Monday, November 29, 2010

Larwyn's Linx: Of Fake "Bogeymen" And Artificial "Security"

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Nation

Of Fake "Bogeymen" And Artificial "Security": ZH
Federal Farming Power Grab Scheduled for Senate Vote Today: AT
Portland saved from Islamist terror plot in spite of itself: Patterico

White House to Introduce Illegal Alien’s Bill of Rights: RWN
Paradoxes of the Present Age, Profound and Trivial: Hanson
The P in SPLC has nothing to do with "poverty": Petrelis Files

Wikileaks Doc Drop Running Updates: Hot Air
State Dept. pleads with Wikileaks not to release documents: WZ
Play this vid when you hear a lib support the DREAM Act: iOTW

Economy

The Greediest Generation--But Medicare isn’t Free: MagNote
The Boston 'Me' Party: Malkin (Powers)
Predictable: Union Drops Health Coverage for Workers’ Children: WSJ

The Compromised University: PJM
What if interest rates return to 'historic normals?': AT
Why Pay When You Can Get 16 Months of Free Rent?: Mish

Climate & Energy

AGW Rule #1: High Temps are Climate; Cold Temps are Weather: TAB
Cancun Climate Capers: AT
Converting engine exhaust into electricity: PopSci

Media

My Rebuttal to a Progressive who Admonished Me to Play Nice: Stop Shouting
The Obsession With Liberals' Obsession With Sarah Palin: LegalIns
They told me if I voted Republican we'd have a Bible-reading 'Christianist' in the White House: Instapundit

Glenn Greenwald: Portland Terror Plot Was Entrapment, Plus We Deserved Destruction It Would Have Caused: Patterico
NYT Manages to Praise Obama Administration in Report on Historic Leak of Sensitive Information: GWP
Who will fix Rahm's residency problem, and how?: Freddoso

Our Puritanical Progressives: Driscoll
My Personal “Pat-Down” Experience: RWN
Out Of Control TSA Agents Steal Pizza, Assault Store Clerk: BlogProf

World

Breaking: Two Iranian nuclear scientists killed in separate bomb blasts : Matzav
What will you do when they come for you?: Green Mountains
Canada: Muslims remove hateful passages from Koran: Tundra Tabloids

JCS Mullen: 'We Can Stop Islamic Extremism by Teaching People to Read The Qu'ran…': JoshuaPundit
UK Hits Bottom, Keeps Digging: Taliban Spiritual Leader to Address House of Lords: WZ
Following Hungary And Ireland, France Is Next To Seize Pension Funds: ZH

Wikileaker Bradley Manning Smuggled Info Out on CD-RW Labeled ‘Lady Gaga’: GWP
Bill Gates: Let's give Africa money to fund corrupt governments (plus--let's kill one billion people): BlogProf
Wikileaks cables: key issues: BBC

SciTech

COICA Hall of Shame: iOTW
Biochemist Raises Questions about Nude-o-Scopes: Ace
Oracle ruling slams SAP's reputation: Reuters

Cornucopia

Prog Texting: Acronyms for Progressives: Cube
Iowa I Opener: John Wayne's birthplace: Marathon
Obama to TSA: Don't Touch My Junk: RX2008

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Ameristroika

QOTD: "Government spending does not contribute to the creation of wealth in an economy, it inhibits it in direct proportion to the amount of that spending. That is true even when there is no borrowing involved, with the government running a genuinely balanced budget. Government creates no wealth, it simply confiscates it from those who do. The situation deteriorates rapidly when government spending exceeds government “revenue”. The dead weight of government then falls not only on present production but on future production. The higher the debt grows, the further into the future the burden stretches.

Government spending has no place in any measure of REAL economic growth. Government borrowing is the greatest economic threat to REAL economic growth. Once government borrowing is established as a prime component of the statistic (GDP) that purports to “measure” economic growth, then gradual economic impoverishment is assured. Once government borrowing is deemed to be the most important component in re-establishing economic growth, financial collapse is assured." -- William Buckler

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Wikileaks Upends U.S. Arabists (and Obama Too)

Dan from New York:

The Arabist argument goes something like this: Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank inflames the Muslim world and drives it away from America. Iran's nuclear program and its intention is surrounded in uncertainty and can't be known for sure. Attacking it now is not what Middle East countries want anyway. In fact, it would only make them angrier at us and even more livid about Israel. Ergo, keep the heat where it belongs - on the Jews.

Now see if you can square the Arabist party line with this: Saudi Arabia urges US attack on Iran to stop nuclear programme

It's reported the State Dept. called a number of countries to prepare them for the embarrassing revelations contained in the latest Wikileaks. I hope they had the decency to give a heads up to Walt, Mearsheimer, Chas Freeman, and their ilk too.

And Mere Rhetoric has some strong words for the Middle East 'experts' advising the White House.

It didn’t get nearly as much play as it should have, but Obama’s June 2009 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah ended with the monarch flying into a tirade and more or less telling the President to get a grip. This was the Riyadh meeting that Obama took on his way to his insulting and failed Cairo Speech, the better to prepare himself by visiting “the place where Islam began.” The sit-down was such a disaster that Dennis Ross was hurriedly brought into the White House and given a broader role, yielding the impression that the President wanted a Middle East adviser who kind of understood something about the Middle East – and didn’t think he had one.

King Hamad pointed to Iran as the source of much of the trouble in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He argued forcefully for taking action to terminate their nuclear program, by whatever means necessary. “That program must be stopped,” he said. “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

Perhaps someone could loan Mearsheimer and Walt a few bucks so they can buy a clue.


Super: Star-Ledger Columnist Now Holding Contests Asking Readers to Predict the Date of Chris Christie's Next Policy Shift

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spoke at the Republican Governors Conference [RGC] ten days ago and reportedly brought down the house. He told the audience that sometimes leaders simply have to ignore their advisers and face the tough issues head on.

The New Jersey Star Ledger's Paul Mulshine has followed the career of Chris Christie for nearly two years. And he doesn't quite recognize the current version.

[The RGC] Chris Christie sounds like a heck of guy — not at all like the Chris Christie I have been following closely for almost two years... [For example, after] a number of legislators held a press conference in the Statehouse to announce they were... protesting the new screening policies of the [TSA, Christie] declined an offer to back the resolution because, his spokesman said, it was a federal issue...

...Just for fun, I put up a post on my blog asking readers to predict how long it would take before Christie came out against the TSA. If you bet on last Monday, you would have won. In response to a question from a kid at one of those town-hall meetings he holds, Christie announced the screenings were "too invasive."

That’s just one instance in a pattern obvious to those of us who’ve been covering Christie since he entered state politics. Name an issue — from judicial activism to the Highlands Act — and you will see Christie tiptoeing up to it and finally committing when the consensus is clear.

On issues such as guns and abortion, Christie’s views have moved rightward over the years, in remarkable harmony with the rightward drift of the GOP primary electorate... His position in favor of New Jersey’s participation in the cap-and-trade program, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, for example, would be a non-starter with Republican primary voters. Sure enough, he recently made an incremental move away from that when he told a participant in another town hall that he is becoming skeptical about man-made global warming.

Some took that as a sign that he’s serious about running for president. If so, he’ll have to start inching away from other positions associated with RINOs, or "Republicans In Name Only," such as his mushy stands on gun rights and immigration amnesty.

Christie's oft-changing positions are the antithesis of the Tea Party's immutable principles.

Global warming.

Gun control.

• Amnesty for illegal aliens.

Mike Castle.

And those are but a few of Christie's amorphous policy positions.

Some great YouTube sound-bites have immortalized Christie's fight against the public sector unions. And there is much to appreciate in his stand.

But it is clear that the Governor has substantial work ahead of him. After all, Constitutional conservatives rightfully fear the nomination of another "Maverick", the positions of whom are rooted only in political expediency.


Krugman's Chickens Come Home to Roost: Imminent Euro Meltdown Begs the Question--When Will Debt Contagion Infect the U.S.?

The laboratory experiment known as Keynesian economics is set to complete in the Eurozone over the next few months. The European Central Bank's infinite borrow-and-spend policies, backstopped by heaven knows what, appears to be the same game-plan advocated by the likes of Paul Krugman here in the states.

And it is all set to topple like a house of cards during an earthquake.

This weekend offered no respite for the European central bankers, who have moved from country to country trying to reassure investors that banks are healthy even though they own billions in badly wounded bonds. The EU and the IMF shored up Greece in the spring with €10 billion and have arranged a set of bailouts for Ireland that will total around €85 billion more. But dominoes Portugal and Spain are now tilting over concerns that they, too, will be unable to service the massive debts they've incurred over the last two decades.

The three-year tab for all of the Eurozone rescues was earlier set at €440 billion; there are now plans to double it before the European banks that own the toxic debt are themselves crushed.

Even Germany Threatened: 'You cannot find a bank safe deposit box'

Even the most financially secure EU state -- Germany -- is trembling. The ongoing crisis "on the eurozone periphery is starting to contaminate the creditworthiness of Germany and the core states of monetary union."

Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days, rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.

"Germany cannot keep paying for bail-outs without going bankrupt itself," said Professor Wilhelm Hankel, of Frankfurt University. "This is frightening people. You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings."

The critical question remains unanswered. At what point does Germany refuse to bail out the more irresponsible members of the EU. That question is going to the German Constitutional Court early next year as many citizens have objected to the legality of the Greek bailout and other backstopping efforts.

No Certain Thing: 'time the Irish became more militant'

While Eurozone officials would like to portray Ireland's bailout as a fait accompli, the 100,000 protesters in the streets of Dublin yesterday tell another story. The turnout was gargantuan given the snow and freezing temperatures the marchers had to endure. Most protesters are unionists and socialists objecting to the four-year austerity plan announced by the government.

Among the marchers there is deep anger that most of the more than €80bn (£67bn) from the EU and the International Monetary Fund will be given to shore up Ireland's ailing banks.

Marching in the rally was Irish builder Mick Wallace who has had to lay off 100 workers due to the crash in the construction industry. Wallace said it was time the Irish became more militant.

If there's a pattern of civil unrest to be detected throughout Europe, it hinges on the malevolent collaboration between public sector unions and socialists. Their mission, it would appear, is to overthrow any vestige of capitalism in Europe.

'Day of Reckoning' Nears With Talk of Restructuring

The borrowing costs for the most exposed European states are at record highs. The average yield for 10-year bonds issued by Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain hit a Euro-era record of 7.57 percent on Friday.

The spread of PIIGS debt compared to German issues also hit a new high of 492 basis points (or nearly 5%). And the cost to insure the five countries' bonds also hit a record of 517 basis points.

“It’s no longer taboo to speak about a restructuring,” said Johannes Jooste, a portfolio strategist at Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management in London, which oversees about $1.4 trillion for clients. “The fact that bond yields continue to rise and put pressure on countries that have to fund from the market makes investors less and less confident, and it’s bringing forward the day of reckoning.”

Bondholders of European banks are being urged to accept "huge haircuts" because the nature and amount of the debt owned by those institutions is simply so huge it can never be repaid.

Downgrades

Irish banks were hit with another downgrade by rating agencies on Friday and many bank bondholders have already taken horrible losses of 80 to 90 percent.

[Prime Minister] Cowen is unveiling an emergency budget Dec. 7 that seeks to cut euro6 billion ($8 billion) from Ireland's 2011 deficit. He and European officials say that budget must be passed to clear the way for the EU-IMF bailout loan for Ireland.

Ireland's 2010 deficit is running at 32 percent of GDP, the highest in Europe since World War II. The country's severe financial problems are rooted in its enormous bailout of Irish banks who gorged themselves on overpriced real estate.

Meanwhile Portugal, reportedly next weakest of the peripheral Eurozone countries, has denied that it needs a bailout. Economists, however, point to increased risk premiums for Portuguese debt and a survey of experts found most agreeing that a bailout is imminent due to "spiraling debt costs".

Spain, which appears to be next on the endangered list, has a two-fold plan to build a "firewall" against further contagion. It has announced massive budget cuts and is simultaneously trying to find local buyers for its debt.

“The big elephant in the room is Spain, which is too big to fail and too big to be bailed out,” Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the global financial crisis, said in an interview Nov. 23. “In some sense though, Spain is in a better place.”

Asked whether its size would deter an EU bailout, Bank of Spain chief economist Jose Luis Malo de Molina said late yesterday that “the systemic importance” of a country like Spain “reinforces the incentives and stimuli for the rest of the countries to be ready to help in the case that it were necessary.” He said market tensions can become a “self- fulfilling prophecy.”

In other words, remain calm. Don't panic.

'Urgent Action' Needed in the U.S.

With debt contagion washing over Europe, there is little doubt what the impact will be for the U.S.

The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post...

The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote...

The tidal wave of baby boomers headed into retirement represents a double whammy for the federal deficit. Bair noted that this year's spending on the big three entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) represents 45 percent of federal spending -- but that it was 27 percent in 1975.

"Eventually, this relentless federal borrowing will directly threaten our financial stability by undermining the confidence that investors have in U.S. government obligations," Bair said.

"With more than 70 percent of US Treasury obligations held by private investors scheduled to mature in the next five years, an erosion of investor confidence would lead to sharp increases in government and private borrowing costs," she added.

The policy prescription of Krugman and the Eurozone is simple:

"Borrow more money to pay off borrowed money."

The problem is, someday the ability to borrow money runs out.

And that's the day that the Ponzi scheme collapses, like Bernie Madoff -- times a million.


Hat tip: Drudge. Linked by: Instapundit and Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: OMG! Like, EVERYONE Will See Barack's Burn Book!

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Nation

OMG! Like, EVERYBODY'S Going to See Barack's Burn Book!: Ace
Look Who's Calling Obama Racist: LegalIns
President Obama: It's Business, Not Personal: AT

Just another bomb-plotting jihadist yelling “Allahu akbar!”: Malkin
Mohammed Coefficient: 200%: GoV
Portland: One Arrested for Attempting Man-Caused Disaster: Powers

Arkansas man arrested for possession of explosives: Atlas
Tea Partiers: You've Just Been Threatened With Murder: iOTW
Michelle Grants Pie Amnesty, Gives Alms to the Poor: RWN

Economy

For tottering states, bankruptcy could be the answer: Barone
Restraining Leviathan: allow the states to repeal federal law?: Toldjah
Union Outed Whitman’s Maid Story in CA Gubernatorial Election: RWN

Will AARP, AMA Be Held To Account for Obamacare?: LegalIns
Job-Killer Sets Aside 187,000 Miles For...Polar Bears: GWP
Shock: UAW Cleans up in GM IPO; Taxpayers--Not so Much: WZ

Climate & Energy

'Very rare and exciting event' covers the UK in global warming: DlyBay
UN IPCC official on Climate Change: It's a Scam: RWN
The liberals' snake oil cure for whatever ails ya': Wolf

Media

Feds Foil Terror Plot; Firedoglake Genius Calls It “State Sponsored Terror”: Patterico
Drawing Contest Day: Mad About Mahmoud
Imaginary Communists? Sadly No!: AmPower

CNN’s Roland Martin: 'Sarah Palin poses an immediate threat to the future of this country': RWN
Lessons in Reactionary Mockery: Con4Palin
Sheepish Decline: Pundette

Richard Cohen and the Invisible Power: AT
WaPo Promotes 'DREAM Act' for Sympathetic 'Undocumented Youths': NewsBusters
President Obama Blames The Internet For Why People Think He Is Muslim: Mediaite

World

America's Grim Options on North Korea: PJM
Korean Joint Exercises in Futility: AmPower
Jimmy Carter: North Korean Dictators Deserve Our Respect: Verum Serum

"The death throes of free speech in Europe begin tomorrow morning": GoV
The Unholy U.S./Muslim Alliance: AT
Outrage, Incompetence, Overreach & Dhimmitude Roundup: Zilla

Report: ‘Issues of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity’ Raised in U.K. Rape-Gang Case: RSM
Did You Know Israel Created Radical Islam?: AT
Another Cargo Plane crashes after takeoff?: BNI

SciTech

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions: Fox
BendDesk: the curved multitouch workspace of the future: Engadget
'Nightmare' kernel bug lets attackers evade Windows UAC security: ComputerWorld

Cornucopia

What am I thankful for? Quite a bit... : Life in the Infantry
California's Incredible Portabello Estate Just Sold At 55% Markdown: Insider
Mythbuster Adam Savage Passes TSA Screening with 12 Inch Steel Blades: Lethalc0mb0

Mystery marine identified in photo taken in WWII: WashExam
Decatur Central's Single Ladies Video: Theo Spark
Snapshot: No Oil for Pacifists

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Lonely Conservative

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Photos: The Mass Executions You Never Saw In Legacy Media

If you rely upon legacy media for the news, you'd think that Gaza was some kind of killing ground upon which innocent Palestinians are regularly targeted by Israelis. But in Gaza, as in most places around the Middle East, the most prolific murderers of Muslims are other Muslims.

The following graphic screen-captures depict a mass execution of civilians in Gaza by members of the murderous gang of thugs known as Hamas.

Mass executions? Genocide? Apartheid?

Yes -- all of those things.

And legacy media is utterly silent.

Lining civilians up against a wall and executing them like the Nazis at Babi Yar.

And the typical separatist front groups, CAIR and the like, are silent on these events.

Should you do a search for "Hamas mass murder Gaza", you'll find plenty of references to Zionists killing innocents.

Or "apartheid".

Or terrorist-laden "Freedom Flotillas".

But let terrorists kill thousands of innocents in New York, or Mumbai, or Beslan, Madrid, London, Uzbekistan, Bali, Baghdad, Kashmir and dozens of other venues, and the media can't seem to determine what the attackers' motivation may be.

After all, it's not real news unless Israelis are involved.


FireDogLake Nutcase Accuses FBI of "State-Sponsored Terrorism" in Investigating and Thwarting Genuine Terrorism

There's a leftist crackpot writing at the execrable FireDogLake named Teddy Partridge. Partridge's latest Pulitzer Prize-winning submission comes in reaction to a thwarted Jihadist attack in Portland, Oregon.

Partridge's secretion accuses the FBI of "state-sponsored terror" because it's -- wait for it -- enticing innocent Jihadists into violent attacks against innocent civilians.

Tonight in Portland, we had a small dose of the FBI’s almost-operational terror sprees, as agents spent more than a year goading a young jihadi wannabe into almost killing thousands of Portlandians in our city’s living room as we gathered for the lighting of the holiday tree...

...Wow, what kind of complex network would it take for a Somalia-born US citizen to envision, develop, and then carry out such a huge and complex attack in a large public place with so many innocents gathered? Why, of course, one enabled by the FBI...

Thank goodness for the heroic FBI that allowed one silly young man trying to impress older, more senior “terrorists” with an operational plan. And thank goodness they saved us from this attack, moments before it didn’t occur.

How long are we going to let the cowboys shoot up our country with their false terror plots and operations that would go nowhere without their instigation, planning, and coercion? How long will we allow our own federal constabulary to justify its own recklessly inflated budget by permitting actions like this to develop, fester, and grow operational in our midst?

This is terror, pure and simple. State-sponsored terror. Big-splash terror designed to make people compliant and fearful...

I wonder what the children, parents, brothers and sisters of those slaughtered last year by Nidal Malik Hasan would say to Partridge?

• Or those injured, some severely, by the driver of an SUV at the University of North Carolina who intentionally slammed into a crowd of pedestrians in "retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world"?

• Or the loved ones of those murdered and wounded inside the Seattle Jewish Federation by self-proclaimed "Soldier of Islam" Naveed Haq?

• Or the families of those killed and wounded by Asan Akbar?

• Or those attacked by San Francisco jihadist Omeed Aziz Popal, who killed one, left seven in critical condition and injured at least seven others by driving his car into innocent passers-by in a series of attacks a firefighter called "like Death Race 2000"?

If you happen to spot the corpulent Partridge on the street one day, I'd discourage you from coming up behind him and screaming Allahu Akbar at the top of your lungs.

And under no circumstances should you walk into a Starbucks -- when Partridge is reading Perez Hilton on his iPad and sipping a Mochachino -- while wearing a long trench-coat, then stop just inside the entrance and reach inside your coat and shriek Death to America! as loud as you can.

Because while Partridge might stain his undergarments, he'll also think you're an FBI agent.


Update: Patterico shreds Partridge into tiny little pieces using every kitchen implement except for a cheese straightener.

Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Timeless Headline o' the Day

Breaking News from CBC (Canada):

Willie Nelson charged with pot possession


Country singer Willie Nelson has been charged with marijuana possession again after six ounces was found on his tour bus in Texas, according to U.S. Border Patrol Services.

Patrol spokesman Bill Brooks says the bus pulled into the Sierra Blanca checkpoint Friday morning. When the door opened, an officer smelled pot, triggering a search and the discovery of marijuana... Nelson was among three people arrested by the local sheriff.

The 77-year-old singer is an unrepentant marijuana user and he's been busted before... Back in 2006, he was also charged with a misdemeanour after being found with marijuana and mushrooms. He paid a fine and was put on six months' probation...

Some headlines are so unsurprising you wonder why the media even bothers.


Emboldened by North Korea's Show of Force, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Unveil Startling New Super-Weapons

A dithering White House "has emboldened countries such as Iran, North Korea, and China."

More specifically, Tehran appears to be watching and learning from Pyongyang's inbreds, who have toyed with U.S. diplomats since the Madeline Albright era. In that regard, undercover operative Deep Spackle emailed us these pictures from an undisclosed location in Iran.

His Mullah's Ship (HMS) Jihad of Love, Iran's first nuclear aircraft carrier, embarks on a test voyage in the Strait of Hormuz.

HMS Martyred Teddy Bear, a guided missile cruiser, docks in a special slip at the military port of Bander-e Lengeh.

A squadron of Mahdi-15 Fighter-Bombers flies over Tehran.

High-powered Nuclear Suicide-belt cargo planes carry advanced weapons to a secret location.

A top secret photograph of the much-feared, experimental Ayatollah of Rockenrollah battle tank.

Revolutionary Guards Special Operations Commando Ranger demonstrates the Donkey of Doom Personal Killing Tank.


Iran desperately needs to be neutered by the U.S. -- and certainly the American military is well-positioned to do so -- but it's increasingly clear that the Obama administration has no will to fight the rise of nuclear terrorism.


Larwyn's Linx: Unintended, Yet Wholly Predictable, Consequences of Obamacare

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

Nation

Unintended (but predictable) consequences of Obamacare: Patterico
Time Now to Reverse All That Liberalism Has Done: PJM
Americans Learning to Submit: AT

FBI foils bomb plot at Christmas tree lighting ceremony: GWP
Majority believes feds operating outside of Constitution: Zero Hedge
Not Everyone Dislikes the Patdowns: Pundette

California: Post-Turkey Musings: ProWis
The GOP and Race: AT
Repeal Amendment Gaining Strength: RSN

Economy

Sore Union Losers at Delta Air Lines: RedState
'Just who the hell do you think you people are?': Kimball
How Can Anyone Argue That American Finances Aren’t Terrible?: LP

Ending Tax Demagoguery: AT
GM: Speaking of Chutzpah: ProWis
In Rare Agreement with Krugman: Mish

Climate & Energy

More Revolting GM Volt News: RWN
Spain Learns That Solar Really, Really Needs Government Handouts: RWN
Gulf Oil Spill Response in Perspective: AT

Media

Sleepwalking Through History: Driscoll
Israel Must Fear Tea Partiers, Or Something Like That: LegalIns
Muslims Honor Helen Thomas Some More: Moonbattery

Peggy Noonan - Obama Needs a Reality Assistant, But It's Not His Fault: Ace
'None Dare Call It Desperation': Driscoll
Obama - The Black Knight of socialized medicine: BlogProf

World

Questioning Conventional Wisdom on North Korea and China: ShrinkWrapped
“The Collapse Of Communism: The Untold Story”: NoisyRoom
Terrorism Experts Weigh In: What Kind of Attacks Might We Expect?: PJM

Blasphemy resolution passes U.N. committee: WZ
Radical London Islamist Protester Was $4 Million Crack Dealer: GWP
Let Us Not Forget the 2008 Terrorist Attack on Mumbai: Jawa

The History Channel Sucks at History: NewsReal
President Bush's Challenge to Great Britain: AT
Patriotic Pork in a Halal Hangout: GoV

SciTech

The Seven Principles You Need to Know to Build a Great Social Product: TechCrunch
Verizon reignites ad wars with 4G claims: CNet
U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More: TorrentFreak

Cornucopia

Venom Spewers: SondraK
Black Friday Mob Tramples Shopper at North Buffalo Target Store: AmPower
2011 Miss TSA Calendar: C&S

London: Muslim Artist Making Money Off 7/7 Terrorist Attack: Jawa
Whooo Rrrr Uuuu?: SondraK
The World's First Rock & Roll Song: C&S

Image: Hell On Earth (TSA); iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Right Network

QOTD: "It’s cute that they’re pretending that they’re not sure who elbowed him even though we all know who did it. You learned a lesson today the hard way, champ: When you drive the lane on Hillary, you come strong or don’t come at all." -- Allahpundit


Friday, November 26, 2010

Exclusive Photo Taken Moments Before President Obama Suffered Major Gash on Lip While Playing Basketball

Reports broke earlier today that President Obama suffered a gash on his lip while playing basketball. The injury required twelve stitches to repair.

Cub Reporter Biff Spackle captured this photo just seconds before the injury occurred.


Linked by: Sister Toldjah. Thanks!

Sadly, No Economic Literates at Unintentionally Hilarious Lib Blog

Robin of Berkeley's conversion to conservatism apparently offended more than a few progressives.

Witness the economic geniuses at Sadly, No F'ing Sense, who echo the standard liberal response to Robin's heartfelt article.


Never mind that the system that has enriched and fed more people around the world than any other is the free market -- otherwise known as capitalism, which the crackpottery routinely rejects.

Never mind that the authoritarian and Fabian socialist systems that the left idolizes are collapsing as we speak.

Never mind that we already have Medicaid for the poor. And Medicare for the elderly. And those systems, too, are melting down.

Never mind that 75% of all pharmaceutical and medical innovation -- which the bankrupt NHS and Canadian health care systems freeload upon -- originate in the United States. And that those systems are bankrupt. Just like Medicare and Social Security. And the insanity of ladling on another monstrous entitlement -- a bill that no one read and fewer understand -- is just the ticket for the economic illiterates.

But facts, logic, reason and history have never been strong suits for the Left. Especially the jackasses at Sady, No F'ing Sense.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and American Power. Thanks!

Our friends the Saudis: promoting a medieval educational system

Writing in the liberal Guardian (UK), Ali al-Ahmed -- director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs -- throws a spotlight on a dysfunctional Saudi educational system that he calls "medieval". Worse still, al-Ahmed reports that the Saudi government continues to export that system to the West.

BBC1's Panorama reported on the Saudi school textbooks used in over 40 Saudi schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The investigation found that the books contained messages of hatred, incitement of violence and other reprehensible teachings that are commonly found in the Saudi official religious discourse...

...The primary goal of Saudi education is to maintain the rule of absolute monarchy by casting it as the ordained protector of the faith, and that Islam is at war with other faiths and cultures. That's what the Saudi monarchy calls "intellectual security," maintained yet further by a ban on liberal arts education, philosophy, drama, and music.

...I have reviewed all the religious textbooks used in Saudi schools several times and found them to be comprised of medieval ideological indoctrination instead of offering a modern education that would prepare the student for the workplace.

...the text allows for the killing of apostates and polytheists, and it does not take much to qualify as one or the other. Membership in capitalist, communist or secular groups makes you an apostate, and disagreeing with the Wahhabi/Salafi anthropomorphic characterisation of God makes you a polytheist.

...The texts offer a chilling definition of murder as the intentional killing of "protected souls." You won't object very much until you know who meets the definition of a "protected soul". Let us see if you are among those who are protected. The text explains that "protected souls" include free Muslims, free (non-slave) non-Muslim citizens of Muslim countries, and non-Muslims who travel to Muslim countries by invitation of Muslim hosts. The rest are not deserving of the status of a "protected soul". If this is not license to kill the majority of the world's population, I am not sure what is.

One of that most disturbing messages offered by the textbooks is that slavery is legitimate, and that young children can be married by their fathers to adults or other children. Child marriage is legal in Saudi Arabia and girls as young as four have been married in Saudi courts. To understand the mentality of these texts' authors, you need to wonder why there is not a single photo of a living being throughout the entire 12 years of educational text that I have reviewed. The authors believe that photography is polytheistic, and they make that clear in several lessons dedicated to such teachings.

Last June, we asked the Obama administration to implement US law by banning the entry into the US of the Saudi minister of education Faisal bin Abdullah... [but the] administration chose not to follow our advice, despite the fact that this minister is directly responsible for the content of the textbooks that both incite violence and violate the rights of million of children in Saudi Arabia who are forced to study such material.

...it's not difficult to imagine the chilling consequences 20 years down the line, of filling the minds of millions of children with messages of hate...

As Ali al-Ahmed says, the medieval Saudi education system must be reformed.


Larwyn's Linx: The Hard Work Begins Now

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

Nation

The Hard Work Begins Now: ProWis
Rubio for President: AT
Shockingly, ACLU still silent on TSA Groping: RWN

Hammer Time: JOM
Obama Campaign Senior Advisor Held On Child Sex Charges: iOTW
Allen West: America's next black president?: Delingpole

Senate set to take up immigration reform bill: WashExam
Lawmakers: $1.2B Pigford Payout Rife With Fraud: BigGovt
Apartheid Swim at Georgetown U.: Atlas

Economy

Food 'Safety' Bill To Centralize, Regulate Food Production: NoisyRoom
Food Safety Measure Would Give Small Farmers Indigestion: PJM
TSA-ing inmates costs Chicago $55 million: Surber

47 Words In ObamaCare Bill To Cost Hospitals Millions: RWN
Is Schadenfreude Verboten On Thanksgiving Day?: LegalIns
The Left’s pushback: The return of University 'Speech Codes': ProWis

Climate & Energy

Discovery News: Thanksgiving Dinner will be extinct because of... GLOBALWARMING!: BlogProf
White House Expedites Wind Farms; Stalls Drilling: RedState
Green Party Co-Founder Concerned About Climate 'Exaggeration, Alarmism': GWPF

Media

How Do We Say "Hail To The President Of Our 57 States" In Austrian?: LegalIns
Media Matters’ Stunning Hypocrisy on Anonymous Donations: BigJournalism
World War Three Averted: Treacher

Grudging Credit to Glenn Greenwald: Verum Serum
In 2010 sweep, even the Finns voted Republican: Barone
The Case for Real Presidential Debates: AT

World

The Sixty Years War: WklyStd (Hayes)
Duped in North Korea: From Obama's Mentor to Jimmy Carter: AT
Not News: Girl Arrested For Allegedly Burning The Koran. News: In The UK: WZ

IRS to Jewish group: 'Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?': GWP
Graphic: Anatomy of a stoning: Creeping Sharia
Muslim Woman Demands Skating Rink Submit to Sharia: Atlas

GOP senators list SALT deficiencies: AT
China's Economic Treadmill to Hell: Mish
The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother: Toronto Star

SciTech

Can Anything Stop The Facebook Juggernaut?: TechCrunch
Are Security Scanners Safe?: MIT TechReview
Should You Wait to Buy a Tablet?: CNet

Cornucopia

Giving Thanks: iOTW
Shadow Currencies, Shadow Governments and Now, Shadow People: MOTUS
TSA Travel Terror: WYOTK

“The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement”: RedState
Help You Make It To Your Flight: Buck Howdy
How to Wear Hermes Scarf as Hijab: SavvyMode

Image: Watts Up With That.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Milton Friedman's Free to Choose (RightNetwork)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Things are tough all over: Nicholas Cage's foreclosed house sells at less than a third of its original listing price

Actor Nicholas Cage lost his Bel-Air estate to foreclosure earlier this year. Two weeks ago, an anonymous buyer grabbed the mansion for $10.5 million in cash, less than a third of its original listing price.

The 1940 Tudor had failed to generate any bids in April when it was offered at the county courthouse steps in Pomona. Six loans totaling $18 million encumbered the house, which the actor had decorated in a style one local real estate agent dubbed "frat-house bordello." Among personalized touches were garish room colors, three dozen bronze wall sconce holders made from a cast of the Oscar winner's arm and hundreds of elaborately framed comic-book covers lining the walls.

...The Colcord-designed house sits on an acre, has a central tower, a custom wine cellar, a 35-seat home theater, six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and a swimming pool.

...May Ormerod Harris, a major USC benefactor, commissioned the home; then it sold to banker Stanley Stalford in the early 1960s, Parsons said. Yuban-brand coffee heirs were the next inhabitants before the estate transferred to a series of celebrity owners: Dean Martin, Tom Jones and Cage...

Although Cage is reported to have earned $40 million in 2009 alone, he's suing his former manager for collecting outsized fees and giving ruinous advice. For his part, the ex-manager claims Cage engaged on a "spending binge of epic proportions", noting that in 2008 the actor had owned "15 palatial homes around the world, four yachts, an island in the Bahamas, a private Gulfstream jet and millions of dollars' worth of art and jewelry."

Doctor Housing Bubble observes that several banks, which had written $18 million in six different loans on the house, took a $7.5 million haircut on the deal.

Which goes to show you that no one -- not you or me, not a Hollywood actor, not even the richest and most prosperous country on Earth -- can spend beyond their means for long.

Which is a lesson the modern Democrat Party apparently never learned.


Gratuitous Thanksgiving 'Traveler Strips Down to Bikini to Avoid TSA Scanning, Groping' Photos

The National Opt-Out Day didn't work out, but this young lady made national news anyhow.

This is a movement I could staunchly support, in certain cases.


Thankful

Thankful for my parents, my wife and children, my siblings, cousins, in-laws and their families.

Thankful for my country and the blessing it has bestowed upon all of its citizens.

Thankful for those who serve, protecting us from seventh-century barbarians and other enemies of freedom.

Thankful for our country's police officers, fire fighters, first responders, nurses, doctors and medical personnel, many of whom work long hours on days like this one, as we lounge on recliners and sip on cold beverages.

Thankful for the conservative new media, which play an ever-increasing role in educating the citizenry, including Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, John Hawkins, Tom Lifson, Mark Tapscott, Jim Hoft, Andrew Breitbart, Ace, Doug Powers, Noel Sheppard, Don Surber, Ed Driscoll, Dan Riehl, Anthony Watts and Tyler Durden, to mention but a few.

Thankful for this country's founders, who created the most magnificent form of government ever seen on the face of the Earth.

Thankful for the Constitutional conservatives who ran for office, win or lose, to protect us from the 80-year march of Statism.

Thankful for football (real football, not the "world's most popular sport", the championship of which inevitably ends up in a 0-0 tie), baseball, basketball, boxing and MMA.

Thankful for Ronald Reagan, Mark Levin, Milton Friedman and Barry Goldwater, who helped reestablish modern conservatism with an intellectual framework and philosophy rooted in history, facts, logic and reason.

Thankful for friends and co-workers -- past and present -- whose camaraderie and support are more valuable than any material wealth.

Thankful for great books and great authors -- Barry Eisler, Lee Child, Vince Flynn, Robert Ferrigno, Jim Thompson, A. J. Quinnell, C. S. Forester, David McCullough, Ian Toll, Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming, Bruce Schneier, and James Bradley, to name but a few.

Thankful for the great battle in which we find ourselves engaged, representing another clash in the unending war against Statism.

Thankful for this day.


Larwyn's Linx: Black Americans and Liberty

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

Nation

Black Americans and Liberty: Williams
Airport "Security": Sowell
Oaths and the Constitution: AT

Senate set to take up immigration reform bill: WashExam
About that crazed 'Tea Partier' inspired by Allen West's campaign: WZ
Tom DeLay Convicted Of Money Laundering: Ace

Democracy as Security: Surber
Obama: Sarah Palin Has Skillz: Riehl
Photoshop o' the Day: Saber Point

Economy

Giving Thanks for American Ingenuity: Malkin
Nurses' Union Behind Illegal Alien Maid’s Attack on Meg Whitman: GWP
Predictable: $22.5M Transit Center Trashed in a Day: BlogProf

Excellence Crushed in the Name of Diversity: RWN
Obama’s Labor Department To Create Union News Agency?: RWN
Happy Starvation Day: Stossel

Climate & Energy

How EPA Could Destroy 7.3 Million Jobs: BigGovt
Global warming 'fix' could threaten food chain: TheState
Truck prices show environmentalism hampers job growth: HNN

Media

The Nation, "flagship of the left", blows the lid off the trumped-up TSA scandal: Treacher
John Conyers Didn’t Have Time to Read the Health Care Bill But He Had Time to Read This?: Malkin
Is the Democrat Party Conceding that Obama is a Muslim?: Con4Palin

This Panicked Administration Has Turned Dictatorial, Not Democratic: Strata-Sphere
Disingenuous Reporting 101: iOTW
Racy PETA ad grounded at Logan: Herald

Timesman Crystallizes ‘Central Theme of Mr. Obama’s Presidency’: Driscoll
Is Bobby Jindal Having a Toga Party?: SIGIS
Welcome back, old friend. What took you so long?: LegalIns

World

Forget the 'porn machines' -- How Israelis secure airports: Totten
Regime Change North Korea: AmPower
Sweden: Pro-Israel blogger attacked for being a Jew: IIE

Because President Truman Didn’t Finish the Job in North Korea in 1950: RWN
Rest in Peace Hero Don Alejo Garza Tamez: GWP
Former High-Ranking Official: Who Cares What the Deal Is? Just Do It: BRubin

Federal judge confirms CAIR is Hamas: WZ
'“Who the Hell do You Think You Are: The Euro Game Is Up': GWP
U.N. Pours Salt in America's Wounds: Fox

SciTech

Instead of kerosene, a solar-powered light bulb: Springwise
Adam Savage: TSA saw my junk, missed 12" razor blades: Ars Technica
Footage of 'alien' child in stomach: The Sun

Cornucopia

Be Thankful for Our Heroes: AT
In Praise of the Americans: Inside Higher Ed
They Saved Hitler's Brain: Doswell

Pop culture takes over airport security: RWN
The Thanksgiving Rabbi -- 1789: AT
The Day the Dollar Died: ZH

Image: People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Milton Friedman: The Free Lunch Myth

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Oliver Willis shrieks the news from the highest bell-tower: "Sarah Palin made a boo-boo!! Sarah Palin made a boo-boo!!"

How much does the Marxist left fear Sarah Palin?

Well, as the Korean peninsula trembles, as the United States nears bankruptcy and as the world grapples with the collapse of the dollar, the denizens of the left are eager to deflect attention from their destructive policies by embracing a brief misstatement by Sarah Palin. The result? Breathless headlines and mock terror.

Genius. Absolute genius. When Glenn Beck is correcting you on foreign policy, well... genius.

The transcript of what really transpired?

CO-HOST: How would you handle a situation like the one that just developed in North Korea? [...]

PALIN: But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies. We’re bound to by treaty –

CO-HOST: South Korean.

PALIN: Eh, Yeah. And we’re also bound by prudence to stand with our South Korean allies, yes.

During the interview, Palin explicitly stated that North Korea represented a national security threat.

She didn't say that the United States had 57 states.

Or that "we gotta stand with our corpse-men" (twice).

She didn't say that "the Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries."

Or agree with an interviewer during the 2008 campaign that "you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith."

Or mention that 10,000 people died during a Kansas tornado that killed 12 people.

No, she didn't say any of those things.

Barack Obama did. But that's not news. Because he's historic. Or something.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Union bosses hate their members, chapter 4,323: New York's public sector fat-cats kick 1,000 members to the curb

The modern public sector union bosses despise their membership. After all, the bosses vocally support open borders, illegal immigration and global warming legislation -- all of which destroy opportunities for "workers".

So if there's anyone out there who still thinks that union bosses support their members, this news out of New York ought to disabuse them of that quaint notion.

Gov. David Paterson is in the process of laying off 898 people as of Dec. 31 to plug a hole in the state budget, which assumes a $250 million savings in personnel...

Unions didn't agree to furloughs or a five-day pay lag -- meaning they would lose a week's pay now but get it back at the end of their state service.

Paterson said Tuesday that his only remaining option is layoffs. Notices will have to go out Dec. 10 to give the required minimum of 20 days' notice.

"There didn't have to be any layoffs at all. I don't want to lay off anybody," Paterson said at an event in Buffalo. "Layoffs add to the real crisis that we have, which is a revenue crisis. If you lay people off, you're bringing in less revenue."

...Paterson has complained for months that unions aren't sharing the burden of New York's ongoing fiscal crisis.

Long story short: in the midst of a fiscal calamity, New York's Public Employees Federation has refused a 1.9% salary deferral -- not cut, deferral -- and instead chose to kick nearly 1,000 of its own members to the curb.

Union members need to reject their leaders en masse. They need to throw off the yokes of oppression and embrace economic prosperity, not the failed, fifties-style Marxist policies of the SEIU, AFSCME, the NEA, AFT and PEF.

They're out to destroy America and they need to be stopped.