Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Larwyn's Linx: Walker Offers Olive Branch, Fleebaggers Spit in His Face

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

Walker Offers Olive Branch, Fleebaggers Spit in His Face: RS
The lucky Ones Who Get Waivers From Obamacare: RWN
“A Day In The Life Of An Arizona Rancher”: GWP

John Kerry explains why spending cuts are impossible: Hayward
Bachmann: $105B in secret Obamacare money: Cubachi
Fears Grow as Obama Hits Campaign Trail: RC

Gunwalker: a deliberate conspiracy vs. the 2nd Amendment: Sipsey
Team Obama Directly Working to Recall WI Republicans: ATR
Why did Paul Ryan vote for a disastrous union giveaway?: RWN

Economy

Obamacare Subsidizes Healthcare for Union Retirees: Foundry
Unions vs. Taxpayers: IBD
WI teachers: receive year's salary for 30 days of work: RWN

Obama's oil policies killing jobs, costing consumers: SCT
GOP set to Vaporize Thousands of Cowboy Poetry Fans: Driscoll
BofA divides almost half of its mortgages into 'Bad Bank': Bloomberg

Climate & Energy

Blame the Democrats for High Gas Prices: RedState
Palin: President Obama is “Scary Wrong” on Oil: Con4Palin
Surprise: NYT Doubles Down On Eco-Scare Stupid: CBullitt

Climategate's Michael Mann Thrown Under the Bus: Deleted Emails, Lies and Bogus Data: WUWT
How many barrels of crude oil were consumed in the minute you've been reading this?: TPC
IBD/TIPP Poll: Americans Back Offshore, ANWR Drilling: IBD

Media

NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party, touting liberals: Caller
O’Keefe Says He Targeted NPR Over Juan Williams Firing: WZ
Obama's "Personal Popularity" is a Media-Created Myth Designed to Scare Republicans into Submission: EIB

What on Earth Is Ezra Klein Smoking?: Cato
Abandoning Your Children: New "Redefinition" of Motherhood: Zilla
The Real Death Panel & the Cloward-Piven Devastation Awaiting You in Obamacare: NoisyRoom

Can We All At Least Agree That Only The Right Cares About Reducing Government Spending?: RWN
The NPR Sting: GoV
Bachmann Demands Democrats Give Back $105 Billion 'Tucked Away' Inside Health Care Law: Fox

Levin goes nuclear on Republican leadership: TRS
Applicants Wanted: ‘Win a Commencement Speech From President Obama’ Contest Falling Short: Malkin
MI School District caught systematically cheating on standardized test, state covering it up: BlogProf

World

Obama Security Adviser Comforts Muslims With Terrorist Ties: Judicial Watch
Why Do Islamic Groups Fear Hearings on Islamic Radicalization?: PJM (Poole)
UN-Sponsored Youth Camp Names Soccer Tournament After Female Palestinian Suicide Bomber: WZ

Zimbabwe to Supply Iran With Uranium: RWN
Al-Qaeda Already Using Wikileaks Material Against Us:PJM
Myth of Moderate Islam: Dakota Voice

Allen West Reflects on His Visit to Gitmo: Cubachi
Obama’s Pentagon: ‘Too Many Whites, Men Leading Military’: BigPeace
Gaddafi forces attack rebel town in west: Maktoob

SciTech

Instaprint service is the Polaroid of the Instagram generation, no shaking required: Engadget
Apple’s Primacy May Have To Move From Smartphones To Tablets: 24/7 Wall Street
Google's code change shifts billions from losers to winners: CNN

Cornucopia

Calm Man Successfully Buys TV And Denies Walmart Receipt Checkers: Consumerist
TV Sitcom Title Contest: iOTW
Report: Qaddafi Flees Libya, Replaces Steven Tyler on American Idol : IMCFT

WTF: Now Accepting Applications: MOTUS
The Chuck D. From Public Enemy Interview: Farrakhan, Air America’s Failure, And Open Borders: RWN
Condemned to Joy: City Journal (Pascal Bruckner)

Image adapted from: What are they afraid of? What are they hiding?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Searching for Marizela: An update

QOTD: "Congressional Research Service, with the reports that was issued two weeks before the election, no one was really reading Congressional Research reports. And then there was another report issued in February that detailed the $105 billion. And this is an enormous sum of money. $105 billion, $464 million, this was tucked away inside the Obamacare bill.

People say, 'Well, what's wrong with the members of Congress? Why didn't you know it's there?' It's because we didn't get the bill until literally a couple of hours before we were supposed to vote on it and it's 2900 pages long. What they did is they took the bill, this amount of money, split it up and put in different sections of the bill. Nobody knew until February, when it came out. We had an eagle eye from the Heritage Foundation, Ernest Istook, a former member of Congress, found this in this report... [and one] of my colleagues Steve King from Iowa also found out about this and we've been trying to do everything we can to alert people and say, give the money back..." --Rep. Michelle Bachmann

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Community Organizers Try to Shout Down Ohio Governor As He Proposes Plan to Deal With $8.5 Billion Deficit

AFSCME, the SEIU, and Barack Obama's personal political arm -- Organizing for America -- are doing the one thing they do best. Fomenting class warfare, spewing hateful rhetoric and shouting down political debate.

Most of the leftist bullies were forced to stand outside the Chamber Door today during Ohio Governor John Kasich’s State of the State Address...

However, at least one shrieking protester interrupted the Republican Governor during his speech today...

In his first state of the state address, Ohio governor John Kasich (R) was jeered as he called for collective bargaining reforms in the Buckeye state, even though the subject was barely mentioned in the 65 minute speech... Kasich says the reforms in the bill are needed so local governments can control their budgets.

“Frankly, folks, the provisions of collective bargaining reform are examples of what we wanted to do to allow people to control their costs,” Kasich said as boos rained down from protesters watching in the chamber... He then addressed the passion of protesters gathered in and outside the state house whose chants could be heard at other points during the speech...

“I appreciate passionate people who don’t agree with us… People who feel strongly, I respect them, but they also need to respect those who don’t always agree with them, Ok?” he said to extended applause from Republicans.


Did this stop the thugs from screaming? ... No.

Of course not.

Free speech and sensible fiscal policies are off limits to the community agitators who control this era's Democrat Party.


Change: More than a third of all U.S. wages and salaries come from government confiscating wealth and redistributing it

There's no better evidence of the Democrats' half-century of policy failures than this story from CNBC: "Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of US Wages".

Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

...social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”

The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.

Let's start by ending the Democrats' disastrous "War on Poverty", which has created more poverty and misery than any set of government programs in world history.

If there's anything the last half-century of failed Leftist policies have taught us, it's this: when you reward sloth, you get more sloth. When you reward hard work, you get more hard work.

Killing off welfare except to those in desperate need would be a nice trillion-dollar stimulus to the real economy. And it would actually increase marriage rates, reduce violent crime, and improve educational outcomes.


Hat tip: Tatler.

Top 10 Rejected Scripts From Katie Couric's 'Muslim Cosby Show'

A couple of months ago, CBS news personality Katie Couric had quite the brainstorm.

Couric suggested a Muslim Cosby Show would perhaps help eradicate Islamophobia in America. Couric said, "I know that sounds crazy," she said, "but The Cosby Show did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of things they don’t understand."

One of the problems with her idea is that so many script ideas would be off limits for devout Muslims. Biff Spackle lists the following story pitches almost certain to be rejected.

• Teenage daughter brings home a Christian boy

• Rebellious son decides he no longer wants to practice Islam

• Teenage daughter dabbles with homosexuality

• Youngest daughter steals a candy-bar from a convenience store

• Rebellious son is caught drinking vodka with friends

• Teenage daughter wears super-revealing clothing to school

• Rebellious son is caught sassing the Imam

• Teenage daughter brings home a Jewish boy

• Rebellious son is caught desecrating the Koran

• Teenage daughter brings home Charlie Sheen

Spackle asserts that ending a show with a flogging or an amputation wouldn't exactly help the ratings.


Linked by: Weasel Zippers. Thanks!

Excellent News: NPR Willing to Partner With Muslim Brotherhood to Combat Zionist Agenda Using Your Tax Dollars!

Ron Schiller, NPR's senior vice president for fundraising, just got punk'd by conservative activist James O'Keefe. A hidden camera caught Schiller baring his soul regarding Republicans, conservatives and Jews in a meeting with two men claiming to represent the fictional Muslim Action Education Center (MEAC). MEAC claimed that it was willing to donate $5 million to NPR to help its efforts to fight the mainstream media's "Zionist coverage".

Schiller's diatribes included the following gems:

— “The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — and I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move ... it's been hijacked by this group that ... "

— "It's not just Islamophobic, but really xenophobic. Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun-toting — it's pretty scary. They're seriously racist, racist people.”

The operatives in the sting then proceed to disparage what they call Jewish control of the media, prompting Schiller to assure them that Zionist influence doesn't exist at NPR, but "it's there in those who own newspapers obviously."

Schiller laughs when one of the men jokes that NPR's reporting on the Middle East had garnered the nickname "National Palestinian Radio” while his colleague Liley chuckles: “Oh really? That's good. I like that.”

...While discussing media coverage of the political uprising in Egypt, Schiller said what he is “most disappointed by," in the United States, "is that the educated, so-called elite in this country is too small a percentage of the population, so that you have this very large uneducated part of the population that carries these [unworldly] ideas."

Oh, and there's this:

— "I think what we all believe is if we don't have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air ... it's the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn't have female voices." In the heavily edited tape, that comment followed Schiller being told by one of the men that their organization "was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." There's no sign in the edited tape that Schiller reacted in any way after being told of the group's alleged connection to an Islamic group that appeared to be connected with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

— That NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," a position in direct conflict with the organization's official position.

Remember, though, NPR claims to be unbiased. In fact, they're so confident that they're unbiased, they've challenged Republicans to find proof of their political affiliation.

Oops.

Alternate headline: Ignorant, Gun-Toting Racists Decide Not to Fund NPR.


Image: Real Aspen. Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: The Insanity of Our Borrowing and What Must Be Done

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 Insanity of Our Borrowing and What Must Be Done: VR
Bachmann helps expose secret stash of Obamacare cash: Foundry
Who'd have thought an impeached judge would be unethical?: RWN

Obamacare Waivers: 1,000 and Rising: Cubachi
Witness List Set for King Hearing: IPT
Obama/Holder DoJ Attacks NY Firefighters: AmSpec

WI Republicans Want Paul Ryan for President: WklyStd
Bachmann Stands by 'Gangster Government' Description: RC
W.H. Refuses GOP Request for Healthcare Meeting Notes: TPM

Economy

Apres Nous Le Deluge (After the Deluge): GoldSuisse
Treasury Drew Down $81.6B in Just First 4 Days of March: CNS
Long-lost Tea Party tract discovered — dating back to 1963!: Tatler

Union Myths: Sowell
Socialist Labor Secretary Solis Mobilizes Unions: NR
Did Progressives Engineer the 2008 Financial Crash?: RWN

Is the economy set on 'rebound'?: Q&O
Ellmers: We’ve Only Just Begun to Cut Spending: Foundry
The MERS Mystery: Mises

Climate & Energy

An Easy-to-Follow Energy Road Map: Foundry
Time to Get Serious About U.S. Oil, Like N. Dakota: Carpe Diem
Feds: No new drilling permits, but we'll tap into Strategic Petroleum Reserve!: WashExam

Salazar Shows How In Contempt Of Feldman’s Court He Really Is: Salazar
Tag team in the Senate: Inhofe and Barrasso gang up on Obama’s global warming “expert”: IHTM
Why We Need to Drill Here and Drill Now: PJM

Media

Are We Broke Yet?: Michael Moore, Rachel Maddow, NYT Say No. Reality Begs to Differ.: BigGovt
Sarah Palin’s Parents Says They Sleep With Guns Over Fears of Leftist Death Threats: WZ
All's Right With the World: Comrade Obama Back on Golf Course: RWN

“Why Do Newspapers Support Westboro Baptist, but Not Citizens United?”: Reason
CAIR – Distorting Facts, Videos, and Reality: MentalRecession
Crackpot Liberal Group With Obama Ties Calls for $382 Billion Stimulus : JWF

New York Times: NY is not like WI: Q&O
Obama Is Tough On Leakers – Obviously, Liberals Have A Problem With This: RWN
17 Minutes of Birds’ Eye Terror From a NYPD Chopper on 9/11: WZ

World

Europe’s Ticking Demographic Time Bomb: the days of the cradle-to-grave social welfare state are numbered: PJM
British ObamaCare update: Top NHS doc says babies born at 23 weeks should be left to die: Marathon
Pics From the Front: WZ

Obama preparing for Islamists, sharia in Middle East: Creeping
London Imam Comes out in Support of a Woman’s Right to Refuse the Veil, Promptly Gets Death Threats: WZ
Traders ‘short’ dollar as currency loses attraction: FT

A Blast From the Past, and Maybe the Future: Power Line
UK electricity CEO: Get used to not having any electricity, suckas!: Tatler
Pro-Israel Student's Suit Targets UC Berkeley: IPT

SciTech

How Traffic Jams Happen: Big Picture
CNET tests tablet Web speed, battery life: CNet
Recently Declassified NSA History Document: Schneier

Netflix spooks Hollywood more than ever: CNet
Nintendo and Sony Still Don’t Get It: Apple’s Already Crushing Them in Gaming: BNet
Microsoft begs users to stop running IE6: Sophos

Cornucopia

Where Up is Down; Cold Is Hot: MOTUS
Apple Employees Can’t Help But Gloat About The New iPad: TeamCoco
What Apple Water Would Look Like: BusinessPundit

Image: People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Missing in Washington: Marizela Perez


Monday, March 07, 2011

Photographic Proof that the President's National Security Advisor is Right: 'Many Different Faiths' Really Do Turn to Terrorism

At first blush, the statement by President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, seems like just another bizarre bit of propaganda.

Denis McDonough, Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, who said that members of many different religions "succumb to terrorist ideologies." McDonough said this in an address given on March 6 at the Islamic ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia.

With his remarks at the headquarters of this Muslim organization, McDonough proved that he simply refuses to recognize reality concerning radical Islam and is even willing to minimize that threat by pretending that all religions contain "terrorists."

"For example," McDonough said, "we know there are many different reasons why individuals -- from many different faiths -- succumb to terrorist ideologies."

Obviously this is an idiotic contention. No Christians are perpetrating acts of terror throughout the world. No Hindus are blowing up trains in Spain. No Jews are fostering suicide bombings in England or the United States. No Buddhists have flown jetliners into high-rise buildings. Islam is responsible for the bulk of the world's acts of terror. To use such rhetorical conventions is dangerous because it disarms us from the real threat.

But Cub Reporter Biff Spackle has located a photograph that validates McDonough's assertion.

I think we all deserve an apology from Warner Todd Huston.


Legacy Media Continues to Hide the Real Economic News: Unemployment at 10.3% and Rising; February Budget Deficit Worst Ever for One Month

It shouldn't come as any surprise that during the last half of 2010, newspaper circulation hemorrhaged five entire percentage points.

After all, the real economic news is quite dire, though to read the daily fish-wrap you'd never know it.

Consider if you will "Gallup: Real Unemployment Rate is 10.3% -- and Rising."

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010...

...The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work worsened considerably in February, increasing to 9.6% of the workforce from 9.1% at the end of January. A larger percentage of the U.S. workforce is working part time and wanting full-time work now than was the case a year ago (9.3%).

...Underemployment, a measure that combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with those who are unemployed, surged in February to 19.9%. This resulted from the combination of a sharp 0.5-point increase since the end of January in the percentage unemployed and a 0.5-point increase in the percentage working part time but wanting full-time work. Underemployment is now higher than it was at this point a year ago (19.7%).


That's not all.

Please review, if you'd be so kind, "February $223 Billion Budget Deficit Largest Ever":

Well, it's one way to start a deficit cutting scramble. Washington Times reports that the preliminary number for the February deficit, which will formally be released by the FMS shortly, is $223 billion: this is the largest single month deficit in history! So much for prudent budgets and all that. At least the number can only get better from here. Unless, of course, it gets much, much worse, and rates continue creeping higher, resulting in 30% of total revenues being dedicated to paying gross interest, as was previously discussed on Zero Hedge. Then 40%. Then 50%... One gets the picture.

Yes, it's another Obama record as the country heads straight into the financial abyss, aided and abetted by the progressive Left and their useful idiots in legacy media.


Could Someone Ask The New York Times to Tone Down Its Violent Rhetoric?

One would think that the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record" could do better than resorting to the hysterical, shrill and uncivil hyperbole laced throughout its op-ed "Holding Firm on the Budget."

After all, weren't these the very same kooks that lectured the Right about "civility" and "tone" after the horrific Tucson attacks?

After letting a highly destructive budget fight fester far too long, the White House finally stepped in late last week to negotiate with the House, which wants to eviscerate nondefense spending. Senate leaders still seem shell-shocked by that breathtaking ruthlessness, and have pleaded with the administration for help in pushing back. The White House needs to do so, and firmly.

Last year the administration acted as referee in a similar situation and got mixed results. It allowed Republicans their cherished goal of keeping taxes low on the richest 2 percent of Americans, and even gave multimillionaires and billionaires new estate tax benefits. President Obama won an extension of jobless benefits and a cut in payroll taxes that could boost the economy.

...But this is not a moment for another difference-splitting deal. The House wants to carve $61 billion out of the government for just the next seven months, which would throw hundreds of thousands of people out of work and kill off scores of vital functions.

The Times' intellectual dishonesty is legendary due, in no small part, to secretions like this one.

And its spendaholic hubris is highlighted by Mary Meeker's recent report that, without a hint of political enmity, paints a picture of impending fiscal calamity for the United States. That, of course, the Times chooses to ignore -- just as it ignored the most important book in a generation, a monumental bestseller focused on American history, law, philosophy, jurisprudence and economics.

This era's editions of The New York Times are useful only as curiosities: museum pieces that serve to warn future generations against journalists joining with the government to promote lawlessness, theft and oppression.


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

Larwyn's Linx: The Powers of This President

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 Powers of This President: AT
What we mean when we say 'Big Government': PJM
The most robust deficit ever. Deal with it.: Dewey

The Point of the Dagger: AT
Farrakhan promises Islamic uprising in the US: FA
W.H. rejects stereotyping Islam: Politico

The End of the Beginning: Bill Whittle
Flatter, Horizontal, Localized: P&F
Brilliant: Drive-Thru Recall Petition Drive in WI: GWP

Economy

Union-controlled NLRB yanks 'How to start a union' ads: BigGovt
California's Triple Whammy: OCR
Public sector unions bankroll Wisconsin's Fleabaggers: Exam

Bachmann: $105B secretly appropriated to Obamacare: Cubachi
If Only Jerry Brown Had Andrew Cuomo’s Courage: BigGovt
Romney, novice no more, focuses on Obama, economy: Exam

Kerry accidentally explains why we are financially doomed: RWN
Grim Milestone: Obamacare Waivers Top 1,000: GWP
Unemployed Need Not Apply: TPC

Climate & Energy


In Pictures: Bush Vs. Obama On Gas Prices: Foundry
The Global Warming Gravy Train: Secondhand Smoke
The reverse of UN’s disastrous “oil for food” program: Ethanol uses 40% of US Corn Crop: WUWT

Media

Two Papers in One: Driscoll
Irony: Obama rationing czar Donald Berwick taken off life support by political death panel: BlogProf
Michael Moore: Big Fat Union Hypocrite: Publius

Far Left Nut Arrested for Bomb Threat Against Scott Walker: Story Completely Ignored by State-Run Media: GWP
Sharia of the Airwaves: Did CAIR Silence Another On-Air Critic of Islam?: RWN
A Mountain of Words: NoisyRoom

Islamo-phobia and Palin-phobia: AT (Lewis)
Marc Schenker: Palin tells Obama to stop kowtowing to the Mexican President: Con4Palin
Obama National Security Advisor: 'Individuals From Many Different Faiths Succumb to Terrorist Ideologies': EOF

World

Prepping for a Worldwide Caliphate: NoisyRoom
Some Very Bad American Habits: Hanson
Florida, Alabama, Missouri propose bills to prevent sharia law in U.S. courts: Creeping

So, If This Can Happen In Britain, Why Can’t It Happen Here?: RWN
Obama asks Saudis to send weapons to Libyan rebels: JihadWatch
Angry reactions to message of gay imam: Radio Netherlands

'Israel Apartheid Week': Language as Weapon: AT
Russell Simmons pimps for Islam in Times Square – where Muslim tried to kill Americans: Creeping
Gold Surges, Hits New All Time High Of $1,437: ZH

SciTech

Sprint announcing Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D, and EVO View tablet at CTIA?: Engadget
Day Made Of Glass: Corning’s Vision For The Future With Specialty Glass: Corning
Why Sun Microsystems Failed: Information Week

Cornucopia

Obama Martian Chronicles #10 – “Word Association”: Mastersen
Mrs. O’s Thank You Note. Winning!: MOTUS
SNL’s ‘Duh! Winning!’ Talk Show With Charlie Sheen: Mediaite

Wow, What a Pair: LegalIns
Some Skippy Peanut Butter Recalled Over Possible Salmonella Contamination: Consumerist
Accused Meth Dealer Faces Loss Of His Beloved 18,753 Comic Books: TSG

Image: Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Missing: Marizela Perez

QOTD: "There is no means of avoiding a final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” --Ludwig von Mises

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Great news: gas prices hit $5 a gallon in various parts of the U.S.

Well, this certainly comes as a surprise.

Gas prices in southern California and parts of Florida have topped $5 a gallon.

Meaning the prices of everything shipped by trucks -- which, last time I checked, aren't powered by wind or solar -- will rise. Food. Drink. Building supplies. You name it.

The Obama administration's refusal to lift its drilling moratorium has resulted in the Interior Department being found in Contempt of Court by a federal judge.

Its hatred of America's abundant fossil fuels isn't just a tax on every man, woman and child in the country.

It's an abrogation of a President's primary constitutional duty as commander-in-chief.

America could be largely energy independent. But Democrats, since the era of Jimmy Carter, believe that government can invent new "green" energy sources.

Which seems to be working out as well as their efforts to make housing more affordable.


Image: MSuei.

Top 15 Photos From the Old West

Now this is what I call Americana: "Between 1887 and 1892, John C.H. Grabill sent 188 photographs to the Library of Congress for copyright protection. Grabill is known as a western photographer, documenting many aspects of frontier life – hunting, mining, western town landscapes and white settlers’ relationships with Native Americans. Most of his work is centered on Deadwood in the late 1880s and 1890s. He is most often sited for his photographs in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.."
















You can see the entire, stunning album here.


The new civility: Democrat rep screeches that Tennessee governor must end GOP 'terrorism' against teachers

Yes, it doesn't get any more civil than this.

On a day when 3,000 or more unionized Tennessee teachers and their supporters marched on Legislative Plaza in the rain, Gov. Bill Haslam refused Saturday night to get into the fray over a bill to end collective bargaining between teachers’ unions and local school districts...

...Tennessee’s issues, for the moment at least, are limited mostly to teachers, but Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, the House Democratic Caucus chair, said the GOP will likely target other quarry if they’re successful now.

“If they get the teachers, they’re coming after the firefighters. If they get the firefighters, they’re coming after the police officers. If they get the police officers, they’re coming after the construction workers, service workers and everybody,” Turner said.

“I’ve been preaching for years that if you let the Republicans get in charge this is what you’re going to get, and this is what we’ve got.”

Turner publicly urged Haslam to “please stop this terrorism against our teachers.”

Countdown to legacy media calling out Turner for his violent rhetoric in 3... 2... never.


Hat tip: George Scoville.

The lunacy of the Eco-nuts: Oil? No. Natural gas? No. Nuclear? No. Coal? No. Clear-cutting pristine mountaintops for wind-farms: Hell, yes!

The pristine views from several New Hampshire peaks will be inaccessible to hikers and snowmobilers thanks to a delightful wind-farm project that will clear-cut a set of mountaintops.

A couple of us rode over the peak yesterday and the very top was closed due to logging. We stopped to inquire and were told they were clearing the top, down to the 2700 ft elevation for the installation of Wind Towers. 2700 feet is roughly where the "T" intersection (134/110) is on the South side of the peak.

They said they were clearing it all by April 1st, and that 30 Wind Towers were being installed in the area (maybe 30 including those at this location)...



• 33 Turbines in total. 8 at Dixville Peak, 13 on Mt Kelsey & Owlhead, and 12 on Fishbrook.

• 410 Feet high, rotor of 295 ft diameter

• Each requires 1.6 acre total clearing around them.

• Will be lit at night per FAA regulations.



I'm a fan of finding and using other sources of energy, but this is not the place. These towers are being installed in one of the FEW locations in the state where there is no evidence the area has EVER been logged. Now there will be 30 concrete platforms and a 30' wide gravel road across the top of these ridges. Why don't we install the towers, 1 on top of each of those skyscrapers in the cities? Those are already an eye sore, can't make them any worse. This project is turning 'God's Country' into disaster. How many of you that are in favor of these windmills AND their current locations (NIMBY) would favor installing windmills on top of Mt. Washington? Plenty of wind up there...

The project, approved in 2009 presumably at the behest of the Obama administration, is the very height of hypocrisy.

Can you imagine the outcry from the eco-Marxists had a coal company leveled the foliage on these beautiful mountaintops?


Thousands of Angry Egyptians Attack Coptic Christians and Burn Church While Screaming 'Democracy Akbar'

While mainstream media is busy promoting the notion that Egypt's revolution is a peaceful and democratic one (e.g., here, here and here), the stubborn facts keep getting in the way. The latest exhibit: this troubling report from the Assyrian International News Agency.

A mob of nearly four thousand Muslims has attacked Coptic homes this evening in the village of Soul, Atfif in Helwan Governorate, 30 kilometers from Cairo, and torched the Church of St. Mina and St. George. There are conflicting reports about the whereabouts of the Church pastor ... and three deacons who were at church; some say they died in the fire and some say they are being held captive by the Muslims inside the church.

Witnesses report the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village. The army, which has been stationed for the last two days in the village of Bromil, 7 kilometers from Soul, initially refused to go into Soul, according to the officer in charge. When the army finally sent three tanks to the village, Muslim elders sent them away, saying that everything was "in order now."

A curfew has been imposed on the 12,000 Christians in the village.

This incident was triggered by a relationship between 40-year-old Copt Ashraf Iskander and a Muslim woman. Yesterday a "reconciliation" meeting was arranged between the relevant Coptic and Muslim families and together with the Muslim elders it was decided that Ashraf Iskander would have to leave the village because Muslims torched his house.

The father of the Muslim woman was killed by his cousin because he did not kill his daughter to preserve the family's honor, which led the woman's brother to avenge the death of his father by killing the cousin. The village Muslims blamed the Christians.

The Muslim mob attacked the church, exploding 5-6 gas cylinders inside the church, pulled down the cross and the domes and burnt everything inside... the mob has [reportedly] broken into Coptic homes and has called on Copts to leave the village. "Terrorized Copts have fled and some hid in homes of Muslim neighbors," he added.

Witnesses said the mob chanted "Allahu Akbar" and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it.

The observers must be mistaken: I feel quite confident that, based upon reporting by the unerring Washington Post and other legacy media outlets, that the mob must have been chanting Democracy Akbar.


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

Elmo's Fire


Don Ayers, I want to thank you for helping me organize this -- meeting here today.

And also the other heads of the Five Families -- the SEIU, the NEA, the AFL-CIO and the Democrat Party.

Representing the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Paula Kerger. And the SEIU, Andy Stern. And the NEA, Dennis Van Roekel.

The AFL-CIO, of course, Dick Trumka.

And the Democrat Party, Barbara Boxer.

And all the other associates that came as far as from California, and Kansas City, and all the other territories of the country -- thank you.

How did things ever get so far? I don't know. It was so -- unfortunate -- so unnecessary.

They're attacking our source of taxpayer money: government unions. And it's not just Walker in Wisconsin. It's Cuomo in New York, who we thought was an ally. It's happening everywhere.

How do we -- how do we get back to where things go on the way they were before... ?

Let's prioritize, dammit! I'm the one under attack right now! They're trying to defund NPR. And I'm making less than three-quarters of a million a year -- how am I supposed to get by?

Hey, you spoiled little witch, the entire Democrat Party's main funding source -- government unions -- is at risk. Stop worrying about your little half-assed operation! Think of the big picture!

Hey, hey, hey... I hoped that we would come here and reason together. And as a reasonable man I'm willing to do whatever's necessary to -- find a peaceful solution to these problems...

I think it may be time to pull out all the stops.

To take special action against our enemies.

Finally. Do I gets to unleash the dogs of war?

No need, my friend, no need.

We have just the thing for the task.

Something no one would ever expect.

Something to take care of our little... situation. May I introduce... Monster?

Elmo's right. Psychotic... but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out.

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!