He Wishes

Female FBI officer 'tortured Mumbai terror attacks suspect with sex'

Keep dreaming.

Portraying Muslims in a More Positive Light

Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife

• "Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband -- an influential member of the local Muslim community -- reported her death to police Thursday."
  
  
• "Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
  
  Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light." --Oops.
  
  
• "She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February],"

How's that order of protection working out for you? Never trust the government - get a gun, learn how to use it. The police cannot protect you, they are not personal body guards, they won't be there when you are attacked. They come after the attack, take pictures and fill out the paperwork. If they can maybe they will catch the criminal.

What Could Go Wrong?

Democratic Senator Predicts None of His Colleagues 'Will Have the Chance' to Read Final Stimulus Bill Before Vote

"The Democrats have thrown this at us very last-minute," said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). "That's why the rule of thumb in the United States Congress should be, 'When in doubt, vote no,' because the devil is in the details and that's why this stimulus is not worthy of support."

Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) shared that sentiment. "The American public expects for us to get in and know what we're voting on," Boozman said. "But there are very few members from Congress that are going to have time to actually read this thing."

"This is not light reading," Boozman added. "It’s difficult reading, it involves policy and things."

It's not like it's big deal or anything.

Seriously, these people shouldn't be running our government, they should be in gitmo.

Why Civilizations Die

City Cracks Down On Counterfeit Trash Bags

When the Massachusetts city unveiled its new $2 purple trash bags that all residents must use when disposing of household waste, the word 'official' was deliberately spelled 'offcial.'

What? You have to use an official purple trash bag to throw out your trash? Are they insane? Is there a stronger word than insane? Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think there would be mandated, overpriced ($2.00?!) trash bags. This is what happens just before a civilization dies off.

The Incas tried this, I'm pretty sure.

Obama's Birth Certificate Secret Unlocked!

I couldn't understand why Obama would spend so much money in the court system trying to keep his birth certificate secret if he was really born in Hawaii. I mean, what's the big deal. Then I read this:

Kim Jong-Il's birthday 'improves North Korean weather'

“Those who witnessed the opening of willow catkins earlier than the previous years and the unprecedented nocturnal view said excitedly that even the nature and the sky unfolded such mysterious ecstasy in celebration of the birthday of leader Kim Jong-Il,” the agency noted.

Kim Jong-Il, like his father before him, is the subject of an officially inspired personality cult which ascribes almost supernatural powers to him. --much like Obama!

His official biography is steeped in myths, such as the rainbows that appeared over Mount Paektu, his official birthplace, when he was born, or his 11 holes-in-one in a single round of golf.

Bingo! Obama wants to be like Kim Jong-Il. Lights will shine down, the halo thingys, his birthplace, his brilliance - it all fits!

The Pernicious Political Virus

Barry and Marx --Erik Rush

• Have any but a few of us caught on that trashing a nation's economy might be a Marxist's key objective in edging that nation toward totalitarian communism?
  
  
• Barack Hussein Obama is a Marxist. In the context of his career, he has always been a Marxist. The alarm amongst those people who only now think he is taking things too far or in the wrong direction would be amusing were circumstances not so grave. The only surprise on this end is that Obama has initiated the wholesale thievery and wanton curtailment of our liberties this soon.
  
  It isn't like America wasn't warned.
  
  
• He was brought up with Marxists.
  
  
• He studied Marxist "theology" for 20 years.
  
  
• He deliberately sought Marxists to fraternize with throughout college – by his own admission.
  
  
• He worked with Marxists and anti-American elements during his tenure in Chicago and Illinois state politics – which counts as very recently.
  

If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. In this case that duck is a deadly political virus.

Drainage Fail

God Help Us

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Stimulus Package

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Change for the worse. It's funny cause it's true, but it's not funny because he is our leader. We will pay dearly for our national stupidity.

Update 2/13: Read what Vox Day says about the press conference.

Unfairness Doctrine

Senate support builds for 'Fairness Doctrine'

All we want is, you know, some balance on the airwaves, that's all. You know, we're not going to take any of the conservative voices off the airwaves, but just make sure that there are a few progressives and liberals out there, right?"

Sure, right. You can't force someone to listen to something they don't want to listen to. That would be torture and I thought the United States was above that. You mean to tell me we can't torture terrorists but you want to torture American citizens? That's sick and twisted.

Crazy Little Thing Called Property Rights

Google Earth Leads Man to 'Buried Treasure'

Using Google Earth, a Los Angeles-based musician named Nathan Smith thinks he's found a lost treasure ship that sank somewhere north of Corpus Christi during a hurricane in 1822.

OK, so he thinks he found treasure, but the land is owned by someone.

But the owners of the land won't let him dig ...

I wouldn't let them did on my land either, and that's his right. He owns the land. If you want to dig on the land offer to buy it or lease it or otherwise make a deal and if the answer is no - go away.

— unless a court rules that the muddy creek is indeed "navigable waters," in which case the federal government decides.

But no, this guy wants to use the federal government to steal the land, and the government seems all too ready to lend a hand - a ruling is set next month. I'm guessing he gets his way considering the definition of navigable waters has been stretched beyond limits by environmentalists. We'll see. Doesn't matter, if one judge doesn't agree he'll just go to another.

California Has the Same Problem

Angry survivors blame council 'green' policy

• ANGRY residents last night accused local authorities of contributing to the bushfire toll by failing to let residents chop down trees and clear up bushland that posed a fire risk.
  
  
• "We wanted trees cut down on the side of the road … and you can't even cut the grass for God's sake."
  

The "Green" backlash is coming. Rightfully so.

They Got Your Number!

The American people don't care and they're going to take full advantage of your apathy.

See a partial list of what you don't care about here.

Random Thoughts...

from Thomas Sowell

• "One of the most important skills for political success is the ability to make confident assertions of absurdities or lies."
  
  
• "The adage "follow the money" will be hard to apply in the current administration, when there is so much money going in all directions that it is doubtful whether anybody can follow it."
  
  
• "There are too many people, especially among the intelligentsia, who will never appreciate the things that have made this country great until after those things have been destroyed-- with their help. Then, of course, it will be too late."
  
  
• "Democrats could sell refrigerators to Eskimos before Republicans could sell them blankets." --They've done the equivalent selling this "stimulus"
  
  
• "Human beings are going to make mistakes, whether in the market or in the government. The difference is that survival in the market requires recognizing mistakes and changing course before you go bankrupt. But survival in politics requires denying mistakes and sticking with the policies you advocated, while blaming others for the bad results."
  
  
• More frightening to me than any policy or politician is the ease with which the public is played for fools with words. The latest example is the "Employee Freedom of Choice Act," a bill that will do away with secret ballot elections among workers voting on whether to be represented by a union. It is an open invitation to intimidation-- which is to say, loss of freedom of choice." --Another example: The "Fairness Doctrine"
  

Government Firewalls Have Been Breached

Mark Levin has nailed it as far as I'm concerned. This is a must hear show, this is not the time to sit back and ignore the reality of what is going on in our government. The day is coming when you will not have any recourse in the courts - they will own them - there will be no checks and balances in our government - it will be their way or the highway. Wake up America, your waning freedoms will soon be gone, it will be too late to get them back. The American dream will be to get the next hand-out from the imperial government and hoping the line is not too long. The government is NOT your mother - get over it. Mark Levin Show: 2/10/09

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." --President Gerald Ford

Believe it.

Best Explanation I've Seen As to Why the Stimulus Can't Work

Walter E. Williams: The stimulus plan fails the swimming pool test

• "Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse. The government can increase its spending only by reducing private spending equivalently. Whether government finances its added spending by increasing taxes, by borrowing or by inflating the currency, the added spending will be offset by reduced private spending. Furthermore, private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people's money." --Richard Wagner
  
  A short translation of Wagner's comment is: There is no Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy.
  
  
• In stimulus package language, if Congress taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another, who pays the tax and is unstimulated. A visual representation of the stimulus package is: Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new President proposes for the economy.
  

Read this whole commentary for deeper understanding.

The So-Called "Stimulus" That Isn't

Our Deadly Debt: How "Stimulus" Prolongs Pain

And let us also remember how Japan's and Europe's soft-love economic policies served them so ill in the last 30 years.

In Japan, banks that should've failed were allowed to live on. Employees who should have been laid off got lifetime-employment guarantees. Companies that should've gone under were propped up.

But Japan's deficit spending didn't work - all its economic stimulus fell flat. As economist Barry Elias notes, Japan raised its "gross government debt as a percentage of GDP" from 45 percent in 1989 to 170 percent today" with no real effect.

Companies in both Western Europe and the United States faced the opportunity to raise productivity through the new information technologies that became available in the 1990s. In the US, firms were free to fire workers who became redundant as a result of the new computer systems. In Europe, they couldn't. As a result, the US grew rapidly in the last 20 years while Europe stagnated.

The lessons from all of this evidence is that by helping households stay in their homes, cars, colleges and lifestyles through bailouts or stimulus spending, we're killing them with love and consigning the United States to live in the permanent shadow of a debt overhang that will inhibit consumer spending, corporate expansion and economic growth.

The joke is that there is hardly any stimulus spending in the bill to begin with. Read it yourself. All 778 pages.

Have You Seen David After Dentist?

It's pretty funny. Here's a video response: Chad After Dentist

A Bad Start

First, Obama not only has a lack of executive experience, he also possesses no natural talent for management or executive decision making. While a large segment of the American electorate clearly believes that a mellifluous baritone and an ability to read from teleprompter is tantamount to executive excellence, the numerous nomination scandals and the bungling of the $827 billion stimulus bill indicate that the Obama administration will soon make even the disastrous Bush and Clinton administrations look like paragons of competence.

The second thing is that Obama has clarified what was never seriously in doubt: All of his grand promises of inspiration were nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to appeal to the young, the naïve and the stupid. He promised hope and change, but what he has done instead is prey upon the widespread fear of national catastrophe to engage in the usual legislative bullying so often seen in past Democratic Congresses.

Continue reading Vox Day's commentary.

Mr. Doom and Gloom

'Doom' rhetoric seen by some as 'not presidential'

From crisis to catastrophe. Off a cliff. Dark, darker, darkest. Mortal danger of absolute collapse. Armageddon.

President Obama and top Democrats on Capitol Hill are deploying these and other stark predictions of doom and gloom to push through their economic-stimulus package. In terms not heard in Washington since the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter's watch, the new president has sought to terrify Americans into supporting the $800 billion-plus bailout bill.

So much for hope and "Yes, we can."

"It's not presidential. An American leader needs to be hopeful and optimistic - and truthful. Everything he says is parsed; everything he says is searched for deep meaning. When he goes to 'DefCon 5' on the economy and says that we're on the brink of catastrophe, it's absolutely insane."

With his fiery rhetoric, the new president runs the risk of terrifying consumers and investors, which could depress the economy even further. While the economy is bad, it is a far cry from Great Depression levels, when as many as 30 percent of Americans were unemployed, compared with the 7.6 percent now.

Theory on Dentists

Don't know if it's true but I have the same experience. If I got cavities as an adult at the rate that I got fillings when I was a kid, I wouldn't have any teeth left. They would have been gone a long time ago.

Anyway, it's fun to watch the scenery (Taiwan) in his videos.

Bonus puppies at the end of the video.

Government IS the Problem

Timeless wisdom. I wish we would follow it, but the country seems hell bent on going in the opposite direction, much to our detriment.

As this country becomes less a Christian nation and more a secular one, so the freedom that Christian principles brought to this nation are being lost to servitude, subjection and slavery.

Even if you don't believe in God you are much better off going along with the idea of inalienable rights coming from God than allowing your freedoms to be lost to subjection to the state.

But the fools know better.

Change: A Poor America on Socialism

Moving back to Uncle Sam's plantation by Star Parker

• Six years ago, I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.
  
  I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.
  
  
• A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.
  
  A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"
  
  Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems – the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.
  
  The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools and broken black families.
  
  Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.
  
  
• I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American capitalism.
  
  But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.
  
  Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.
  
  Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh."
  
  Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.
  
  There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
  
  Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.
  

States Rebellion

Lawmakers in 20 states move to reclaim sovereignty

• As the Obama administration attempts to push through Congress a nearly $1 trillion deficit spending plan that is weighted heavily toward advancing typically Democratic-supported social welfare programs, a rebellion against the growing dominance of federal control is beginning to spread at the state level.
  
  So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
  
  Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.
  
  "What we are trying to do is to get the U.S. Congress out of the state's business,"
  
  
• "Congress is completely out of line spending trillions of dollars over the last 10 years putting the nation into a debt crisis like we've never seen before," Brogdon said, arguing that the Obama stimulus plan is the last straw taxing state patience in the brewing sovereignty dispute.
  
  "This particular 111th Congress is the biggest bunch of over-reachers and underachievers we've ever had in Congress," he said.
  
  "A sixth-grader should realize you can't borrow money to pay off your debt, and that is the Obama administration's answer for a stimulus package," he added.
  

Only Approved Questions! Please Or Else.

Reporter restrained after Panetta hearing

Following Leon Panetta's confirmation hearing Thursday, several reporters approached the CIA director-designate in the hallway outside room G-50 in the Dirksen Building.

There, CongressDaily reporter Chris Strohm — upon asking a question — was physically restrained by a man who accompanied Panetta at hearings both days.

Strohm, when reached by phone Friday, said he was unsure of the man’s role.

"I felt this hand grab my right arm and push me aside," Strohm said.

By his account, Strohm told the man, "Please don't touch me" more than once. Eventually, the man let him go.

What if this had happened during the Bush administration? Imagine the outrage.

I want to know what the question was. No word on that.

The Gulf Between the Audacity of Hope and the Reality of Pork

Obama mythology could use some stimulus by Mark Steyn

• Yeah, sure, no previous occupant of the White House has been able to walk on water – your Eisenhowers and Roosevelts, your Chester Arthurs and Grover Clevelands and whatnot. But Barack didn't run as just another of those squaresville losers. He was gonna heal the planet and lower the oceans. So, even if he couldn't walk on water, he should at least be able to paddle in it. "He is a community organizer like Jesus was," said Susan Sarandon, "and now we're a community, and he can organize us."
  
  So how's that going? Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic Party interest groups.
  
  
• Appearing on "The Rush Limbaugh Show" last week, I got a little muddled over two adjoining newspaper clippings – one on the stimulus, the other on those octuplets in California – and for a brief moment the two stories converged. Everyone's hammering that mom – she's divorced, unemployed, living in a small house with parents who have a million bucks' worth of debt, and she's already got six kids. So she has in vitro fertilization to have eight more. But isn't that exactly what the Feds have done? Last fall, they gave birth to $850 billion of bailout they couldn't afford and didn't have enough time to keep an eye on, and now, four months later, they're going to do it all over again, but this time they want trillionuplets. Barney and Nancy represent the in vitro fertilization of the federal budget. And it's the taxpayers who'll get stuck with the diapers.
  
  
• Those supporters who were wary of touting Obama as the walk-on-water Messiah did their best to lower expectations by hailing him merely as the new FDR. You remember the old FDR – "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Ha! With the new New Deal, we have everything to fear. As President Obama warned Tuesday, "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe." If you're of those moonstruck Obammysoxers still driving around with the "HOPE, NOT FEAR" bumper stickers, please note that, due to an unfortunate proofreading error at the printing plant, certain nouns in that phrase may have become accidentally transposed.
  

This is turning out to be a disaster.

No Stimulus for TV Stations

Obama's Preemptive Strike

President Obama's desire to talk -- and talk, and talk -- to the American public could cost broadcast networks millions, and millions, and millions of prime-time TV dollars.

Broadcasters are bracing themselves for the likelihood of three prime-time interruptions in three weeks, totaling at least three hours of prime time -- and ad breaks -- yanked.

"His economic stimulus package apparently does not extend to the TV networks," one network exec noted.

Obama's reps have alerted broadcasters that the president will hold a news conference Monday, according to network execs. It's expected to eat up the first hour of prime time; that alone could cost broadcasters more than $9 million in lost ad revenue.

Fake It Till You Make It

Not a good policy for the President of the United States. Just sayin'.

The Only Thing You Have to Fear ...

The Fierce Urgency of Pork

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."
-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

Milton Friedman on Greed

Because I Like It - NewsRadio

Never Give Up

SKorean granny fails driving test 771 times

"The 68-year-old, identified only by her last name Cha, has taken the test almost every working day since 2005 in the southwestern city of Jeonju. She failed again Monday for the 771st time."

"...Cha cannot pass the preliminary written section of the test, averaging scores of 30-50 whereas the pass mark is 60 out of 100."

I think her first name is SpongeBob.

The Snuggie Stimulus!

NoScript Works Great

I just want to say the problem I had with NoScript and my blogroll is no more. I am now using the latest development version 1.9.0.3 and it works great. I love NoScript.

Special thanks to Giorgio Maone for a quick answer and fix.

Treat Them Like Mushrooms: Feed Them BS and Keep Them in the Dark.

Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper tells you how Washington works, against his better judgement.



They don't read the bills, they don't want them to read the bills. Our government is destroying our own country from the inside.

Unprofessionalism in Action

It doesn't matter why he did it, it's wrong to speak that way to someone. There are better ways to handle it - more professional ways.

E*TRADE Baby Outtakes

"I wanna punch the economy in the face!"

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

Fraudulent Bill Does NOT Stimulate the Economy

Where's Obama on This Emergency?

Kentucky: No Power, No FEMA

When a million people in flyover country are suffering, and 42 people have died, we don’t hear much about it. If this was New York, Washington, Boston, (or if the president had an R after his name) you’d see non-stop reports, and the press would be roundly criticizing FEMA’s absence, and the White House’s disregard. Right?

Blog-not-Rolling

I haven't seen my blogroll in a while and I know blogrolling has been having problems so I just assumed it was related. Today I used my wife's computer and noticed the blogroll was working. OK, but now I'm using my computer it is not. We both have and use Firefox. I opened my blog in Explorer and the blogroll is there (works in Chrome, too). Something is causing my blogroll to fail to load in my computer's Firefox - could it be NoScript? I don't think so, if I allow scripts globally there is still no blogroll. I am puzzled, but now that I know it should be working I will figure it out. Just not now.

Update Feb 2, 5:47pm: It is NoScript causing the problem, when I disable it the blogroll appears. The puzzling thing is that the page is trusted and all scripts on that page are allowed, nothing is blocked. Even if I allow scripts globally I don't see the blogroll. I have to disable NoScript to get it to work.

Shhh, Obama Can't Do Magic If You Tell All His Secrets

Evidently Obama the Whiner can't work his socialistic voodoo if Rush Limbaugh keeps free thinking and running his mouth off. Dammit, Rush, you're ruining Obama's ability to cast his spell! Barack's aversion to Rush reminds me of how my brother never liked using the Ouija board when I was around because my presence always "grieved the spirits."

Yep, if Limbaugh unleashes his First Amendment rights, the President cannot make manifest his mucked-up machinations he learned as a pup sitting in Saul Alinsky's literary lap (which means that Obamaland cannot be built). This would be too funny if it wasn't so pathetically sad and a prophetically bad precursor of the mitigating muzzle Obama would like to strap on the conservative mouth.

In contrast to Obama's bleat last week, hearken back to days of yore when 43 was in office. Dubya got some "work done," if I'm not mistaken, and he had everybody and their rabid dog railing against him 24/7 from every conceivable sector of the MSM. Please note: Bush didn’t whine about it and call on the carping clods to cease and desist their vitriol because he couldn't "kill terrorists if Keith keeps complaining."

Matter of fact, when GW was attacked the most viciously and the reporters asked what he thought about the rancor, he routinely said that his enemies' ability to spew their insanity on their ubiquitous, poorly-rated sucky "news" shows is exactly what makes America great, i.e. the freedom to be an ass if you insist. Bush, for all his foibles, played a true cool hand with his critics, laughed when shoes were thrown at him and reveled in this thing that is about to go on the endangered species list in our nation—namely our freedom.

Socialists like Obama, however, cannot work in an environment in which leaders and citizens do not do-si-do when he says so. Geez, the press corps can't even toss him a question during a meet and greet without Barack getting testy. Therefore, Limbaugh, and all dissenters like him, must bow and kiss the ring or suffer vilification and marginalization for not being "bipartisan and tolerant."

Whatever Do You Mean, Rightful Place?

Science Holds the Key - Or Does It?

• "Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation." Thus, proclaimed Barack Obama in a radio address this past December. He drove the point home in his inaugural speech, declaring, "We will restore science to its rightful place."
  
  But just what does Mr. Obama mean by "rightful place"? He obviously intended to contrast his approach to science with that of President Bush, but what does this contrast imply? President Bush believed that scientific inquiry should be circumscribed by ethical constraints. He, therefore, refused to allow federal funding for stem cell research that would result in the destruction of human embryos. Bush was dubbed a "neanderthal" by many scientists because he felt that "ethics" should trump "utility." He was pilloried for his decision and President Obama has been among his critics.
  
  Is ethical restraint of scientific inquiry the problem that Obama seeks to correct? Should scientific inquiry trump ethics?
  
  
• While science has brought mankind countless benefits, it should not be held out as the fount of all knowledge. Yet, it frequently is. Scientists have been anointed the high priests of our modern era, when, in reality, they are mere mortals: fallible, biased, frequently mistaken, and subject to undue influence. Unlike the media's portrayal, the scientific community is frequently divided—there is very little "consensus." And often, the "prevailing view" is later proven wrong.
  

Science can be a very useful tool, used properly. Extremely useful. It can also be used for evil, and sort of like a gun, it totally depends on the character of the person using it. The character of some of the people using it lately has been getting a bit shabby.

Disappointed with God

Have you ever been disappointed in Jesus, disappointed in God? Have you ever expected Him to act in a certain way because of what you understood about Him and His life and His nature—but He did not do things the way you thought they should be done? I have been angry and disappointed in God. I have been all but convinced that He did not live up to His promise, for I was sure that I knew what He was going to do, and God disappointed me. My heart was filled with rage that God would act that way, despite the fact that God has told us all, again and again, "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,' declares the LORD. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isaiah 55:8-9). We cannot figure out God. He will be true to Himself, He will never lie, He will never deceive us; but He is more than we can handle. He is bigger than we are.--Ray Stedman, Daily Devotion

RayStedman.org

When You Trade Freedom for Security, You Lose Both

That's not just a catch phrase - it's the truth.

A Culture of Corruption

Why freedom is the best policy. A 30 minute radio program brought to you by Born to Win

The Truth About the Right to Carry

Revolutionaries

In practice, most political revolutionaries have been either liberals, nationalists, socialists, communists, fascists or anarchists.

Who You Gonna Call?

Victim Says Witnesses Just Watched Knife Attack

It happened as she and her 66-year-old mom left the Apopka department store. Six people witnessed the attack and no one stopped to help or called 911.

"It's like, when is someone going to stop? Where is someone to help?" the victim said.

Learnaboutguns.com

Cornered Cat

Gun Facts

CarryConcealed.net

Fact: You cannot count on anyone else, even the police to help you when you are attacked.

There are many who would demonize you for daring to protect yourself. Don't let them get a way with it. Stand up for your rights.





If I'm not mistaken, I believe the mall in Utah he mentions was (is?) a "gun-free zone," so if you were a concealed carry permit holder you would have been required to leave you gun in the car or at home.

The Silliness That Is California

Nuclear Checkout

Too funny.

Is Government Run Healthcare Better?

Bad things happen to those who wait by Mark Steyn

• he explained that "waiting" is built into the concept of a government health service: "If you need surgery," he said, "it's in my interest to get you in and operated on as soon as possible, because that's money for me. The faster it happens, the better my cash flow. But when the government runs the system, every time you get operated on it costs the government money. So it's in their interest to restrict or delay your access. When you look at the overall budgets - salaries, buildings - it's not hard to understand that the level of service you provide to the patient is one of your few discretionary costs. So the incentive is to reduce that."
  
  
• I have employees on both sides of the border. When my assistant in New Hampshire has a doctor's appointment at 9 a.m., she's in his office by 9:07 and back in my office by 11. My assistant in Quebec, living in a jurisdiction with the lowest doctor-patient ratio in the western world, can't get a doctor's appointment, so she goes to her local CLSC at 9 a.m., and waits, and waits and waits and waits all day to be seen.
  
  I doubt Chantal's and my loss of economic activity is factored into those health-care-as-a-proportion-of-GDP costs. In Canada, we accept that if you get something mildly semi-serious, it drags on while you wait to be seen, wait to be diagnosed, wait to be treated. Meanwhile, you're working under par. The default mode of the system is to "control health care costs" by providing less health care. Once it becomes natural to wait six months for an MRI, it's not difficult to persuade you that it's natural to wait 10 months, or 15. Acceptance of the initial concept of "waiting" is what matters.
  
  
• A few years back, she felt herself beginning to miscarry. Nobody was at home so she called a cab and went to the emergency room at the Royal Victoria. Knowing what "emergency" means in the Quebec system, she grabbed a novel on the way out - an excellent choice, Mr. Standfast by John Buchan, our late Governor General. It's 304 pages, and my wife had the time to read every single one of them before any medical professional saw her. While she was reading, she was bleeding - all over the emergency room floor, the pool of large dark red around her growing bigger and bigger, until eventually a passing cleaner ran her mop over the small lake and delivered a small rebuke to my wife for having the impertinence not to cease bleeding.
  
  
• Since my wife's experience, the average wait time in Montreal emergency rooms has apparently gone up to 48 hours. So don't pack an overnight bag, take two, and the complete works of John Buchan. The natural consequence of a system built on waiting is that more people do what she did - sit in the hospital, waiting to be seen, bleeding all over the floor until a cleaner (and it's one cleaner per two floors at many Montreal hospitals) wipes it up with a dirty mop and then runs the same mop over the floor in the isolation ward upstairs.
  

$900 BILLION --- and Counting

The vote in the House is today. Get that? Today! Why? Because these people are thieves. They're stealing your children's future. There rummaging around your living room in the middle of the night stealing much of that stuff you've worked for .. and stealing the future you've been trying to make for your children .. and they're scared to death that you'll wake up before they get away. They're pushing for a vote on their Democrat spending plan before the American people actually figure out what they're up to.

Read the rest.

A Deficit of Trust

Smokestack Lightning

Howlin' Wolf - 1964

Denying Reality

California college student: Terror is the New Communism by Dennis Prager

Of course, there is an irony to this statement. Meant in the opposite way she meant it, I could largely assent to the proposition that terror is the new communism. Communism was an enslaving and murderous threat in its time and the Jihadism is such a threat in our lifetime.

But that is not how this young woman meant the statement. As she has learned history and the contemporary world, communism was a bogeyman in its time and terror is a bogeyman in our time.

When I told her that communism had killed 100 million people, I could not tell if she even processed the words. It was as if had I uttered a series of nonsense syllables. She either didn’t believe me or didn’t care.

Tolerance Is So One Sided

Fight Back Against the Tolerance Fascists

Here's the reality: 95% of the time, if not more, when people yowl about racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, hatred of the poor, the environment, old people, etc., it's not true. Worse yet, most of the people doing the shouting KNOW IT'S NOT TRUE. They're merely crying wolf for political gain because they believe they may benefit personally from it -- or in the case of organizations like the NAACP, La Raza, GLAAD, CAIR, NOW and the alphabet soup of other groups that make a living off of having grievances, because it keeps them rolling in money and publicity.

They Hope They Can Pull It Off

The Democrats' game plan

• I am now convinced President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, other key leaders in the Democratic Party and the new administration realize they have no viable solutions to the economic crisis, know their own plans are going to exacerbate the problems and have concluded the only hope of maintaining absolute power beyond 2010 will depend on their ability to demonize their opponents and the Bush administration.
  
  So much for hope and change.
  
  
• The only ideas being put forward by the Democrats are the very ideas that created the crisis in the first place – more government intrusion into the economy, more bailouts of failed financial and industrial institutions, more command-and-control policies from Washington, more picking of winners and losers among businesses and, of course, more spending and more debt.
  
  All of this is doomed to failure, and the Democrats know it.
  
  
• Their only hope is to buy enough time for themselves until the economy can turn around on its own in cyclical fashion. But they clearly recognize that is not going to happen in the next two years – and probably not in four.
  

America in the Crosshairs

Obama’s Grip on Automakers Would Grow Under Emissions Decision

President Barack Obama, already overhauling automakers through a U.S. bailout, would gain a stronger grip on their future with his move toward letting California set emission standards for the nation.

I sure hope they don't try to make America into a giant California. What is it about liberals? They see something that doesn't work, that destroys the economy, that tears at the fabric of the American family, and they want to force that misery on everyone else. I guess California won't look so bad if the rest of America is in the same condition.

This liberal congress and administration is operating on the theory that they know what is best for the rest of us, our opinion be damned. And there is no watchdog approach by the media at all, in fact they try to frame everything this administration does in the best possible light and if something is especially unpopular it is enacted quietly and without fanfare so as not to alarm anyone until it is too late.

Watch your back.

Life without Microwave

I saw an episode of Tyler's Ultimate with Tyler Florence where he said he doesn't have a microwave in his kitchen - doesn't have the room. I was a little surprised by that because a microwave is a very convenient tool - albeit not a necessity.

I thought about what life would be like now without a microwave. I grew up without one so obviously it's possible. I remember how we used to use a kettle to boil water and reheat food in pots or in the oven. It just took more time, time we don't seem to have anymore.

So about 2 weeks ago the start button on my microwave broke. We couldn't use it anymore. It was a bit inconvenient but we managed without it for a little while.

I took the front panel off the microwave to see what was wrong and found the button was attached by thin plastic strips that had broken. I tried glue but it didn't work, so to the internet I went and I was able to find a website - amiparts - that had the part I needed. I ordered it - 30 bucks, delivered - and a few days later installed it and had our microwave back. Happily. I like the convenience of the microwave. But ...

Four days later I went to heat up some milk and pressed the start button. No sound. Sinking feeling. What now? The button was fine, and the microwave was counting down, but that's all. Don't tell me I just wasted 30 bucks and I still need a new oven. I don't give up that quickly, this is an over the stove oven and cost more than a counter top model.

I opened it up but didn't see anything obvious. Back to the internet. What a wonderful resource the internet is. I found a website dedicated to repairing microwaves. I looked through the troubleshooting guide and found my problem. The lower door switch was bad - 99% chance. I have an old microwave in the garage and decided to see if the switch was the same - it was! I swapped it out and had a working microwave again. Yea! Free. Double yea!

I like the microwave but I could live without it. It's just a matter of doing things differently.

Crisis of Values

Culture of Responsibility is Culture of Life by Star Parker

• Maybe our first black president doesn't know that, despite blacks being just 12 percent of the American population, black babies constitute 37 percent of all our aborted children. One of every two black pregnancies is aborted.
  
  
• In the words of my friend, the Rev. Clenard Childress, "the most dangerous place for an African American to be is in the womb of their African American mother."
  
  
• In his inaugural address, Mr. Obama appealed for "a new era of responsibility," bemoaned "greed and irresponsibility" and "failure to make hard choices."
  
  But, Mr. President, if you condone a culture that has no sense of awe and responsibility toward the greatest of all miracles and mysteries -- life itself -- how can you expect responsibility elsewhere?
  
  
• Can it be accidental that along with the millions of abortions that followed the Roe v. Wade decision, the stability of American families spiraled downward, divorce rates increased, and out of wedlock birth rates skyrocketed to where today four of ten babies are born to unwed mothers?
  
  
• For those who claim that Christian conservatives care only about abortion and gay marriage and are indifferent to social issues such as poverty, know that they are all one and the same issue.
  
  
• Understand that our crisis is one of values. Restore law that protects all life. And free at risk children from the tyranny of government schools where they are taught moral relativism. Allow these children the freedom to go to church schools.
  

The Weather Religion

Do Either God or Al Gore Exist? by Burt Prelutsky

• Human beings like to believe they’re totally rational creatures.
  
  
• In our own time, a great many people who are deeply skeptical when it comes to God are zealots when it comes to man-made global warming (aka climate change). Al Gore, who isn’t any more intelligent than Joe Biden and got worse grades in college than George W. Bush , is the high priest of what we might call the weather religion.
  
  
• The fact that through all of recorded history, the earth has gotten warmer and cooler long before the internal combustion engine was even a gleam in Nicholas Cugnot’s eye, should suggest to everyone that Gore is peddling month-old fish. But so long as there are enough true believers to make it profitable, not to mention chic, the weather zealots will continue to trample truth and logic underfoot.
  

'The One' Wastes No Time Killing More Babies ...

all over the world with taxpayer money!

Obama to Lift Ban on Overseas Abortion Funding

President Obama on Friday is expected to lift a ban on federal funding for international groups that promote or perform abortions, reversing a policy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

A whole lot of innocent babies didn't vote for this.

America will pay a terrible price for this, call it karma if you must. We already are but people close their eyes to it.

This administration is not starting well, coming down on the side of terrorists (closing Guantanamo) and murderers. Nice.

Mexican Wrestlers

Crazy. Fun to watch.

Here's Something You Don't See Everyday

The Ugly

What the bailout party means to you

Evil, greed and stupidity is a human-nature problem, one that God identified shortly after we turned on Him. Without the informal social controls that religion exerted on all of us, society – that would be you and me – is in for a rough ride to a very unpopular destination. Too bad so many have worked for so long to eliminate those constraints. Now we all get to live with the results.

The New Racism

Robert Reich is back? The inmates are surely running the asylum. How would you like to cross a bridge built by unskilled workers?

Punishing white people, for mostly imagined grievances, will not make anyone's life better.

It's Me or the Dog

Former French president Jacques Chirac was rushed to hospital after being mauled by his own 'clinically depressed' pet dog.

This looks like a job for Victoria Stilwell

Disillusionment

Here's a post by Ronald Dart called "Disillusionment Is Necessary for Salvation." There is no mechanism to link directly to that post on his blog so I will quote it below.

Forgive me for citing another of Dart's Laws. This one was developed in the atmosphere of religious disillusionment and a doctrinal argument about what was necessary for salvation. I concluded that, to whatever extent one has illusions about religion and religious leaders, disillusionment is a necessary step for the saving of the soul.

The rule comes mind as I watch all the preparations for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Someone noted that the University of Virginia was cancelling classes on inauguration day, something they apparently have never done before. It is an example of the expectations that have been built up for the 44th president, and one wonders what the reaction will be when the inevitable disillusionment comes. No mortal could ever live up to the giddy expectations that have been developed around this man and his political campaign.

The president of the United States of America is neither king nor dictator, much less a Messiah. The constitution places him as an equal power against congress and the Supreme Court. No man can live up to the promises of a political campaign, so the greater the promise, the harder the fall.

I suspect that President Obama would have been better served with a smaller majority in congress. Now, the Democratic Party cannot hide behind the Republicans, and President Bush will be in Dallas enjoying his retirement. Power corrupts, and the future political battles will likely be among Democrats rather than between parties.

Let the disillusionment begin. Maybe we can get back to constitutional governance.

The sooner the better.

January Sweepstakes Wins (so far)

I won a set of 4 glasses from Miller Lite/Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They came in a surprise UPS delivery. Nice little surprise.

My latest win is an HTC Fuze phone. It's more like a hand held computer than a phone. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but this guy knows what to do with it. That sweepstakes is still going if you want to try to win. HTC FUZE sweepstakes

Well It's About Time

Bush commutes sentences of former US border agents

In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.

Long overdue.

Don't Text and Ride

It's one thing to do that on a lonely road with no cars, but in traffic? That's a Darwin award wannabe.

Anyone for a Swim?

Science - It Isn't Perfect

"If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram."

The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level.

I don't think we live in a hologram but I do believe that the universe is a temporary reality within a larger permanent, spiritual reality. Not sure how that works, wouldn't care to explain it, it's just my opinion. I like to watch scientific discoveries like this, it's very interesting to learn how the universe works and I'm not afraid they will discover something that will shake my faith in God. Every discovery has deepened my understanding. The Bible is scientifically correct but it is not a science text and doesn't pretend to be, scientific discoveries bring deeper understanding to the text. Sometimes you have to alter what you believe but that only means you now understand better than you did.

Can't Make This Up

Robber mistakes building for a bank, demands cash

When an employee told the man the office really didn't have any money, the confused would-be robber replied, "I know you have money. It's a bank."

He was told it was no longer a bank and he left with nothing.

No mention of him being caught - what a shock - so he's probably planning his next heist a little more carefully.

Where Have You Been?

dave foley & fans

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Spoofs | Funny Animations

I haven't seen David Foley in a while, loved him in News Radio and The Kids in the Hall.

Busybodies Should Be Prosecuted

RSPCA says people who dress up their dogs could be prosecuted

Typical News Report from Gaza

Hot Air: Why are they laughing when the war’s done so much damage to the peace process? Because: There is no peace process. There’ll never be peace with Hamas, and they know it.

Decision Making Process

James Taranto weighs in on Obama's decision to start the process of deciding what to do with the Guantanamo detainees.

Wow, on his very first day in office Obama is going to issue a directive starting the process of deciding what to do. That's the kind of bold leadership America has been hankering for, lo these eight awful years!

Race to the Rear

Hong Kong named world's freest economy

"There is no escaping the fact that the freer the economy the more it flourishes,"

Meanwhile, The U.S. rushes in the opposite direction, in fact, can't get out of it's own way fast enough.

Ninjas Need a Bailout, too

Fla. sheriff seeks portly 'ninja' in theft attempt

...a heavyset man with a visible potbelly and a ninja costume unsuccessfully tried to steal two different ATMs over the past two weeks.

Darwin Award Runner-up

Worker shoots himself in arm without a gun

After being pressed, he told Hudson that he secured the sixth bullet in a vise clamp, placed a metal punch into the cartridge primer and hit the punch with a hammer.

Stating the Obvious...

Hamas is a mental illness masquerading as a nationalist movement. --Mark Steyn

Alas, the 'oldest hatred' is spreading again.

Global Warming?

Not this century.

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

Most of the long-term climate data collected from various sources also shows a strong correlation with the three astronomical cycles which are together known as the Milankovich cycles. The three Milankovich cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earth’s orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earth’s ‘wobble’, which gradually rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.

Three Milankovich cycles trump carbon emissions. Please ignore Al Gore.

This Almost Never Happens

Hippo eats dwarf

OK, so it isn't true, it didn't happen, but it is a funny story.

Hippies Hate Cowboys

Here's an interesting post about the pothead culture coming into power.

Pothead Culture

Every little call to take garbage out, is met with some plea for moral relativism, cry for revolution, or both of those. I mean literal garbage, such as everyday household chores, as well as figurative garbage, like making sure Big Bad Bart catches that midnight train outta here and doncha dare come back. Hippies hate cowboys, I'm sure you've figured out by now, and they pull no punches that the thing they hate the most about cowboys, is the white hat, the black hat and the moral clarity. They hate the way this leads to realizations, fifteen minutes before closing-credits, that a real confrontation has to take place...for consequences loom over the "town," if it does not. The stoner hippie isn't down with that. He philosophizes his way out of every little thing that needs doing, and all without putting down the doobie or moving his ass off that well-worn mattress.

Hippies and those oh-so-hated cowboys are close cousins, in a way. They're both all about confrontation. But the cowboy uses bullets instead of rhetoric and the hippy doesn't like that. The dirtiest secret of all lies within that special hatred for bullets. It isn't the property damage, or the death, or the carnage, or the danger to the bystanders the hippy hates when hot lead is flying around the saloon. It is the finality of the solution. No more negotiations; they never began. An elegant Obama/Cronkite lilt to the voice doesn’t count for shit. Settlements to disputes are not proposed, only implemented. Nothing is up for appeal.

Another Good Ending to Criminal Activity

Victim Kills Robbery Suspect At Car Wash

Orange County sheriff's deputies said two men with a sawed-off shotgun tried to rob a man at a car wash on Orange Blossom Trail Friday night. The suspects didn't bet on the victim pulling out his own gun and shooting.

One of the suspects was hit in the chest. He was rushed to the hospital, where he later died. Investigators said the victim had a concealed weapons permit.

Blago To Be Impeached

"The plague that has been brought upon us by Rod Blagojevich will be lifted," said Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock).

Rod Blagojevich did not bring any plague to Illinois politics, he's just a symptom of a far deeper cancer that has infected our country. Getting rid of Blago might make Illinois lawmakers feel better but it will do nothing to cure the larger disease.

He Doesn't Understand

Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus

President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and long-lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the national economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since the election.

"In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse" if Washington doesn't go far enough to address the spreading crisis, the Democrat said as fresh economic reports showed an outlook growing increasingly grim.

You can't borrow your way out of debt. We're on the Titanic headed for the iceberg and the captain orders full speed ahead in 'hope' he can smash through it.

Obligation of Carry

Great video on concealed carry.

Deciding to be an armed, licensed civilian is serious business. Mature, sound judgment and preparation in every facet of this decision must be exercised. --nutnfancy

Deadliest Catch/Cornelia Marie

This One Ended Well

An eyewitness saw a robber brutally beating a store clerk in Ocoee, so he pulled a gun out of his car at the Kangaroo gas station on Franklin Street and fatally shot the robber.

The War in Gaza?

Obama's fault.

"He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection."

F/V Cornelia Marie

The clip I originally posted was removed. It was from an episode I had not seen before so maybe it was yet to be aired and The Discovery Channel had them remove it. Who knows. This one is from season 3, episode 3.



The Deadliest Catch is a great show and these are my favorite ships, not in any particular order:

Cornelia Marie

Time Bandit

Northwestern

Here's Jonathan Hillstrand of the Time Bandit deicing his windows:

deiceing

All Systems Go

Invasion USA

It's time to realize that we're all together in this boat called America, that the boat is sinking, and that government is not our salvation. Our hope is not in Congress or even a political-messianic deliverance through the presidency. The only economic stimulus plan they should be preparing is the one that rewards manufacturers and consumers who promote and purchase American-made products and services. Our government doesn't need to dole out more bailouts and drown us deeper in debt. We don't need more bad trade agreements, such as NAFTA, or to provide tax relief incentives for corporations that are outsourcing. We need fair trade, not free trade. And we need a fair tax, not a flowering system of taxes.

The so-called elites don't care about America, they are only interested in global government. America needs to be severely weakened in their minds, and they are making that a reality.

I'm Beyond Disgusted

Pigs at the Trough

Notice the sleight of hand about to be perpetrated on hardworking taxpayers. In the end, it is we who pay for the plans of politicians who are unable, or unwilling, to control themselves when it comes to other peoples' money. When Republicans cut taxes, Democrats scream about growing deficits. But Democrats never worry about the deficit when they spend more than what the government takes in. So it really isn't about the deficit at all. It is about how much of our hard-earned money the Democrats, mostly, will allow us to keep. When you understand this, you understand everything about politics and politicians.

We're Not Ready to Stop Ignoring This Yet

The World's Largest Ponzi Scheme

Well, brace yourself, buddy. People have been trying to warn about this, as you know, for who knows how long. This is why the effort to privatize it -- why do you think it was opposed, the effort to fix it? Government cannot give up the power; the Washingtonians cannot give up the power that running this Ponzi scheme gives them. They're willing to kick the can down the road and let it collapse when somebody else's gotta deal with it, except one thing. The difference between Bernie Madoff and the Washingtonians running their Ponzi scheme and others is he's probably going to go to jail. Our guys will be promoted and they'll be hailed as heroes, like Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, all these clowns that are responsible for most of this financial mess now and I'd say that they're largely responsible or have a great deal of responsibility for the auto problem that we have today. They're being hailed as great heroes and fixers by the Drive-By Media. By the way, $50 billion is small fry to the Social Security Ponzi scheme, but again, just ask yourself, go to bed tonight and then pretend waking up tomorrow morning and you read the paper, found out everything you have is a lie, that you have nothing.

Change Same Ole, Same Ole

Meet the New Great Satan, Same as the Old ...

Is this a record? It's still two weeks to inauguration but the Planet Healer-elect is already being denounced on the streets of world capitals*! In this season of change, it's good to know some things never do.

(*and, in this case, his boyhood home) --Mark Stein

Complete with bullet holes.

Be sure to read Mark's newest : Gaza has its version of rocket scientists

So when Britain's Channel 4 says that we don't get the chance to see these fellows speak for themselves, it would be more accurate to say that they speak for themselves incessantly but the louder they speak the more we put our hands over our ears and go "Nya nya, can't hear you." We do this in part because, if you're as invested as most Western elites are in the idea that all anyone wants is to go to university, get a steady job and settle down in a nice house in the suburbs, a statement such as "England's demise is on our agenda" becomes almost literally untranslatable. When President Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map, we deplore him as a genocidal fantasist. But maybe he's a genocidal realist, and we're the fantasists.

This is Just Crazy

Robbie Madison's Amazing Record Jump - Watch more Sports Videos

Message for the New Year

I have linked to this message before but it is worth repeating. A new year is before us so go out and possess it.

The Point of No Return by Ray Stedman

Anyone who has ever taken a journey knows that in the process you inevitably reach a place that is called the point of no return. It is the half-way mark; you have gone so far that there is no point in going back. No matter what happens you might as well press on and you either reach the goal or your journey is a failure. In these days of extensive air travel we are frequently aware of this point of no return, for by its very nature air travel stresses the importance of this point beyond which there is no turning back.

Now the end of a year is that kind of point in time. On New Year's Eve we realize more than at any other time in our lives that we can never go back in time. Sr. Helmut Theilicke says we think differently on New Year's Eve than at any other time, for then we see time as it really is -- not as a clock with a round face where the hands come back to the same point again and again, but as a flowing river which passes a single point and never returns. On New Year's Eve we feel that we have passed a point of no return. We can look back and remember, but we cannot retrace a single moment of the year that is past. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher whose writings have attracted so much attention these days, once said, "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Before us stretches a new year. We have never been to this place in time or in our lives before. Again, on New Year's Eve, we feel as we never do at any other time, though perhaps it is something we ought to feel every single day of the year. We feel the challenge of the unknown, of the unexplored, of the year ahead of us yet to be discovered. Most of us feel a bit of excitement, perhaps a bit of fear, a feeling of weakness as we come into a new year.

More

Listen to this message here.

A House of Cards

Obama’s Big Mistake: ‘Deficits Don’t Matter’

"We can't worry, short-term, about the deficit" is what Obama stated two weeks ago on Meet The Press. Deficits don’t matter.

And we wonder why so many Americans are in debt up to their eyeballs. Why live within your means, no one else does. The government certainly doesn't.

Congress has collectively been in denial for decades that deficits do matter. This is why we have over $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities associated with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It will all just magically work itself out - preferably when these congressmen are long gone.

Wesbury's suggestions included eliminating corporate taxes altogether during most of 2009, a 50 percent reduction in individual income taxes, or allowing full expensing of equipment and investments made by businesses.

Those ideas would keep billions of dollars directly in the economy, rather than funneling those dollars through the federal government to become polluted with pet political projects and the usual inefficiencies.

Of course none of those ideas would appeal to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the other liberals who believe in more taxes, bigger government and less individual responsibility.

Let's look at New Jersey to see how well "more taxes, bigger government and less individual responsibility" works.

The 'Not As We Do' Government

Feds bust another Ponzi scheme

A Ponzi, or pyramid scheme operator takes money from one investor and rather than investing it gives it to another investor, proving to the latter that s/he is making money. Keeping this operation afloat requires more and more investors putting in larger and larger sums of money. Think Social Security.

When the government does it, it's called a retirement plan, but when a citizen does it, it's a criminal offense.

At Least They're Perfect

New Jersey Is the Perfect Bad Example

Think of it as our gift to the nation. Other states offer promising experiments in areas such as Medicaid, taxes, education and regulatory reform. In contrast, the People's Republic of New Jersey offers America something truly unique: the perfect bad example.