from Gerard @ AMERICAN DIGEST

Actually, from a friend posting for him:

This is a friend, delivering a message from Gerard: he was taken ill but is glad to report that he's recuperating nicely, and plans to be back in the not-too-distant future to tell you all about it. Knowing Gerard, he should have a lot to say.

And he'll say it better than most anyone else on the internet.

Go to the post a drop some well wishes!

Korea, North and South - What? Me Worry?

As in almost everything in foreign affairs, the Obama administration's take on the worsening situation on the Korean peninsula is this:

The president's position toward North Korea is the same as toward Iran: stop doing what I don't like or I will wag my finger at you! The latest example:

On October 13th, President Obama warned the DPRK, with the decisive sternness he commonly uses when dealing with dictatorial and dangerous foreign regimes. There was no suggestion of U.S. military involvement. In essence, he asked that the DPRK stop being nasty if it wants more respect, more goodies, and fewer economic sanctions from the international community — of which the United States is no longer a principal, much less the, leader under his presidency. According to the linked report:

US President Barack Obama warned North Korea . . . that it would face deeper isolation and international pressure if it carried out more “provocations” like those that rattled Asia last year. Obama, standing side-by-side with South Korean Lee President Lee Myung-Bak at the White House, said Pyongyang could however expect greater opportunities if it lived up to its international obligations over its nuclear program. The two leaders discussed North Korea in their White House talks and said they were united in their approach towards Pyongyang. “Together we’ve succeeded in changing the equation with the North by showing that its provocations will be met not with rewards but with even stronger sanctions and isolation,” Obama said. . . . . ” If the North abandons its quest for nuclear weapons and moves towards denuclearization, it will enjoy greater security and opportunity for its people.”

Which is to say, Obama said nothing.

And get a grip on that last sentence: "If the North abandons its quest for nuclear weapons and moves towards denuclearization, it will enjoy greater security and opportunity for its people.”

Is our president really that clueless? Yes:

1. The North Korean regime is entirely uninterested in "greater security and opportunity for its people." The North Korean people are slaves, literally. The only security the regime is remotely interested in is of itself. And they know that to possess nuclear weapons is their best guarantee of their own security. Mr. President: it is not the security of the people that motivates the regime. It is the security of the regime that motivates the regime.

2. That being so, you have this year provided an object lesson to the regime (and every other atomic-power tyranny) that whatever they do, they must not under any circumstances give up their nuclear weapons or ambitions. As I wrote last March,

The war against Libya has given North Korea and Iran alike every incentive to keep their nuclear programs going at high speed, or even increase the pace. If Qaddafi had maintained his nuke program, would he have had a deliverable warhead by now? We can't know for sure. But had he announced say last year that he possessed even one atomic weapon atop a medium range ballistic missile, France and Italy would never have become so bellicose toward him a month ago.

And that same week, "North Korean radio has said that the bombing of Libya proves that North Korea must never give up its nuclear weapons, as Libya did in 2003."

And this week, Mr. president, you gave them photographic proof of what their nukes ensure will not happen to them.

Remember the Iran Plot? I asked at the time, "Is Iran really this stupid?" while fearing that the answer was not about Iran's stupidity but that it has assessed this administration all too well. Michael Ledeen put it on the line:

So, to answer the often-asked question (how could the leaders of the Iranian regime have approved such a provocative action in this country?): they do not fear us, they do not believe that Obama is capable of doing anything that would threaten their grip on power, and they viewed the operation as both a provocation and a humiliation of him and his administration. So far, the pathetic lack of anything approaching a serious response – not even a hint of support for regime change in Tehran — combined with empty ritualistic incantations a la “nothing is off the table” suggest that their assessment is correct.

And that is why North Korea takes not the slightest notice of the noises coming from Washington. Odd how this administration's theme song was written in 1968:

Smile an everlasting smile, a smile can bring you near to me.
Don't ever let me find you gone, cause that would bring a tear to me.
This world has lost its glory, let's start a brand new story now, my love.
Right now, there'll be no other time and I can show you how, my love.

Talk in everlasting words, and dedicate them all to me.
And I will give you all my life, I'm here if you should call to me.
You think that I don't even mean a single word I say.
It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away

Hey, Biden-how much money to prevent these rapes?

Vice president Joe Biden has famously said that rapes will rise if the Congress doesn't give $36 billion to states and local governments to hire more cops or keep the ones they got.

So I'm wondering, Joe, since you and your boss have said how right as rain the "Occupy ____" groups are, how much money would it have taken to stop the rapes in their squatter's camps?

Prepping for Titanic's 100th anniversary

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic is coming up in only six short months. James Cameron's 1999 box office panjandrum of the ship will be re-released on April 6 in 3D.

But sorry, this all seems kind of sappy to me.

Broadcaster's career from Pearl Harbor to 9-11

City, County and Congressional Leaders to Honor Luther Masingill for 70 Years in Broadcasting | WDEF News 12

Luther Masingill of Chattanooga, Tenn., has been broadcasting for WDEF since 1940.

Luther holds the record for being on the air at the same station for over 70 years and is believed to be the only announcer to have reported over-the-air both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the attacks of 9/11.

Amazing.

HT: Michael Silence.

Republicans want you to die redux

Joe Biden doubles down:

Vice President Joe Biden now says he didn’t make a reference to rape, and got testy with HUMAN EVENTS when we asked if he would like to retract his comments that the number of sexual assaults would increase if Republicans don’t sign on to Barack Obama’s latest “jobs” proposal.

“I didn’t use, no no no…Let’s get it straight, guy. Don’t screw around with me,” Biden lashed out at HUMAN EVENTS. Then Biden confirmed that he indeed did talk about rape in terms of the President’s spending measure. “Murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise,” if the Democrats agenda isn’t passed, he added.

Previous installment here.

As I have said, though, the only deaths Republicans thirst for is their own.

Brilliance on display

Zeroing in like a laser on the problem:

Republicans: They Thirst for Death

The most perceptive summary of last night's Las Vegas fiasco was a call to Mark Steyn this afternoon: "The winner of the Republican debate was Barack Obama."

The three leading candidates, Romney, Perry and Cain, spent almost all their time shredding one another, forgetting that they are running against the present Oval Office occupant. By halfway into the debate, I had learned that Cain thinks the rest of the field is stupid ("they just don't understand my plan, so I will pedantically explain it again," or words to that effect) and that Romney has no integrity and his conservatism is just for political convenience (according to Perry).

Whomever winds the Republican nomination will have been so slashed and trashed by his own party that Obama's sound and film bites for his campaign will be written by Republicans.

What does it all evidence but this?

Dream the impossible dream . . .

... with emphasis on the "impossible."

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A woman arrested at “American Idol” tryouts says she will continue to follow her dream to sing.

Brittany Acosta, 21, was arrested when police say she tried to force her way into the competition. ...

According to police, she said: “I’m not leaving. This is my dream. My life is ruined.”

Acosta admits she’s tried out at six different times in six different cities to try to make “American Idol.”

Costa was arrested last month and charged with trespassing. She’s accused of showing up at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for “American Idol” tryouts without credentials and refusing to leave.

I am reminded of the remark of the Old West steam engine locomotive engineer who saw a buffalo ahead of him, charging the train at full tilt. "Old boy," he said, "I admire your courage but your judgment stinks." And so with Ms. Costa: we may admire her determination but at some point her judgment doesn't seem too good.

This is what she's up against every time she goes to an audition:

And that is only part of the crowd trying to get an audition.

Rulers and riches

Top Income in U.S. Is...Gasp!...Wash. D.C. Area:

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, government data show.

The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese, director of Prosperity Agenda, a Baltimore-based advocacy group trying to narrow the divide between rich and poor.

“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”
Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data.

Speaks for itself.

My flirtation with Obamaism

Remember when then-candidate Barack Obama told Joe "the Plumber" that he wanted "to spread the wealth around?"

No. Really. You're kidding me. Barack Obama actually told that Joe the Plumber guy that he wants to "spread the wealth around." What, did Obama just get done reading the Wikipedia entry on Huey "Share the Wealth" Long or something? Was he somehow channeling that left-wing populist from the Depression? Talk about playing into the most extreme stereotype of your party, that it is infested with socialists.

And that quote is from USNews, which supported Obama in 2008 (today, not so much).

On Monday I had my own flirtation with Obamaism and did not even realize what I had done until later in the day. That day my wife and daughter and I ate lunch at a Chinese buffet that we had never dined at before. The chow was fine and the young lady attending our table did a great job.

Now, here's the rub. I almost never under-tip. For me to leave less than the full tip (runs 15 percent or so around these part) happens maybe twice per year, and then for only truly terrible table service. I over-tip if the service is above average. This lady's service was.

So I go to the counter to pay the bill and ask for and receive a discount for being retired military, not an uncommon thing around here. Feeling generous, I added the discounted amount to the tip.

Then later in the afternoon it hit me: that was Obamaism in action. I basically took money from the restaurant's owner when I asked for the discount and gave it to one of his employees. So in fact, I sacrificed nothing and walked out feeling good about my generosity. But I was generous with OPM - and that is exactly what the entire political class of our country is doing to you and me.

I have learned a lesson here. But our government never does.

Endnote: Us Congressman Davy Crockett had something to say about this.

And here is the video with Joe the Plumber.



And just for the heck of it, here are the top 10 true facts about Davy Crockett. He makes Chuck Norris look like a pansy.

Pollster misses his own point

POLLSTER DOUG SCHOEN: In interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters. Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway. [link]

"Yet?" Schoen misses the point. The sentence should not read, "Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway."

It should say, "That's why Democrats are embracing them."

Osama bin Laden still lives!

At least in the fondest hopes of campaign 2012. David Axelrod already has let the cat out of the bag: Obama will ride Osama's demise for all its worth and then some.

"Get used to him"

The American Spectator : The Woman on the Plane:

Ben Stein:

On the way home from the doctor today, though, on the radio news, I heard President Obama dropping the "g" sound at the end of his sentences the way he does when he thinks he's addressing working people. When he thinks he's addressing business people, he keeps in the "g" sound. That's politics. He could be a lot worse.

Just so you know, we don't have anyone who can beat him. Get used to him.

Thanks for the cheerfulness, Ben!

" doing his best to lose the peace"

BLACKFIVE: Abdicating Iraq

Sums it up succinctly and well.

Why parents love Occupy Wall Street

Found here.

Nationalize the Fed!

Occupy Wall Street’s Marxists--Charles Gasparino - NYPOST.com

A little trip down to Zuccotti Park and a brief conversation"

One woman was holding a “Nationalize the Federal Reserve” sign; I tried to explain that the Fed is already nationalized, because it’s part of government, and she told me to “go check my facts -- it’s privately owned."

The Obama supporter's conundrum

OBAMA: Congress Is Apparently Too Stupid To Understand My Jobs Bill, So We're Going To Simplify It For Them

President Barack Obama took a shot at Congress on Monday, saying they might have had difficulty wrapping their heads around his 200-page jobs bill.

"We're going to break up my jobs bill. Maybe they [Congress] couldn't understand it all at once," he said in Asheville, North Carolina — the first stop of his three-day bus tour promoting the American Jobs Act.

You have probably seen the Audi ad with Phil Jackson in which Jackson tells an irate restaurant manager that "anger is the enemy of instruction."

It would seem that President Obama has not learned an equivalent lesson, that ridicule is the enemy of bipartisanship. Insulting the Congress about your "jobs" bill is not going to motivate them to get right on it.

But let us imagine a diehard Obama supporter trying to assess this debacle. This supporter believes with all her heart that the only way to revive the economy is to pass all the president's "jobs" bill. Never mind that economists have not been exactly lining up to throw their reputations behind supporting the bill. Never mind that it is nothing but more of the same thing that has failed completely since January 2009. This support's belief, like almost all beliefs of the Left, is unassociated with actual facts. It is ideology alone that sustains this supporter.

But here is her conundrum:

1. Obama is simply unable to bring the factions of the Congress together, including fractious members of his own party, to get the bill passed.

2. Or Obama is unwilling to do what it takes to get the bill passed, of which his inflammatory rhetoric is evidence. Alienating the members who should be your natural allies may be less a sign of ineptitude than unwillingness.

So - shall the Obama supporter continue to support the president when he routinely does not get done what the supporter thinks is most important? And if so, why?

This is exactly the question that is driving Obama's numbers ever lower. En masse, his formerly huge cohort of supporters are dwindling fast. While they can't support Obama any more, they are not running to the Republicans, either. Even so, when Obama loses reelection next year, it will be less because of massive Republican turnout than that former Obama voters stayed home.

Update: Maybe that's why Obama continues to remind people that the Republicans just want you to die.

Update: And VP Biden says that Republicans want you to be raped.

Wall Street occupiers long for the 1950s

Mark Steyn: Young ‘Occupiers’ think like their grandparents | decline, college, ever - Opinion - The Orange County Register

My colleague Rich Lowry correctly notes that many of the beleaguered families testifying on the "We are the 99%" websites have real problems. However, the "Occupy" movement has no real solutions, except more government, more spending, more regulation, more bureaucracy, more unsustainable lethargic pseudo-university with no return on investment, more more more of what got us into this hole. Indeed, for all their youthful mien, the protesters are as mired in America's post-war moment as their grandparents: One of their demands is for a trillion dollars in "environmental restoration." Hey, why not? It's only a trillion.

Beneath the allegedly young idealism are very cobwebbed assumptions about societal permanence. The agitators for "American Autumn" think that such demands are reasonable for no other reason than that they happen to have been born in America, and expectations that no other society in human history has ever expected are just part of their birthright.

They might want to listen to some wisdom from Dylan.

Is this the most stupid possible?

I am wondering whether it is possible to do anything stupider than this. Nothing comes to mind.



It was just dumb luck that he didn't blow his own brains out. And I do mean dumb luck.

BHO = FDR, and it's not a good thing

Obama Channels FDR–Again | Power Line

Despite the received wisdom of the age, it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who "put the 'great' in the Great Depression." And BHO is determined to follow FDR's example.

War on photography and its face

The Knoxville News-Sentinel's Michael Silence reports what happened to Nashvillian BillHobbs when Bill went down to cover an Occupy Nashville protest and Legislative Plaza, which as you might expect from the name, is public property. Here's Bill's video:



Needless to say, as Michael pointed out, photographing in public is legal. At the Youtube page there are some comments, including these two.

I want to add my voice as someone from the Occupy Nashville group that this is absolutely NOT in the spirit of the OCcupy group. I would like to add my invitation for you to return and take all the pictures and videos you want. this incident was discussed last night in committee meetings and the general assembly, and there was unanimous agreement that this sort of behavior is not representative of the group and that you should be invited back.

Bufflo55

To which Bill replied,

Thank you to those from OccupyNashville who said I'm welcome to be there, and that you have taken the issue up with "Mr. Goon." By the way, he has been identified - police provided me his name, Steve Reiter. He has previously been arrested and charged with simple assault in a similar situation involving a downtown resident who was photographing homeless people. Mr. Reiter is a "homeless advocate." He was acquitted at trial. His attorney happens to be Patrick Frogge, also OccupyNashville's atty.

I've known Bill practically since I started blogging in 2002, though I have not spoken with him in quite some time. Glad he came through this all right!