Monday, December 21, 2009

CSI: Saudi Arabia

Welcome to the 21st century, Saudi-style!

That'll learn 'em how to behave!

'Course, if the DNA testing later proves them innocent... ah, well. So it goes.

Breakthrough Thaw In Cuba, USA Relations

Dan from New York:

Top Cuban official says Obama lied in Copenhagen


Associated Press, 12/21

Cuba's foreign minister called President Barack Obama an "imperial and arrogant" liar Monday for his conduct at the U.N. climate conference, a reflection of the communist island's increasingly fiery verbal attacks on the U.S. government.

Bruno Rodriguez spent an hour and a half lambasting Obama's behavior in Copenhagen, telling a news conference, "at this summit, there was only imperial, arrogant Obama, who does not listen, who imposes his positions and even threatens developing countries."

He called the summit "a fallacy, a farce" and said Washington used back-room deals and strong-arm tactics to foist on the world a deal that he labeled "undemocratic" and "suicidal" because it urges — but does not require — major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts.

Once again, our Fearless Leader shows the deft diplomatic touch that has become his international trademark. That "hand-in-friendship" thingy works like a charm, n'est-ce pas? I'd say he's well on his way to becoming the first man in history to win back-to-back Nobel Peace Prizes. Three-peat anyone?


Alan Grayson, nutjob pride of the Democrats, wants parody website creator jailed for five years

Doug Powers relays word that Rep. Alan Grayson (Democrat-Florida) wants a blogger thrown in prison for five years. While I realize that Congressional Democrats have all but torched the Constitution, did the First Amendment get repealed too?

Good idea: let's give these Chavez-wannabe tyrants even more power!

Firebrand congressman Alan Grayson is so angry about a parody website that he wants the attorney general to prosecute its creator and imprison her for 5 years. Grayson sent a four-page complaint to Eric Holder, accusing the woman behind MyCongressmanIsNuts.com of lying to federal election officials, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Among other things, the title of the site misrepresents her as one of his constituents, he says.

Here’s part of the actual complaint (read the entire letter to Eric Holder here) in which Grayson attempts to discredit the very title of the website:

The website operator shouldn’t be able to call it “My Congressman is Nuts” because Grayson’s not her Representative? It can be assumed that some of the people who send money are constituents of Grayson, and therefore the name of the website makes sense...

So, we’ve actually got a US Congressman writing to the Attorney General of the United States arguing the case for why he is not nuts, which is as much proof as anyone needs that Alan Grayson is indeed a certifiable kookburger.

Considering Grayson’s penchant for sophomoric name-calling of all the doodie-heads he hates, here’s another guffaw-inducer from Grayson’s letter to Holder:

Tasteless and juvenile? Yeah, let’s keep the rhetoric mature and stick to the issues — like saying that Linda Robertson is a K Street whore, comparing the GOP health plan to 9/11 and the Holocaust, calling Dick Cheney a vampire and telling him to STFU!

And this is the guy who’s bitching about being slandered? I’m LOLing at your STFU, Congressman... And of course no letter from a pro free speech congressman to the Attorney General would be complete without urging the AG to not only throw one of his critics in jail, but to also be so good as to recommend a prison sentence...


In order to rally support for Ms. Langley, I'm taking suggestions for new Grayson insults in the hope that he'll try to have me thrown in the clink too. My ideas thus far:

• "Grayson doesn't know the meaning of the word 'fear' - but then again he doesn't know the meaning of most words."

• "As a congressman, Grayson does the work of three men: Larry, Curly and Moe."

• "Grayson's had his H1N1 shot, but there is no vaccine against stupidity."

• "His constituents would like to thank Grayson from their hearts of their bottoms."

In the mean time, you can also visit MyCongressmanIsNuts.com and lend your support.

Please leave suggestions in the comment box -- and I'll see you in the rice paddies.


Climate Creationist and Vice-Laughingstock Michael Mann Ripped to Shreds by WaPo Readers

The fraud orchestrated by Climate Creationist and Assistant to the Head Laughingstock Michael Mann is so egregious that even Penn State University is investigating his scandalous behavior. That didn't stop Mann from publicly defending the scam in The Washington Post ("E-mail furor doesn't alter evidence for climate change") last week.

I cannot condone some things that colleagues of mine wrote or requested in the e-mails recently stolen from a climate research unit at a British university. But the messages do not undermine the scientific case that human-caused climate change is real.

That thump you heard was Phil Jones -- late of East Anglia University -- rolling beneath the bus.

At present, Mann's article has attracted over 650 comments. A rough estimate puts Mann's detractors at over 90% as readers are using everything but literary brass knuckles and a two-by-four on his pathetic arguments. A small sample:

Dr. Mann, thank you for clarifying what scientists mean when they use the word "trick." For a minute there, I thought you and your colleagues were trying to fool us! As you know, we laymen can be a bit dense and we have an unfortunate tendency to take things out of context, especially when confronted with complex scientific terms. Therefore, it would be most helpful if you could also explain what scientists mean when they use the following words:

"Lack," as in "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't."

"Meaningless,” as in “As far as I can see, this renders the (weather) station counts totally meaningless.”

"Cannot," as in “COBAR AIRPORT AWS (data from an Australian weather station) cannot start in 1962, it didn’t open until 1993!”

"Make it up," as in “What the hell is supposed to happen here? Oh yeah — there is no ’supposed,’ I can make it up. So I have : – )”


Justice will not rest until you and your mates have been sentenced - that is settled.


Michael Mann is a contrary indicator of truth. If he said "The sky is blue," I would run outside to see what color it had changed to. The Washington Post does itself a disservice by publishing any of Mann's comments here. If this continues, the Post will be as ill-thought of as Nature Magazine which recently printed an editorial in support of political activism by scientists in disregard of the science.

Michael Mann lied about the Hockey Stick. Then he lied about the Hockey Stitch, the fact he spliced the temperature record onto the proxy reconstruction to hide the fact the tree-rings are not good proxies for temperature. The emails prove he lied.

The emails also prove Keith Briffa believes the Medieval Warm Period was as warm as today but his peer-reviewed papers and the chapter he wrote for AR4 don't say that!

For as long as Mann is not in jail - which I hope is not long - he needs to stick to writing for RealClimate (where he can block any comments by people who know more about the science than he does).


So, it looks like a single company controls the whole works:

Climate Exchange PLC owns CCX, including the CCX-subsidiary Chicago Climate Futures Exchange® (CCFE®), as well as the European Climate Exchange (ECX). Climate Exchange plc is a publicly traded company listed on the AIM division of the London Stock Exchange (CLE.L).

CCX is 10% owned by Goldman Sachs (GS) and 10% owned by Generation Investment Management (GIM), an investment firm founded & chaired by Al Gore. This firm was co-founded by the former Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson. [1]

Wasn’t Paulson the guy who recommended the Wall Street Bail-out? Looks like a rat, smells like a rat. These guys stand to make some really serious coin if they can convince everyone that Cap and Trade is the answer. All they needed was some folks on the inside to artificially inflate the base climate data and the world will be convinced that the world is warming. The other scientists won’t even realize – after all who would expect the data to be falsified to fit the theory? Hansen and Jones, the true believers to the rescue – swindle of the millennium.

In April of 2007, I wrote that the efforts of the UN and the IPCC to promote anthropogenic global warming constituted the world's largest bunko scam. And the leaked emails prove that contention beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The environmentalists' agenda has nothing at all do with the environment. It's about enriching themselves and promoting a socialist world society. Ain't that right, Carol Browner?



Linked by: Climate Depot. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Never Forget -- A Promise To Democrats

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget..

Nation

Never Forget -- Our Promise To Democrats: GWP
Cash for Cloture: Demcare Bribe List: Malkin
Dems Broke It, They Own It: LegalIns

Liveblog; Cloture Motion Passes 60-40: Malkin
Live-blogging emergency health care rally, Omaha: Ace
Claire McCaskill, 'Obama's Joker' Signs Popping Up: GWP

The Illusion of Design: Doc Zero
How Bad Is It?: Kimball
Democrat Compares Health-Care Opponents to Nazis: RSM

What Would It Take?: RightSource
DOJ-Black Panther Case Update: Patterico
The Socialist Revolution Has Come to America: PJM

Economy

The Latest From 'Banker Guy': Hewitt
Reviewing November Fundraising Numbers: Moe Lane
More Bribery from ReidCo Using Your Money: FlAces

It would be funny but...: Dinocrat
Liberals Against Black Conservatives: AT (Marcus)
Obamacare: did Senate GOP blow a chance to stop it?: Patterico

Media

The 'single largest social policy advance since the Great Society": TigerHawk
Fear for the Future: Prairie
CT scan care?: Surber

Krugman vs. the Secret Centrists: Kaus
Crack-up on the Left: Prairie
Man of the Year Finalist #11: Surber

Climate & Energy

Global warming's forlorn hope: AT (Dunn)
Glaciers Melt, Sea Levels Drop: Surber
Genius! Obama gives China free-pass to emit CO2: AT

Cheap natural gas and its enemies: AT (Lasky)

World

Eyewitness to COP15: not about 'climate change' -- about UN hegemony: Simon
Catch and Release The Guantanamo Recidivism Problem: Hayes
Clashes erupt as Iran buries cleric Ayatollah: Maktoob

The Mystery of Yemen: PJM (Belmont)
Shiite Yemeni rebels say Saudi air strikes killed 54 civilians: Maktoob
The Obama Administration's Trust in Pakistan is Going to Get Americans Killed: RubRep

Sharia in Paris: 'There is no law here': GoV
We are in the Best of Hands: JWF
Carbon Trade == Global Government: CBullitt

Sci-Tech

Offbeat Techie Gift Ideas: Network World
Anthropogenic Continental Drift: Ace

Cornucopia

The Seventh Day of Obamamas: HillBuzz
Show your support for nationalized medicine with this unique bumper sticker: AmDig



Sunday, December 20, 2009

I have seen the future of exercise technology...

My health club recently acquired several Expresso exergaming bicycles. Expresso sells two basic models of stationary bikes. Each is equipped with a flat panel screen that exposes a portal to a networked, virtual reality gaming system. What's that really mean?

Suffice it to say that the riding experience is so engaging, so realistic and entertaining that I completed a course 24 minutes after starting, covered in sweat and not even realizing how the time had disappeared.

The scope, richness and diversity of the courses is staggering.

You can choose from a variety of categories -- including some "fantasy games", which I have yet to explore -- and a series of courses ranging from tame circuits to Tour de France climbing in the Alps.

Some of the more interesting features:

• Handlebars move for realistic steering and movement around the course.
• Friends can ride in a side-by-side competition.
• Set the speed of a Pacer to correspond to their fitness goals.

• Race against a “Ghost,” a replay of their best performance on a given route.

• Real-time fitness information, like distance, time, heart rate and calories burned, helps riders monitor their workout.
• Pedal resistance changes with the terrain. Members can shift resistance up or down to adjust their level of exertion.

As I understand it, you can also race against other real people in other locations -- much like a Call of Duty-style network game.

Put simply: I have seen the future of exercise and its name is Expresso.


The Radical Racism of the Modern Left, Exhibit 4,320

Here's an original topic for an article: Jews control the White House, the world economic system and even the winner of the Vikings-Panthers game. Such an article would not be surprising if it were published on a neo-Nazi site. That it would appear as a prominent cover piece on a leftist "peace and social justice" site is noteworthy.

Now more than ever, the hard left ideologues who control the purse-strings of the Democrat Party are the enemies of America's civil society. Democrats must therefore be politically punished in 2010 if we are to salvage the Constitution.


Best of the WUWT Caption Contest

You can pick through nearly a thousand comments in Watts Up With That's caption contest.

Or you can read my summary of the winners, in no particular order.

• Obviously my trip was a splendid success. Global warming is defeated.

• "But it's a warm snow."

• “Damn! Al beat me here!”

• Associated Press: “Ticker tape parade greets President after European climate victory”

• “A global warming conference in December… what a bunch of geniuses."

• “Don’t worry Mr. President, Hansen, Mann, and Jones assure me this will be ‘adjusted’ to be the warmest December 18th this century.”

• “It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.”

• “Shovel ready?”

• Welcome to Andrews Air Force base, Mr President. The cottonwood trees are in full bloom in this unusually warm year.

• “American children gain much pleasure from snow, pleasure that many African children will never experience. We are a selfish nation, our children are selfish and they should be ashamed of themselves. Crystalline water ice inequality is a major moral issue that must be addressed by rich nations.”

• "A+"

• One day's work and I have healed the planet -- I feel another Nobel coming!

• “Not to worry, Mr. President. The crew will lay a carpet of surplus dollar bills to your limo to keep your shoes clean.”

• "Mission accomplished!"

• On the bright side, driving snowplows are counted as "green jobs".

• "Hmmm... a snow tax... you're smarter than you look, Al!"

• Time to keep my promise. Order 600,000 shovels and get those people working.

• “My God, look at all those heat flakes falling!”

• “I shall now proceed to walk on water.”

• Can someone please de-ice the damn teleprompter?

• Al, you invented Photoshop. Deal with this!

• You know what, just, just, just… f**k it – we’ll tax ‘em some other way.

• Message from Lord Monckton for you, sir. What does “All your base are belong to us” mean?

• Let me be perfectly clear……. Bush left this mess.

• Gaia is a denier!



Since you asked...

Here is a reprint of the Congressional Research Service's Recall of Legislators and the Removal of Members of Congress from Office (PDF). The summary reads:

Under the United States Constitution and congressional practice, Members of Congress may have their services ended prior to the normal expiration of their constitutionally established terms of office by their resignation or death, or by action of the House of Congress in which they are a Member by way of an “expulsion,” or by a finding that in accepting a subsequent public office deemed to be “incompatible” with congressional office, the Member has vacated his congressional seat.

Under Article I, Section 5, clause 2, of the Constitution, a Member of Congress may be removed from office before the normal expiration of his or her constitutional term by an “expulsion” from the Senate (if a Senator) or from the House of Representatives (if a Representative) upon a formal vote on a resolution agreed to by two-thirds of the Members of the respective body present and voting. While there are no specific grounds for an expulsion expressed in the Constitution, expulsion actions in both the House and the Senate have generally concerned cases of perceived disloyalty to the United States, or the conviction of a criminal statutory offense which involved abuse of one’s official position. Each House has broad authority as to the grounds, nature, timing, and procedure for an expulsion of a Member. However, policy considerations, as opposed to questions of authority, have appeared to restrain the Senate and House in the exercise of expulsion when it might be considered as infringing on the electoral process, such as when the electorate knew of the past misconduct under consideration and still elected or re-elected the Member.

As to removal by recall, the United States Constitution does not provide for nor authorize the recall of United States officers such as Senators, Representatives, or the President or Vice President, and thus no Member of Congress has ever been recalled in the history of the United States. The recall of Members was considered during the time of the drafting of the federal Constitution in 1787, but no such provisions were included in the final version sent to the States for ratification, and the specific drafting and ratifying debates indicate an express understanding of the Framers and ratifiers that no right or power to recall a Senator or Representative from the United States Congress exists under the Constitution. Although the Supreme Court has not needed to directly address the subject of recall of Members of Congress, other Supreme Court decisions, as well as the weight of other judicial and administrative decisions, rulings and opinions, indicate that: (1) the right to remove a Member of Congress before the expiration of his or her constitutionally established term of office is one which resides exclusively in each House of Congress as established in the expulsion clause of the United States Constitution, and (2) the length and number of the terms of office for federal officials, established and agreed upon by the States in the Constitution creating that Federal Government, may not be unilaterally changed by an individual State, such as through the enactment of a recall provision or a term limitation for a United States Senator or Representative. Under Supreme Court constitutional interpretation, since individual States never had the original sovereign authority to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of service of federal officials agreed to and established in the Constitution, such a power could not be “reserved” under the 10th Amendment.

Damn.


India's Prime Minister Schools Obama: First Obligation of an Elected Leader is to His Own Country

The Calcutta Telegraph offers a compelling and detailed view into the diplomatic machinations of Copenhagen. We're forced to turn to India's media outlets because state-run media in the United States continues to ignore the week's biggest stories from the climate summit (e.g., "Obama snubbed by Chinese premier at meeting", Economic Times of India).

In a last ditch effort to salvage a deal, Obama walked into a room unannounced where the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa were meeting.

When Obama entered the room, there was no chair for him. Obama himself was reported as saying that there weren’t any seats...

...At the “accidental” five- nation meeting, Prime Minister Singh told Obama that international review of voluntary mitigation action was unacceptable as he was answerable to Parliament. Any international review of India’s voluntary mitigation actions would go against public opinion, he said.

Wen also had similar views, while Lula voiced concerns over imposition of trade barriers on developing countries under the garb of environment protection... The group stuck to its stand on review of voluntary mitigation action, which it said would be an intrusion on members’ sovereignty.

In short, India's prime minister gave Obama the "Acting Presidential 101" class: leaders of democracies are accountable to the people.

One can hardly blame Democrats for forgetting this lesson; the lack of term limits and the roughly 93% reelection rate of Congressional incumbents has led to an effective oligarchy in Washington.

We are led by unaccountable, lifetime bureaucrats -- most of whom have never held a real job in their lives. That's why it feels like we're living in a Woody Allen-esque banana republic, only without the laughs.


Hat tip: Judith K..

18 inches of global warming

An anonymous contributor -- not Joe Biden -- sends these pictures from the Bethesda, Maryland area this morning.



Calls to Al Gore's Washington residence to help shovel the driveway were not returned.


Hot or Not! (Part Trois)

Slight rule change from Chapters One and Two: as before, rate on a scale of one to ten.

Fractions are allowed, however.


'Health care for all' is not a right; it is slavery

For Americans, the Declaration of Independence codifies man's unalienable, individual rights.

These rights are life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. And that is the complete list of rights to which citizens are entitled.

There is no right to a Whopper with Cheese at the local Burger King; no right to a free month of rent at the Lakeview Luxury Apartments; or even free Chemotherapy treatments should you need them.

Why did the Declaration limit our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness? Because legitimate rights provide freedom for citizens to act, not to receive free shelter, food, medical treatment or big-screen televisions.

The American system guarantees you the right to work for what you want -- not for goods or services to be 'given' to you, without effort on your part, by some mysterious "others".

Consider a system in which your neighbors are compelled to feed, clothe and house you. In other words, your neighbors are ordered, whether they like it or not, to give up their freedoms (their private property, their liberty) to pay for your existence.

In such a system, you would be granted the rights to the goods or services produced by others, whether they voluntarily agree to such a system or not.

In such a system, the right to the pursuit of happiness is misconstrued to mean something else entirely: the right for other people to please you, whether they want to do so or not. Your "right" to happiness comes at the expense of others. They lose their liberties because they have now become your slaves. They are compelled to try to make you happy at their own expense and have no choice in the matter.

But our system defines rights in the form of freedom to act, not guarantees that citizens will receive free goods or services. It was this freedom to act that was unique among nations and made the United States the envy of the world, the richest and most powerful country ever seen on the face of the Earth. It did so by defining individual rights only as freedom of action.

With the passage of Democrat health care, however, the individual rights articulated in the Declaration of Independence have been trampled upon. It is as if the Declaration had never been written as politicians invent new "rights" from whole cloth. These "rights" require only your mere existence: by existing, you will be granted gift-wrapped goods and services from "others" who somehow will provide them to you.

You are now entitled to something simply because it exists and you want or need it. You are entitled to receive it from the government, because the government will take as much labor, as much private property, as much as it needs from the citizenry to give it to you.

Of course, Democrat health care truly wipes away our rights. The people who manufacture the goods or provide the services are now beholden to the state. If you attempt to make the delivery of any good or service a right, you thereby enslave the providers.

But doctors, as Ayn Rand wrote, are not servants of their patients. They are "traders, like everyone else in a free society, and they should bear that title proudly, considering the crucial importance of the services they offer."

The Democrat Party's assertion that "health care for all" is a right is a notion at complete odds with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is no more a right than the right to free bread, free orange juice at the grocery store, a free condo or free open bowling on Friday nights.

"Health care for all" translates to slavery, plain and simple, and marks the beginning of the end of the American experiment.


Inspired by: Dr. Leonard Peikoff and Dr. Mark Levin.

Oops: energy-efficient LED stoplights are killing drivers

Recent snowstorms have pointed out several egregious flaws in the philosophy of enviro-statism. Not only is 'global warming' a confirmed, UN-sponsored financial fraud, but the efforts to inject energy-efficiency into all quarters of the economy can often lead to unintended consequences. The results may be fatal, but that is nothing new for the green crowd.

Across the country, many counties have adopted LED traffic lights as an energy efficient replacement to traditional bulbs. While accomplishing their energy saving billing superbly, the deployment had an unintended side effect. In northern states like Wisconsin, snow and ice have been building up on the new bulbs creating a road hazard. The critical factor appears to be that normal bulbs produce enough heat to melt the snow -- but the energy efficient LED bulbs, thanks to their efficiency, do not.

In Wisconsin, the winter weather has obscured the lights so badly that several accidents have occurred, leading to at least one fatality. Describes Duane Kassens, a Wisconsin driver from West Bend who was involved in one of the fender benders, "I've never had to put up with this in the past. The police officer told me the new lights weren't melting the snow. How is that safe?"

...In Illinois a driver plowed through a blocked traffic light in April, hitting 34-year-old Lisa Richter who had the right of way. She died from injuries sustained. Oswego police Detective Rob Sherwood, who was involved in the Richter case comments, "Would the accident have occurred if the lights had been clear? I would be willing to bet not."

Isn't central planning -- along the lines of the old Soviet Politburo -- wonderful?

Say, I've got an idea -- why not have our politicians run health care? I can't think of a single thing that could go wrong with that!

Larwyn's Linx: Was Your Democrat Senator Too Stupid To Get a Bribe?

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget..

Nation

Why I named this blog 'Legal Insurrection': LegalIns
Terror test runs on airlines?: AT (Leonard)
Nebraska GOP sets up 'Give Ben the Boot' site: GWP

Senator Nelson's Bribe: BigGov
Senator Hatch’s Health Insurance Constitutionality Test: P-E
Nelson? What about the other 59 senators?: GM

The butcher: a one-boy illegal alien crime wave: JOd
I'll Have A Blue Dog Christmas Without You: Steyn
"And Nothing Will Come Between You And Your Doctor": JTF

'Betrayed': Lopez
Palin: Dumb Like Reagan?: PJM

Economy

Was Your Democrat Senator Too Stupid To Get a Bribe?: JWF
Merry Christmas, From Harry: AT (Hoven)
Government Market Distortion: Yet Another Example: Morrissey

"[No] money to buy more US Treasuries": ShangDai
Stimulus Shocker: Dem Districts Received Double the Funds of GOP: GWP
Chicago airport expands: 1,100 voters forced to relocate: Synthstuff

Reid 2.0: It's Still a Budget-Buster: NRO

Media

It's settled: climate circus was a fairy tale: Steyn
Deconstructing Jar-Jar: Driscoll
Filmmaker: 'Dear Texas, Please Secede': RSM

Climate & Energy

Why the snowstorm disproves global warming: Surber
A Climatology Conspiracy?: AT
'Ship of Lies': Greenpeace ship gets tagged with the truth: GWP

World

Climate Thugs Dispense Violent Social 'Justice': Noisy
UN climate chief accused of 'making a fortune' on carbon trading: Telegraph (UK)
Obamanhagen: Hilariously Epic Fail: CBullitt

Obama the Lightworker and the War in Afghanistan: AT (Lewis)
Iran wants reparations for World War II damages: GWP
Swedish government to meet with GM officials - could Saab still be saved?: Autoblog

Sci-Tech

Risk and Security in the Telecommunications Industry: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4: Pacific Tier
A busy few days in the world of no-longer-Haloscan commenting: Diamond Geezer

Cornucopia

Christmas Prank On Louie: YouTube
Koalas going extinct because of deforestation and climate change - but mainly because of V.D. and AIDS: JBM

Saturday, December 19, 2009

'What Would You Do?'

ABC serves a dual role in its position as 'stalwart member of the legacy media'. It enjoys: (a) torturing random citizens while (b) promoting socialized medicine. Its efforts are best exemplified by a recurring feature called 'What Would You Do?'

A recent show asks "Would You Help a Sick Stranger Get Meds?":

As more than 47 million Americans struggle without insurance and more than a third of the country not able to fill prescriptions because of the cost, ABC News wondered if anyone would come to their aid.

So, "What Would You Do?" rigged a local pharmacy in Morristown, N.J., with hidden cameras and microphones to determine if a nation divided on public health would intervene in private care to help a stranger in need.

Actors were hired to portray a very real health dilemma -- acting as customers who couldn't afford their medications...

Never mind that American taxpayers already pay for Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare Parts-Whatever, and heaven knows what else... never mind all that! ABC is compelled to run infomercials for Reidcare!

As an aside, I thought of my own episode of "What would you do?":

Comment away with your answers.

These are the good old days

Dan from New York:

A nuclear-armed Iran is going to give America a healthy new perspective. We'll soon be longing for the days when a deep recession, massive debt, widespread unemployment, two wars, medical rationing, a jaundiced media, and inept leftist leadership were our worst problems.

Read Iranian Scorecard and Iran Accelerating Its Accelerators.


A "pleasant original deluxe-sportster, stiring the blood of every real man"

Autoblog:

ATT-TEC has been busy this end of the year, and here they are presenting yet another softly tuned German car, this time an E Class sedan. Called "a car of extra class – no doubt!" and "flawless everywhere," it wears a comprehensive aero kit and 20-inch wheels. Intriguingly, it also sports a round void where the grille emblem once lived, and a matching void in the vents aft the front wheels.

ATT didn't mention the engine at all, so we figure they left it alone. The remaining mods will run you €10,321 ($14,757 U.S.)...

No engine mods? What kind of operation are these guys running?

The Unconstitutional Gambit

Guest post by Victor the Contractor

This week the Senate has done something I thought I'd never see. They are debating a bill they will never vote on and funding for same they'll never have to implement or answer for. The senators are fighting over details that will soon become moot points in the proposed health care legislation because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is molding his own plan. Mr. Reid is holding closed-door meetings with select Senators and is in constant contact with the OMB on how to bring this bill in under a trillion dollars or so.

This method of crafting legislation, running negotiations in secret and excluding most majority party members as well as the opposition, runs contrary to the spirit of the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution: "We the People."

This bill is being drafted in secret by 'Harry Reid, the person' and no one else. The Constitution is further defied by the ppirit of the bill. Legislation forcing a person to purchase health insurance is, on its face, unconstitutional and when this bill passes, as I'm convinced it will, there will be challenges by those who face prison sentences for defying the new law.

This bill and many others are crafted for reasons that few people understand and will take this country in a direction that bankrupts and effectively socializes it. Health care Reform is not about rearranging the way we obtain medical care, rather, it marks the government's shift from being limited by the Constitution to instead limiting the Constitution's protection of the citizens of the United States of America.

Waiting in the wings is "Cap-and-Trade" legislation that limits our prosperity by imposing tariffs on economic activity. Add the "Employee Free Choice Act" that eradicates the secret ballot in union votes, which will increase pressure on employers to unionize and intimidate employees who might resist. A mandate to purchase a product at a government-set price gets you closer by several degrees to a totalitarian state.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that our elected officials would have the naked ambition to try to 'Marxize' our economy and actually brag about it. And it is equally disheartening to watch the overwhelming bulk of the mass media trumpet this agenda as something to be proud of or that, somehow, patriotism is exemplified by supporting a muzzling of the common man's will in all of this. Extending failed welfare policy to other industries will only ensure the failure of the other industries. And muzzling the populace will only lead to an eventual revolution.

Does anyone think that prosperity will return to this country by curtailing mortgage foreclosures? Will homes appreciate when the government subsidizes anyone who wants a home and forgives missed payments? Will GM and Chrysler survive the helping hand and substandard products selection the Government is forcing them to offer? Will the American public buy knockoffs of French mini-cars that were unsuccessfully marketed in the U.S. twenty years ago? And will small businesses hire new employees and offer health insurance (at the cost of thousands) when they can pay a fine of a few hundred and force the employee onto the government's plan?

I see a different future coming if we stay on this track. A future where nearly every single person's prosperity is limited not by the profitability of one's labor but by the inefficiency and lack of foresight of the committee that oversees said economy.

We have tried that once before: it was called the Soviet Union under communism, and it failed miserably. Not only was it impossible for a person to succeed by their own vim and vigor, but the very spirit of its citizens lay broken with alcoholism and suicide rampant. They are also immense problems in that paradigm of socialist ideology called Sweden. China only survives as a communist entity politically because it is rabidly capitalist in its economic agenda: at least the Red Chinese learned what works in the marketplace. This is more than our current set of leaders can say.

I fear for our Republic. I fear that the framework for a command-and-control economy will already be set by the midterm elections -- and the Congress will build on it every time they get even the tiniest bit of power from here on out. It is a given that the liberals in the Congress and even the President are at peace with being voted out if it will further their agenda of a socialist nation. What is really enraging is that the Republicans are, for the most part, complacent as passive onlookers in this process.

What on earth are we sending them to Washington for, the Cherry Blossom Parade? And what does the Republican leadership do when confronted by a rabidly confrontational Democrat Party with a decidedly Marxist agenda? Offer watered-down versions and claim to be representing our interests. That, my friends, is not leadership. That is capitulation; capitulation to the media, to the Democrats and of their own ideals.

And capitulation is what led us to this sorry state of affairs. What we need is a firebrand of a leader who is not afraid to confront the enemy on their own turf. I say the enemy because those who endeavor to consign our way of life and capitalism to the scrap heap of history I consider enemies of the republic and guilty of treason.

Every Democrat and every Republican who votes in the affirmative for that sham of a "health care reform" bill will, in my opinion, be guilty of treason for contravening the Constitution. The times require a leader who shakes up the establishment and we need to collectively throw out anyone -- anyone -- who thinks big government can solve the world's problems. I'm thinking of a firebrand like Sarah Palin and a whole raft of young, fiscally conservative Republicans!

Sarah Palin is exactly what the system needs to shock us back into reality. That is, if we don't get a depression that wipes out half of the wealth of this country. And if we don't grab this country back from the Marxists soon, that is exactly what we will have. The failed sixties-retreads who burned flags and tore up draft cards are now in office and the those who choose to serve our country are tolerating the hippies' nonsense because the press is overwhelmingly fixated on this new form of communism.

And relying on elections may not be the salve for our problems because the Democrats have been manufacturing voters, both illegal and dead ones, for decades. Acorn is nothing new: the Democrat Party has been cheating at the ballot box for so long that they are surprised when they don't win. Remember Chicago during the 1960 Kennedy election? We need to throw out all who support the communist propagandists and those who tolerate them. When a Republican goes along with a spending program for his share of pork he becomes a hypocrite and undeserving of reelection.

The Democrats and Republicans who 'go along' with this tragic agenda are the problem and will be voted out. We've got to stop spending like drunken sailors (this epithet actually gives drunken sailors a bad name because they stop spending when they run out of money or pass out).

Our vaunted Government is drunk on its own power and passing out money to everybody who will throw support their way. All at the expense of our children. If you are over fifty you will not be the ones who are saddled with the responsibility of paying this debt. At some point the interest alone will be too much of a burden and an economic collapse will follow. And China can keep their cheap products and will suffer along with us. Our children will never forgive us for being 'The Selfish Generation; Children of the Greatest Generation.'

Our future lies in the decisions a few elected officials make on our behalf. Because I believe this to be true we simply must have a 'Midterm Housecleaning.' If we don't succeed, we will end up with a command-and-control economy before we know it. We will suffer the consequences of being a lazy and uninformed electorate. The pillars are in place now for a tyrannical state and we have fiddled with sex scandals and tolerated immoral characters while the Constitution burned -- all under the guise of political correctness. Now we have a society where having values is seen as judgmental and morals as 'hate thought'.

We have almost completely squandered the immense power and goodwill the patriots who served in the First and Second World Wars earned for us with their lives.

Even now their spirits cry out from the hallowed ground in which they rest: they cry for a return to the values that built this great country. We have no choice but to "clean house" in 2010 and send this president into his early retirement in 2012. I'm 'down' for struggle, except now it's time for the hardworking people of this country to say refuse: "No! No, we will not tolerate another trillion-dollar give-away to corporate welfare program and Acorn. No, we will not allow the Constitution to be ignored for the benefit of those who do not work, who do not earn 'enough' or who simply collect unemployment while feeling sorry for themselves. And, no, we will not put up with our elected officials ignoring our will and insulting us when we remind them that they work for us."

That I even have to write this shows how very close we are to losing all of the liberties that prior generations of heroes fought and died for. And we can include the noble Americans who work twelve-hour days for many years to pay their taxes, send their children to college and bury their dead. They too deserve an America that appreciates every drop of sweat, tears and blood spilt for Freedom. And Freedom will bring us home. So fight for it before it is a dim memory.

Victor The Contractor


USRSF

Important news bulletin:

Washington, DC - This morning the Pentagon announced the formation of a new, 500-man elite fighting unit termed the United States Redneck Special Forces (USRSF).

These forces will be air-dropped into Afghanistan having received only the following briefing on the terrorists:

1. The season opened today.
2. There is no limit.
3. They taste just like chicken.
4. They don't like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus.
5. They are directly responsible for the death of Dale Earnhardt.

The Pentagon anticipates operations in Afghanistan to be complete by Wednesday.

Hat tip: Contrairimairi