Fighting Back

Mother defending home shot, killed intruder

A woman shot and killed a home invader after he opened fire and shot her in the arm, according the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Quote of the Day

Republicans don't hate government, but they're alive to what human beings are tempted and even inclined to do with governmental power, which is abuse it. And so they want that power limited. It's not really that complicated.

--Peggy Noonan

The Right of the People to Be Fooled Shall Not Be Infringed

New E-Mails Rock The Global Warming Debate

Three themes are emerging from the newly released emails: (1) prominent scientists central to the global warming debate are taking measures to conceal rather than disseminate underlying data and discussions; (2) these scientists view global warming as a political "cause" rather than a balanced scientific inquiry and (3) many of these scientists frankly admit to each other that much of the science is weak and dependent on deliberate manipulation of facts and data.

The general idea is to keep things as confusing and complicated as possible so that people just don't want to think about it. Just keep looking into that giant screen of entertainment and let the "experts" take care of everything for you. Trust them, it's all good. ;)

Why Bottled Water Doesn't Hydrate

Three years of study with 21 academics (meaning 21 professors at universities) and the conclusion is that water does not solve dehydration. Now, I was asked if they specified what does ease dehydration. No. But see, this isn't the point. This is an attack on an industry. It's an attack on the bottled water industry. It's the only way that these leftists can get at them is to prevent them from advertising. What they're accused of doing is violating advertising law by making false claims. So what happened is the leftists in the European Union who don't like capitalism and who do not want private sources of water available, looking to put these people out of business, deny them the opportunity to advertise. It's not that they think water doesn't solve dehydration. It's that they're trying to put a private sector entity out of business.

So they concoct a bunch of lies and phony advertising rules, and they get some academics to go along with it. Now, folks, this is who liberals are. These are the same people -- and this is the same technique -- that is used to promote manmade global warming. Same people, same thing.

--Rush Limbaugh

I'm From the Government, Trust Me

At least 70 dogs have been sickened so far this year after reportedly eating chicken jerky products imported from China, FDA officials said.

FDA to the rescue

FDA officials say they have not been able to find a cause for the illnesses. Extensive chemical and microbiological testing has failed to turn up a specific contaminant and officials did not identify a specific brand of treats. They note that the reports of illness have not conclusively been tied to chicken jerky products, also sold as chicken tenders, chicken strips or chicken treats.

When I first saw this I was worried because my dog loves these things and they are practically the only snack I can give her that doesn't make her itch like mad, but the more I think about what this article says - which is basically nothing - the more inclined I am to think this is designed to scare people away form these treats back to Milkbones or something. You know how our government works now, give enough campaign contributions or grease the right palms and the government will cripple your competition for you. 70 dogs got sick out of how many? Have you ever read reviews of dog food? You'd think they were legally canning poison. I call BS on this one - even if they are from China. I don't trust the FDA, I don't trust the government.

SEIU Cares for the Children

Obama's favorite union strikes again. The collective must get its cut.

SEIU Collects Union Dues From Disabled Kids’ Medicaid Checks

Robert and Patricia Haynes take care of their two children, who at the ages of 30 and 34 are more like children in adult bodies. That's because they both have cerebral palsy, and rely on their parents to feed and change them — and likely will for the rest of their lives.

The Haynes family receives monthly checks from the state of Michigan through Medicaid, allowing the parents to care for their son and daughter themselves instead of institutionalizing them. But because a Michigan law classifies Robert and Patricia as "home health care workers," they are considered public workers and therefore automatic union members — meaning the SEIU gets a $30 cut of the familys Medicaid subsidy as union dues.

"We're not home health care providers — we’re parents taking care of our children,"

What Would We Do Without Experts?

EU says water is not healthy

In a scarcely believable ­ruling, a panel of experts threw out a claim that regular water consumption is the best way to rehydrate the body.

Proclaiming the Name of God

Segregation & Class Warfare in the Occupy Movement

This is so funny, but also pathetically sad.

"So let me get this straight," Bee says to one of the protesters. "You've been here eight weeks and you already have a ghetto?"

Oh, and Van Jones says:

"You're going to see an evolution now as you go from protests, keep the protests, but now expand into politics," Jones said. "And if you thought there was an earthquake in 2010 when the Tea Party moved into politics, wait until this 99 percent movement moves over into politics. You haven't seen anything yet."

Look out people, professional astro-turfers at work here.

Political Immunity?

Obama's Half-Billion-Dollar Crony Drug Deal

What do you get when you mix Democratic fat-cat donations, Big Labor favors, pharmaceutical lobbying and Beltway business as usual? Answer: another toxic half-billion-dollar Barack Obama-approved crony deal. Move over, Solyndra. Here comes Siga-Gate.

This latest Chicago-style payoff on your dime involves a dubious smallpox drug backed by a liberal billionaire investor, along with a former union boss who was one of the White House's most frequent visitors. They're the "1 percent" with 100 percent immunity from the selectively outraged Occupier mobs that purport to oppose partisan government bailouts and handouts to privileged corporations.

The biggest problem we have is corruption in government. There is a remedy for illegal actions in the private sector but government crooks make themselves immune from the laws the private sector must live by.

Quote of the Day

"Our culture is at a place now where we can't properly identify what everybody sees and knows is a problem because it's either gonna show our insensitivity or it's gonna offend somebody."

--Rush Limbaugh

Laying It On the Line

He writes comic books (that's probably a gross understatement) and I've never heard of him before today but Frank Miller has set off a firestorm with this blog post: Anarchy

Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:

The "Occupy" movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. "Occupy" is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.

He won't change anyone's mind saying it this way, especially with so many making excuses for them, but I haven't seen anything to dispute what he said. "Occupy" is everything the leftist media claim the Tea Party is. It's like Tea Party opposite day.

This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they're spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.

Quote of the Day

"Freedom and discipline are indeed handmaidens; without the discipline of genuine love, freedom is invariably nonloving and destructive."

--M. Scott Peck

It's All Adding Up

Investigator: Herman Cain innocent of sexual advances

If he is hiding something this thing would have spiked way down here," said Ward. "He is being truthful, totally truthful. He is a man with integrity and he talked directly about not knowing any incident he is accused of."

He needs to use that on the president and congress.

I Like Herman Cain

I liked Herman Cain before the allegations and I still like him. In fact I like him more because I see that his political opponents really hate him. I don't believe the allegations for a second, they are directly out of the playbook of the left. They want him out and I'm not falling for it.

Media use Klan tactic on Cain

...the vigor and eagerness with which the press dived into this fray and the relish they are having in their attempts to dismantle Cain have no precedent.

The real scandal

The real scandal in the accusations against Herman Cain is the corruption of the law, the media and politics.

David Axelrod's Pattern of Sexual Misbehavior

Herman Cain has spent his life living and working all over the country -- Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, D.C. -- but never in Chicago.

So it's curious that all the sexual harassment allegations against Cain emanate from Chicago: home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod.

What are the odds?

There are 50 states in this country. What are the odds that the first woman to come forward with tawdry details of a distasteful encounter with presidential candidate Herman Cain lives in the state that elevated Barack Obama to the U.S. Senate? I'm just asking.

There are some 1,300 municipalities in the state of Illinois, so what are the odds that Sharon Bialek lived in the same one as David Axelrod, the mastermind behind Obama's rise to power. I'm just asking.

There are 131,704,730 housing units in the United States, so what are the odds that Bialek lived in the same apartment building as Axelrod? I'm just asking.

Occupy Reality

Some belated parental advice to protesters

Call it an occupational hazard, but I can't look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, "Who parented these people?"

As a culture columnist, I've commented on the social and political ramifications of the "movement" - now known as "OWS" - whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: "Everything for everybody."

Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it's clear there are people with serious designs on "transformational" change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel.

Yet it's not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question, but rather the fact that I'm the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters' moms clearly have not passed along.

Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters' mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn't, so I will:

Marybeth Hicks website

Government Expanding into the Christmas Tree Business

Obama Couldn't Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a "program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry's position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry" (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of "information" is to include efforts to "enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States" (7 CFR 1214.10).

What? The government is now promoting Christmas trees and trying to strengthen the Christmas tree industry's position in the marketplace through a new tax on Christmas trees? Why? Shouldn't the Christmas tree industry do that for themselves? And so what if no one buys Christmas trees anymore? Why is the government concerned with that? Did they find out that Christmas trees are of pagan origin and they want their tree back? Perhaps they are doing it just because they can. Anything to grow government.

Dissipated and Taken Away by the Political Process

Doesn't anyone ever notice that the wealth confiscated by government never actually makes it to the poor who have been promised it? For all of Obama's talk of wealth redistribution, precious little has been done to help anyone except big unions and big Obama contributors. Meanwhile the poor get poorer as the country gets poorer.

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

You can tell the difference between a liberal and conservative by the following test: A liberal believes that changes in taxes have very little effect on production, but huge effects favorable on distribution. Folks like myself believe it's exactly the opposite. Very high tax rates or even small changes in taxes have very adverse effects on production, and they do very little to produce redistribution because the money gets dissipated and taken away through the political process in ways that the most ardent supporters of redistribution will not like.

Hat tip: The Smallest Minority

Glenn Beck Interviews Chuck Woolery

Chuck talks a bout being a conservative in Hollywood. Good interview.

Learning to Love

"He had to learn that not giving at the right time was more compassionate than giving at the wrong time, and that fostering independence was more loving than taking care of people who could otherwise take care of themselves."

--M. Scott Peck, M.D., The Road Less Traveled