Pelosi: Absolutely, I Agree With The Majority of My Fellow Catholics That The Catholic Church Itself Should Be Compelled to Pay for Birth Control and Abortions
—Ace
She didn't actually say she was "standing with her fellow Catholics" this time, as she claimed last time -- but the rest of it is accurate enough.
By the way: cost of the birth control pill, per month: $9
Cost of the morning after pill: $20-30
This is about sparing workers those costs, huh?
And here's the world's most boring question: Will the Maine Twins defect from the GOP on the mandate?
I don't really think this is a question. Of course they will.
After Obama's "compromise"...
Collins made a similar statement: “While I will carefully review the details of the president’s revised proposal, it appears to be a step in the right direction.”
Snowe, by the way, has been introducing contraception-coverage mandates for years -- with no exemption for religious organizations or conscience objectors.
So.
Not a hard one, huh?
By the way, in that case, absolutely, primary them out. At that point, if they can't even show up for an easy vote, what good are they? None.
Nate Silver: The Campaign Fundamentals Now Favor Obama; He's a 60 Percent Favorite to Win
—Ace
Over Romney, the most generic Republican.
If G.D.P. grows at 2.5 percent from now through November — that is the current consensus forecast in the Wall Street Journal panel of economists — Mr. Obama would be a 60 percent favorite to win the popular vote against Mr. Romney, and a 77 percent favorite against Mr. Santorum.
The GDP is now projected to be 2.5% through November? That's news to me.
But there you go. Nate Silver assumes, as I do, that candidates closer to the center will do somewhat better in the general (hence the old "run to the center" maxim after the convention), but I know a lot of people insist this is false.
But... Now Gallup has him suddenly losing five points, down to 43 again?
Keith Olbermann Goes From "No Rapes At Occupy" To, Um, A Few Rapes At Occupy, But Occupy Girls Were The Victims
—Ace
Who the hell else would be the victim at an Occupy Camp?
First, Olbermann and Kos laughed off the rapes at Occupy.
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/ifOf1Gh0Oi0 ]By the way, holy frick, Breitbart goes wild in that clip. That must have been after we both did three lines of cocaine off the shaven chest of a 15 year old Guatamalan boywhore named "Snacky-Pants."
Kos remembers. He was there.
So anyway, after Bathtub Boy and, um... what can I call Kos that he hasn't been called before?
So, Bathtub Boy and, um, Captain Vaginal Sex, I guess would best describe him there, claim there were no rapes, and laugh off the very idea of rape, Lee Stranahan sent over a list of the rapes.
Madison, WI: 10-27-2011 — Madison Occupiers Lose Permit Due to Public Masturbation
Cleveland: 10/18/2011 — ‘Occupy Cleveland’ Protester Alleges She Was Raped
Seattle: 10/18/2011 — Man Accused of Exposing Self to Children Arrested
Cleveland: 10/29/2011 — Rape Reported at Occupy Cleveland
Dallas: 10/24/2011 — Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault Of Teen At Occupy Dallas
Portland: 10/16/2011 — Sex Offender Registers Occupy Portland Camp as Address
Lawrence, KS: 10/25/2011 — Sexual Assault Reported at Occupy Camp
Glasgow: 10/26/2011 — Woman Gang-Raped
Manchester, NH: 10/28/2011 — Woman charged with pimping teen recruited at Occupy NH rally
NY: 10/30/2011 — Woman Assaulted in Her tent
NYC: 11/3/2011 — Occupier Busted In Tent Grope, Suspected In Rape
Chula Vista, CA: 11/6/2011 — Underage Girl Missing From Occupy Protests
Philadelphia, PA: 11/13/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Rape
Austin, TX: 11/15/2011 — Occupier Accused of Masturbating in Front of 16 Year-old Girl
Chicago, IL: 11/16/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Child Porn
St. Louis, MO: 11/18/2011 — Woman Sexually Assaulted
NYC: 11/19/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Forcibly Touching Woman
Oh and there are reports of Occupy covering this stuff up, so this is just the stuff where they didn't get assaulted girls to remain silent.
Now after that, Keith decided he'd better "debunk" this rightwing slander.
Oh by the way...? Notice how perfect his media cocooning was. He never heard about this stuff. The MSM refused to cover it, and of course none of his leftwing blogs covered it, so he was, as usual, in a state of perfect ignorance about actual facts.
I won't link Olbermann's "debunking," because most of it is here, where Lee Stranahan debunks the debunking.
Basically Keith Olbermann weasels away from his earlier claim of "No rapes, no apologies," to a modified limited hangout where maybe there are some rapes, but for various reasons, they don't count.
A big one is the claim that he's not sure if the perpetrators were themselves Occupiers.
Basically he's claiming if seedy, lower-class dregs showed up to these things, they don't count, because they're not the nice upper middle class private-college white kids who controlled the events.
Of course he doesn't admit that he's wrong, despite the fact there are some rapes here.
Finally, Media Bistro weighs in and pronounces Keith Olbermann a clown.
On Monday, Current’s Chief News Officer created an uproar when he and guest Markos Moulitsas joked about alleged rapes at Occupy Wall Street protests. This is always a dumb move. He later doubled-down on the stupid when he tweeted “No Occupy rapes, no cover-up, no apology, no retraction…” and accused BigGov’s Andrew Breitbart of creating the whole thing in an attempt to discredit the protests.
...
In his “debunking,” Olbermann changed his tune from “No Occupy rapes” to “Because almost none of the allegations are of rape and most of this list are duplicated…” to “2 stories duplicated” to “Occupy MEMBERS were victims.” That’s quite a journey in just one day, especially without ever acknowledging his position completely changed.
Even still, where he ended up, that the victims and not the perpetrators were the only Occupy people involved in these rapes and sexual assaults, isn’t the truth. After Olbermann’s “debunking, Stranahan was back a few hours later with a section by section debunking of what Olbermann said. Keith then went silent, maybe to bed, maybe to play with his baseball cards, or maybe to Stuart Smalley in the mirror to calm his nerves.
In semi-related news, Media Matters can't rebut any of the facts reported by the Daily Caller.
All they can say is that the sources are "anonymous" (but no claim they're inaccurate) and I Question the Timing.
I question the timing too. This should have been done two years ago.
Thought
Bumped
—Ace
Monty's got a big Doom post for tomorrow [since posted], and while I don't have anything to add to it per se, I have a related thought.
I grew up on the East Coast. For a while, I lived in California.
I was blown away to learn that people could just start bonfires on the beach, whenever they liked.
Now, to be honest, I learned on this when the government was trying to crack down on the practice, but I was blown away at the idea that a private citizen could, in this country, previous to changes in this law at least, simply create a bonfire on the beach and enjoy it. Just because he wanted to.
Then I started to think like this: What kind of a mind-screw did they do on me when I should be surprised that people would be allowed to do this?
You see what I mean? My default mental state, thanks to the more statist area I grew up in (at least as far as bonfires) was that of course I wasn't permitted by The State to build a bonfire and enjoy it.
I internalized that. My default belief, absent any external stimulus, was that of course that would be an Illegal Act, and of course I should not Break the Law.
And this is where I begin to get angry:
How much of each of our current mental landscapes are shaped by government such that we internalize the idea that the basic right to be left alone (presuming you're not destroying other's property) doesn't exist?
How much of we come to accept such restrictions as "just normal"?
If you try to open a shop, how many licenses and inspections and certificates do you need?
And we all of course accept that. Of course we cannot perform a lawful trade without first securing the go-ahead of a half-dozen bureaucratic agencies.
I mean, that's just normal, right? That's just how it is, right?
Sixty years ago, would we have thought that was normal?
Or would we have said, "I'm sorry, are you attempting to tell me I cannot pursue a lawful trade without your... permission that I do so?!"
To what extent have we internalized that the "normal" situation of our life is to be unfree, to the extent that a simple pleasure, like building a bonfire on a beach and (get this!) drinking wine while watching it burn, seems like a bizarre indulgence of a malfunctioning anarchy?
I'm angry that someone put into my head the reflexive thought: Of course you mustn't do that; you aren't Allowed.
And once you've accepted that basic regime of requiring permission and licensing to do most everything in your life-- that makes it quite easy for the state to simply begin forbidding you to do whole categories of things altogether.
After all, you've accepted you need a license to do this or that, and that license can only come from the government. And if the government then refuses-- well, it's up them, isn't it? They have the right to deny you, right?
But did they?
When did they accumulate this power?
Just over the course of long decades, as a result of a thousand laws passed For the Public Good, and millions of decisions that it just wasn't worth fighting over.
Israel: Nuke Sanctions on Iran Not Working
—Ace
Drudge gives this the red font which I assume means 1) this is aggressive non-diplomatic language that suggests a shift to warplanning or 2) it's a slow news day and Drudge needed a Slammer on his front page.
I don't know. Netanyahu says this every few days. Is this something and I'm missing it?
(I expect there will be an attack. But I don't see how this adds to our information.)
Rasmussen: Santorum Blowing Out Romney in Ohio, 42-24
—Ace
Well, we'll definitely take care of our secondary priority of beating Romney and defeating The Establishment.
Issa Holding Hearings on Abortifacient Mandate
—Ace
Let Nice Deb catch you up on her twitter feed; she's live-tweeting. (Start from lower posts and read up.)
Bill O'Reilly: If Obama's Re-Elected, You Won't Recognize This Country in Four Years
—Ace
I am actually pretty scared.
Check Out How This Guy Authorizes His Ad
—Ace
Glenn Morton's running against Steny Hoyer in Maryland. Well, first he has to win a primary, but I imagine he will.
It seems unlikely he can beat Steny Hoyer in very-blue Prince George County, but he has an advantage: That county is mostly black, and he's black.
Who knows.
He's running one of those Ladd ads, the Turn the Ship Around one. But check out how he says he endorses this message. I think you'll really like it.
Continue reading
Disclosure: I have to disclose that even though I supported this guy when Ladd told me about him I now have a through-someone-else personal connection to the campaign.
Close it up
The Daily DOOM
—Monty
Follow 'The Daily DOOM' on Twitter: @AoSHQDOOM.
[PSA: Today's post is in the form of an essay rather than a series of links. If you want to read the links, you can check my Twitter feed from yesterday.]
In response to my welfare-state rant from yesterday, Marc Eisner of Pileus did me the courtesy of writing a thoughtful response, so rather than abstract it here, I urge you to go read his piece in full before reading my rejoinder.
...all done? Great.
I think Mr. Eisner and I are about 90% simpatico on the question of entitlements and the welfare state in this country. In particular, I agree completely with this paragraph:
We do not live in an ideal world. Ideally, we would not be in the mess we're in right now. Ideally, we'd have an electorate that would understand the long-term harm their addition to welfare dollars is. Ideally, the government would stick to the functions proper to a government and leave the citizens to lead their own lives as they see fit. Ideally, no welfare state would be necessary because the citizens would recognize it for the untenable and liberty-sapping lie that it is.
Continue reading
I've often said that I don't hate the welfare state on fiscal grounds alone. I hate the welfare state because it is morally wrong. I'd hate it even if were indefinitely sustainable. I'd hate it even if it didn't cost me a dime. The modern welfare state, as an expression of the great "progressive" drive towards a secular Utopia, is a poison to the body politic. Whatever good its proponents claim for it in the short run, in the long run it will destroy us if we do not purge it from our society. (I am not speaking here of charity, which is an action taken by the individual for motives of their own; I am speaking of money taken from the individual by the State and redistributed to other individuals deemed by the State to be more worthy of it.)
I think conservatives fear being called heartless or cruel if we push for an end to the welfare state as we know it. Well...perhaps so. Children call their parents cruel when they are forced to take nasty-tasting medicine, or perform some unpleasant task. But the parent knows that whatever the short-term unpleasantness, the action is necessary for the child's long-term health and well-being. A parent unwilling to inflict a small amount of hurt on their child out of misplaced kindness may do the child unspeakable harm in the longer term.
But there is a danger in this metaphor: the government is not your parent. It does not love you. It cannot love you. It cannot give you joy, or happiness, or fulfillment, or a sense of purpose, or satisfaction. The very best a government can do is nurture and protect a society in which those things are made possible. National defense, rule of law, property rights, a level economic playing field, a just and fair tax system: those are the rightful tools of a government in a nation of free people.
So-called "progressives" have, over the past century, convinced many Americans that it is within the government's power to grant us rights and freedoms that we would not otherwise have. This is nonsense. What rights we have, we are born with. The government did not grant them to us; they are natural to us as human beings. Our government is tasked to protect them, not to invent wholly new and artificial "rights" to suit whatever whims may move us at any given time.
The welfare state began (ostensibly) as a project to protect the poorest and most helpless among us: the crippled, the elderly, the abjectly poor, the mentally challenged. Yet now the bulk of the welfare state is aimed not at the needy, but squarely at the relatively wealthy and able-bodied. Social Security and Medicare alone account for nearly half of all government spending -- and that money goes mainly to the relatively well-off elderly. Our welfare state doesn't even fulfill its own mission of lessening the misery of the poor; it simply transfers wealth from the (comparatively poor) young to the (comparatively wealthy) old.
There is so much wrong with this situation, so much that is outrageous and unjust, that it's impossible to discuss with any brevity at all. However pure the motives were of the progressives in creating the welfare state (and I don't think they were particularly pure, even then), it has morphed over the years into a money-gobbling amoral monster that threatens not just our financial futures, but our very existence as a free and sovereign nation. In addition to impoverishing us, the welfare state also enfeebles us -- it turns even the able-bodied into helpless wards of the state, not citizens so much as inmates who cannot imagine a world without regular payments from a faceless government bureaucracy.
I think most conservatives and libertarians agree that this is a horrible state of affairs, but there is no consensus on how to solve the problem. The welfare state is what it is, the argument goes; it is a problem of sunk costs. No one wants to write off all the money they've plowed into the entitlement programs for all these years, particularly people who are near retirement. Political reform is impossible because too many people depend on the money being doled out by the government. We cannot fundamentally change the entitlement system without hurting a lot of people.
Well, here's the thing: the welfare state is going to fall, one way or the other. People are going to be hurt no matter what. We may delay it for awhile, but sooner or later the reckoning will come, and the longer we wait, the more painful the reckoning will be. We need to remember that the welfare state as we know it is a modern contrivance, an experiment gone horribly awry. We are living in an unprecedented historical bubble of relative prosperity and peace, but it is an anomaly in world history. Our ability to sustain this monster we have built is fading fast as the prosperity bubble shrinks.
It's not a question of whether to reform our welfare state: that choice is not in our power. Change is coming, whether we like it or not. The real question is: do we shoulder the burden now, of our own free will, and accepting of the burdens and pains our action will bring; or do we shrug apathetically and let history do the job for us, ten or twenty or fifty years from now?
Progressives have a lot to say about "fairness", but I think they'd better pray that our lives continue to be unfair. We don't deserve our prosperity and peace -- we received them as undeserved gifts from our forebears (and from God, I believe). We don't deserve the food we eat or the clothes we wear or the houses we live in or the cars we drive. We all benefit from the unfairness of civilization. The welfare state is the most unfair thing of all -- the government money-rain falls on the deserving and undeserving alike.
We will revert back to the "fair" mean, though, and probably sooner rather than later. You cannot continue taking more out of a system than you put into it and expect the machine to keep running. (Greece is an object lesson in what happens when a "fair" equilibrium reasserts itself. Pay heed.) If you keep drawing energy from a battery without ever charging it back up, it will go flat -- and all the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the world won't start the current back up again. This is a completely fair outcome as far as Nature is concerned.
I am losing hope that we, as a people, have the will or courage to shout "HALT!" at the runaway train of government spending -- particularly entitlement spending. No one wants to read about old people who can't afford to heat their house in winter, or to buy their heart-pills, or any of the other million-and-one sob-stories Democrats always trot out when their cherished programs are under attack. And many otherwise-conservative people themselves often depend on government largesse in the form of Social Security or Medicare (that "sunk costs" problem) and so try to convince themselves that we can solve the problem later. And later. And later.
We'd all better hope that "fair" isn't our destiny, because it means we would get exactly what we deserve: nothing.
Close it up
Asylum Productions Announces "We Will Not Turn Down A Single Pitch For A Movie" Policy
—Ace
You had me at "Brooke Hogan," but the 2 Headed Shark with 6000 teeth cinched it.
Yes, it's real.
Kind of. It exists. But it's... you know, it's not really real. Is it a real movie when the whole point is to essentially play a $500,000 practical joke?
This production company, The Asylum, has brought you such fare as Mega Shark, and then, of course, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, and, because you demanded it, Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus.
Because I'm just looking to break in to the business, and because I believe these guys will literally not turn down a single pitch, I offer, optimistically, my top twelve pitches for Asylum.
Fingers crossed.
Top Twelve Rejected Golden Movie Pitches For Asylum
12. Monkey Gun. A small-time crook discovers a high-tech gun which shoots Monkeys out of it. Monkey Gun.
11. The Haunting of Stacy's Bosom. Stacy's bosoms are haunted by restless Micmac Indian spirits. The Haunting of Stacy's Bosom.
10. Jenga. A vacationing family is menaced by a giant animated Jenga puzzle the size of a truck. "Don't pull the wrong block!" Jenga.
9. Murder Bucket. A man is possessed by the spirit of lethal bucket. Murder Bucket.
8. PK Rabbit. A gardener awakes from a coma to discover he has the psychic power to lift and throw rabbits with his mind. PK Rabbit.
7. Knucklehead. An evil cosmetic surgeon replaces his model ex-girlfriend's face with nothing but knuckles from medical cadavers. She gets revenge. Knucklehead.
6. Toilet Shark. Not what you think, but a whole new spin. It's a giant shark with a toilet for a head. Toilet Shark.
5. Johnny Flapjacks. A man recovers from a head injury and can see the future in the markings on pancakes. Johnny Flapjacks.
4. Hammersquid, A mad scientist and recreational carpenter creates a squid with hammers at the end of his tentacles. It hits people. Hammersquid.
3. Grizzled. A man receives a heart transplant from a grizzly bear. Horrified to discover he now craves honey, fish, and rape. Grizzled.
2. Spider Rain: Terror in New York City. It starts raining spiders in a Canadian city that sort of looks like New York. Spider Rain.
...and...
1. The Munge. A prostitute contracts a case of The Munge so bad, it kills her clients and transforms them into foul-smelling Munge-Zombies. The Munge.
Hammersquid by @Shikanominarazu, Spider Rain by @NYKensington.
The Two Headed Shark... Is Real? Or an internet goof. I don't know which.
From Tim Blair, via JWF, who notes that shark attacks are predicted to double. Because of global warming.
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.news.com.au%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fdoubleshark.jpg)
"You know who I was thinking...? Brooke Hogan."
"Brook Hogan? Oh, YES! She's great, she's great!!!"
Top Headline Comments 2-16-12
—Gabriel Malor
Overnight Open Thread (2-15-2012)– All Hands Meeting Edition
—Maetenloch
I'm here from the downtown HQ. I'm here from Mitch and Murray.
And I'm here on a mission of mercy.
So let's talk about something important.
A-B-C.
A-always, B-be, C-commenting. HTML is for tag closers only.
One more thing.
A-I-D-A.
Attention, interest, decision, action. Attention -- do I have your attention? Interest -- are you interested? Decision -- have you made your decision for a topic? And action - are you ready to comment this moment?
Because smart military blog commenting is a game of inches.
And because the ladies get cut-off t-shirts. That's just the way it is.
Where's Joe?
Continue reading
8 Inspirational Videos That Will Pump You Up
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/y-AXTx4PcKI ]Some Blacks Insist: 'I'm not African-American'
Jesse Jackson pushed the term in the 80's but it never fully caught on in the black community. And now it appears to be falling out of favor:
Today, 24 years after Jackson popularized African-American, it's unclear what term is preferred by the community. A series of Gallup polls from 1991 to 2007 showed no strong consensus for either black or African-American. In a January 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent of respondents said they preferred black, 35 percent said African-American, 13 percent said it doesn't make any difference, and 7 percent chose "some other term."
I have a friend from South Africa who used to enjoy pointing out at meetings that he was the only real African-American in the room. Given that he wasn't black (or white for that matter), great sputtering and hilarity ensued. (h/t to Betsy's Page)
I've actually tried natto and it was better than it sounds or smells. But leave it to the scandis to come up with something so disgusting it would make hyenas barf - Hákarl:
It is traditionally prepared by beheading and gutting the shark and then burying the carcass in a shallow pit covered with gravelly sand. The corpse is then left to decompose in its silty grave for two to five months, depending on the season. Once the shark is removed from its lair, the flesh is cut into strips and hung to dry for several more months.
Hákarl has a pungent, urinous, fishy odor that causes most newbies to gag. An extremely acquired taste, hákarl was described by the globe-trekking celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain as "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing" he had ever eaten.
The 25 Documents You Need Before You Die
Well given my high income level, inherited mutations, and access to bootleg Chinese organs I doubt I'll ever have to worry about this. But you might.
UN: Fukushima Radiation Health Effects Will Be Relatively Small - Not At All Comparable to Chernobyl
Certain pundits were forecasting doom and some of our more knowledgeable commenters said they were all wrong.
Advantage: AoSHQ commenters.
Confused by Your Clothing Tags?
Not made for meth manufacture and likes to be spanked?
9 famous people you didn't know were star athletes
I don't what company this is or what they're selling but I want to buy it.
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/2qR_94Jmg4A ]Tonight's post brought to you by your inner unicorn:
Close it up
Formerly Reliable Liberal Alan Derschowitz: I Vow I Will Not Vote For Any Candidate With Any Direct Association With the Anti-Semitic, Nazi-Friendly Media Matters
—Ace
First, a little background.
“And for many, many in the pro-Israel community, it would be a game changer.”
../
“When I started reading their stuff it sounded like the kind of stuff you see on neo-Nazi websites,” Dershowitz said. “Or on Hezbollah-supporter websites. It is so extremist. The thing that shocked me is that anybody regarded it as mainstream.”
Media Matters did not respond to a request by TheDC for comment.
Dershowitz said he is not on Media Matters’s email list and is only aware of the language they use when discussing Israel and Israel’s supporters because of emails sent to him from what he identifies as a neo-Nazi website, ReportersNotebook.
“You know where I get their stuff? I read their stuff mostly on a neo-Nazi website that sends it to me,” he explained. “Somehow I am on their mailing list. I am not on Media Matters’s mailing list. But I tend to read Media Matters articles when they’re sent to me by a neo-Nazi website.”
The man behind ReportersNotebook, Michael Santomauro, denied that his email or blog is neo-Nazi in orientation, though he admits to questioning the narrative of the Holocaust and says he believes that Israel is a fascist state.
I'm not a Nazi, I'm just asking some questions about the "narrative" of the Holocaust and the Fascist Zionist state.
And what's that I hear about bread being baked with the blood of Christian babies? Just saying, every rumor has a kernel of truth to it. Just sayin'.
Then he called Media Matters and the Soros/Podesta front organization CAP the David Duke of the extreme left.
Dershowitz has been vocal against Media Matters in recent days, making that charge of anti-Semitism. However, his classification of the Center for American Progress as borderline “anti-Semitic” is noteworthy because both Media Matters and the Center for Progress have received money directly from billionaire left-wing financier George Soros, who has faced similar charges in the past.
“These two organizations have been found to be anti-Semitic by many of the objective monitoring groups,” he said. “And now they are closely associated with the Democratic Party and I have said very clearly there is no room in this tent for me on the one hand, and for Media Matters and for this other group on the other hand."
And he says he will not vote for Obama (he endorsed Obama in 2008) if Obama continues his friendly relationship with Media Matters.
I could not vote for anyone who has anything to do with Media Matters, that’s clear. That’s just clear as can be. I will take an oath here that I will not vote for a candidate that has any direct association with Media Matters. That’s like asking me to vote for Hezbollah or asking me to vote for Hamas or asking me to vote for the Fascist Party. I won’t do it…That association has to stop. Just in the same way that President Obama totally terminated his association with the Reverend Wright, he has to terminate any association with Media Matters and with the intellectual thugs who are behind it.
Yeah I wouldn't count on that.
Obama, Incorporated
A subsidiary of George Soros.
Let me get Alan Derschowitz prepared for something:
It's called a paradigm shift. It's going to seem a little weird and scary at first, but it will also be thrilling and ultimately liberating.
A lot of things that have bothered you for sixty years -- which haven't seemed to make sense to you, because your brain was screening the truth from you -- are suddenly going to make a lot of sense indeed. And you're going to be kicking yourself for not seeing it sooner, like an optical illusion that suddenly changes from a lady's face to a candle.
thanks to @rdbrewer4 and @starchambermaid
Breitbart & Loesch Go After Keith Olbermann on Olby's Strange Claim That Occupiers Never Raped Anyone
—Ace
Olbermann claimed that what is documented to have happened, did not.
And of course he's doubling down. A later tweet proclaims: "No Occupy Rapes, No Cover-Up, No Apology, No Retraction."
If this sounds demented -- given the thorough documentation of Occupy rapes -- I think Olbermann is claiming that Occupy "outsiders" did the rapes, no actual Occupiers.
Oh: Frothy nothing Tommy Christopher joins Olbermann in claiming, bizarrely, that there were no rapes, and Lee Stranahan knocks him around.
"The government makes a crappy venture capitalist"
—Ace
So warned Larry Summers in a 2009 memo warning Obama away from Sonlyndra.
But the government is in the business of politics, not business. These investments were made for political reasons, not business ones.
Despite his record of picking losers—witness the failed "clean energy" projects Solyndra, Ener1 and Beacon Power—Mr. Obama appears determined to continue pushing his brew of federal spending, regulations, mandates, special waivers, loan guarantees, subsidies and tax breaks for companies he deems worthy.
Favoring key constituencies with taxpayer money appeals to politicians, who can claim to be helping the overall economy, but it usually does far more harm than good. It crowds out valuable competing investment efforts financed by private investors, and it warps decisions by bureaucratic diktats susceptible to political cronyism. Former Obama adviser Larry Summers echoed most economists' view when he warned the administration against federal loan guarantees to Solyndra, writing in a 2009 email that "the government is a crappy venture capitalist."
Markets function well when the returns are received and the risks borne by private owners. There are, of course, exceptions: Governments have a responsibility to fund defense R&D and other forms of pre-competitive, generic R&D—e.g., basic science and technology from nanoscience to batteries—but only when they pass rigorous cost-benefit tests and maintain a level playing field among alternative commercial applications.
On the other hand, political investments go to political allies, to pay for political coverage -- to the tune of four f'n' billion dollars.
Obama paid off his cronies?
Bullshit.
You paid off Obama's cronies.
Obama just wrote the check on your account.
“To believe those quiet conversations don’t happen in the hallways — about a project being in a certain congressman’s district or being associated with a significant presidential donor, is naive,” said Gold, who once worked at the Office of Management and Budget. “When you’re putting this kind of pressure on an organization to make decisions on very big dollars, there’s increased likelihood that political connections will influence things.”
The Washington Post notices something JohnE. wrote about six months ago.
Spinner did not have any role in the selection of applicants for the loan program and, in fact, was recused from the decision to grant a $535-million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc. because his wife's law firm represented the company, administration officials said Friday.
So, who is she and what is the name of the law firm?
Well, her name is Allison Spinner and she is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She also personally contributed $2,300 to Barack Obama in 2007.
She wasn't the only employee at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to donate money to Obama's Presidential campaign. A search for donations from individuals with an employer listed as "Wilson Sonsini" and "WSGR" returns over $130,000 in donations. These are donations from individuals, remember. For reference, General Electric donated $529,855 to Obama.
How much did her law firm's clients get from the government?
Oh, a mere $2.75 billion.
Obama Campaign Theme: Hey, Weren't We All Better Off Four Years Ago, When I Was Campaigning For The First Time?
—Ace
Obama's new campaign ad, "The Story of Us," focuses one half its running time on Obama's 2007 campaign.
So we seem to be all agreed: We were in fact better off four years ago, not four years later.
Remember the Glory Days? Right, that was 2007.
Since then...?
Um...
Um....
Had some nice bailouts.
Killed bin Ladin.
Reagan on Libertarianism:
—Ace
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.
Santorum of course strongly disagrees and every time Libertarianism is brought up he mocks it and states he's always fought against this pernicious idea that the government should provide freedom to the maximum extent possible.
And:
Conservatives complain that Romney cannot explain conservatism. He speaks it as a second language. If that.
That's true.
On the other hand, Santorum not only can't speak in terms of a Freedom Agenda, but he expressly repudiates the very concept every single time he's asked about it.
I thought Freedom was a pretty compelling campaign theme.
Time was, most of you thought so too.
But we'll try it your way. We'll see how we do on an avowedly opposite platform.
Rasmussen: Santorum Well Out Front of Romney, Nationally
—Ace
Since the party is determined to make a mistake -- elevating the secondary goal of "Beat Romney" over the primary goal of "Beat Obama" -- I'll cool out on the Santorum stuff.
But when we lose in November... Well, I tried.
Chimichanga?
—Ace
Was it a "great line" in the first place?
I get it, though. Because no Republican in any position of prominence could have used Dana Milbank's lame line -- "All [Democrats] have to offer Hispanics is the chimichanga" -- without experiencing two months of fake, ginned-up "outrage."
Liberals, by definition, are not racist. So if a comment comes along that pushes a stereotype, you must have just misunderstood.
Conservatives, by definition, are racist. So if a similar comment comes along, that's proof of the racism.
But I don't know if doing the same thing in return helps us at all.
But "I Might Have Tacos" Is Racist? The nuanced decisions they make!
I assume the mayor there who said "I might have tacos" as his suggestion for Latino outreach must be a Democrat, as MSNBC studiously refuses to identify his party.
Nope: Rocks says he's a Republican.
So, if a Republican says something similar he gets a national campaign directed against him.
Jim Messina doesn't even issue an apology.
Thanks to @rdbrewer4
Hillary Clinton In Talks To Head World Bank?
—Ace
Good news: She's out of US politics.
Bad news: She's in global politics. For a long time.
Proof it's true? Jay Carney swears it's not true.
...
"Hillary Clinton wants the job," said one source who knows the secretary well.
A second source also said Clinton wants the position.
A third source said Obama had already expressed support for the change in her role. It is unclear whether Obama has formally agreed to nominate her for the post, which would require approval by the 187 member countries of the World Bank.
Here's a bright side I see: If these positions are typically held by French socialists and fellow travelers, wouldn't Hillary's posting there represent a step up, as far as the American/capitalist interest?
Not saying she's terrifically patriotic or capitalist -- just a step up.
Update: Commenters correct me and say the World Bank is traditionally headed by an American; it's the IMF that's traditionally headed by a French socialist.
So, not a step up.
Media Matters Could Lose Its Tax Exempt Status Due To Coordination With White House?
—Ace
Big dangling question mark there, because in a socialist state, the Friends of the State have Privileges.
“If a section 501(c)(3) organization is privately providing to the Democratic Party information for their use in their political activities, that’s a contribution to the party. Maybe not for FEC [Federal Election Commission] purposes, but certainly for IRS purposes, and would violate their 501(c)(3) status,” one tax law expert told The Daily Caller.
“If, on the other hand, they are compiling information and publishing it for anyone to use, including the Democratic Party, that’s a different thing.”
“But if they are privately providing something of value to the Democratic Party, that’s a revocation issue.”
Also, an exempt "educational" organization is supposed to be non-partisan, and addled wack-a-doo Brock is increasingly upfront about MMFA's combatant status in the partisan wars...
Many right-leaning organizations, like the MRC (Newsbusters), rely on the 501(3)(c) exemption. They follow the rules. But I think they get nervous when they see people go headhunting for MMFA, because they know the left will soon be contriving a case against them.
Not a reason to permit MMFA to break the law, of course.
Meanwhile, business is good at David Brock's million-dollar-a-year-in-rent wack shack.
At the end of 2010, Media Matters and Media Matters Action had a combined $11.5 million in assets, including more than $3.9 million in cash and cash investments and $2 million in “publicly traded securities.”
Media Matters reported at the end of 2010 that $612,500 of its assets were “restricted” by donors to be applied to “gun and public safety issues.” During this time, The Daily Caller has already reported, Brock’s personal assistant was carrying a holstered and concealed Glock handgun when he accompanied Brock to events.
Behold The Science Behind The Vanishing Glaciers [ArthurK]
—Open Blogger
I almost hate to point out stuff like this. It's pathetic that the world at large gives Global Warming more credit than Lysenkoism. But it's still taken seriously by people who try to run our lives so I must ridicule them again.
One of the more serious consequences of Global Warming would be the Himalayan glaciers melting away. They're a source of fresh water for a huge chunk of Asia.*Previously, we were treated to the spectacle of the UN's IPCC beclowning themselves when it came out that the prediction of the Himalayan glaciers disappearing by 2035 was based on ... nothing really. But even that didn't mean that they wouldn't melt - just that that prediction was made up. What about the actual measurements of glaciers melting much faster than their replacement rate?Now we learn that those measurements represent a pathetic grade of science.New satellite measurements reveal...And that's with an error range of 20 billion tons! That is, the net melt is likely between 24 billion and MINUS 16 billion. (That range of error means they don't even know if the glaciers are growing or shrinking.)
But why were the previous estimates so far off? Take a deep breath...ASSHOLES! (a full paragraph of cursing deleted)
These sons-of-bitches want to run (and wreck) the world economy to control Global Warming because GW has serious consequences. And they base that program on research like this!?Say a scientist calculates that the sun will expand and engulf the earth in 2 billion years. Then better calculations are done and the new time frame is 1 billion years. Not A Big Deal. That doesn't change how I live. These Global Warming Cultists want me to pay carbon taxes! They want to choose what kind of cars are for sale! If you're going to take that kind of control over people's lives you'd better be right on your data!*BTW, that's also in dispute but that's not the subject of this post.
(put into draft 2/12/2012)
The Daily DOOM
—Monty
Follow 'The Daily DOOM' on Twitter: @AoSHQDOOM.
Rush Limbaugh mentioned Paul Rahe's "American Catholicism's Pact With the Devil" on his show recently, and I thought Rahe's essay was so masterful that I wanted to link it here even though it doesn't exactly meet the DOOM charter. (If you read my Sunday book threads, you'll remember that Rahe is the author of Republics Ancient and Modern as well as many other books and essays.)
Americans seem to have difficulty imagining a time when there was no pervasive government-run welfare state. Yet there was such a time -- and it was not so long ago in the great sweep of history. There was a time when the arm of the federal government did not reach far at all, and citizens had to rely on themselves, their friends, their families, and their communities for help and support. And you know what? It worked, mostly. If there was some massive outbreak of starvation, the elderly and lame being cast out to die in the streets, or orphan children roaming the countryside in packs, it didn't seem to make any of the papers. Yes, there was misery and hardship in the old days; but there is misery and hardship now too, and probably in greater measure. Misery and hardship is the lot of humanity on this earth. Yet our forbears managed to not only get by, but to build the greatest nation in the history of the world...and they did it without an overbearing, interfering, smothering nanny state monitoring their every breath. There was a time before the welfare state, folks. Honest.
Continue reading
Richard Epstein, one of my favorite economists and legal scholars, asks if the federal government can seize state revenues to pay for Medicaid. Federalism is a hollow joke at this point; the states are in such thrall to federal money that they have little will or ability to resist pressure from Uncle Sugar.
Love Stinks: An Economic Manifesto.
Flights by US airlines hit a 10-year low. But the economy is on the upswing! No doubt about it! All is well!
You're probably getting as tired of reading it as I am of writing it: Greece is on the verge of default. Again.
The agonies of Greece have somewhat obscured similar convulsions in fellow Eurozone member Portugal. Portugal is in nearly as dire a situation as Greece, and faces the same grim economic math.
Even when Teh Krugman concedes a point, he does it in the snarkiest "my point stands anyway" manner possible. And he always tries to spin his mistake into some deeper confirmation of his original thesis.
Chicago found to be the most corrupt city in the United States. New Orleans, Detroit demand recount.
America is not producing a workforce trained in the skills necessary for success in the 21st century. Who's to blame? According to this article...you are.
Another sign that we are re-living the dark days of Jimmy Carter: Malthusian alarmism. (Remember the movie Soylent Green? Hunger problem solved.)
President Obama's budget is not a serious piece of legislation, but rather an ideological broadside and leftist battle-cry. The President knows full well that this budget has no chance at all of mustering a majority vote even among his own Democrats, but that's not the point. The point is to add more fuel to the class-warfare fire.
Gas prices are already spiking, and it's still early in the year. Predictions of $5/gallon gas are looking more likely all the time.
If you are new to economics but would like to know a bit more without getting buried under technical terms, statistics, and math, this little video might be for you. Economics 101: S**t happens.
The newest entrant into the LOTB: Wyoming! The culprit, as usual, is unsustainable public-sector pension costs.
-------------------------
Sometimes all you can do is wear a pirate-hat and glare at people.
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimg18.imageshack.us%2Fimg18%2F9792%2F0811catpiratehatclothes.jpg)
Close it up
Top Headline Comments 2-15-12
—Gabriel Malor
Happy Wednesday.
Just one item this morning: nearly half of business owners say they're not hiring because of potential healthcare costs (48%) and government regulations (46%). Never fear, business owners, on both counts it's something a Republican president can help with.
Overnight Open Thread (2-14-2012)
—Maetenloch
Thanks to today's blog excitement tonight's ONT contain 29% fewer words.
Well we're still dealing with the DMCA which is primarily abused by businesses but most people lack the resources to fight back:
A study from Google indicated that 57% of all the claims it received were abuse by targeting a competing business, while 37% were simply not valid copyright claims. Dealing with these claims costs businesses working time and money, of course - probably more so than the infringing copyright would have cost the claimant anyway.
And then there's SOPA which despite its widespread unpopularity is merely on hold.
So basically the state of copyright protection vs. user rights is pretty much this:
And thanks to the Copyright Protection Act and further proposed laws it's unlikely that any work created after 1925 will ever be in the public domain.
So expect all the current online copyright issues to only get worse as the years go by.
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General Government Debt as Percent of GDP by Country
Well we're still better off than Greece and certain African hellholes. So we got that going for us.
Iowa-Hating U of I Professor Hiding Out, Shocked by Iowans' Reactions
And no doubt afraid of Iowahawk's sharp wit and the tiny club-fists of the Hawkeye hordes. It turns out that he had to really work hard to sell his Iowans in the Mist article:
"The story is going viral, so who knows where it'll stop. ... Ironically, I submitted this piece to AT LEAST 40 places before the Atlantic bit," Bloom wrote in an email to fellow UI professor Mark Blumberg. "I even agreed to cut it from 7,500 to 600 words for politico.com and after I did, they rejected it. Ha!"
In the article, Bloom described Iowa's Mississippi River towns as some of the scuzziest cities he's ever been to, and he depicted Iowa's rural residents as meth heads and "wasteoids" waiting to die.
Forever Alone on Valentine's Day?
Well don't be too down - it could be a lot, lot worse. Plus you've got all your imaginary internet frenemies to play with here.
11 Months Later: Japan Then and Now
Some pretty amazing then and now photos of tsunami-damaged areas in Japan. You can tell a lot by whether a culture picks up trash and debris or just lets it sit around until covered up by natural forces.
The Japan All-National Hole Digging Contest
Back when I was digging like a mole-man in our backyard little did my mother realize that I was just training for the Show:
Over a thousand people gathered on the outskirts of Tokyo, shovels and ladders in hand. Their goal: to dig their way to victory in the Japan All-National Hole Digging Competition, and claim the coveted Golden Shovel. The annual contest, now in its 12th year, drew 259 teams from around the country at the weekend to test their hole-digging prowess and claim awards for the deepest hole, the most creative hole and the most original costume worn during the digging.
Island Scandis So Inbred They Need a Website to Avoid Incest
Damn icebacks just can't keep themselves away from lutefisk and cousin-luvin':
Íslendingabók - meaning "book of Icelanders"-is an online incest avoidance search engine. Plug in your name and that of a potential mate, and the site searches a genealogical database to see how closely you're related. It's likely that you'll have some overlap many generations back-in which case you're probably safe from mutant children. But if you share great-grandparents, you might want to reconsider your Nordic hookup.
The Yahoo AoSHQ group. You know the way.
The Twitter - it's got electrolytes.
Tonight's post brought to you by John Wayne's passport:
Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.
Close it up
Apple, Tree: Oliver Stone's Son Converts to Islam
—Ace
Progressive.
...
According to the Tehran Times, in order to convert one must recite the shahada, or the Islamic “profession of the faith,” and believe it in order to convert to Islam: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger.”
Apparently Sean's as stupid as his jackass father. He's not rejecting Christianity and Judaism, just rejecting them.
"Vetting:" Media Matters Memo Proposed Hiring Investigators to Dig Dirt on FoxNews Employees
—Ace
They didn't go forward with the plan (as far as we know).
I imagine only because people in the leftwing media -- who would be the next targets, of retaliatory digging from the right -- warned them off.
But this is where their heads are at.
What Frisch proceeded to suggest, however, went well beyond what legitimate presidential campaigns attempt. “We should hire private investigators to look into the personal lives of Fox News anchors, hosts, reporters, prominent contributors, senior network and corporate staff,” he wrote.
...
The memo goes on to suggest new and unusual ways to harass Fox News: “detailed opposition research” on the network’s staff and executives, attacks against Fox News employees on Facebook and other social media, mailing anti-Fox News literature to their homes and placing “yard signs and outdoor advertising in their neighborhoods.”
At one point, Frisch suggests putting “a mole inside of” the network.
The cloak-and-dagger tactics seemed to make Frisch jumpy. “Fox is likely to retaliate,” he wrote. Media Matters should find “ways to protect the privacy of our employees and the security of our office.”
I like that after endorsing the notion that no one at Fox should have privacy, he follows up with a caution that Media Matters will of course have to take steps to protect its own workers' privacy.
Bulldog Puppies
—Ace
Palette cleansing.
Continue reading
Review: Iron Sky Sucks, Lame Sarah Palin Gags Are Off-Script In A Silly Movie About Space Nazis
—Ace
As I pimped the concept, I also have to warn you away from the actual product.
I didn't see it, but these guys did.
It should have been a huge tip off when the President of 2018 is a Sarah Palin mock-off (Stephanie Paul) that the movie’s “relevant” comedy would be too easy and too blunt. It’s so on the nose that they should have gotten a mortgage on the left nostril.
...
When it’s strident political commentary, the production comes off like a small child repeating a joke it heard on the nightly news. Plus, that small child just happens to have written the joke on a hammer and is swinging it repeatedly at your face.
...
Beyond getting stuck on a tired, one-note joke for its second half, the movie is plagued by being average. It never swings for the fences. Had it been offensively bad, it might still have been entertaining. As it stands, it’s so bland that shrugging seems like it would be giving it too much credit.
...
Frankly, there aren’t enough jokes and there aren’t enough jokes that work. If there were a stronger plot, it could take some of the burden, but it doesn’t grow much beyond “There are Nazis on the moon, and they are going to attack.” At the same time, even with the high concept, the damned thing is overly complicated. It shifts from one group of characters to the next, trying hard to find which one is consistently funny, and no one is to be found.
...
What’s worse is the completely misguided swerve into intelligent humor. The script just isn’t smart enough for it, and cramming lame political snipes into a movie that’s already established itself as throwaway zany fun with an army that goose steps in low gravity makes it even more obvious that the joke writers didn’t get their own punchlines. The clown shouldn’t try high satire, especially if the clown isn’t that funny to begin with.
Having not seen it, I'll take a guess.
The Left is so averse to war (at least wars waged by the West) they cannot even make a silly, absurdist movie about it, without attempting to show you that Both Sides Are Bad. Lest you get the Wrong Idea and their entertainment push you into a Warlike Militaristic Extremism.
Even in a movie about space Nazis, this is apparently a big concern.
So they just can't have a movie about Space Nazis; they need to show both sides as being absurd and dangerous, and hence they shoehorn this apparently flailing "humor" about a Palinesque president to show you that War Is Never The Answer.
If a movie wants an adult to like it, it should treat the audience like presumptive adults, and not endeavor to add Cautionary Tales to absurdist comedies just to make sure that no one Gets The Wrong Idea Here.
The left is big on People Thinking For Themselves.
In theory.
When it comes to actual permit such a thing, they get cold feet, and make sure the Moral is well and truly hammered home into your skull.
Thanks to @slublog.
Brief Review: Mission Impossible 4 (Ghost Protocol).
The reviews all say this is unexpectedly good.
The reviews are mostly wrong.
There is nothing exactly wrong with Ghost Protocol. It's not a bad movie.
Similar to my mini-review of Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, I'll say the same thing: It's a professional job. People showed up and got a check, and they mostly earned their checks.
But a professional job is not the same as an inspired one. There's just nothing of any special interest here. The villain is like the 70s Bond villains-- he just literally wants to destroy the world. He has a theory that extinction is a natural and vital part of evolution. Like Stromberg or Drax. He's not plausible, and he's barely ever on the screen, so he doesn't register as anything other than a Cardboard Menace.
Like other Mission: Impossible entries, the plot starts and stops as Cruise briefs us on the next objective, and quickie explanations are offered as to why interesting stunts must be performed. For the Dubai sequence: We need to break into the server, but we can't do it from the inside, just because. So, you have to go outside the building, 130 floors up.
This isn't super-objectionable. It's not the worst scripting problem you can imagine. But the story really doesn't proceed organically from one sequence to another (as it did in, say, Die Hard) but only via four Writers' Interventions.
And now we have to do this.
And now we have to do this.
And now we have to do this.
Eh. Not the smoothest scripting possible.
There's a ploy in this Dubai sequence, incidentally, that's very ham-handed and illogical. If you'll forgive my getting into the weeds of plot logic for a moment...
Basically, their initial planned ruse is to have a Courier meet an IMF agent pretending to be his Recipient, and have the Recipient meet an IMF agent pretending to be his Courier, so that both parties think the exchange has occurred, when in fact it hasn't, and then IMF walks off with the MacGuffin being delivered.
But Tom Cruise calls an audible, and insists the MacGuffin must actually be delivered from Courier to Recipient, and then they'll just follow the Recipient.
Fine. Except that for no good reason they then proceed with the ruse -- the false meeting con -- even though they could now just let it go forward, for real, because they're no longer intercepting the delivery at all. Now they're permitting the delivery, and following the parties afterwards.
But they go ahead with a complicated and dangerous ruse anyway (relying on the unlikely assumption that neither party knows what the other looks like) because I guess they think it's neat and they have to fill up fifteen minutes.
I don't pray at the Altar of Script Logic, and am willing to let things like this slide, but it's indicative of the Because The Writer Said So mode of plot evolution here.
There are a few neat tech bits-- they use a real-life-plausible Scrim and holograph-projecting camera to make a hallway appear empty to the guard watching it.
Honestly, though? A nuclear missile launch as the Big Threat, and a race to deliver the Abort Code?
Not really very original, is it?
The action is firmly bland. There's a neat-in-concept fight inside a mechanical parking facility, with cars being ferried up and down by robot action as villain and hero fight, but it's all a bit contrived, and feels more like Minority Report than Mission Impossible anyway.
To all the critics praising it-- seriously, you've overrated this. This is a very average spyjinks movie with no emotional arc or even much of a thrill-factor. I think you guys are just rooting for Brad Bird, to make sure he gets a shot at live-action cinema, after his good work on The Iron Giant and The Incredibles.
It's fine, but for people like me, who don't really love going to the movies, but would rather see it on DVD -- there's not much here that is compelling. I'm told the Dubai parts looked good on IMAX, but it's not in IMAX anymore (I saw it in normal projection) and there's no reason to rush out and see this in the cinema. DVD or HBO will do you just fine.
It's not bad. But it's not good, either. Two and a half stars.
If anyone hasn't seen it yet -- rent Mission: Impossible III instead, which is a surprisingly effective entry in the disappointingly dunderheaded series, with a truly malignant villain, and J.J. Abrams coaching a nearly-lifelike performance out of Tom Cruise.
Honestly, I think the positive buzz here is a combination of Brad Bird Boosterism plus genuine shock that an M:I movie could be good.
Which tells me that people didn't see M:I 3. M:I 3 was good. So to me, this wasn't "surprisingly good." This was a letdown.
Santorum: Limited Government Is One Thing But I Have A Duty To Provide Government Subsidies To My Voters
—Ace
Yes, awesome, he's an extremist on stuff I'm a moderate on but a squish RINO moderate on the things I'm an extremist on, but I should support him, because, sweater vest.
We've come a long way since our onetime approval of the sentiment, "I want to make Washington, DC as inconsequential to your lives as possible."
Washington, DC
We're back, baby.
Santorum Flip-Flopped On Abortion While Running In A Blue District, Called Himself "Progressive Conservative"
—Ace
Running in Blue parts of the country tends to do that to you.
That was 1990, by the way. So his conversion occurred four years before Mittens'.
PPP: Santorum Edges Romney In Head-to-Heads Against Obama, But Both Lose
—Ace
I don't think this tells us more than the following, though:
Romney's gaffes and weaknesses have begun to bubble in the public consciousness, whereas Santorum's -- until recently a footnote candidate, even when he won in Iowa -- haven't yet.
So the first piece of evidence was after Santorum won Iowa, the first controversy was, “Do you think states should have the right to ban contraception?” Where did that come from? Then you remember that ABC debate with that paid Democratic hitman George Stephanopoulos went after Romney trying to…
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Friend of yours, Dick.
MORRIS: …trying to pin him down on, on contraception? And Romney kept saying, “George, nobody wants to make contraception.” “No, but do they have the theoretical power to do it?” Remember, it was five minutes, people were laughing at him, booing him. Well that…
HANNITY: You think he was doing this under direct orders?
MORRIS: Under orders. And I think, and now he comes out with this thing on contraception. They want to create the idea, and it’s no coincidence, that he came out with it after Minnesota and Colorado which was Santorum’s victories. They want to create the impression that the Republicans will ban contraception, which is totally insane, but they’re floating it out and they’re bringing it out there. And this move on Obama’s part was part of injecting that issue.
Let's skip the inevitable smackdown and just note the conclusion: I am going Charles Johnson in carrying the left's water.
It's not as if I'm trying to warn people against electoral calamity and walking directly into someone else's campaign strategy. No, I'm going Charles Johnson.
Always remember that if someone disagrees with you tactically or on some political issues, the best and most accurate reply is to insult him as a "RINO."
Obama Ups Subsidy For Chevy Volt to $10,000 While Cancelling $8000 DC Voucher Program
—Ace
Question, by the way.
Obama talks a lot about the rich paying their fare share. And suggests it's patriotic to overpay taxes.
That being the case, why do the rich not purchase the Chevy Volt without the subsidy? Sure, it'll cost $7500 more (or $10,000 more, according to Obama's new budget).
Is that not patriotic? Why do Obama's rich minions need to be bribed into (supposed) virtue?
Anyway, the rich win, the poor lose.
That's not a surprising outcome in socialism.
The Daily Caller reports that the subsidy “would cost taxpayers $100 million each year if it is approved by Congress, presuming only 10,000 new-technology autos are sold each year.” And if the President reaches his goal of putting 1 million of those kinds of cars on the road by 2015, the subsidy could cost $10 billion.
Why is the subsidy necessary? It’s no big mystery. Despite the slick marketing, high-gas mileage, and environmentally friendly cachet that comes along with them, the cars just aren’t selling. In January, General Motors sold 603 Volts — almost twice as many as in January 2010, but less than half of its total sales in December. And in 2011, GM missed its projected sales volume for the vehicle, shipping 7,671 of the vehicles — well short of its target of 10,000.
...
To be clear: $10,000 in taxpayer funds to subsidize the purchase of an electric car versus $8,000 to give a child a choice in education. We know what the President chose. Which would you pick?
During the ObamaCare debate, there was some question whether Obama would choose to lose his progressive base or the independents who hated ObamaCare.
Not a question at all, I thought. Progressives give you money and votes; Independents, at most, will give you votes (and they'll tend to split votes fairly evenly besides).
So, forced to choose, you go with the people giving you the money.
As Allah noted last night, Obama also chose to kill Keystone. Sure, tens of thousands of construction workers would have had jobs. But they don't donate money -- and the Sierra Club and other progressive "environmental" groups do.
Now, as between poor people in DC, who are voting for Obama no matter what, and the green lobby, or especially the cash-rich Teachers unions -- who does Obama side with?
The ones with the money.
Not really all that hard to explain. Odd thing about socialism -- while some of the rich claim they want a socialist society, they want the costs of their preferred mode of government to fall on others, too.
Which itself isn't surprising, either. Once you've got the socialist frame of mind, why shouldn't your preferred socialist mode of government come out of someone else's pockets, too?
Valentine's Wishes
—Ace
@jimmiebr tweets:
...as a rejected Candy Heart message.
Seems like a subject we could do well with.
Oh, and the trailer for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is out.
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The Daily DOOM
—Monty
Follow 'The Daily DOOM' on Twitter: @AoSHQDOOM.
I am a "demographics is destiny" guy, and this City Journal article about California's demographics since 1970 or so is a good explanation of why I feel that way. Here's a little taste:
Speaking of uncomfortable demographic truths...Victor Davis Hanson hits the same note I've hit myself: there is no such creature as a 'European'. There is only the same collection of Germans, Frenchmen, Walloons, Flemings, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Greeks that there has always been.
I want you to sit down in a comfortable chair and make sure you have good light and maybe a hot drink to savor while you read this. It may be the most sublimely stupid piece of op-ed "journalism" ever committed to print. There is a certain kind of genius to its gemlike perfection: it is utterly stupid, with no glimpses of wit or clue anywhere. It is a perfect spherical mass of pure weapons-grade idiocy. When you are done reading, and have enjoyed your belly-laughs, do the poor ink-stained wretches who excreted this little turd a kindness and send them a link to Bastiat's "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen".
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I'm sure you'll be as shocked as I was to find that 16 congressmen funneled millions of dollars to their relatives' employers. Politicians engaging in graft and dirty dealing? Say it ain't so!
The prophet Stevie Ray Vaughan sayeth:
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman
Yeah, I'm the taxman
Wait, I thought Obama and his ilk thought imperialism was bad? Or is it another one of those deals where it's only bad when Republicans do it?
Speaking of His Majesty the King Barack I: his Royal Highness seeks more gold from the gentry. Simply to help the poor suffering peasants, you understand.
You keep using this word 'cut'. I do not think it means what you think it means.
OSHA has declared this a hazardous material. Workers must wear protective gear before handling something this toxic.
One-fifth of Americans now on the dole? If you count all state and federal benefit payouts, it's probably closer to half.
Rep. Paul Ryan to President Obama: I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
You can't harness a plow-horse to a thoroughbred without making both of them suffer.
Q: How does Providence, RI avoid bankruptcy? A: No one seems to know.
Dodd-Frank is a stupid law for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it tries to address the wrong problem, and does it badly. It basically sanctifies certain banks as "too big to fail", and protects them (no matter how bad or inefficient they are) by regulating anything and everything. Dodd-Frank protects the institutions when it should be protecting the assets those institutions hold.
Note to public-sector pension funds: equity returns will not save you. Workers -- not taxpayers, the workers themselves -- have to kick in the bulk of their retirement savings on their own. There's no other way around it.
Moody's to just about every European nation: BAM!
How economists wish their beloved a Happy Valentines Day.
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Even DOOM cats are not above a romantic gesture on Valentine's Day.
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Close it up
Santorum Surges Among Tea Partiers
—Gabriel Malor
Santorum has surged among Republican voters who as recently as 2010 claimed to oppose earmarks, big government, and over-regulation. Once upon a time they also wanted to reform entitlement and welfare programs and to curtail government meddling in the free market. Yes, I'm talking about the Tea Party, and, yes, this gets right back to my point that inconsistent voters will behave inconsistently (and therefore get no respect).
Rick Santorum passionately defends earmarks, even today. There has been no come-to-Jesus moment for the unrepentant former Senator and Congressman, who during his 16 years inside the Beltway racked up a $1 billion in earmarks. During that time, Santorum sided with Democrats to block cuts to federally-funded food stamps programs and to raise the minimum wage. He sought (and got) money for "green" projects in Pennsylvania and, among numerous other wasteful votes, voted for the Bridge to Nowhere.
Tea Partiers, you have some 'splainin' to do. I know, I know. You don't like Romney because you only think he's saying what you want to hear. Now, I don't believe that, but explain to me how Romney preaching fiscal conservatism is worse than Santorum, who isn't even pretending to support it.
Here he is in a 2006 campaign video (you know, the year he lost badly) saying the Bush 43 White House probably called him a lot of names because he fought their efforts to cut Amtrak funding. His mailer that year touted a great many big government achievements, including this notable brag:
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Just what was the Gas Affordability and Security Act of 2006? Let's look.
Doesn't sound very conservative to me. The GAS Act had all the hallmarks of the big government excess the Tea Party was trying to get away from in 2009 and 2010: new redundant federal criminal laws, federal commissions, picking winners and losers in the energy market, and, um, teleslacking federal employees.
Oh, did I mention Santorum voted for Sotomayor? Yeah, he did. At least he's not bragging about that anymore.
What say you, Tea Partiers?
Top Headline Comments 2-Valentine's-12
—Gabriel Malor
Happy Tuesday.
First, a "news" item.
There are two excellent Obama budget deficit roundups that tell you everything you need to know, one from Guy Benson and one from David Freddoso.
The Beeb is reporting that stem cells of the adult variety have been used to repair scarring of the heart.
Washington became the fourth state to legislatively enact gay marriage yesterday. Marriages will not begin immediately; there's a 90 day waiting period. During that period, opponents will be gathering signatures to put a referendum on the law on the November ballot. In a similar effort, Maine voters repealed their legislatively-enacted gay marriage law in 2009. Rick Santorum wasted no time hustling out to Washington to meet with opponents of the law.
Overnight Open Thread (2-13-2012)
—Maetenloch
Time To Sell Your Amazon Stock
Because the Mistress of Disaster, Jamie Gorelick, has found a new cronyist perch target and this time it's Amazon:
So if you liked her work creating the pre-Patriot Act "firewall", her conflict-of-interest at 9/11 Commission, her pre-crash career at Fannie Mae, her defense of Duke University during the 2006 Duke lacrosse case and her recent work protecting BP after the spill, well then you're gonna love her new gig at Amazon.
Time to short AMZN I guess. I don't quite see how she's going to run it into the ground but at this point I've come to respect her DOOMy powers.
And many thanks to Doug Ross who keeps track of the M of D so we don't have to.
Continue reading
OMFG the economy is now so bad that young people are being forced to <shudder> take jobs they don't like "just to pay the bills". This injustice must end. It's time to #occupy the hiring offices and make them give out jobs that are fun and entertaining!!
So there's an article in the Atlantic discussing the possibility that the protozoan parasite, toxoplasmosis gondii, in cats may be literally making humans crazy.
Flegr was especially surprised to learn, though, that the protozoan appeared to cause many sex-specific changes in personality. Compared with uninfected men, males who had the parasite were more introverted, suspicious, oblivious to other people's opinions of them, and inclined to disregard rules. Infected women, on the other hand, presented in exactly the opposite way: they were more outgoing, trusting, image-conscious, and rule-abiding than uninfected women.
On the other hand Scott at AMCGLTD points out that toxoplasmosis is pretty much only found in outdoor cats and only for short periods of time and that the infection rate among humans (~15%) is relatively low.
Now this doesn't rule out possible effects of toxoplasmosis on humans but it's very unlikely to be a General Theory of teh Crazy. I'm going to wait until some double-blind studies have been done before I give it much concern. And I am saying this of my own free treat-giving-human free will and totally not because my kitteh's midichlorians are controlling my brain.
NRA Lifetime Membership For Just $300
So the NRA has a special deal going on where you can buy a lifetime membership for just $300. The only catch is that you have to be sponsored by a current lifetime membership. Anybody want to throw ole Maetty (or other worthy morons) a bone here?
[Update - Andy] I'm an NRA Life Member. If anyone wants to take advantage of this, Tweet me at @AndyM1911 or email andy dot moron at yahoo dot com.
From Italy: The Latest in Cruise Shoes
As attractive on the promenade deck as they are in the Aegean.
When The Florist Is Closed: Duct-Tape Roses
So you done effed up and forgot to buy flowers before tomorrow? Well let your desperation be your inspiration. And get out the duct tape.
Yes they can. And do. Especially if you haven't the world's biggest melons and are drunk:
A 32-year-old model who held the record for the world's largest implants has walked away from a car crash after her breasts acted as an airbag.
Sheyla Hershey, who has 38KKK breasts, was driving home near Houston, Texas, after a Super Bowl party on Sunday when she crashed into a tree.
The mother was charged with drunk-driving after the incident and allegedly was not wearing a seatbelt when she lost control of her Ford Mustang.
The Yahoo AoSHQ group. Bla bla bla.
And don't forget about the Job Bank.
And my twitter thingy.
Tonight's post brought to you by Kevin and his operator:
Close it up
Obama's New Budget Keeps On Supportin' Green Energy Boondoggles, But Not a Penny for the DC Voucher Program
—Ace
And bear in mind: DC is a federal district, so this is the only city in America where the feds actually have a responsibility for school funding and educational policy.
And at $8,000, the vouchers are a bargain compared to the estimated $18,000 spent per child by D.C. Public Schools.
And that's the problem, isn't it?
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