Tuesday, September 30, 2014

What day is this? Tuesday?

My kid's in the hospital recovering from a pneumothorax due to - I'm not making this up - practicing his trombone too much.  It's going as well as could be expected.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Speak with candor

Roger Kimball: "The fate of free speech."  "What are the major threats to free speech today? Perhaps the overarching condition that threatens free speech is the spread of political correctness. This has sharply curtailed candor about all manner of contentious subjects.  It is no longer possible, in polite society, to speak frankly about race, about differences between the sexes, or a hundred other topics — so-called “climate change,” for example, or the relationship between Islam and free speech."

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Backward caps everywhere

We were in Amherst tonight for dinner, unaware that it was homecoming at the University of Massachusetts.  (The football team lost again to go 0-5 on the season.)  I immediately thought of this Simpsons episode:
Thai Man: You quitter!  [sing-song:] Quitter boy!  Quitter boy!
Bart:     I'm sorry.
Thai Man: Now restaurant fail.  Children go to state college.  Serious
          students powerless against drunken jockocracy.  Baseball hats
          everywhere.
And the language...the Algonquin Round Table it was not.  Even with little kids within earshot, you'd think there was only one adjective in the whole world.

Friday, September 26, 2014

BAM! You're getting an IRS audit

PJ Tatler: "Famed Chef Emeril Lagasse Says Obama May Drive Him Broke."

Because war on women

Ace has a recap on the actions of Kathy Rummler whose name has been floated as a potential replacement for Eric Holder: "Surprise! Name Floated as Possible Holder Replacement Has Prior History of Slow-Walking Information."  Just like Holder, Rummler acted as a "heat shield" to the Boy President who had to find about stuff on TV.

I believe the Rummler whispers.  Some think that Holder is making a fast and furious exit so that the Democratic Senate can make an appointment before that chamber flips to the Republicans.  But I think it's just the latest chapter in the "war on woman" narrative.  Cause she's a woman and those old men are going to attack her.  So prediction time: Obama will nominate a woman.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

American deadbeat

Zero Hedge: "Meet the world's largest subprime debtor."  "Do you have a friend who consistently borrows 30% of his income each year, is currently in debt about six times her annual income, and wanted to take advantage of short-term interest rates so that he needs to renegotiate with his banker about once every six years? Well, if Uncle Sam is your friend you do!"

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Ladies and gentlemen, the paper of record

Neo-Neocon: "The surprise is not that the Times got it so wrong...the surprise is that it ever issued the correction."

This correction from the NY Times comes only a day after an AP reporter dropped the mask on Twitter and a week after it was demonstrated that the media is burying Obama's bad poll numbers like they never did for Dubya.

This raises a question about the media: are they actively lying or merely ignorant?  Is the bubble on Eighth Avenue so impenetrable that it took ten days for the Times to correct a clearly erroneous statement?  Or was there a debate in the Times' newsroom as to whether admitting the mistake would encourage the "wrong" people?

What separates a writer from a "journalist?"  I would guess the perfessers at Columbia would say something about objectivity or the ability to present facts without bias - apparently too much to ask.  Because the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.

Monday, September 22, 2014

The underachievers of the Kennedy clan

Now that winter is approaching, Joe Kennedy will be running commercials in Massachusetts whoring himself out to Venezuela for cheap oil.  At least he's doing something that can be considered constructive (if you're willing to sell out).  Then there's environmental wacko Robert Kennedy Jr., a deluded half-wit who - in the well-worn habit of the Far Left - wants to throw climate deniers in jail:
Kennedy saved his most venomous comments for the Koch Brothers, accusing them of “treason” for “polluting our atmosphere.”
“I think it’s treason. Do I think the Koch Brothers are treasonous, yes I do,” Kennedy explained.
“They are enjoying making themselves billionaires by impoverishing the rest of us. Do I think they should be in jail, I think they should be enjoying three hots and a cot at the Hague with all the other war criminals,” Kennedy declared.
Clearly, this is a man of rational thought.

Extra - Via Maggie's Farm and Power Line.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

You had one job

This WashPost article is unintentionally hilarious: "Secret Service reviews White House security after fence-jumper enters mansion."
The Secret Service on Saturday launched a security review to learn how a man carrying a knife was able to get inside the front door of the White House Friday night after jumping a fence and sprinting more than 70 yards across the North Lawn — the first time that has ever happened.
Conclusion of security review: the Secret Service sucks.  Everybody start counterfeiting: nobody's on guard.

Side note: jumping a fence + 70 yards!  Unless this was Usain Bolt, this was an embarrassingly long time to respond to an intruder.

Another viewpoint

Hit and Run: "3 reasons to NOT fight ISIS."

I don't know: maybe they're a JV team after all but they're a JV team pulling in over $1 million a day in boosted oil.  With that kind of inflow, they'll be major league soon enough.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The wrong medicine

Hit and Run: "America's Self-Inflicted Economic Wounds -  "But it's a lousy recovery, and one that most people find unconvincing as hell. Whatever else the sort-of recovery, not really recession may be, it's strong evidence of self-inflicted economic wounds. America may be limping along, but we did it to ourselves."

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Stone of Destiny

It's funny but just a couple months ago, on a whim, I rented "Stone of Destiny" from Netflix about a group of Scottish college students who boosted the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey in 1951.  I have a funny feeling that Scots are going to vote for independence tomorrow.  Why?  Because the pro-independence Scots are full of passion while the pro-Unity are just holding on to the familiar.

Extra - Seems like there's a lot of "yes" voters here on Reddit.

A heartbeat away

Hot Air: "Joe Biden: Jewish outreach edition" calls bankers a bunch of Shylocks.

Jesse Jackson empathizes.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

This will not end well

Zero Hedge: "The U.S. National Debt Has Grown By More Than A Trillion Dollars In The Last 12 Months".  "We continue to wildly run up debt as if there is no tomorrow, and by doing so we are destroying the future of this nation."

I remember in the mid-eighties when kids at college were taking Japanese lessons because Japan was going to surpass the United States as the next global powerhouse.  Now Japan has a national debt over 200% of its GDP over two decades of stagnation with no plan to reverse the downward spiral.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Quotes for today

Joe Louis: "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit."

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder: "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

Then there's this guy:
Asked by one of the columnists what he would do if his strategy did not work and he had to escalate further, Mr. Obama rejected the premise. “I’m not going to anticipate failure at this point,” he said.
Finally, here's Gabriel Malor: "Contest: Which quote best sums up Obama's ridiculous presidency?"

Thursday, September 11, 2014

So many feels

Here's a story about cadaver dogs searching, in vain, for survivors after 9/11.  The dogs kept returning to cadavers they were supposed to ignore because it was so depressing not finding anybody alive:
Finding those live victims is really important to a dog like Moxie. To keep her spirits up, to keep her focused, Aliberti took the time to find ways to reward her.
He would often ask other firefighters to hide among the rubble, so Moxie could find somebody.
“That’ll bolster them, get them up and running again,” Aliberti explained. “You have to do that after a while because it’s long days.”
....

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The speech in a nutshell

States Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state.
Broad coalition of 9 NATO countries.
I'm not going to make the mistake of asking Congress for authority like a year ago.
Ain't this economy great?

Expiration date achieved

Every Obama statement has an expiration date.

Then:
In what circumstances, if any, would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress? (Specifically, what about the strategic bombing of suspected nuclear sites -- a situation that does not involve stopping an IMMINENT threat?) 
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
Now: "Obama says he does not need Congress to wage war on ISIS."

Extra - Hit & Run: "Obama's grotesque flip-flops on Congressional authorization for war."

The objective media remembers something

Now that the One has gotten through re-election by lying about and delaying Obamacare, well lookie here: "NYT Baghdad bureau chief: The White House lied to Americans for years about what bad shape Iraq was in."  If only there was somebody from the media stationed in Baghdad who could report these things.

Related - Bad polls?  What bad polls?

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Semi-retired President set to say some stuff

White House Dossier: "Why watch Obama at all?"
Everyone knows President Obama’s speech Wednesday night will include few if any details about how we are going to go about defeating ISIS. Because President Obama has few if any details himself.
CBS reporter Major Garrett asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest today why, then, anyone should tune in:
GARRETT: If I’ve listened to you correctly today, you said the president will tell the country that there’ll be no ground troops involved, there’ll be no tactical operational details, no timeline for victory, no cost associated with the pursuit of victory. Why should anyone watch?
Well, certainly the Commander-in-Chief should explain to a nation why he's sending troops into battle.  The problem is that I've seen this show before and, as usual, it will be all about the One answering his critics.

There will be the standard "some people say boots on the ground" while others say "no war!" but he's in the pragmatic middle.  And something like [the opposite of Obama's policy] is "not what America is about."  Also, something about a responsibility to act with help from the "international community."

This morning I heard on NPR that after seizing Mosul, the Islamic State is making $1 to $3 million a day smuggling oil.  They are selling the stolen crude for $25/barrel, about a quarter of the going rate.  It's useless to talk about financial pressures when warlords from Syria to Iran are getting fabulously rich and ISIL is accumulating bullet money.  I'd really like to hear a plan to choke off this money flow which would do more to weaken ISIL than a hundred drone strikes.



Monday, September 08, 2014

The Left hates free speech

This is an ongoing theme here on this blog that the political Left hates any kind of dissent whether it's climate change or reproductive rights or any range of topics.

I think Ann Althouse has it right: "Because they don't know how to talk about the substantive merits when they are challenged."  So now we're going to go through this kabuki theater of a Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United to fire up the base, nothing more.

Freedom of Press is a sacred right for the NY Times, LA Times, and Mother Jones.  Fox News, however, must be destroyed.

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "Senate Democrats renew push to gut free speech."

More - Hit & Run: "If it did pass, this amendment would mark the second time in U.S. history that Americans decided the Constitution should be changed to restrict people's freedom."

Sunday, September 07, 2014

Friday, September 05, 2014

Friday night news dump

Hot Air: "IRS: Lerner adviser, two in Cincinnati office among five more employees who lost e-mails."

Of course, the email servers may have the missing emails but, you know, Steve has the key to the room and he gets kind of testy before his morning coffee.  So we'll check back later.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Fast food protesters in Boston almost hit double digits

I heard the story on NPR this afternoon that a sum total of eight actual fast-food workers demonstrated for a $15 minimum wage in Boston today, surrounded by a hundred professional protesters from the SEIU.  The Springfield Republican paints the scene:
The protesters initially sat in in the middle of Washington Street in Downtown Crossing looking for police to arrest them.
When it became apparent that they would not be arrested by police the protesters moved to the intersection of Congress and State streets in the Financial District where they were arrested in an orderly manner within 15 minutes of their arrival.
Before his arrest, Wendelly Innocent, 18, a Dunkin Donuts employee, said that fast workers were willing to do whatever it takes to improve their situation.
"We just want to get $15 an hour and a union," said Innocent.
"Willing to do whatever it takes."  Uh-huh.

Extra - Enjoy your $8 Big Mac.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Another "Fact Check" bites the dust

Remember when both Politifact and the Fact Checker were both doing their worst to make sure Americans need not believe their lying eyes when it comes to Obamacare?  Let's flashback to Glenn Kessler's Fact Checker of Sept. 2012: "The bogus claim that Obama skips his intelligence briefings."  Why?  Because instead of sitting down with a CIA briefer, Obama swears to heaven he's reading the PDB.

This led to a rebuttal by Kessler's WashPost colleague Marc Thiessen: "A bogus defense of Obama's intelligence briefing record."

Now the news is out that Obama received extensive briefings on the threat of ISIS, long before he waved them away as "JV".  Did Obama have a long conversation with his National Security Team before overruling them with regard to pro-active measures?  Or, as Ace suspects, did he just not read the briefings:
Incidentally, read further in the article and you'll see that the President never asked for additional information about IS. He read the daily briefings (or the White House claims he did, at least), but apparently had no further questions he wanted to ask anyone about.
You know, the way curious, intellectually-lively people never ask questions about important and interesting things.
It makes the "no strategy" gaffe easier to believe when there's no strategy.

Monday, September 01, 2014

Venezuela needs oil

VodkaPundit notes that Venezuela needs to import light crude to mix with their heavier stuff in "Socialism's timeless endgame."  That is, running out of other people's money.

Use yah blinkah because you're a bad drivah

Popular Mechanics: "Massachusetts Has the Worst Drivers. Duh."

I grew up and got my driver's license in New Jersey but had to re-take the test when I moved to Massachusetts.  I always tell people that the written test in MA is laughable: ten multiple-choice questions and you need to get 70% to pass.  I always remember on my test there was the question: "Smoking marijuana will 1) impair, 2) enhance, 3) make no difference to your ability to drive."  I picked "impair."