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May 31, 2011

Brain in a Dish

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That doughnut shape decorated with bright green spots, some connected by red pathways, amidst sky blue neighbors could be an artist's creation, but is the result of a creative scientific attempt to grow an active brain in a dish, complete with memories. Really. -- Growing a Brain in a Dish : Dean's Corner

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:47 PM | Your Say (0)

Answer the Damn Phone!

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Posted by Vanderleun at 11:20 AM | Your Say (3)

New Uses for Old Toys

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Posted by Vanderleun at 10:15 AM | Your Say (0)

May 30, 2011

Ruin of America near Cortez Colorado, April 2012

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Posted by Vanderleun at 7:17 PM | Your Say (3)

Robo President takes 138 pics with supporters & his expression never changes

All SE-Grin All the Time!

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

Via Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:43 PM | Your Say (6)

Pink Blueberries?

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Whiteflower Farms, Litchfield Connecticut, May 2011

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:52 PM | Your Say (4)

Somewhere in China

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (0)

Constructing the Empire State

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410 days from ground breaking to topping out.

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (5)

Bristol Palin: The Fine Points

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (4)

Little Known Fact About the Declaration of Independence

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (0)

Most Important Lawn Sign of 2011-2012

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HT: Poretto

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (11)

"The alphabet? Why is it in that order? Is it because of the song?"

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (4)

Play Ball Bettie!

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Posted by Vanderleun at 3:28 PM | Your Say (4)

Sitting Pretty

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Outside of crunchy cereal goodness, perhaps Kelloggs’ mostly lasting legacy is the concept of vibrating your way to fitness. Thanks to the marvelous development of harnessed electricity, he engineered a wooden vibrating chair (above) around 1900, which he claimed could clear out the intestines, dissolve backaches and headaches, and improve muscle tone. -- Collectors Weekly

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:57 PM | Your Say (1)

May 29, 2011

Victory in Iraq

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That victory was much more than a dignified escape from a sticky predicament. The coalition victory in Iraq was a historical turning point that may well turn out to be comparable to the cannonade of Valmy. It changed the course of world history. We have not done justice to those who gave their lives in Iraq until we recognize the full dimensions of their achievement.

The story of Iraq has yet to be told. It is too politically sensitive for the intelligentsia to handle just yet; passions need to cool before the professors and the pundits who worked themselves into paroxysms of hatred and disdain for the Bush administration can come to grips with how wrongheaded they've been. It took decades for the intelligentsia to face the possibility that the cretinous Reagan-monster might have, um, helped win the Cold War, and even now they haven't asked themselves any tough questions about the Left's blind hatred of the man who did more than any other human being to save the world from nuclear war. -- Memorial Day: The War in Iraq | Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:18 PM | Your Say (4)

"I didn’t know until I saw this how thick Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s thighs are"

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"The reason I think it’s relevant to take note of her gigantic thighs as well as Michelle Obama’s mammoth rear end is these liberals are constantly trying to tell Americans how to live their lives, including what they should eat....

"What’s Debbie Wasserman Shultz eating to create this look?

"And now she wants to micromanage our health care?

"More salad, fewer fries at McDonald’s, and treadmill work seems to be in order for her before she has a right to tell the rest of us how we must live our lives."
-- SHOCK PHOTO w/ HT to Atilla

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:44 PM | Your Say (14)

MOTUS is all over the Poland Drive-By on the Obama Change Train with:

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Goosesteping with the stars: Jewish voters take note.

A Polish Joke: How many terms does it take an Obama administration to screw democracy?

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:18 AM | Your Say (1)

Oh, "something's wrong with you" for sure

"And you’re right, in some ways I am part of Poland because I come from Chicago, and if you live in Chicago and you haven’t become a little bit Polish, then something’s wrong with you. - Barack Obama, May 2011, during a press conference with the Polish Prime Minister." --Talk Straight

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:00 AM | Your Say (2)

Headline of the Decade: Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies

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Yes, you read that right pardner: Horse herpes outbreak forces rodeo queens to ride stick ponies - ksl.com Video at the link. Several of them. Giddy up.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:53 AM | Your Say (3)

May 28, 2011

Let no man past a certain age who has eaten spicy foods while simultaneously consuming many beers throw the first stone.

Benefit of the doubt so granted, still you must ask yourself.

If an employee in the private sector had for any reason whatsoever elected to defecate on any sort of personal property of a customer that was not specifically a toilet, and was caught on tape in the act, and the act was widely publicized due to a slow news Friday or whatever, would said employee have any reasonable expectation of his employer welcoming him with open arms the following Monday? If I may be so bold, I think that the answer to that question is fairly self-evident. -- I left your package in the side yard! | westsound modern

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:56 PM | Your Say (6)

Lindbergh: Unintended Consequences... Glory

A 24 year old, no-name, flat broke air mail pilot is reading the newspaper in a coffee shop after surviving another all-nighter hauling the U.S. Mail in a fabric covered bi-plane. The Orteig Prize... What the heck is this all about? -- Flight Level 390:

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:16 PM | Your Say (1)

Gigantic Canadian Legal Brainz discover woman can't consent to sex while unconscious

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OTTAWA: The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that an unconscious woman can't give consent to sex. -- Markosun's Blog
The ruling was 6-3 which means, I guess, that 3 "judges" thought it would be okay to fuck with her.

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:45 PM | Your Say (5)

Police StateMent: Ukrainian Police Officers Can Be Very Unpleasant

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Man accused of car-theft

TOUGH QUESTIONS - - Vice Magazine

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:29 PM | Your Say (4)

"Terrorism is almost exclusively about branding."

What we call terrorism is always asymmetric warfare.

You’re a small group with no reputation, and you start covertly blowing up or murdering the people of a big group, like a government or a nation-state or a whole race. And you can’t just do it and then go and do the next one. You have to do it, and then go and do your PR. “We just bombed your mall. It was us.” And then maybe you do it, and some other guys, these upstart assholes across town, are calling up the news and saying, “We did it! We bombed the mall!” So then you have to get your PR guy on the phone and say, “No, they’re full of shit. WE bombed the mall.” So it’s about branding to that extent. The scariest terrorists would be guys who keep doing terrible shit, but they never call anybody. -- WILLIAM GIBSON - Viceland Today

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:22 PM | Your Say (1)

The Obama Diet: Lobster, Steak and Mountain Dew

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Life's good if you're a parasite in the Age of O: (via Curmudgeonly & Skeptical presents Boned Jello)

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:42 AM | Your Say (14)

Wishes that are not facts

It is not a fact that all men are created equal, it is not a fact that they are able to choose their rulers wisely, and it is not a fact that their judgments on public matters, taking them in the mass, are prudent and valid, or even worth hearing. But it is a fact that they are better off, the stupid with the intelligent, when the scope of government is rigidly limited, and its agents have no prerogative outside the narrow and clearly marked bounds. -- H.L. Mencken- Journalism with a Hammer

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:24 AM | Your Say (0)

Mail carrier who defecated in yard gets to keep job

I dunno. I guess he promised to carry government issue doggie bags from now on. Then again, it's not much worse than the tons of crap mail carriers drop in your mailbox daily:

PORTLAND, Ore. - A mail carrier who was caught using a yard as his personal toilet will not be fired. -- | Seattle News

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:16 AM | Your Say (1)

Once you teach a child how to count to ten, should the next lesson be about how to add? Or should you go on to counting to ten in Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Swahili…

We’re having a cold, soft civil war right now, trying to figure out if the United States is an English-speaking country or a multi-language country. It is a muted argument, because when people think of conservative-versus-liberal disagreements they tend to think of abortion and taxes. But this is just as important.... -- House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:13 AM | Your Say (1)

May 27, 2011

Why Palin in the Race is a Good Thing

Win or lose, Sarah Palin will define the issues that the 2012 election will hinge on.

What the GOP is offering as we speak are the traditional clusterfluck of b-s artists and, you know, McCains. Yeah, a few, well maybe just one, Herman Cain, can electrify a room, but the rest are yawners. Sarah Palin will come out swinging; talking stuff that milquetoasts would never hazard. She, better than any of them, will operate in the firestorm of media hostility with no flapping. Sarah Palin will ignite things. It may be that the GOP still has enough punch left to knock her out, or the anticipated multi-billion dollar (in kind) media attack campaign will succeed, but the man left standing will have embraced her ideas. And that's a good thing. -- Curmudgeonly & Skeptical presents Boned Jello

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:30 PM | Your Say (3)

SCOTUS Makes It Official: California A Failed State

Let there be no mistake: when you produce so many criminals that you can’t afford to lock them up, you are a failed state. Virtually every important civil institution in society has to fail to get you to this point. -- Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:03 PM | Your Say (6)

Homosexuals, The 25% Minority

Sounds About Right: Gallup Finds That Americans Believe 25% of Population Is Gay

Sometimes the American public believes things that are almost as goofy as West African belief in witches stealing men's penises, Iranian belief in sorcery, genies, and Magic Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man Mahdis, conservative belief that World Net Daily is an actual news site, or French intellectuals' belief that Dominique Strauss Kahn is not a serial rapist.

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:29 PM | Your Say (2)

"Basura" -- Because "boolsheet" is too many letters?

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"Basura" is the Spanish word for Trash/Garbage. Do you know how I know that?

Because I have seen a zillion trash cans in offices and public spaces with "Trash/Basura" printed on them, and I figured it out from context. I think I am probably a genius. After all, Spanish-speaking people can't figure out the reverse from context. (Apparently.) That is why we in the U.S., in our gentle benevolence, realized we needed to force-print "Basura" onto all our trash cans. Otherwise, how would Spanish-speaking people ever figure out what these cylindrical objects on the ground were? -- « Rhymes With Cars & Girls

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:19 PM | Your Say (3)

Ann Barnhardt Does Vegas

I attended Mass at a lovely little Latin Mass chapel.

While there, I was recognized by a stranger for the first time. A very kind man called out, "Ann? Ann?" as I was walking out, and then introduced himself as a "fan". He was a little "starstruck" and even teared up. That's me. I make grown men weep - but usually it is from misery and terror. This gent was misty because he was HAPPY to see me. That was a first. It certainly is an odd and humbling thing to be recognized at all, and then to elicit that sort of response. Guys, I'm not anything special. I'm just a person with a terrible gift for logical thought and doling out @$$chewings. We all have our crosses to carry. That's mine. Ugh. -- [Note: no permalinks for Ann. You just gotta hit it and scroll down. ]Barnhardt.biz - Commodity Brokerage

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:31 AM | Your Say (3)

May 26, 2011

Our Enemy, The State

Few realize how enormously and how rapidly in recent years the State has everywhere built up its apparatus of armies and police forces.

The State has thoroughly learned the lesson laid down by Septimius Severus, on his death-bed. "Stick together," he said to his successors, "pay the soldiers, and don't worry about anything else." It is now known to every intelligent person that there can be no such thing as a revolution as long as this advice is followed; in fact, there has been no revolution in the modem world since 1848 - every so-called revolution has been merely a coup d'etat. All talk of the possibility of a revolution in America is in part perhaps ignorant, but mostly dishonest; it is merely "the interested clamours and sophistry"of persons who have some sort of ax to grind. Even Lenin acknowledged that a revolution is impossible anywhere until the military and police forces become disaffected; and the last place to look for that, probably, is here. -- by Albert J. Nock, Chapter 6

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:04 PM | Your Say (3)

Marilyn Monroe meets Queen Elizabeth II, London, 1956

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Posted by Vanderleun at 9:08 PM | Your Say (4)

I would have a lot more respect for liberals if they would just come out and be straight with us:

"Look, we all know that we have a lot of morons in this country. Someone has to employ them. The real purpose of big government is to create a vast jobs program for the talentless, the mediocre, the dysfunctional, the person who cannot compete in the marketplace. You don't want to see what would happen if these people all lost their jobs and were on the street. California is set to release 46,000 prisoners due to overcrowding. How would you like to release 5 million freeloaders from federal, state, county, and city governments?"

Okay, I get it. But why do we have to pay them so much? It's not like they can go anywhere else. And why can't it be a (supposedly) temporary remedy, like racial quotas? -- One Cʘsmos: Shining a Radiant Celebrity Ferret On Our Limitless Capacities to Hookup with God

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:12 PM | Your Say (2)

The 3 View Hos: Baba Ho, Whoppie Ho, and Joy Ho Okay With Slut

The heavy-hitters on "The View," Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar were all okay with MSNBC's Ed Schultz using the word "slut." -- RealClearPolitics

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:21 PM | Your Say (5)

Cream Rises

Sex, Jokes and Politics: Why $15 Million Won’t Buy Traffic Like Ace of Spades :

Soros-funded Media Matters for America has 90 employees and an annual budget of $15 million, and gets about 650,000 “unique visitors” per month. The annual budget at Ace of Spades HQ is unknown, and its “employees” are just a bunch of part-time goofs, but they get about 3 million hits per month.

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:13 PM | Your Say (6)

Listen, Otter, And Understand. That Little Boy Is Out There. It Can't Be Bargained With. It Can't Be Reasoned With. It Doesn't Feel Pity, Or Remorse, Or Fear. And It Absolutely Will Not Stop, Ever, Until...

... Naptime.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:38 AM | Your Say (2)

On the erection of poverty and mendicancy into a permanent political asset.

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Two years ago, many of our people were in hard straits; to some extent, no doubt, through no fault of their own,

though it is now clear that in the popular view of their case, as well as in the political view, the line between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor was not distinctly drawn. Popular feeling ran high at the time, and the prevailing wretchedness was regarded with undiscriminating emotion, as evidence of some general wrong done upon its victims by society at large, rather than as the natural penalty of greed, folly or actual misdoings; which in large part it was. The State, always instinctively "turning every contingency into a resource" for accelerating the conversion of social power into State power, was quick to take advantage of this state of mind. All that was needed to organize these unfortunates into an invaluable political property was to declare the doctrine that the State owes all its citizens a living; and this was accordingly done. It immediately precipitated an enormous mass of subsidized voting-power, an enormous resource for strengthening the State at the expense of society. -- Our Enemy, The State by Albert J. Nock, 1935

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:11 AM | Your Say (1)

May 25, 2011

Thank you, Illinois taxpayers, for my cushy life.

After 34 years of teaching sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I recently retired at age 64 at 80 percent of my pay for life.

This calculation was based on a salary spiked by summer teaching, and since I no longer pay into the retirement fund, I now receive significantly more than when I “worked.” But that’s not all: There’s a generous health insurance plan, a guaranteed 3 percent annual cost of living increase, and a few other perquisites. Having overinvested in my retirement annuity, I received a fat refund and—when it rains, it pours—another for unused sick leave. I was also offered the opportunity to teach as an emeritus for three years, receiving $8,000 per course, double the pay for adjuncts, which works out to over $200 an hour. Another going-away present was summer pay, one ninth of my salary, with no teaching obligation. -- David Rubenstein, Fat City | The Weekly Standard

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:27 PM | Your Say (1)

Bambi vs Godzilla

Netanyahu beat Obama like a red-headed stepchild; he played him like a fiddle; he pounded him like a big brass drum. The Prime Minister of Israel danced rings around his arrogant, professorial opponent. It was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters go up against the junior squad from Miss Porter’s School; like watching Harvard play Texas A&M, like watching Bambi meet Godzilla — or Bill Clinton run against Bob Dole. -- The Dreamer Goes Down For The Count | Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:57 PM | Your Say (1)

So You Have a College Diploma

Now that your time and money are tapped out, this diploma will serve as lasting reminder of everything you accomplished during your magical four to seven years on campus.

Please take it with our compliments, and treasure its distinctive elegance during the many, many free hours you will soon have after moving back home with your parents. As a special offer to those parents who have any money or pride left, we will cheerfully mail your student's diploma pre-framed for the low additional cost of $79.95 plus shipping and handling, ready to hang in a place of honor over your family hearth or hot water heater. -- iowahawk

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:55 PM | Your Say (6)

Crazy, psycho, nuts, junkie Kennedy is for more understanding for assassins that shoot political leaders in the head

Creepiest Kennedy yet. His father's son in all things: Patrick Kennedy Expresses Sympathy For Accused Gabrielle Giffords Shooter

In an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) argued that Jared Loughner deserves sympathy for his apparent mental problems. Loughner is the 22-year-old man charged in the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz. that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) with a traumatic brain injury.
"It's an irony," Kennedy told Gupta, "but we think no stigma towards Gabby and her brain injury, but [Loughner] has a brain injury as well, because clearly his brain was not working properly when he picked up that gun and shot all those people."
"We failed as a society," he added, "because every time we see someone who's -- and we use the pejorative words -- 'crazy,' 'psycho,' 'nuts,' we look the other way."
This from a professional Democrat junkie who's been in and out of rehab more frequently than a crack whore.

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:38 PM | Your Say (8)

Narcissists just know that their fairy tale can come true. They believe as fervently as any religious fanatic that their wishes and feelings are more powerful than reality.

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This new ad put out by the Democrats could just as easily been produced by a grossly psychotic individual,

completely out of touch with reality; so severe is the distortion and deception it demonstrates. Meanwhile, in keeping with the magical thinking, the left seems to believe that doing nothing is a safe strategy (and it might well be from a political or ideological perspective; but reality probably isn't going to agree with them for very long; but hey, "In the long run we are all dead", right? So only think in the short run and imagine that all these problems will go away; meanwhile grab as much power as you can now. -- Dr. Sanity: THE POLITICAL LEFT AND THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF NARCISSISM - Part I

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:12 PM | Your Say (2)

Comment of the Month is in from...

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... Blog Slogan of the Month:

"This country is lousy with people first deciding that the truth must be pleasant and then re-characterizing away the ugly truths of life.
"The Democrats are advocating policies that are identical to the Socialists parties of Europe, yet they deny they are socialists. The idea leaders in the liberal world follow Marxists tactics, espouse Marxist doctrine and definitions, yet deny they support Marxism.
"The commie-libs deny they are working to destroy America yet their definitions and principles are infinitely elastic so that from situation to situation they are free to contradict yesterday's position and support whichever of today's ideas and/or enemies which will do the most harm to America. It wasn't an accident that the Soviet Atomic spies were discovered in left-wing Academia. It's not an accident liberal policy give aid and comfort to jihadists.
"They recognize not one limit on their power and desires. Their history is one of total devastation and "year zero" when they come to power.
"You can't win if you don't know your enemy."-- Scott M

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:56 PM | Your Say (2)

Blog Slogan of the Month

"If your goal is to change minds and influence people, it's probably not a good idea to begin by asserting that virtually all elected Democrats are liars. But what the hell." -- Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:37 AM | Your Say (5)

May 24, 2011

Bernard Henri-Levy Philosopher: "My Good Friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn Has Sodomized Me On Any Number Of Occasions And I Never Bitched Out About It"

I first met this affable cyclone of aggravated sexual assault at a book party hosted by the always ebullient Mme. Simplesse-Callie, in her delightful Alice In Wonderland themed topiary garden.

He was wearing a closely-tailored suit by Vivienne Westwood, which was all the rage that wine-soaked summer, and carrying an elegant rape-kit, especially designed for him by Louis Vitton, which, as I would find out later, was not merely an affectation, because he had handcuffs and a cattle prod in there, in the handcuff compartment and cattle-prod convenience pouch. From almost the moment I saw him, I was arrested by his eyes, his manner, his undeniable intellect; I was also arrested by his brutish arms and iron grip, because within moments, I was up against the March Hare, being raped. -- Special Guest Commentary <i>(Bumped)</i>

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:44 PM | Your Say (1)

Now the scar on the side of his head begins to make sense

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President Obama Has No Idea What Year It Is

It is a great privilege to commemorate our common heritage, and common sacrifice. -- Barack Obama 24 May 2008

It was really nice until he got the date wrong by three years. Granted, 2008 was a great year for him, and we might try to live it for as long as possible, too, if we were him. Also, though, he may have had a stroke. [HT: Had Enough Therapy? ]

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:57 PM | Your Say (5)

The Hydrophobic Religion: Comment / Quote of the Month

By St. Thor in Side-Lines: What will Egypt finally look like? As Winston Churchill observed (The River War, Vol. II, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899 pp. 248-250):

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays upon its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful, fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce,and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live...Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities...But the influence of religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world."

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:33 PM | Your Say (7)

Pundits? Prophets? They're Punks.

It's worth remembering that in 1980, George Will and Charles Krauthammer supported Howard Baker and Walter Mondale, respectively. Obviously that year Ronald Reagan won a landslide election against the hapless James Earl Carter. -- Good news: former speech-writer for Walter Mondale says Herman Cain's candidacy is "just entertainment"

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:42 AM | Your Say (2)

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau! **

Something else bothers us about the media mockery of Harold Camping, as justifiable as it may be. Why are only religious doomsday cultists subjected to such ridicule? Reuters notes that "Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994." Ha ha, you can't believe anything this guy says! But who jeered at the U.N.'s false prediction that there would be 50 million "climate refugees" by 2010? We did, but not Reuters. -- The Christian Al Gore - WSJ.com [Who just may have swiped it from Morgan]

** Headline courtesy of William Blake

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on; 'tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of Light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:32 AM | Your Say (1)

"Will my life change if my "dream candidate" becomes president?

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Well, first of all, the SlackMeister has no dream candidate, since this is a transparent form of idolatry displaced from the spiritual to the political realm.

But in any event, his life would not change, since he places no hope in politics as such. Indeed, to imagine one's life would change in fundamental ways with the election of this or that politician makes one a little pathetic, don't you think? -- One Cʘsmos: Trialogues At the Edge of Slack

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:59 AM | Your Say (1)

"California schools rate just below Mississippi in math and science.

What is the possible cure for the near worst math and science students in the nation? Yes, I see it now: the California Senate just passed a bill mandating the teaching of homosexual, lesbian, bi-, and transgendered history, just the sort of strategy to raise those English composition and vocabulary scores among the linguistic and arithmetic illiterate." -- Works and Days サ Where Dreams Die

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:54 AM | Your Say (6)

Against Pacificism

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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that Nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill [AMERICAN DIGEST Quotes]

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:15 AM | Your Say (3)

"It’s time to stop blaming Israel for all of the region’s problems.

What the people of the Middle East need is what you have in America, and what we have in Israel. Democracy. It’s time to recognize this basic truth: Israel is not what’s wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what’s right about the Middle East." -- Full Text of Netanyahu Speech to AIPAC

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:14 AM | Your Say (0)

Cold Warriors

Belmont Club » Armageddon 1958

The men who produced the simulation unwittingly left a testimonial to their greatest achievement, which in retrospect, at least rivals the achievement of the Greatest Generation. It was the generation that successfully did not fight their war. We have not had a general war in nearly three generations. In the last reel, one of the fictional generals says, "We failed in our primary mission, but succeeded in our secondary mission, that of destroying the enemy." In actuality, their achievement was far greater. By luck or skill, they led us through the valley of the shadow of death to the 21st century.

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:40 AM | Your Say (0)

May 23, 2011

All WikiLinks Lead To Mathematics

Interesting... and it probably has a concise mathematical explanation:

Go to Wikipedia. Go to a random article. Click on the first link (not counting links inside parentheses, links in italics, links in Wikipedia info boxes, or links outside of Wikipedia). Then click on the first link again, and so on. You’ll eventually reach the page: Mathematics. -- All Roads Lead To Mathematics

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:21 PM | Your Say (0)

O'Bama? Oh puh-lease!

Ah Bejaysus and Begorrah! Oi’ll be swearin’ boi the auld shrine to the Vorgin with the shamrocks growin’ round it next to the hill where Cuchullain slew the Great Leprechaun of Kildare on St Patrick’s Day that

Barack Seamus O’Toole Flaherty Joyce O’Bama is the most Irish US president that ever set foot on the Emerald Oisle, so he is, so he is. Except, when he’s in Africa, of course, when he disappears into the dry ice and re-emerges with a grass skirt and a bone through his nose and declares himself to be Mandingo, Prince of the Bloodline of the Bonga People, Drinker of Cattle Urine, Father of A Thousand Warrior Sons, Keeper of King Solomon’s Mines, Barehanded Slayer of Lions, Undaunted Victim of the Evil Colonial British Empire. And in the Middle East, where he is Al-Barak Hussein Obama, Protector of the Holy Shrine, Smiter of the Kuffar, Lion of the Desert, Tent-Loving-Aficionado-of-the-Oversweetened-Coffee, Chomper of Sheeps’ Eyeballs, Restorer of the Caliphate. -- Telegraph Blogs

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:53 AM | Your Say (1)

Secret Agent Man: "Obama does not believe in high art or class or civilization.

In his eyes, there is nothing a person who makes more than 250k a year deserves on this whole planet.

He is completely bored with himself and cannot imagine what to do with wealth and power except to give it away to those who don't have it. His entire self is that kernel of transformation to level all playing fields, to bring the mighty down and raise the weak up. He is the agent of heat death, and he wants everyone in the world to be mediocre. -- West v Obama - Cobb

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:16 AM | Your Say (0)

Yes, they Kahn. You, not so much.

Mark Steyn: The unzippered princeling and the serving wench

Fortunately, when the burdens of recognizability get too great, M Strauss-Kahn is able to retreat to his house in Washington, or his apartment in Paris, or his second apartment in Paris, or his riad in Marrakesh. Oh, c'mon, you provincial bozos: A "riad" is a palatial Moorish residence built around an interior courtyard. Everyone knows that. A lifetime of devoted "public service" in "socialist" France isn't yet as remunerative as in Mubarak's Egypt or Saddam's Iraq, but we're getting there. As the developed world drowns under the weight of Big Government, the gilded princelings of statism will hunker down in their interior courtyards and guard their privileges ever more zealously.

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:55 AM | Your Say (3)

From the prison laundry driers of London to the Tunnels of Cu Chi

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A fascinating history from BLDGBLOG: Underground

"Every wall has a foundation," Wiggins writes, "and, if that foundation is removed by undermining or 'sapping,' the wall itself will sink, split, shatter or collapse, depending on how the work is carried out. Digging was an alternative way of opening up the defenses of a fortified site to make possible a frontal assault, and this method did not rely on an array of large and expensive wall-breaking artillery." The "undermining of walls" by so-called "underwallers" was thus a military tactic. An anti-architecture. Excavation as weapon.... Going underground means entering a space of unexpected affiliation: a crosswise architecture of circuits and countertopology.

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:21 AM | Your Say (2)

May 22, 2011

What will Egypt finally look like?

It will look like the Latin American banana republics, but without the bananas.

That is not meant in jest: few people actually starved to death in the Latin inflations. Egypt, which imports half its wheat and a great deal of the rest of its food, will actually starve. Revolutions don't only kill their children. They kill a great many ordinary people. The 1921 famine after the Russian civil war killed an estimated five million people, and casualties on the same scale are quite possible in Egypt as well. Half of Egyptians live on $2 a day, and that $2 is about to collapse along with the national currency, and the result will be a catastrophe of, well, biblical proportions. -- Spengler

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:11 PM | Your Say (5)

The single-minded pursuit of the irrelevant by the self-important...

When historians look back on the first decades of the 21st century they may conclude that the political and economic crisis

that swept over the world was the direct result of decades of resource misallocation driven by political objectives. They will look back on the drilling bans, environmental edicts which have shut down agricultural areas, the massive entitlement expansions and quests for carbon sequestration and ask: what were the political leadership thinking? Maybe those historians will conclude that they weren't Because as everybody knows, they think the biggest problem in the Middle East today is Israel's borders. Never mind that the Arab street has nothing to eat, no employment for its youth. Forget the fact that nearly every country is under the heel of a dictatorship or in transition to another one. That's secondary. The biggest priority of the age is to tame Israel and build windmills all over the landscape. -- Belmont Club サ Strictly From Hunger

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:06 PM | Your Say (3)

Bibi's 14 Magical Little Words

I don't think anyone has mentioned the substance of Bibi's remarks (as opposed to the not-insignificant face-to-face confrontational, body-language, symbolic issues) , but this was clearly his BOTTOM, bottom-line:

"We're going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan."
Sayonara Hamas/PA negotiations, Camp David accords w/new Egypt, and the Hashemite regime... But the ensuing crisis will actually be very good for Israel, and post-Obama America. - PA in email

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:51 PM | Your Say (1)

May 20, 2011

The Braindead Generation: No Jobs. No Hope. No Change in Sight. Still Stuck on Stupid?

Had Enough Therapy?: Will the Lost Generation Strike Back?

Yesterday I was posting about the horrifically high levels of joblessness and underemployment among recent college graduates. Today, a new poll revealed that 83% of this group voted for Obama in 2008. Social justice, anyone? If there was ever a testimony to the effectiveness of academic brainwashing, this is it.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:14 AM | Your Say (5)

The pretending to work isn't working so well anymore, is it?

It occurs to me that we're pretty much all auger handles now. Standing on the shore, clueless and timid, waiting for someone --someone else, mind you -- to risk his hide out in the torrent while we stand on the shore and pretend to work, wait for lunch, and tell them they're doing it wrong once they're done and we've picked them clean. -- Sippican Cottage: We're All Auger Handles Now

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:51 AM | Your Say (2)

May 19, 2011

The Lazarus File

In 1986, a young nurse named Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in Los Angeles.

Police pinned down no suspects, and the case gradually went cold. It took 23 years—and revolutionary breakthroughs in forensic science —before LAPD detectives could finally assemble the pieces of the puzzle. When they did, they found themselves facing one of the unlikeliest murder suspects in the city’s history. -- The Atlantic Fascinating text and video.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:25 PM | Your Say (5)

Good Question Concerning the Green Believers in Green DOOM

Green predictions of End Times are just as demented as Christian ones – so why are they treated more seriously?

“The Rapture? If it comes near me this Saturday I’ll kick its arse through its neck”, says Charlie Brooker. “I expect everyone who thinks so-called Judgement Day is on May 21st to support science and reason from the 22nd onwards”, says Professor Brian Cox. Brave stuff indeed, mocking a man of God who is clearly a few clowns short of a circus. But what I want to know is this: why don’t these Camping critics, these alleged challengers of bunkum and defenders of reason, also stand up to the far more mainstream yet equally batty predictions of End Times emanating from the environmentalist lobby?

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:30 PM | Your Say (7)

Obama to Israel: DROP DEAD

Obama: 1967 borders with swaps should serve as basis for negotiations

FILE UNDER: "He hate's us. He really, really hates us."
Dear American Jewish Obama Voter and Supporter, How's this jew-hater working out for you?

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:52 AM | Your Say (14)

Why are rich Republicans so clueless?

Liberals think the rest of us are so stupid we can’t see how the game is played. And given the way Republicans waste their money on useless endeavors like Romney 2012, who can blame them for thinking we’re stupid? -- On Media, Money and Membership : The Other McCain

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:44 AM | Your Say (2)

Overheated planet update, late May edition: Up to 2 feet of fresh snow may fall on top of Wyoming's record snowpack

It’s late May, but snow keeps falling in the Rockies, adding to record snowpack that could mean major flooding come spring melt.Tom Nelson:

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:34 AM | Your Say (0)

Chinese Watermelon Land Mines

Local, sustainable garbage:

Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of "land mines." Many of farmers resorted to chopping up the fruit and feeding it to fish and pigs, the report said. -- News from The Associated Press

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:15 AM | Your Say (1)

War? What War?

Death of the War Powers Act? - The Washington Post

This week, the War Powers Act confronts its moment of truth. Friday will mark the 60th day since President Obama told Congress of his Libyan campaign..... Why, then, hasn’t the president been pressing Congress to approve the war before the looming deadline? Because it’s easier to paper over the problem with new legal fictions pretending that the time limit doesn’t apply to this instance. By Friday, the administration’s legal team is likely to announce that the clock stopped ticking on April 1 — the date when NATO “took the lead” in the bombing campaign.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:11 AM | Your Say (0)

May 18, 2011

Environmentalism

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... is nothing more than a religion. (Without God and without hope.)

via Communism Kills

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:30 PM | Your Say (1)

"L' Realitie" Who is of the knowing of it?

I do not know — no one knows — because can there or cannot there be such a knowing? I do not know.

All is but existential abyss. For who is to know this mocking mime which taunts us by its cruel appellation, "reality"? Even reality itself cannot know, because have been no leaks regarding the declarations of the man in question, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. We have only the leaks regarding the leaks of his so-called "DNA." Was he was guilty of the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, or at which why, as was stated, he was having a mud bath in Baden-Baden with his daughter? Reality, you are a cruel mistress. -- iowahawk: "Justice"? I Spit on Your "Justice"

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:02 PM | Your Say (0)

End of an Era

The era of “call fellow Republicans extremist zealots and everyone will automatically love me” has come to an end. It ends with a gutted, tenderized, braised, char-broiled, breaded & deep fried, pan-seared newt. -- House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:30 PM | Your Say (0)

Wise Guy

In passing a fellow I know said yesterday, "The best thing about this Strauss-Kahn rape story is that he makes Arnold Schwartzenegger look like a real family man."

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:51 AM | Your Say (1)

May 17, 2011

Hamas Cleric: Jews Were Brought to Palestine for the “Great Massacre”

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:15 PM | Your Say (9)

Time to Lock and Load

“This battle won’t be won in the offices of these right-wing pigs.

It will be won by framing these political questions in the streets.” -Mike Imbrogno, executive board member of AFSCME at his International Socialist Organization blog Word Around the Net: Quote of the Day
Make that "armed" right wing pigs on the street called Chicago Rules.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:52 PM | Your Say (1)

Construction Caught Napping (AGAIN!)

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WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. home construction fell unexpectedly in April, an indication that the troubled sector will remain a drag on the economic recovery. -- DATA SNAP: US April Housing Starts Sink 10.6% The "surprises" just keep on comin'.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:28 PM | Your Say (0)

Most Likely Strauss-Kahn Defense Strategy

IMF chief tried to f*ck New York maid after mistaking her for a small financially crippled country

HT: Barcepundit

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:01 AM | Your Say (4)

"Why is Obama getting so little help from this boobie-prize of taking down Osama? Why such a short-lived and inconsequential bump? Why so little lift?"

The problem is with this ill-advised bandying-about of this clumsy word, “gutsy.”

Just noodle that over in your noggin for a little while, casually, and you’ll see how bad this sounds. Obama made a decision, and the decision, in intent and in outcome, was beneficial to the interests of the country over which Obama presides. It is the first decision He’s made in office that fulfills these criteria. I’ll state it again: The intent, and the outcome, were in harmony with what is good for the country. In the Obama universe, that is “gutsy.” -- House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:12 AM | Your Say (4)

The Great White Rapist

For decades elite liberals in the media and academia

have been ignoring the enormous number of rapes of white women by blacks. Instead, they hoped for the Great White Rapist (or Rapists) of a woman of color. Their hopes came crashing down when the Tawana Brawley case and the Duke gang rape turned out to be hoaxes. Now they may finally have their rapist, but guess what? It's one of them! An arrogant, spoiled, wealthy, politically correct limousine liberal. -- The irony of Strauss-Kahn's arrest

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:02 AM | Your Say (2)

Little Focker: The Prequel

"Guess who fathered a child out of wedlock? Hint: It rhymes with schmorzenegger." -- Shoebox サ Newsdroppings And guess what kid is currently the target of every papparazzi predator drone on the planet.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:00 AM | Your Say (2)

The Republican Party does not live to represent the country class.

For it to do so, it would have to become principles-based, as it has not been since the mid-1860s.

The few who tried to make it so the party treated as rebels: Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The party helped defeat Goldwater. When it failed to stop Reagan, it saddled his and subsequent Republican administrations with establishmentarians who, under the Bush family, repudiated Reagan's principles as much as they could. Barack Obama exaggerated in charging that Republicans had driven the country "into the ditch" all alone. But they had a hand in it. Few Republican voters, never mind the larger country class, have confidence that the party is on their side. -- The American Spectator : America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution By Angelo M. Codevilla

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:35 AM | Your Say (2)

May 16, 2011

This program has Michelle Obama’s name written all over it.

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Beware…big brother could be lurking in school cafeterias

No more closet eating if you attend elementary school in San Antonio, Texas. High tech camera’s are being installed in 5 elementary schools that will take pictures of what children are putting on their plates.

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:37 PM | Your Say (4)

You know what they say, can’t put Osama in your gas tank.

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The bump President Obama received after the killing of Osama bin Laden more than two weeks ago in Pakistan has vanished completely, according to the latest Gallup Tracking poll released Monday.-- House of Eratosthenes

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:41 PM | Your Say (0)

The truth is that nobody loves an America that goes around shopping apologies.

Nor do they like an America that acts like the old Soviet Union.

But they do unabashedly love a USA as it dreams to be; with the FBI running down the bad guys and the Marines shooting up the extraterrestrial monsters in Los Angeles. When Superman stands on a skyscraper and proudly proclaims that he aims to uphold Truth, Justice and the American Way he is expressing a secret fantasy felt in so many of the downtroddden parts of the world. "Gee how I wish we had someone like that!" And if you look carefully at the faces staring at the screen, you will see no sophisticated derision; only tears of hopeful joy. -- Belmont Club » A Comment About The Wrath of Kahn

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:01 PM | Your Say (0)

Affirmative action, as anyone knows who has spent a life in academia, has become a sort of high-stakes careerist game.

Names and identities come and go, predicated on assumptions of what best works and in what landscape.

When did a Barry Dunham/Obama become Barry/Barack Sotero become Barack Obama—and why? The number of hyphenated names—Smith-Lopez, Martinez-Becker—or remanufactured first names—Pedro Jones or Juan Lopez—proliferates where perceived advantage is greatest. The truth is that when jobs are tight, it is a very human thing to find advantage beyond just consideration of merit and preparedness, and for the last thirty years that fact has sent millions rushing to reinvent themselves as something other than they what otherwise be. -- Works and Days サ The End of an Idea -- Why Affirmative Action Should Stop

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:14 PM | Your Say (0)

My daughter was first sued in the womb.

It was all very new then. I'd posted ultrasound scans online for friends and family. I didn't know the scans had steganographic thumbprints.

A giant electronics company that made ultrasound machines acquired a speculative law firm for many tens of millions of dollars. The new legal division cut a deal with all five Big Socials to dig out contact information for anyone who'd posted pictures of their babies in-utero. It turns out the ultrasounds had no clear rights story; I didn't actually own mine. It sounds stupid now but we didn't know. The first backsuits named millions of people, and the Big Socials just caved, ripped up their privacy policies in exchange for a cut. So five months after I posted the ultrasounds, one month before my daughter was born, we received a letter (back then a paper letter) naming myself, my wife, and one or more unidentified fetal defendants in a suit. We faced, I learned, unspecified penalties for copyright violation and theft of trade secrets, and risked, it was implied, that my daughter would be born bankrupt. -- Nanolaw with Daughter (Ftrain.com)

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:15 AM | Your Say (1)

May 15, 2011

Badass of the Week: General Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller

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"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now.
We've finally found him. We're surrounded.
That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them."

Chesty Puller was admired by his men and feared by his enemies.
He always led from the front, fighting in the trenches with the men, and never flinched under even the most serious fire. One time a grenade landed next to him, and when the rest of the guys around him dove for cover he glanced at it and nonchalantly said, “Oh, that. It’s a dud.” He inspired loyalty and courage in his Marines, treated his men well, insisted on the best equipment and discipline for his troops, and had a no fear, win-at-all-costs attitude that won him fourteen medals for combat bravery in addition to countless unit citations and campaign ribbons. He is the most highly-decorated Marine in history, and a legendary figure amongst his brethren. To this day, Marines at Parris Island end their day by saying, "Good night Chesty Puller, wherever you are!" -- BAOTW

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:47 PM | Your Say (4)

If we are ever to move forward as a nation, we must call out race pimps of all colors...

... We do not tolerate "white" skinheads. Nor, should we tolerate "black" racists.

Incredibly, black race pimps feel their racism is OK. It is as if they view America's original sin of slavery as their, "Right to be Racist For Free" card. Using race to bully people into submitting to an agenda is racist, pure and simple. I watched a black intellectual on TV shilling for Obama. He used a plethora of big words to cover the simple school yard truth that he was a black bully racist, committed to Obama no matter what. Sounding extremely intelligent, the black racist was spouting lies and illogical stupid conclusions. But man, did he sound "smart."

Liberals do this all the time. They have a basic emotion-driven dislike for America and all of the traditions and values which have made us great. They hide their disdain for America under a shroud of intellectual mumbo-jumbo; spouting crazy stupid nonsense which sounds above our ability to understand. I call it, "Intellectual Stupid Speak." --American Thinker: Black Race Pimps: I'm Callin' You Out!

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:10 PM | Your Say (1)

... or are you just glad to see me?

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:48 PM | Your Say (4)

Res Ipsa Loquitur

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Via The Daily Fiona, Well, would you look at that.

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:52 AM | Your Say (4)

Puking Sheep

What do liberals do when their plans have failed? ... One thing they can’t do is admit they failed. Why? To admit failure would endanger their position in the herd.... This is the reaction of the herd instinct. When a sheep discovers a wolf in the fold, it vomits to ward off the attacker. It’s a sign that their position in the herd is threatened.” -- Converting Mamet | The Weekly Standard

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:32 AM | Your Say (4)

May 14, 2011

The Ineffable Sadness of the Sitemeter

neo-neocon on Blogging and burnout

But it’s still hard to watch that sitemeter climb (for example, in the months before the 2010 election, when traffic in general was up around the blogosphere) and then see it drop afterwards. It would be so very nice if traffic just built and built and built, instead. I know life is full of ups and downs, but a sitemeter is so—well, so graphic about showing them.

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:58 AM | Your Say (0)

The Al Qaeda Caucus

And this week's top 4 traitors from the Quisiing Party are:

From the Hill:"After more than a week of deliberation, the House overwhelmingly approved a measure honoring the intelligence community for the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. The vote wasn't unanimous, however. Four liberal Democrats-- Reps. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Pete Stark (Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.) -- voted present on the measure, which was offered as an amendment to an intelligence authorization bill." -- Daily scoreboard « Don Surber
Making a list and checking it twice...

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (0)

May 13, 2011

The French aristocrats laughed at the manners and the morals of the common people and ridiculed the faith that lit the darkness and softened the harsh conditions of ordinary lives.

Enlightened and cosmopolitan, the establishment mocked the attachment of the ignorant peasants to the king.

The well educated, well connected elites accepted no limits on their ability to convert their social privilege into personal wealth; they accepted no limits on the gratification of their physical desires — flaunting their romantic affairs in the same spirit in which they feasted at Versailles while the gaunt peasants starved. They used and abused to the fullest all the privileges that came with their status while mocking and rejecting any sense of duty and obligation.

It was fun while it lasted. -- Establishment Blues | Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:03 PM | Your Say (8)

"The left uses democracy in order to put profoundly undemocratic policies into place -- similar to the "one man, one vote, one time" rule of pseudo-democratic tyrants....

After all, no living person ever voted for Social Security, and none of us have a say in various other leftist desires that have become our perpetual obligations,

i.e., public employee unions, agricultural subsidies, state-run arts and media, the state education/indoctrination monopoly -- really, all of the countless extra-Constitutional activities of the federal government, which, once in place, are beyond the reach of citizens to eliminate. -- One Cʘsmos: From Each According to Obama's Needs, To Each According to His Desires

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:00 PM | Your Say (3)

"Sudden Jihad Syndrome" vs The Drool-Cup Champions of the TSA

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If you listen to the passengers and crew who flew on American Airlines Flight 1561 last weekend, there's no doubt about what happened on their harrowing trip:

A Yemeni man shrieking "Allahu akbar!" at the top of his lungs more than 30 times rushed the cockpit door twice intending to take down the plane and kill everyone on board.... So how, despite a massive transportation and homeland security apparatus, did al-Murisi get into this country and get on a plane? He had no keys, no luggage, $47 cash, two curious posted checks totaling $13,000, and a trove of expired and current state IDs from New York and California -- where relatives said he had not notified them that he was coming. He is young, male, brought no family with him, had no job or other discernible income, and hails from the terror-coddling nation of Yemen. Yes, the same Yemen that is Osama bin Laden's ancestral home, harbors al-Qaida operatives who are burning the "torch of jihad," and is deemed a "special interest country" whose citizens warrant increased scrutiny by DHS when they cross the border illegally. -- What Happened on AA Flight 1561 - Michelle Malkin

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:31 PM | Your Say (6)

"We have never had an Establishment that was so ill-equipped to lead. It is the Establishment, not the people, that is falling down on the job."

Here in the early years of the twenty-first century, the American elite is a walking disaster and is in every way less capable than its predecessors.

It is less in touch with American history and culture, less personally honest, less productive, less forward looking, less effective at and less committed to child rearing, less freedom loving, less sacrificially patriotic and less entrepreneurial than predecessor generations. Its sense of entitlement and snobbery is greater than at any time since the American Revolution; its addiction to privilege is greater than during the Gilded Age and its ability to raise its young to be productive and courageous leaders of society has largely collapsed. -- Establishment Blues | Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (4)

Bob Dylan: Hey, you could write a book

To my fans and followers | Bob Dylan

Everybody knows by now that there's a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I'm encouraging anybody who's ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get in on the action and scribble their own book. You never know, somebody might have a great book in them.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:09 AM | Your Say (5)

Time for the Descendants of Geronimo to Man Up. If They Can.

A local Native American organization [in Detroit] is offering counseling to anyone who feels offended or hurt by the use of “Geronimo” as code name for the recent U.S. operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.... The American Indian Health and Family Services agency can be reached at (313) 846-3718. -- Talk Straight.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:50 AM | Your Say (7)

The blueprint of the 2012 campaign. It consists of four parts:

1) There will be no reference to or defense of four years of record massive debt...

2) Constant demonization of a bogeyman

3) Race all the time

4) Money and media

Details at Works and Days » Fantasies, Present and Future

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:45 AM | Your Say (1)

Adams: "A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. "

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution. -- John Adams Letter to Jonathan Jackson (2 October 1789)

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:00 AM | Your Say (0)

May 12, 2011

NASA-Funded Group Doctors Sea Level Data

Because, like, one Climategate wasn't enough to convince most people these "climate scientists" are full on frauds.

Catastrophic sea level rise is one of the most valued hole cards played by alarmists in the global warming debate....

Faced with the embarrassing fact that sea level is not rising nearly as much as has been predicted, the University of Colorado’s NASA-funded Sea Level Research Group has announced it will begin adding a nonexistent 0.3 millimeters per year to its Global Mean Sea Level Time Series. As a result, alarmists will be able to present sea level charts asserting an accelerating rise in sea level that is not occurring in the real world. -- - James Taylor - Endpoint Analysis - Forbes

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:41 PM | Your Say (1)

The Great Divide

Where the earth's tectonic plates almost, but not quite, touch:

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Click image to enlarge

Growing gap: Alex Mustard, dived 80ft into the crevice between the North American and Eurasian plates near Iceland to capture these spectacular photos. -- Mail Online

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:25 PM | Your Say (1)

Big Oil to US Congress: FU!

“As president and CEO of Porkaloin Oil, I have news for you: I don’t need you.

I'm using this occasion to announce that Porkaloin Oil is shutting down all USA operations beginning with our refineries, which stopped accepting oil a week ago. Our world headquarters will move from Houston to Hong Kong. Only a few of our 27,000 employees will move there. Don't worry, everyone gets a year's salary as severance. As for the 10,000 gas stations, we will pay each franchisee $100,000. We sold what few oil wells we have in the USA to Exxon for a buck.

"All in all, this move will cost us a ten billion bucks, maybe twenty. I wrote the number down somewhere in my papers but it does not matter. Whatever the figure is, it is worth it to tell you all to go to hell. We produce 3% of the world's oil. We can sell it anywhere. I chose China."
-- What Big Oil should say ォ Don Surber

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:50 PM | Your Say (1)

Battered Citizen Syndrome

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There you are, America, lying in the hospital with a broken jaw, a dislocated collar bone and in serious danger of losing your right eye. You told the doctors you fell down the stairs, but tell yourself that Barry's been under a lot of stress lately, and you just wouldn't listen when he told you to shut up. -- Out of Order

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:56 AM | Your Say (1)

Tracking a breathless nation's yearning for Mitt Romney

"If Mitt Romney is the favorite, just kick me in the nuts now." -- Talk Straight, While Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the...

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:48 AM | Your Say (7)

"It's a botoxed cougar world,"

I don't want to be sixty years old at a Coldplay concert with a girlfriend on my shoulders, thanks.

I don't think it will be fun to eventually look at eternity and only have fifteen minutes of real adult behavior in your CV. And I don't want to act as if children are just short adults. I'm six-foot-two, there's plenty of short adults around already. -- Sippican Cottage: Red, Right, Return

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:37 AM | Your Say (3)

May 11, 2011

"One of the Saddest Facts About Barack Obama's Presidency...

...is that it has been most devastating to his most fervent supporters. The Labor Department's current jobs report indicates that fewer black men now have jobs than at any time in recorded history." -- Power Line

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:10 PM | Your Say (7)

George Orwell’s revulsion toward all “the smelly little orthodoxies that compete for our souls”

"What sickens me about left-wing people, especially the intellectuals, is their utter ignorance of the way things actually happen. I was always struck by this when I was in Burma and used to read anti- imperialist stuff." -- The Intimate Orwell by Simon Leys | The New York Review of Books

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:33 PM | Your Say (2)

What we knew, then didn't know, then knew again, and then didn't know yet again about Cranberrys

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For decades cranberry juice has enjoyed a reputation as an effective way to prevent bladder infections.
Scientists have doggedly tried to confirm this well-known folk truth with dozens of studies, some in test tubes and some in people. Older studies found that the juice worked. Newer ones found that it didn't. All were too small to be definitive. In 1998 a substance presumed to be the active component in the cranberry was identified, and in 2009 another study suggested that a cranberry extract containing this substance was almost as powerful as an antibiotic. However, in 2011 another impeccably designed and executed study of cranberry juice indicated that the presumed active compound apparently has no effect, although that may simply mean that the juice works, although by an unknown mechanism.
-- from the newly discovered and very interesting quintessentialruminations

Posted by Vanderleun at 5:15 PM | Your Say (3)

Shock Poll: AP Finds Obama Hits Sixty Percent Level of Support (Among Democrats)

Obama's numbers here are huge on everything -- why, people even approve of the handling of the economy!

And then, when you check the cross-tabs, you find out the people polled were the the American Bar Association, NAMBLA, and the members of the Grateful Dead. Including the dead one. -- Ace

Posted by Vanderleun at 4:21 PM | Your Say (0)

More snarky questions to ask liberals and progressives

In that one study that just came out, the majority of you liberals and proglos enthusiastically supported a society where the richest quintile would only own three times as much wealth as the poorest quintile.

Really. So, tell me, shall I make the generous assumption that you guys are simply childlike and primitive innumerates and therefore have no idea of what exactly you are demanding here, or are you actually that fucking nuts? Haven't you given the logical implications of your ideal society even the most rudimentary examination or thought? For example, if the average person works a total of approximately 40 years in his adult life, how much savings and assets would he end up with for all this work? Only three times as much as what he started with, you say? If so, then what's the point of ever saving anything? And how would home ownership even be possible in the great equal society that you envision? -- The Fourth Checkraise: If the auntie had balls, she'd be the unca

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:09 PM | Your Say (0)

Contrary to What They'd Like Americans to Believe the War of the Two Religions Is Still On

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Starting in 1979, we have misread the renewal of jihadist fervor in the Muslim world, attributing it to the material causes we in the secularized West prize: economic development, political freedom, or individual rights, all notions at some level inimical to the profound beliefs

of many Muslims. Thus we have dismissed the careful theological justifications of jihadist violence and terror offered by Muslim Brothers founder Hassan al-Banna, jihadist theorist Sayyid Qutb, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, and al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. We have called their pronouncements "distortions" of Islam and mere rationalizations for the material aims and needs that we value and privilege. But as Khomeini said, "We did not start a revolution to lower the price of melons."

On the contrary, the motives of jihadists are spiritual, their war one of conflicting religious creeds and beliefs: "Muslims must rise up in this struggle," Khomeini said in 1979, "which is more a struggle between all unbelievers and the Muslims." Twenty-two years later, Osama bin Laden would say the same thing after the attacks on 9/11: "This war is fundamentally religious. Under no circumstances should we forget this enmity between us and the infidels. For the enmity is based on creed." -- Bruce Thornton: The Wages of Appeasement | Hoover Institution

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:41 PM | Your Say (2)

Cruising Towards the Cull

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Here's the Big One: Nigeria is heading for about 390 million people in 2050 and 720 million in 2100. Fortunately, all those new Nigerian astronautical engineers that Judge Posner's logic foresees should have the human race well on its way to colonizing Alpha Centauri by then. If you don't believe me, I've got an email that proves it. -- Winning The Future, globally

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:35 AM | Your Say (0)

Osama bin Laden violated the golden rule: In addition to killing just Jews, he also killed non-Jews.

Had he limited his terrorism to Jews only, he would not have been targeted. The same world leaderswho today take great pride in his death would have celebrated his life. He would not have been killed by President Obama; he would have dined with him. -- Bin Laden's One Mistake | World Opinion and Editorial Right Side News

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:42 AM | Your Say (0)

Next Time Take the Train?

Except for the tiny fragment of America living in the congested mid-Atlantic strip, Amtrak is largely on America's "do not ride" list.  Amtrak is an epic money pit. In vast swathes of the US, terrorists would be the only person on an Amtrak train. -- Shot in the Dark

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:37 AM | Your Say (0)

Truth in Packaging

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The packaging itself leads you to believe this dildo is meant as some kind of tribute to Obama
because, hey, some people show their support in kooky ways. But having researched many an article on deviant sexuality--and by research I mean downloaded and saved for late night weeping sessions--I can assure you this dildo is not a tribute it is a study from life. -- Cracked.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:13 AM | Your Say (3)

The Gagdad Method: "Why am I on this line of thought?...

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I have no idea. Now that I'm on it, might as well follow where it leads, though. -- One Cʘsmos
At dinner last week, Sippican said to me, "It's really sorta stunning. He seems to be able to do 2,000 words before breakfast every single day. How does he do it?" Well, this is a clue.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:02 AM | Your Say (2)

Crack-Pipe Economics: "A recession is nothing more than an economy tearing down a bunch of inefficient businesses and redistributing lot of poorly allocated resources...

The leftist believes that this Death can be avoided by propping up and resuscitating the latter with a flow of stolen revenue. It works, in the same way that giving cocaine to a dying man will perk him up for awhile." -- One Cʘsmos: The Worst Things in Life are Very Costly

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:58 AM | Your Say (1)

May 10, 2011

"GUTSY?" MYASS

Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive isn't buying this gutsy meme of the low-to-no--ball Obama:

Barry O is the antithesis of a gutsy leader. He is an overly-analytical, lead-from-behind, weak-kneed, spineless chicken and that is the kindest assessment I can make of his non-existent leadership skills. I have known leaders and there are some I would have followed into Hell wearing a gasoline soaked suit. I wouldn't follow Obama across the street to Starbucks, because he would pause in the middle of the street to consider whether we should consider Caribou Coffee and get us both flattened by a semi. The meme is that this singular bit of vicarious badassery immunizes O against the wholly justified notion that he is a dithering academic way over his head in any leadership role. Yeah, no! One attaboy does not erase a sad, serial record of Aw Shits. -- BLACKFIVE: Obama the gutsy

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:26 PM | Your Say (1)

"For Mercy has a human heart, Pity, a human face, And Love, the human form divine": It's Videos Like This That Make Abortion Harder to Justify

More Powerful Than a Sonogram:

Your face is formed in the womb in the first couple of months of life, from when you were the size of a grain of rice to when you were the size of a kidney bean. The video (above) of a growing human face shows how this process happens. It has been created from high quality scans of human embryos at early stages of development, provided by universities and hospitals. This unique time-lapse video shows the face developing from a one-month-old embryo to an age of 10 weeks. -- BBC News

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:52 PM | Your Say (0)

When 'Allahu Akbar' Means 'I Have a Bathroom Emergency!

In the original AP article on the story, AP's writers helpfully informed its readers, "Authorities do not yet have a motive."

Further on in the article, in the 13th paragraph, AP attempted to shed some light on the man's intentions by quoting a relative of the man who helpfully suggested, "He might have seriously mistaken the cockpit for the bathroom.... He's only been on three planes in his whole life." -- ' - The New Editor
When I'm emperor of the universe, reporters and editors who put out crap like that will be taken from their offices, flayed, and then laid out on a salt lick in a public square pour encourager les autres.

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:44 PM | Your Say (6)

When you look at other countries and the history of the world in general, we are all just amazingly, unbelievably wealthy in this country.

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Let's get one thing straight: We label people in the U.S. as poor, middle class, and rich, but that is all utter bull.

I mean, look at what we call poor in this country. Poor people have cars, cell phones, TV with hundreds of channels, the internet, electricity, running water -- these are riches even the wealthiest of a hundred years or so ago couldn't even dream of having. And look at our poor compared to actual poor people in other countries -- not poor in the sense that they have to buy store brand soda but poor in that they could easily starve to death in the streets. -- Us vs. Them: The Idle Rich vs. the Working Rich

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:44 AM | Your Say (1)

Your Master's Voice

A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones.

Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones equipped with special chips and software.... Consumers would be able to opt out of all but those presidential messages. -- CBS New York

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:40 AM | Your Say (2)

Once again, FLOTUS demonstrates that her taste is all in her mouth

Robert F*CK*N Frost, Ya'll

Michelle Obama is hosting a poetry reading event. She's invited a "Chicago poet" who must fill her savage breast with delight. Here's a sampling of the work of the poet named "Common."" It's not every day that a first lady invites a thug to do a reading of his work that includes a passage that calls for the immolation of the previous president.
Bonus: it's not just illiterate poetry, it's bad illiterate poetry to boot!

"I sing a song for the hero unsung
with faces on the mural For the rev-OLU-shun!"

Yeah, right.

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:52 AM | Your Say (12)

May 9, 2011

The Fool Speaks: Paul Gilroy, professor and Public Idiot, London School of Economics

Even in their last shaking moments of senility, the Brits are always good for a laugh: "There are public intellectuals in America. I think my friends Cornel West and Skip Gates are those kinds of people." -- Paul Gilroy in Britain's intellectuals: leading thinkers have their say | Culture | The Observer

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:33 PM | Your Say (2)

"Increasing stupidity from the supposedly smart."

Free-Thinkers and Unchained Intellects All Over the World Decide, Simultaneously, That We're All Supposed To Feel Rather Ashamed That Usama bin Ladin Is Dead

It is no wonder they all quickly fall in a line and begin spouting minor variations on the same stupid claim. The point was never, ever to consider the truth of the matter, and subject it to analysis; but precisely to simply repeat what other self-discovered members of the New Aristocrats are saying, because that's how they each know they belong.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:15 PM | Your Say (1)

And the Sardonic Headline of the Day Award Goes to...

Doug Ross for: Authorities "do not yet have a motive" of suspect who tried to break into American Airlines cockpit while shouting "Allahu Akbar!"

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:05 PM | Your Say (4)

Journalism:

The art of ignoring all the facts that don't support the article you've already written. -- Dennis Crowley

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:24 PM | Your Say (2)

"Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day;

but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate and systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.

When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution”. --Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. 1774 [Larwyn's Linx: The Senate Seeks to Create Caesar]

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:47 AM | Your Say (0)

"Why are liberals so resistant to economic truth? ...

Truth is a realization. Once realized it cannot be unrealized without damaging the psyche. You cannot put the truthpaste back into the tube. Thus, truth is part of the temporal irreversibility of the cosmos, which moves forward and not back. -- One Cʘsmos: The Genesis Myth of the Left: <i>I Want, Therefore You Work</i>

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:37 AM | Your Say (1)

You gotta beat somebody with somebody

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2012 and the Republican rescue fantasy:

in the back of their minds, many Republicans are hoping that somewhere, somehow, a superhero candidate will swoop down out of the sky and rescue them from their current lackluster presidential field. They know it's a fantasy, but they still hope.
Let's face it. Of the schmos and JoeBlos currently shortlisting their sorry asses for the gig, they've got nothin'.

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:29 AM | Your Say (10)

“I don’t hate Muslims. I hate their book and their ideology....”

Geert Wilders’ problem with Islam

“I see Islam as 95% ideology, 5% religion — the 5% being the temples and the imams,” he tells me. “If you would strip the Koran of all the negative, hateful, anti-Semitic material, you would wind up with a tiny [booklet].”

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (0)

San Francisco, as usual, leads the nation in screwing itself

How does SF Get Top Honors in Homelessness and Human Feces on Its Streets? It works at it.

"In San Francisco, one of the toughest places in the country to find a place to live, more than 31,000 housing units — one of every 12 — now sit vacant, according to recently released census data. That’s the highest vacancy rate in the region, and a 70 percent increase from a decade ago." The reason? The city's pro-tenant, outdated rent control laws that make it difficult to raise rents or evict a tenant. -- CARPE DIEM

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:51 AM | Your Say (0)

The Octothorpe. (That's "hashmark" to you)

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The "#" symbol is something of a problem child.

It seems at first to be quite innocuous, a jack-of-all-trades whose names and uses correspond in a pleasingly systematic manner: "#5" is read "number 5", leading to the name "number sign"; in North America, "5#" means "five pounds in weight", giving "pound sign", while the cross-hatching suggested by its shape leads to the commonly used British name of "hash sign." Dig a little deeper, though, and this glyph reveals itself to be a frustratingly multifaceted beast. Its manifold uses encompass the sublime and the ridiculous in equal measure. Its varied but functional aliases have lately been joined by the grandiose moniker "octothorpe", bestowed upon it for reasons more frivolous than practical, and the whys and wherefores of its etymology elude even the most studied experts. The simple "#" is not nearly as simple as it seems. -- Shady Characters

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:33 AM | Your Say (1)

Moms, ‘Myths’ and Cultural Marxism

It is apparently essential to the success of liberalism that... feminism has, in fact, vastly improved American life for everyone.

And if any woman should be unhappy with some aspect of her life in this post-liberation paradise, it is not feminists whom she should blame, but rather the residual sexism that remains, and which requires renewed effort to extirpate. -- The Other McCain

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:04 AM | Your Say (1)

Why America's College Bubble Is Next To Burst

American college tuition inflation has been out of control for the past decade.

During the financial crisis of late-2008/early-2009, almost all goods and services in America at least temporarily declined in price. The only service in America that continued to rise in price throughout the financial crisis, besides health care, was college education. Despite real unemployment in America reaching 22%, students were brainwashed into believing that if they were lucky enough to be blessed with the privilege to get half a million dollars into debt to obtain a college degree, they will be on a path to riches and have a guaranteed successful career; whereas those who don't attend college are destined to be failures in life. -- zero hedge

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:12 AM | Your Say (0)

May 8, 2011

"There probably isn’t a man walking the earth today who is responsible for the death of more Israelis than Shimon Peres."

No matter what, Israel would never relinquish the chance for a true and comprehensive peace, Peres said. “If one opportunity fails, we’ll look for another.” -- Peres, Gantz honor nation’s fallen soldiers

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:08 PM | Your Say (1)

There is nothing in this world but to love, and be loved in return.

In a hundred years the most important man you ever met is anonymous. In a thousand everyone is. We cobbled together a life around the table where we break the bread, and for a few thousand times we were as one. I saw your face in our children's faces. You said you saw mine. The universe passed the plate, and we put in our offering. We are poor, but it's enough. -- Sippican Cottage: Moveable Feast

Posted by Vanderleun at 2:24 PM | Your Say (1)

" It just gets colder. It just gets harder."

My Hell Week began in the middle of the night.

Sleeping in a large tent with my men, I woke to the sound of a Mark-43 Squad Automatic Weapon. The Mark-43 has a cyclic rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute. It is the primary "heavy" gun carried by SEALs on patrol. A blank round is not nearly as loud as a live one, but when the gun is rocking just feet away from your ears in an enclosed tent, it still sounds painfully loud. We soon started surf torture. We ran into the ocean until we were chest deep in water, formed a line, and linked arms as the cold waves ran through us. Soon we began to shiver. Instructors on bullhorns spoke evenly, "Gentlemen, quit now, and you can avoid the rush later. You are only at the beginning of a very long week. It just gets colder. It just gets harder." -- An Inside Look at the SEAL Sensibility - WSJ.com

Posted by Vanderleun at 1:54 PM | Your Say (1)

Sea level rise is accelerating...to the downside

Following a long delay and some controversial "adjustments,"

the University of Colorado sea level satellite data was recently released. Aplot of the rate of sea level riseshows a stable rate between 2003 and 2007, and declining rates since 2007. -- Tom Nelson:

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:32 PM | Your Say (0)

What do you get when you cross CAIR with Eric Holder's Justice Department and Janet Napolitano's DHS?

Long-term, I'd wager on needlessly dead Americans. -- DOUG ROSS

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:31 PM | Your Say (2)

At a Texas barbecue joint,

you normally pick up a tray at the counter and order meat from one person and sides from another.

The person doling out the meat removes it from the smoker and carves it himself. It is sold by the pound—often brisket and pork ribs and sausage and beef ribs and chicken and, in some places, clod (beef shoulder). The carver serves it on some variety of butcher paper. If, despite having worked with smoke in his eyes for many years, he is of a generous nature, as the carvers at Mueller’s are known to be, he might slice off a piece of a brisket’s darkened outside—what would be called in Kansas City a burnt end—and, before you’ve ordered anything, place it on your tray as a small gesture. (Given the quality of Mueller’s brisket, it is a gesture that can make a traveller feel immensely pleased about being back in Texas.) A couple of slices of packaged white bread are also included. Usually, the only way to have a brisket sandwich in central Texas is to make your own. -- Dept. of Gastronomy: By Meat Alone

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:17 AM | Your Say (6)

Interview With an Ex-Vegan: Erim Bilgin

When things started to go obviously downhill for me, all those questions that I previously ignored about the diet started to look much more real all of a sudden.

Did humans really have these big brains just for writing animal liberation manifestos? Were these super sweet agricultural fruits really what humans ate for millions of years? Had all those hunter-gatherer cultures been mistaken about the hunting part? Did cavemen make those paintings to tell us how much they loved their animal friends and didn’t want to see them getting hurt? And why the hell WERE my teeth getting annihilated, anyway? Veganism had some answering to do, and it all happened randomly as shit. -- Let Them Eat Meat

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:12 AM | Your Say (7)

Deep Down Everyone Knows He's a Pussy

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All of this praise is due to the fact that Obama approved, rather than nixing, the killing of bin Laden.

A good decision, to be sure. But is there a single person, anywhere, who doubts that George W. Bush would have made the same call? Or John McCain, if he had won in 2008? Of course not. The Democrats' jubilation results from the fact that their guy didn't wilt under pressure, but rather lived up to the standard that George W. Bush and John McCain easily met. For this, he is called "courageous" and "gutsy." One wonders: if killing bin Laden was a courageous, gutsy decision by Barack Obama, where were the liberals when President Bush approved the killing of Zarqawi? Do you remember any of them praising that decision as courageous and "game changing?" No, neither do I. -- Time to Celebrate?

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:42 AM | Your Say (6)

Hard to imagine Osama's noggin as an attractive centerpiece at next year's White House Community Organizer of the Year banquet...

When it comes to instructive analogies, I prefer Khartoum to cartoons.

If it took America a decade to avenge the dead of 9/11, it took Britain 13 years to avenge their defeat in Sudan in 1884. But, after Kitchener slaughtered the jihadists of the day at the Battle of Omdurman in 1897, he made a point of digging up their leader the Mahdi, chopping off his head and keeping it as a souvenir. The Sudanese got the message. The British had nary a peep out of the joint until they gave it independence six decades later – and, indeed, the locals fought for King and (distant imperial) country as brave British troops during World War Two. Even more amazingly, generations of English schoolchildren were taught about the Mahdi's skull winding up as Lord Kitchener's novelty paperweight as an inspiring tale of national greatness. -- Mark Steyn: Why Pakistan knew it could hide Osama

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:36 AM | Your Say (1)

It's got to hurt to be so marginalized now that Obama is President.

Althouse: Noam Chomsky: "It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law."

This is the kind of thing that Barack Obama might have said before he became President. (Or do we only imagine that he used to say things like that?) A great benefit to having Obama as President is that he is not available to say things like that and very few mainstream Democrats or liberals feel tempted to say things like that.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:21 AM | Your Say (1)

Curves

Instrument lights are ON; the integrated GPS NAV system switches automatically from daylight to night setting. I reach back and switch the seat heat to ON under my wife's little hiney and ask her if she is warm enough via the helmet-to-helmet COMM. She is wearing a heated liner underneath her Joe Rocket jacket drawing power from the bike's electrical system. She says she is toasty and very happy that we ran away from home. We both laugh about that... There is something about a powerful motorcycle and the horizon. -- Flight Level 390: Curves

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:09 AM | Your Say (1)

Universities in Decline

Humanities departments are hard at work teaching students to be the kinds of people you do not want to hire. Perhaps it is a way of undermining capitalism and free enterprise, but young people who are trained to be activists look to companies like incipient troublemakers.

While the education establishment has the power to do what it pleases within school walls, the outside world, in the person of hiring officers, also has a say. And recently it has been saying that it does not want to hire young people who have been indoctrinated by so-called Humanists. -- Had Enough Therapy?

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:04 AM | Your Say (1)

On Being Self-Educated

Drinking in knowledge.
For pure pleasure. Never for duty.

--Jewel @ ォ Jaded Haven

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:00 AM | Your Say (0)

May 7, 2011

"There's an airhead gap between politicians and journalists and the rest of humanity.

They have not yet connected the world of the internet with their own world; yes, they're aware their internet is the same as ours, but they think they're seeing something we can't see by virtue of who they are. They're privileged. And they're going to remind you of that special privilege every chance they get, which is why you see so many news reports about news reporters." -- The Last Psychiatrist: Osama Bin Laden Has Been Killed

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:38 PM | Your Say (1)

A lot of rich lefties from industrialized nations want

–really want–to keep some of their fellow human beings in poverty, so they can visit them in their traditional towns and villages during their travels to obscure corners of the world–as if these people were animals in a picturesque zoo. -- A Summer Special from the Couple Who Pwned the Environmental-Extremist Movement

Posted by Vanderleun at 3:21 PM | Your Say (10)

"Love thy neighbor" ...

... is one thing. But to imagine it is possible to love 300 million strangers if only we can extract sufficient taxes is lunacy.

The philosophists behind the French Revolution loved everyone, as did Marx and Lenin. America's founders, not so much. Besides, the government doesn't love. Rather, as our Founders recognized, governments have powers and that is all. That being the case, they decided to create a government with clearly defined and strictly limited powers. This means that there are certain things it is forbidden to do, no matter how "compassionate" its vulgar representatives. -- One Cʘsmos: Bleeding Brain Conservatism and the Human Margin

Posted by Vanderleun at 10:25 AM | Your Say (3)

So the fat guy buys the black guy a drink, only he doesn't buy it, he stole the booze from his father like Ferris Bueller would, and the fat guy says my father is rich, how about yours? And even though the black guy is noble enough already for 5 movies.

Then the Hindenburg was bombing the Eiffel Towerand the guy with the lion gets all shot up and whatnot defending it, and decides to become a kamikaze pilot and blows up the Hindenburg, and instead of bombing Paris I guess it sets Paris on fire when it crashes full of flaming bombs instead of just dropping them, but that happens out of the frame so he's still a hero if you ask me. -- Sippican Cottage: Paris, Texas, The Movie. Sorta

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:32 AM | Your Say (0)

May 6, 2011

Mad Skilz for Remote Kilz

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All thumbs
xBOx Image by Sporf

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:58 PM | Your Say (2)

"Just put a few stupid words in the mouth of Obama and everybody believes it - stupid people because they're gullible and smart people because they think they're smarter."

There's is no picture because he's not dead yet. They're twisting him on a spit and slow roasting him until he's so tender the secrets just drip of the bones. They've got him simmering in pentathol....

When I first heard the story break, I could have sworn it was a week delayed. But there was live tweeting going on by locals who heard the helo crash but didn't know what it was. They thought it was a drone attack. Anyway I was sure that there were networks to roll up in advance of the announcement. But it looks Obama had to speak fairly quickly about the 'kill' before the real-time world caught up with him. Still, our men in camo and blackface know how to get out of Dodge under the cover of darkness leaving no trail, so nobody knows exactly how they humped OBL out of the middle of Pakistan to 'the sea'. That's a dark trail - so dark that in fact OBL could be anywhere. He's certainly not free or missing, that's for sure. He's never going to see the light of day. But is he dead at this very moment? You will never know. -- Because He's Not Dead Yet - Cobb

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:44 AM | Your Say (9)

A Tale of Two Newspapers

WSJ: Our print edition has had 17 consecutive quarters of circulation revenue growth

Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton tells staffers that ad revenue for the paper’s U.S. print edition was up 7 percent in the first quarter, and circulation revenue was up almost 8 percent. For the digital editions, ad revenue was up 19 percent, and circulation revenue jumped 22 percent.

Washington Post Profit Declines 67%

Revenue at the newspaper division, which also includes the Herald of Everett, Washington, was little changed at $155 million. The unit had an operating loss of $12.8 million, compared with $13.8 million a year earlier.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:33 AM | Your Say (2)

"The momentum of his mental blunders will continue to dog him"

Now can he withdraw from Afghanistan if it means giving it back to Pakistan?

Can he engage regimes now that he's declared that Democracy is the wave of history in the Middle East? All of his triumphs have come at the cost of imitating the policies of his despised predecessor. His base may pretend not to notice, but they wouldn't notice an elephant in their living room if it was pouring them coffee and dancing the fandango. President Obama has resurrected all of themes he sought so earnestly to bury. He has debunked himself beyond his wildest dreams. Even now he is creating a missile defense shield, even though he is trying to ease the sharpness of it by trying to share it with the Russians. -- Belmont Club サ A Comment About A Tangled Web

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:50 AM | Your Say (0)

Death Before Sex: "An odd state of affairs."

We’ve reached the point where the legal standard of “consent” is now lower for killing someone that for having sex with her.

If a woman is non-communicative, then the law assumes that she does not consent to sex if she claims later to have not done so. But if an old person is non-communicative, then he is assumed to consent to being starved to death, and conveniently will never contest that assumption. -- Delenda est Carthago: Standards of Consent

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:16 AM | Your Say (2)

UNEM BACK DRUD

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As my sainted 95 year old mother would say, "Yeah, right."

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:37 AM | Your Say (0)

Sustainable?

Sustainability is the codeword for "paucity." -- Peccable;

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:27 AM | Your Say (1)

Useful Descriptive Phrase

Many years ago, I called the home of my Chinese-speaking nieces. This was before they started learning English and before I started learning their dialect of Chinese. After the call was over, the eldest niece asked, "Who was that on the phone?"

"That was Uncle Raymond."

"Oh, I want to talk to Uncle Raymond!"

Her mother replied, "That'd be like a chicken talking to a duck."

-- The Old New Thing - Site Home s

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:13 AM | Your Say (0)

May 5, 2011

During that Slut Walk that is now going global,

I thought that "No means No!" chanting would be so much more credible

if its advocates then equally respected the "No!" said by other people, such as "No, I don't want to pay higher taxes so that you and your friends could have more generous welfare cheques", "No, I don't want to eradicate national borders just so that you could have thrilling exotic vibrancy in the streets and cheaper servants to clean your toilets", or "No, I am not going to stop shopping at Wal-Mart just because you resent normal people with families and jobs". -- The Fourth Checkraise

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:24 PM | Your Say (2)

"One day that really can't come soon enough,...

... most people will look at Greens the same disgusted and pitying way as we now look at the Soviet stooges of the past."-- The Fourth Checkraise: Screwed enough already

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:22 PM | Your Say (2)

"They came to help and wound up killing thousands."

The Greenies have it wrong.

It is not resource abundance but poverty which is unsustainable. Haiti was knocked down by a devastating earthquake. It has may have too little design margin to recover quickly or even to recover at all. A world of gas lamps, windmills and spinning wheels sounds nice -- until an epidemic or earthquake shows up. -- Belmont Club » Sh** Happens

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:49 PM | Your Say (3)

Low Bandwidth Videos That Pollute the Net

Why would I want to watch a talking head for 10 minutes delivering in 500 words what would take two good sentences in print and 30 seconds to read? That's what I mean by low bandwidth for content.

Worse, it seems a lot of the video is blurbs of people arguing on MSNBC and Fox News. The excerpts are always some "gotcha"moment where one of the poster's favorite paladins scores a point over the shouts of the lesser intellects on the panel. Spare me that bullshit. If I wanted to watch a shouting argument, I would stay home on a Sunday afternoon. -- Call me old fashioned « Jaded Haven

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:00 AM | Your Say (5)

The last post

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"Here it is. I'm dead, and this is my last post to my blog.
In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote—the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive...." (keep reading) -- - Penmachine - Derek K. Miller
[HT: Barcepundit]

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:07 AM | Your Say (1)

The Nixon 18 Minute Gap vs. The Obama 25 Minute Black Out

Seems like old times:

Watergate tapes 18 Minute Gap Ms. Woods said Nixon came in and was "pushing the buttons back and forth." The recording was of a conversation between President Nixon and Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman. Haldeman's notes from the meeting show that the topic was the aforementioned arrests at the Watergate Hotel.

In an interview with PBS, Mr Panetta said: "Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information. " -- Osama bin Laden dead: Blackout during raid on bin Laden compound - Telegraph

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:18 AM | Your Say (3)

"I know I'm fakin' it, I'm not really makin' it."

As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us. -- Ready to record history | Photographers

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:06 AM | Your Say (3)

"Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Jump Due to Anomalies"

Yes, anomalies such as "You're fired!"

The number of claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, pushed up by auto-plant shutdowns and other unusual events that seasonal variations failed to take into account, the Labor Department said. Applications for jobless benefits jumped by 43,000 to 474,000 in the week ended April 30, the most since August, Labor Department figures showed today. -- Bloomberg

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:44 AM | Your Say (4)

Pay As You Go: Obama floats plan to tax cars by the mile

They just want to put a little electronic location and payment device inside your car:

The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.... Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations. -- - The Hill's Floor Action

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:40 AM | Your Say (9)

What's with the Cinco de M-EFFIN Mayo Again All Over the US?

Does Mexico celebrate the 4th of July? -- Talk Straight

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:35 AM | Your Say (6)

May 4, 2011

Him? He Thinks He's the Commander-in-Chief.

President Obama was literally pulled from a golf outing and escorted back to the White House to be informed of the mission.

Upon his arrival there was a briefing held which included Bill Daley, John Brennan, and a high ranking member of the military. When Obama emerged from the briefing, he was described as looking “very confused and uncertain.” The president was then placed in the situation room where several of the players in this event had already been watching the operation unfold. Another interesting tidbit regarding this is that the Vice President was already “up to speed” on the operation. A source indicated they believe Hillary Clinton had personally made certain the Vice President was made aware of that day’s events before the president was. The now famous photo released shows the particulars of that of that room and its occupants. What that photo does not communicate directly is that the military personnel present in that room during the operation unfolding, deferred to either Hillary Clinton or Robert Gates. The president’s role was minimal, including their acknowledging of his presence in the room. -- LiveLeak.com - White House Insider: Obama Hesitated – Panetta Issued Order to Kill Osama Bin Laden Read more: http://socyberty.com/issues/white-house-insider-obam

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:54 PM | Your Say (4)

"The UN's vicious defamation of Israel is a kingly title. As is the left's vilification of America. "

One Cʘsmos: Why the Chosen Always Have Arrows in their Backs

No one expects anything of Chinese, or Arabs, or Eskimos. The UN holds them to no moral standard, and rightfully so. When Muslims desecrate an American soldier, we are appalled but not surprised. But mishandle the body of a genocidal Muzz-murderer? Day of rage!

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:43 PM | Your Say (1)

Antiwar Movement? Nailed to It's Perch and Pushing Up the Daisies

The world must now realize that the domestic antiwar movement is dead, kaput;

it cares not a whit whether we assassinate bin Laden or a son of Qaddafi or go into Libya. Everything is on the table now and there are no self-restraints, no snickers on The Daily Show, no quirky insider winks on Letterman, no Barbara Streisand crazy faxes. A Nobel peace laureate is now the Left’s totem and he can send quite deadly Americans on quite deadly missions as he sees fit — and without worry about a New York Times op-ed barrage or an ACLU lawsuit. That gives the US newfound advantages, a veritable blank check, from keeping Guantanamo open indefinitely to using a Cheney “assassination” team and valuable water-boarded intelligence wherever it wishes to. A Harold Koh is not going to be filing any more lawsuits against his government — he is the government. -- VDH's Private Papers:: Bin Laden Fallout

Posted by Vanderleun at 6:03 AM | Your Say (2)

May 3, 2011

John Brennan, A Man Doomed to Guzzle Warm Sticky Lies in Hell with Bin Laden

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John Brennan assumes position for speaking to Pakistan

No proof Pakistanis knew bin Laden location:

"They (Pakistani officials) are expressing as great a surprise as we had when we first learned about this compound, so there is no indication at this point that the people we have talked to were aware of this, but we need to dig deeper into this," White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said in an interview with National Public Radio.
Well, in all fairness, NPR does expect people to guzzle lies.

Posted by Vanderleun at 8:00 PM | Your Say (7)

Deal. And you're probably going to get it good and hard, you ungrateful and stupid son of a bitch

anomilaghan.jpg

An Afghan protester holds a banner during a peaceful protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, April 7, 2011.

Clerics at a peaceful protest of about 300 people in Kabul said a U.S. pastor who burned a Quran should be prosecuted and Americans should withdraw from Afghanistan. -- Afghanistan: April 2011 - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic
Hey, after we're gone write us a pathetic note when the Taliban put your grandkids on a spit and start turning the crank, okay?

Posted by Vanderleun at 12:04 PM | Your Say (5)

How To: Excabulate Your Pondrefact

Best Damned Tech Advice Ever: Tech Tock With Sippican Cottage

OK, now press the caramel button that looks like a Sesame Street manhole cover. Everything you've ever done, seen, or mumbled to yourself will immediately be uploaded to an NSA computer in a bunker in Montana, and if you have a credit card on file at iYapple, it's going to get more exercise than a crack-addled triathlete. Never fear though; bin Laden's dead, and they've already kicked in the door of that guy that uploaded The King's Speech to the Pirate Bay, so the entire NSA's hanging around doing nothing right about now. Just call them up and ask them what iTeration of the iHassle you're running. If you're using a Microsauced product, you can skip the call to the NSA and just look for a big, metal plate riveted to the back of the box near the fan that sucks up all the dust bunnies and hurls them at your fatherboard. The fatherboard can be identified by the scorchmarks around the processor from trying to play videogames with all the shaders enabled, and the four cracks in it from the big metal plate's rivets sticking through the case.

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:56 AM | Your Say (0)

"The public wants the Pakistan two-step to end"

I think we will see that ‘whatever’ attitude with Pakistan,

whose yelps about violation of its airspace will soon give way to the reality that American public opinion considers it not an ally, not even a neutral, but a veritable enemy that has done more harm to this country than Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela ever dreamed of. Should Obama wish to deal toughly with the Pakistanis, he has public support, and of course the option of much closer relations with India, in and outside of Afghanistan. -- Victor Davis Hanson

Posted by Vanderleun at 11:27 AM | Your Say (2)

Dennis Miller's Remark This Morning

"Of all the candidates that can run next year, there's only one that would have and could have squeezed off both those shots right into the kill zone."

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:25 AM | Your Say (5)

May 2, 2011

Not so fast...

I fear that we will continue to ignore the real issues of this war, and how to win it,

and how to confront the ugly reality of how hard it will be to win. And when I say hard, I mean much harder than WW II, with a casualty count that may be horrendous, even in comparison. Despite the jubilation among the nation, this event makes me more pessimistic about the future, because the reaction to it is an indication of the lack of sobriety and reason with which we approach this potentially existential war. -- Transterrestrial Musings

Posted by Vanderleun at 9:53 AM | Your Say (4)

May 1, 2011

Let's make that "Leading FROM HIS Behind," okay?

"One of his advisers described the President's actions in Libya as "leading from behind."

That's not a slogan designed for signs at the 2012 Democratic Convention, but it does accurately describe the balance that Obama now seems to be finding. It's a different definition of leadership than America is known for, and it comes from two unspoken beliefs: that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world. Pursuing our interests and spreading our ideals thus requires stealth and modesty as well as military strength. It's so at odds with the John Wayne expectation for what America is in the world," the adviser said. "But it's necessary for shepherding us through this phase." What the hell is "this phase?" Where are we "reviled" and by whom? Syria? Russia? Yemen? Somalia? Cuba? -- Works and Days » OK, Let's Decline
I once listened to Obama talk about his "foreign policy." I mumbled at the TV, "Oh, blow it out your ass!" I never dreamed he would be so skillful at actually doing so.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:50 AM | Your Say (1)

War? That's So 2007.

Belmont Club » Men of Distinctions

When bunkers get hit the occupants perish without distinction. The truth is that the families of enemy leaders die during a time of war. It is often unavoidable. But therein lies the difficulty of current Libyan operation. There is ostensibly no campaign for regime change; no enemy; there is not even a war on; not even a reference to Congress. But at the same time the armed forces of the NATO countries are being asked to achieve what amounts to war aims without either legal cover of belligerence nor the resources customarily allotted to it. They have to look for knockout blow on the cheap, not in the name of victory, but in the name of humanitarian action of all things. This sets up a mismatch between means and consequences. The disadvantage of "kinetic military action" in the service of R2P is that it has all the consequences and gore of what used to be called war without the strategic clarity or protections of process. What happens if the Duck strikes back at the families of Western leaders? Is that an act of war? Or is that so yesterday?

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:35 AM | Your Say (3)

From the Comments: "The race card is dying hard...

... but everyone knew it would. As a woman, I don't take my personal liberty for granted, but I sure as hell consider myself not only entitled to it (per God & the U.S. Constitution) but also RESPONSIBLE to protect and to respect the concept of individual rights.
The Race Card does the OPPOSITE, as does The Gender Card, The Sexual-Orientation Card and The Anti-American and Anti-Christian Cards. Racerists are the true "bitter clingers", clinging to their entitlements and bully-tactics. Racerists are the true "flat-earthers", believingsolidarity in Marxism will bring peace and fairness and environmental stability to the globe. Racerists are also spoiled children with nothing left to throw except a tantrum.
Sorry, Oprah... Obama isn't The One. In fact, he is A Zero. It doesn't matter who we elect - even West or Cain - the Racerists will cry racism. It's all they know - their only skill - and it sure as hell beats working hard and achieving success. Making them actually earn their success would be.. well... racist.

Posted by Vanderleun at 7:20 AM | Your Say (4)