Sunday, September 20, 2009

PrisonCare


Due to its lax illegal immigration policies and easy access to welfare -- factors that indisputably increase crime rates -- California now spends more on its prisons than on the entire 10-campus University of California system.

In 2001, California spent $680 million on medical services for its prisoners.

In 2004, California spent in excess of $1 billion for prisoners' health care services.

Last year, California spent $3 billion on health care for its prisoners.

In other words, over the last eight years, health care costs for California's single-payer prison system have more than quadrupled.

In a June speech, President Obama justified a government takeover of the entire health care system with an observation on rising costs. He stated, "...more and more Americans are forced to worry about not just getting well, but whether they can afford to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afford the routine care necessary to stay well. Even for those who have health insurance, rising premiums are straining family budgets to the breaking point—premiums that have doubled over the last nine years..."

Compare and contrast: over the last eight years, costs for California's single-payer prison health care system -- controlled by Democrats for decades and heavily laced with unions at every level of government -- have increased more than four times.

The costs of premiums for the private health care system -- with all of its innovation and access to the latest drugs, diagnostic tests, advanced equipment and research, have only doubled in nine years.

Government can't possibly run things better than the free market. And California's prison health care system is just a microcosm of what we can expect.

And something else for seniors to consider: the costs for their care will compete with the health care costs of the federal prison system. And, if California is any indication, the prisoners' medical needs may come before seniors. There's only so much of taxpayers' money to go around.

Welcome to PrisonCare. It's the Democrat Utopia of California translated to the entire United States.

Larwyn's Linx: 20 questions for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email or reply via Twitter.

Nation

The woman Michelle Obama dare not mention: Malkin
Obama: Racism Is Not The ‘Main Issue’: S&L
ACORN roundup: Examiner

Holder Exposed: Barrack
Obama blames me and cable for health care failure: GWP
Jindal halts funding of ACORN: S&L

Virginia GOP hammers ACORN: Surber
An Olympic-sized boondoggle in Chi-town: Malkin
R.I.P., Irving Kristol: TAB

Romney: Obama 'can't spin his record': CNN
Dr. Barack and Mr. Obama: Hanson
The POW/MIA Ceremony: Maggie's Farm

Economy

20 questions for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: Hennessey
The New Protectionism: AT (Smith)
Fannie and Freddie are circling the drain: Alex

Fending off the envy impulses of the socialist state: PJM (London)
End the Fed? Ron Paul Is Wrong for All the Right Reasons: Bloomberg

Media

Breitbart: A conservative rebel with a cause: Times
The Full Ginsberg: PJM (Fernandez)

'Pimp' in ACORN video shares story: LAT
Wallace: Obama's People "Biggest Bunch of Crybabies I've Seen in 30 Years Here": Ace
ACORN threatens to open Pandora's box: Politico

Breitbart: "Blockbuster" Hit from "Left Field" Next Week: Ace
Carter's racist past dropped down memory hole: Driscoll
We all know Media Matters is a partisan-hack site, but we didn’t know they were this bad at it: NoisyRoom

That 'Kennedy killed by the right' myth: Corner
New York Times beclowns itself: AT (Lifson)
State-Run Media Shocker... John Edwards Fathered Mistress' Child While Wife Was On Chemo: GWP

World

Colorado terror suspect admits connection to al-Qaeda: Fausta
Eerie parallels, circa 1960: RSM
Is the President 'fed up' with Israel?: RBO

Brzezinski Calls for Obama to Shoot Down Israeli Jets: WklyStd
Al Qaeda to Germans: vote Merkel out or face “bitter” consequences: PJM (Rosenthal)
Warning to American and what's left of the West: NewZeal

SciTech

Official: FCC to Propose 'Net Neutrality' Rules: ABC

Cornucopia

Inside The Inboxes of 15 Fictional Villains: Cracked

Saturday, September 19, 2009

"World trade has collapsed... shipping lines have become graveyard archipelagos"


A few days ago, I pointed to a London Daily Mail article ("The Incredible Ghost Fleet Off The Coast Of Singapore") spotlighting the scores of cargo ships rusting -- unused -- in the Singapore Strait. Bulk cargo ships are the the most visible casualties of the collapse in world trade.


Tyler at Zero Hedge did me one better, using VesselTracker to graphically illustrate the carnage in world trade. I've included a sample of the overbuilding debacle, below. In each diagram, green represents an operating ship. Red denotes a ship that is currently unused.

The ghost fleet in the Singapore Strait, photographed by The Daily Mail, looks like this:

Bosporus, the trade gateway between Russia and the rest of the world, is "orders of magnitude worse" than Singapore:

Qinhungdao (the Chinese coast):

Durden concludes, "The bottom line: world trade has collapsed, shipping lines, once flourishing, have become graveyard archipelagos populated by rusting ship skeletons. Yet all of this is beyond the land, and thus far from sight. Of course, who needs trade when you have a speculative market trading in its own bubble, hitting yearly highs day after day, thanks only and exclusively to the Chairman's printing press. It is a pity these ships can not sail in the sea of hundred dollar bills that is being created each and every day at the Federal Reserve, whose only use these days it seems is to buy junker stocks and to feed the algos that lift whatever offers are stupid enough to float in the equity market."


Linked by: Ed Driscoll. Thanks!

The 75 Democrats who endorse the use of taxpayer funds to support human trafficking, child sex slavery, tax fraud...


Following the Senate's overwhelming vote, the House of Representatives acted to cut off taxpayer funding of ACORN. The vote was 345-75 to strip ACORN of support. The seventy five representatives who voted to continue funding ACORN -- despite its apparent expertise at child sex slavery, tax evasion, human trafficking, mortgage fraud and Tijuana donkey shows -- are as follows:

Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc.
Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.
Robert Brady D-Pa.
Corrine Brown, D-Fla.
G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C.
Mike Capuano, D-Mass.
Andre Carson, D-Ind.
Kathy Castor, D-Fla.
Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.
James Clyburn, D-S.C.
Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y.
Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
Danny Davis, D-Ill.
Diane DeGette, D-Colo.
Bill Delahunt, D-Mass.
Mike Doyle, D-Pa.
Donna Edwards, D-Md.
Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.
Chaka Fattah, D-Pa.
Bob Filner, D-Calif.
Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio
Al Green, D-Tex.
Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.
Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii
Rush Holt, D-N.J.
Mike Honda, D-Calif.
Jesse Jackson, Jr. D-Ill.
Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Tex.
Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex.
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich.
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio
Rick Larsen, D-Wash.
Barbara Lee, D-Calif.
John Lewis, D-Ga.
Stephen Lynch, D-Mass.
Markey, D-Mass.
Betty McCollum, D-Minn.
McDermott, D-Wash.
McGovern, D-Mass.
Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.
Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va.
Gwen Moore, D-Wisc.
Jim Moran, D-Va.
Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
Richard Neal, D-Mass.
John Olver, D-Mass.
Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.
Donald Payne, D-N.J.
Jared Polis, D-Colo.
David Price, D-N.C.
Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.
Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.
Bobby Rush, D-Ill.
Linda Sánchez, D-Calif.
Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
David Scott D-Ga.
Bobby Scott, D-Va.
Jose Serrano, D-N.Y.
Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
Albio Sires, D-N.J.
Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
Pete Stark, D-Calif.
Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y.
Niki Tsongas, D-Mass.
Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
Diane Watson, D-Calif.
Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Robert Wexler, D-Fla.
Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

I would recommend calling these Congresspeople and expressing your gratitude.

Hat tips: Ethel Fenig and David Freddoso.

Larwyn's Linx: Democrat solution for illegals and health care? Amnesty!

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email or reply via Twitter.

Nation

Obama’s solution on illegals and health care? Amnesty: Hot Air
Seven ex-CIA chiefs: Drop the probe: Surber
Mandatory Insurance Is Unconstitutional: WSJ

Taxpayer-funds filtering activists to ACORN: BigGov
Connecting the Insidious Obama and ACORN Nexus: Aces
Obama and MA's next Senator: Patterico

Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation: Parker
Are you a racist?: Power Line
Senate's ACORN defender Gillibrand in trouble: JWF

ACORN's history of prostitution: NRO
Obama: legalize illegals to get them health care: GWP
McCain: Carter worst president of 20th century: Hot Air

Nancy, your side is the violent one: Surber
Let them eat arugula!: Fausta

Economy

ACORN's Illegal Alien Home Loan Racket : Malkin
General Electric: Obama's Halliburton?: AT (Regan)
SEIU: Anti-American teabagging extremists need to elevate discourse: Hot Air

Health Reform Allies MoveOn and ACORN have an enemies list: Times
Tort reform worked in West Virginia: Surber
Does He Lie?: Hammer

Surprise: Chysler chief owes $1.4M in taxes, delinquent loans: BlogProf
Sen: Rockefeller: no idea how we'll pay for ObamaCare: Surber
'Economy back from the brink' as 42 states lose jobs in August, up from 29: BlogProf

New boss? Same as the old boss — only worse. Lessons not learned.: RBO

Media

Our paranoid, race-baiting media: Karl
Pelosi almost brought to tears: Surber
WaPo Finally Finds an ACORN-Related Scandal: Hannah Giles's Father: NRO

Bait as we say, not as we do: Crittenden
How to find millions of racists: AT (Wright)
AP warns Democrats: time to ease off on the race-baiting: Hot Air

Media Matters smears Hot Air: Verum Serum

World

Poland reacts to Obama's theft of missile defense: Treason!: GWP
What they really think: Power Line
Live-blogging the Iranian demonstrations: Ledeen

Former Iranian President Attacked By Hardliners in Tehran: GWP
Sucker-r-r-r-: JWF
High Holy Days: Kesler

Dumbest Speaker In History: Selling Out Eastern Europe 'Brilliant': JWF
Massive Iranian Protest on Al-Qods Day: GWP

SciTech

Google vs. Apple: who's telling the truth?: CNet
AT&T to offer remote PC repairs without system booting: Infoworld

Cornucopia

Awesomely bad engagement photos: Guidespot
Oh dear, no "Tuscan" kale... what to do.: American Digest
I find your lack of grace disturbing: Treacher

Ferrari 458 Italia aims to sear your eyes out: AutoBlog

Friday, September 18, 2009

People of Wal-Mart


Bernie sent this one in...

The ladies love my pink velour stretch pants and cowboy boots.

How am I supposed to slap a ho without an essential part of my balanced breakfast?

The freezer section makes me tingle!

I have this outfit in red, b***hes.

It's all in the parenting.

And while you were reading this, I vomited.

Leotards ain't just for ballet, b***hes.

The sequel to the Da Vinci Code revolves around the mystery of this man's underwear.

The Earth, Wind & Fire Reunion Tour begins... right... here.

If you don't shop with a parakeet, you're missing out on all of the best deals.

You step on my white suede shoes and you're toast.

Eh, what?

You'd never guess it, but these guys are all close friends.

See the flame shoes? Those mean I won't think twice about roundhouse-kicking you into the next zip code!

Every man worth his salt wears a Steelers jersey and hot pink shorts to go shopping.

It's chocolate, I swear to the frickin' Aztec Gods of cocoa!

Sarcasm depleted. No words possible.

The man in the yellow go-go boots knows how to rock the house.

Rawrrrrrrrrrrr...

How did we survive?


I am one of the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. I sometimes wonder how we survived. Consider:

Our mothers smoked and/or drank while pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with brightly colored, lead-based paints.

There were no childproof lids on medicine or special locks on cabinet doors.

We we rode bikes, we wore baseball caps, not specially engineered helmets.

As infants, we rode in cars without car seats or booster seats, no seat belts and no air bags. Sometimes, as tots, we rode in small moving boxes packed with blankets and toys.

We rode in the back of pickup trucks and no one was arrested or cited.

We drank water from garden hoses, not from plastic bottles.

We shared a single bottle of Coca-Cola with three friends -- and no one died.

We ate cupcakes with food coloring, white bread, real butter and bacon. In fact, we drank Kool-Aid mixed with tablespoons of real sugar.

Yet we weren't overweight, because we were always outside playing.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when dusk fell. And no one was able to reach us all day. And: we were okay.

We'd spend hours in the forest with Daisy rifles, or building go-carts without brakes, or sledding with wooden and steel monstrosities that could sever a limb.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, no cable television, no DVD players. There were no computers, no web, no Facebook, no Twitter.

We had friends and we went outside and found them... without cell phones or text messages.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits resulting from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns and knives for our birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, played lawn darts and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

We have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, inventors and entrepreneurs ever.

The last 50 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

We had the good fortune to grow up as kids in America, before the government regulated so much of our lives "for our own good".

Give thanks, for such an age will never occur again.


Hat tips: How Beautiful We Were (American Digest), Contrairimairi and AdClassix.