Friday, June 19, 2009

Lexus IS Convertible: Interactive


Lexus recently launched its interactive website that introduces their new IS hardtop convertible. See if you can figure it out. I couldn't get the hardtop to open all the way. But then, I'm a little dense when it comes to this Internet technology fad.


Lexus is battling the Infiniti G37 hardtop convertible, a powerful and worthy competitor to any drop-top -- including the BMW 1- and 3-class.

I'll admit that I'm biased: I like the G.

"Obama Doctrine": Isn't that an oxymoron?


Dan from New York:

U.S. Fortifies Hawaii to Meet Threat From Korea

WSJ, 6/19/09

The U.S. is moving ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii as tensions escalate between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's recent moves to restart its nuclear-weapon program and resume test-firing long-range missiles.

"We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect American territory."

That's comforting, isn't it? Hey, is it just me, or have the fair-haired, pink-cheeked, milk-fed geniuses who are paid to preserve, protect and defend our nation been blindsided by a "threat from Korea" that's been building for almost 20 years?

Now, think about this. If some dirt-poor, starving, Fourth World country run by Mini-Me can sucker the world's best-accessorized diplomats for two decades, imagine what a cultured, oil-rich country run by apocalyptic Islamist crackpots can accomplish in the next few years.

Enjoy your weekend.

Larwyn's Linx: Understanding the Age of Obama

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Nation

Understanding the Age of Obama: RCP (Hanson)
It's 3 am, Does Anyone Know Where Obama Is?: JWF
ACORN Brownshirts Assault Republicans: Newsday

The Obamacare Horror Story You Won't Hear: Malkin
Daschle: Obama should dump public health option: Sister Toldjah
Healthcare Reform: It’s Not About You: Kesler

Not-So-Silent Lucidity: Walpin Refuses Kool-Aid, Gets Dizzy: Powers
Health Insurance Fraud Exposed: LegalIns
Obama seeks a replay of financial meltdown: Examiner

Support the Families of the Recruiting Office shooting: BlackFive
After Obama Fails: AT (Joyce)

Economy

The Saga of the Bearer Bonds: Market Ticker
Another IG Scandal Brewing: TARP: Instapundit
Graph: Stimulus FAIL: Ace

Obama's Prescription for our Recession: Howling

World

Iran's Supreme Leader Praises Vote: Times
North Korea threatens Nuclear War: Hot Air
Brigitte Gabriel: A Response to the Cairo Speech: AYAFI

Iran Photoshops Support for Nazi-in-Chief: Big Feed
Shock: Iran Plays The Zionist-Plot Card: LegalIns
The Two-State To Nowhere: Another Futile Attempt At Appeasement: JihadWatch (Grobman)

Obama appears to prefer regime change in Israel more than Iran: Klinghoffer
Cleric's killing turns Pakistan public against the Taliban: Dallas News
White House "livid" with Carter over Hamas lunacy: Matzav

Who is this guy?: Coffee Shop

Eco-Nuts

PETA Outraged at Presidential Fly Execution: LGF
Lies, Damned Lies and BBC Climate Reports: AT (Glover)
Our Freezing Summer: Anchoress

Cornucopia

My open heart surgery, Michelle Obama, and UBL: Winter Soldier
Obama Offers French Profound Apology For D-Day: TNOYF
Colbert interviews bereaved Fly family: Colbert

Quote du Jour:

"Obama has the magic to make words mean almost anything. Numbers are more resistant to his charms." -- Charles Krauthammer

Poster: Rachael from Kentucky.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Stimulus: EPIC FAIL


Even Joe Biden now admits that the enormous boondoggle known as "The Stimulus" package has utterly and completely failed.

Had the Democrats used historical precedent as a guide, they would have simply cut taxes to restore order to the economy. Individuals, going about their business, would have invested, saved, spent, started new businesses, hired, invented and otherwise jump-started the economy.

Rather than government bureaucrats doling out checks, building their own fiefdoms and servicing their preferred trial lawyers, voter registration groups and union boss constituencies: each person or household would have received a tidy tax cut.

Consider what would you have happened:

For Fresno, CA homeowners Ann and Maxwell Meriweather, the tax cut means breathing room on their mortgage payments and permits them to buy new kitchen appliances.

The tax cuts allow Huntington, WV college student Navid Nedungadi to quit his part-time job at IHOP and work full-time on his new Internet search engine. Nedungadi's idea for a radically new and different search engine will transform the world-wide web and eventually create a $12 billion business that employs 20,000.

Retiree Joan Wells of Waltham, Massachusetts puts her tax cuts to work as savings. She purchases a 6-month CD that, in conjunction with millions of similar bank deposits, enable financial institutions to begin lending capital to individuals and businesses.

Machine-shop owner Luis Hernandez is one beneficiary of a renewed business lending environment. With his tax break and a loan from a local credit union, he is able to buy a specialty machine tool from Bridgeport and hire a new operator. This investment permits Hernandez to finish surgical instruments for a nearby manufacturer, which will turn into a lucrative division that employs 150 by 2014.

Constitutional firewalls and the free market


The liberals are using this crisis to destroy the firewalls in the Constitution, to further crush the free market.

These are the plans that they devised decades ago.

The free market is the most transformative of economic systems. It fosters innovation and invention.

It produces new industries, products and services and improves upon existing ones.

Millions of individuals freely engaged in an infinite variety of actions each day, it is impossible to even conceive all of the benefits that occur in our economy at any given time.

The free market creates more wealth and more opportunites for more people than any other economic model. This is exactly why the Left -- be they socialists, or Marxists, or left-leaning Democrats -- attack it relentlessly.

That's why they lie, describing the free market as the cause of the current financial crisis. But it was in fact they, through onerous and arbitrary regulation and out-of-control governmental appendages like Fannie Mae, who twisted and distorted the free market.

The free market promotes self worth, self-sufficiency, shared values, and honest dealings. That doesn't mean to say there aren't crooks: they exist in every endeavor (especially government). But when you consider the trillions of transactions that make up the free market, the number of crooks is relatively tiny.

The free market enhances the individual, the family and the community. And it discriminates against no race, religion or gender. It is the most inclusive of systems; the ultimate 'big tent'.

The truck driver does not know the skin color of the individual who helped create the diesel fuel that powers his vehicle.

The cook does not know the religion of the dairy farmers who delivers milk to his restaurant.

The airline passenger does not know the gender of the factory workers who manufactured a critical component of the aircraft.

Nor do they care. The free market is an intricate system of voluntary economic, social and cultural interaction that are motivated by the desires and needs of the individual and the community.

Private property and the Left's attempts to co-opt it


The key to understanding the free market is private property, which is why the Left does not believe in it.

Private property is the material manifestation of the individual's labor: the material value created from a person's physical and intellectual efforts.

Oppressive taxation and regulation of your private property can become a form of servitude, particularly if such confiscation occurs because of arbitrary and illegitimate decisions on the part of a government bureaucracy. That is: decisions that are not Constitutional.

That is why the Conservative believes the federal government should only raise revenue that the Constitution authorizes and no other.

Otherwise, what are the limits on government power? What are the limits on taxation and regulation of the individual's labor? How do we contain and limit government? How do we draw the lines -- and on what basis?

The Marxist class struggle formulation pits the working class against the wealthy (sound familiar?). It serves as the Left's principal rhetorical argument for the confiscation of private property.

But it is anathema to the free market, for the individual has the power to make for himself anything he or she wants! There is no static class structure layered atop the free market! The free market is mutable, dynamic and vibrant.

And for this reason, we Conservatives believe the free market is a vital bulwark against totalitarianism. And it would appear the Left agrees for it is relentless in its assault on the free market.

The Left's rejection of Constitutional limits on government power is always justified on material grounds. In the name of "economic justice", "equality" and "fairness."

The Left creates an illusion of class struggle through a variety of inventions like the "Progressive" Income Tax. But the bottom 40% of wage earners pay no income tax!

"Economic equality" is unachievable, even in the most brutal and oppressive socialist states.

The mirage of "class struggle"


But it serves the Left's purpose to create a class system: artificially created economic categories. In this way, the Left stirs up class envy. The free market, therefore, is said to be incapable of serving the public interest because it produces "unjust results." This requires further government intervention.

The Left tries to intensify class struggle by routinely redefining categories and levels of wealth: who qualifies as the detested rich? The righteous middle class? The disenfranchised poor?

Thus community organizer and Obama mentor Saul Alinsky explained, "Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is."

Tax cuts for people who don't pay taxes aren't tax cuts. That's welfare. Tax cuts for businesses that can't make money: that's socialism; redistribution of wealth.

Obama doesn't give a damn about creating jobs in the private sector. The left hates the private sector. They hate profits. They hate anything that doesn't require government subsidies, that can operate without government involvement. Those entities have to be destroyed.

You will never see a tax cut under the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats


That is why you will never see a tax break, no matter how much you make. Because Alinsky's students seek to fund bigger government. To consolidate power. To destroy the private sector. And to eradicate the Constitutional firewalls that constrain the federal government.

When there's not a crisis, they'll manufacture one. Because their goal is to take from you what you've earned, what your parents have earned and what your grandparents have earned. And then they claim to give you something for nothing. Health care. Green Collar Jobs. A Utopian vision of the future.

In truth, they will steal liberty from you and build a government completely unlike that envisioned by the Framers. If the Left is able to achieve its goals, the United States will be far different, far worse, and fall sadly short of what is possible with that provided by individual liberty, free markets and Constitutional separation of power.


Inspired by and based upon: Mark Levin, January 6, 2009. Graph corrected thanks to Exceller.

My goal: to live long enough to be a real concern to my kids


Papa B sent this one in.














A financial calamity, illustrated



Hat tip: NewsTalk 1130.

What the...? A Taurus is Car of the Year?


That's what Esquire says.

The SHO offers massage seats that improve on Mercedes's system by including the whole seat, not just the back. (They're heated and cooled, too.) It has a blind-spot warning system on the outside rearview mirrors. Adaptive cruise control flashes a heads-up warning on the windshield when you run up on slower traffic, and another radar system scans for cross traffic when you're backing out of a parking space. That's all quite nice, but you don't buy a car strictly because it has massage seats. (Okay, maybe you do.) The reason we care about the new Taurus can be boiled down to four words: Looks good, goes fast.

Here we have an affordable American sedan that benchmarks not the Chevy Impala or Hyundai Sonata but the Audi A6 and BMW 535xi. The BMW, for instance, offers all-wheel drive and a twin-turbocharged, direct-injected 300 hp six-cylinder for about $54,000. The SHO also uses all-wheel drive and a twin-turbo, direct-injection six-cylinder, but it puts out more power — 365 hp — and costs $16,000 less than the 535xi. The fact that a Taurus is cheaper than a 5-Series isn't news. But the fact that it plays on the same field technologically is crazy...

If these specs and impressions remain true for the production vehicles, Ford could have a real winner.


Real High School Science Fair Project: Robocop's Rail Gun


Well, he didn't actually call it 'Robocop's Rail Gun'. The official name of the student's project is a "Bolt-action coil gun".

I had a fairly good shop program in high school (what's up, Tumwater T-Birds!). Instead of making rickety chairs for our mothers to injure themselves on, or fire-prone wooden ashtrays, our class concentrated on technology. That's where I got to play with my first industrial laser, built my first robotic arm, and designed my first circuit board. It was pretty great.

But not as great as the work of this kid, who, as a side project, built a six-round, bolt-action, high-powered coil gun. For those who don't play video games, a coil gun is an electronic weapon that uses a series of magnetic coils to accelerate a magnetic projectile--like a bullet--to a fast, destructive speed.

We're not sure what school this kid goes to, but that's not important. What we'd like to know is: which teacher signed off on the project that was likely titled "Making a magnetic silent death device"?

Professor MacGyver?

TechEBlog has a video of the magnetic silent death device in action.

I'll bet the DOD is already recruiting this kid.


With a track record like this, it makes perfect sense for Obama to give the Fed sweeping new powers!


The Federal Reserve is arguably the most powerful agency of the United States government.

According to The Washington Times, the Fed would get "sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration's regulatory overhaul plan."

To put some perspective on the administration's recommendation, Austrian Filter culled through two years of quotes.

Even more egregious than the crooked pipsqueak Chris Dodd -- who today slammed the very institutions he accepted donations and sweetheart loans from -- is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Consider the following quotes of Bernanke and SEC Hack Hank Paulson, who either completely misinterpreted the crisis or simply tried to fool the public before the implosion occurred.

In either case, they should both be disqualified from further service.

February 28, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 12,268

March 13th, 2007 – Henry Paulson: “the fallout in subprime mortgages is "going to be painful to some lenders, but it is largely contained."

March 28th, 2007 – Ben Bernanke: "At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained"

March 30, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 12,354

April 20th, 2007 – Paulson: "I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained." , "All the signs I look at" show "the housing market is at or near the bottom,"

April 30, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,063

May 17th, 2007 – Bernanke: “While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.”

May 31, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,627

June 20th, 2007 – Bernanke: (the subprime fallout) ``will not affect the economy overall.''

July 12th, 2007 – Paulson: "This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."

August 1st, 2007 – Paulson: "I see the underlying economy as being very healthy,"

October 15th, 2007 – Bernanke: "It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions."

December 31, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,265

January 31, 2008 - Dow Jones @ 12,650

February 14th, 2008 – Paulson: (the economy) "is fundamentally strong, diverse and resilient."

February 28th, 2008 – Paulson: "I'm seeing a series of ideas suggested involving major government intervention in the housing market, and these things are usually presented or sold as a way of helping homeowners stay in their homes. Then when you look at them more carefully what they really amount to is a bailout for financial institutions or Wall Street."

February 29th, 2008 – Bernanke: "I expect there will be some failures. I don't anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system."

March 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "We've got strong financial institutions . . . Our markets are the envy of the world. They're resilient, they're...innovative, they're flexible. I think we move very quickly to address situations in this country, and, as I said, our financial institutions are strong."

March 18th, 2008 - Bear Stearns Bailout Announced

May 7, 2008 – Paulson: 'The worst is likely to be behind us,”

May 16th, 2008 – Paulson: "In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning," he said.

May 30, 2008 - Dow Jones @ 12,638

June 9th, 2008 – Bernanke: Despite a recent spike in the nation's unemployment rate, the danger that the economy has fallen into a "substantial downturn" appears to have waned

July 16th, 2008 – Bernanke: (Freddie and Fannie) “…will make it through the storm”, "… in no danger of failing.","…adequately capitalized"

July 20th, 2008 – Paulson: "it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation."

July 31, 2008 - Dow Jones @ 11,378

August 10th, 2008 – Paulson: ``We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions.” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)

September 8th, 2008 - Fannie and Freddie nationalized. The taxpayer is on the hook for an estimated 1 - 1.5 trillion dollars. Over 5 trillion is added to the nation’s balance sheet.

September 16th, 2008 - $85 Billion AIG Bailout “Loan”

September 19th, 2008 - $700 Billion Bailout Plan Announced

September 19th, 2008 – Paulson: "We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."

September 19th, 2008 - Bernanke: "most severe financial crisis" in the post-World War II era. Investment banks are seeing "tremendous runs on their cash," Bernanke said. "Without action, they will fail soon."

September 21st, 2008 – Paulson: "The credit markets are still very fragile right now and frozen", "We need to deal with this and deal with it quickly.", "The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing."

September 23rd, 2008 – Paulson: "We must [enact a program quickly] in order to avoid a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets that threaten American families' financial well-being, the viability of businesses, both small and large, and the very health of our economy,"

September 23rd, 2008 – Bernanke: "My interest is solely for the strength and recovery of the U.S. economy,"

October 31, 2008 - Dow Jones @ 9,337

March 31, 2009 - Dow Jones @ 7,609

So, yes, by all means: let's increase the power of Bernanke's Fed.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

I think we need a Federal Credibility Reserve for these ridiculous talking heads.


Hat tip: Zero Hedge.

Larwyn's Linx: Live Free or Die

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Nation

It's not just Walpin: 3 IG firings questioned: Riehl
Live Free or Die: Williams
Bush takes swipes at Obama's Socialist Policies: Times

Walpin slams Obama: GWP
Conyers' Wife Ensnared in Federal Bribe Probe: Times
Another FOB (“Friend of Barack”) is on the Spot: CDOBS

The Nightmare Scenario: Doc Zero
Too Big To Fail...?: MYODBP

Socialized Medicine

UK government health care nightmare: Marathon
Obamacare is your friend: SIGIS
E.R. Doc: Obamacare has ‘mechanical’ problems: BMW

Of course ABC isn't state-run TV: Riehl
MRC: ABC's Free Infomercial: NewsBusters

World

Why Are Iranians Using English On Protest Signs?: LegalIns
Obama's real agenda: Dimona: AT (Dann)
Five Sites to Follow Iranian Revolt: Times

The Three Plans To Wipe Israel Off the Face of the Earth: Rubin
Perfect: Putin Warns Obama About Raising Taxes: GWP
Siding with the Mullahs: MoneyRunner

Hail to the Victors!: IowaHawk
Memo to the Left: Where's the Rage & Scorn?: PJM (Fleming)
End the Illegal Occupation of Jerusalem: PJM (Chesler)

Climate

Scientists on Obama Climate Report: an Embarrassment: Depot
The Tyranny of Cap-and-Trade: Organized Exploitation

Media

MSNBC's Ratigan shows how Journalism should work: NewsBusters
Rating the Top Newspaper Websites: McClatchy Watch
Name that Party, Chapter 7,032!: STACLU

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Precipice


I want you to think about the Revolutionary War.

I want you to think about the Civil War.

I want you to think about World War II.

I want you to think about the Korean War.

I want you to think about the Vietnam War.

I want you to think about all the wars.

What if we had a Commander-in-Chief like this, who doesn't put victory at the top of the list?

A President who is kneecapping our soldiers with confused dictates like granting Miranda rights to terrorists captured on the battlefield; who is kneecapping our soldiers while they try to defeat this enemy; who is kneecapping our soldiers who have a dangerous, complicated and difficult enough task as it is.

I want you to think about how this President has dumbed-down the War on Terror by calling it other things, giving it bureaucratic titles.

I want you to think about how this President has traveled to Europe, Latin America and the Middle East -- and condemned his own country.

I want you to think about the massive spending spree this President has unleashed; the greatest amount of spending of any entity on the face of the Earth in only a few months time.

And yet when it comes to defense -- including missile defense, he slashes it.

Yes, we have a force in the Oval Office. A force for danger.

The question is whether all the good works done by all the Presidents before him, all the Commanders-in-Chief, all the excellent Attorneys General, all the excellent CIA Directors, all the troops and intelligence and law enforcement personnel, all the people who have worked so long and so hard, over the many decades...

...the question is whether what they have built will last under this President and it will all come crumbling down with a very grievous attack on this nation.

The liberals like to say they care about humanity. I have yet to see them prove it.



Based upon: Mark Levin, 6/10/2009.