Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Advice for a Young Blogger: How to get a million or less hits on your blog over some unspecified period of time, maybe

Received:

Subject: hello

My name is miss glory 23 years old never married. l saw your profile today at and after going through it many times then l made up my mind to contact you as my friend. so l want you to write back to me through my email address so that l will give you my picture and for you to know who l am. l hope to see your mail ok. lt is from me,
miss glory

Oh. I'm sorry. Wrong email.

Subject: Blogging Advice

Hello,

My name is [C.H.] and I'm a junior Journalism student at [College name] in [City, State]. I recently started blogging again on my blog and I was wondering if I could get any advice from you on how to be a better blogger, attract readers, etc. In particular, I'm wondering where you find the news stories the mainstream media doesn't cover. But any advice you might have I would greatly appreciate.

Thank you so much for your time.

[C.H.]

C, here are my top 10 rules on the delicate topic of blogging.

10. Always link to stories on blogs around your size and smaller than yours -- to paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, you need an "Army of Davids" to help support your mission.

9. Always link to larger blogs: you never know when the likes of Hot Air, Instapundit or Michelle Malkin -- incredibly prolific consumers of media -- will notice and, perhaps someday, post a link to your site. Like losing your virginity, you will never forget your first Instalanche.

8. Always remember to thank those who link you or provide the sources for your stories, unless of course they prefer to remain anonymous. Here is an example of how I do it: "Hat tip: Gateway Pundit."

7. As for unconventional news stories that might pique your interest, my favorite sources for the offbeat are Drudge Report, Memeorandum and TrendingRight. Using Twitter and Facebook -- both for collecting news stories as well as providing updates to your followers (see TwitterFeed) -- is crucial as well.

6. Post a blog-roll and keep it up-to-date. This will come in handy when the previous suggestion doesn't tickle your fancy.

5. If you're so inclined, keep an updated list of headlines like Sister Toldjah or Weasel Zippers; these are stories that may not merit a story, but still deserve your readers' attention.

4. Try to keep content fresh and stories flowing, even if it means running a group blog or having guest bloggers. People don't visit sites that are static. If nothing changes between visits, there's really not a reason to surf to your site. As for myself, each day since January 9, 2009, I've posted Larwyn's Linx, my roundup of important stories. No matter what else is happening, regular readers can at least get a daily snapshot of my favorite articles.

3. Have a specialty that you love and are passionate about. Ed Driscoll and Noel Sheppard enjoy exposing the hypocrisy of legacy media. Fausta Wertz uses her multilingual abilities to provide expert news and analysis of Latin America. Black Five tackles defense and intelligence issues. Zero Hedge and Mish cut to the chase when it comes to the economy. Ace o' Spades uses brilliant, caustic humor to savage the left. Expertise plus passion equals kerploding traffic numbers!

2. Avoid internecine warfare if at all possible. Like any relationship, bloggers can have fallings-out. One of the more famous instances was the 2009 showdown between Atlas Shrugs, JihadWatch and LGF over the loyalties of European anti-Jihad groups. Had I really cared about European anti-Jihad groups, I would have researched the issue and weighed in. As it turned out, I didn't let the issue sway my opinions of any of the bloggers. That is, until LGF's Charles (author of my favorite blogging software) executed an ideological 180-degree turn. Even then, I've mostly just de-linked LGF as opposed to pillorying it. I have better things to do, like saving this Republic.

1. Read Robert Stacy McCain's "How to Get a Million Hits on Your Blog in Less Than a Year ", a neatly executed Tour de force on ramping your blog viewership.

Although I eschew Rule 5 because my wife gets pissed off for religious reasons.


Linked by: Instapundit, Memeorandum, American Power, The Other McCain, and The Lonely Conservative. Thanks!

Casey Anthony acquitted of all charges except for lying to police officers; looks forward to future role on Celebrity Rehab

O.J. Simpson hardest hit.

A Florida jury has acquitted Casey Anthony of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee... She was charged with first-degree murder, which could have brought the death penalty if she had been convicted.

Anthony was found not guilty on all murder charges as well as aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter. She was convicted of four counts of lying to investigators. Judge Belvin Perry will sentence her Thursday. She could receive up to a year in jail for each count.

...Prosecutors sat solemnly in their seats, looking stunned. Prosecutor Jeff Ashton shook his head slightly from side to side in apparent disbelief...

The bungled prosecution cost Orlando taxpayers between half-a-million and a million dollars.

Casey Anthony's BoobsThe level of attention paid to this trial by the media almost defies belief. Because, as my wife said earlier this week, if Casey Anthony wore a 32A bra, no one in America would have ever heard of her.


Ruh Roh: GM's unsold inventory right back to where it was in late 2008

More awesome economic news courtesy of the central planners in Washington: GM's dealer channel is now stuffed with so much unsold inventory that we're right back to where we were in the dark, pre-rescue days of late 2008.

Perhaps Jeff Immelt will add to General Electric's Volt order and rescue the remainder of GM's product line.

...point blank evidence that the second leg of the economic recovery is now completely debunked, after GM, whose June car sales were up 10.2%, broadly missing expectations of an 18% pick up, but far more importantly, and as we have been pointing out for a year now, the bulk of GM production does not ultimately lead to any sales, but merely more and more channel stuffing in the form of month end dealer inventory which in June just hit 605,000...

[There is no] actual demand which to the chagrin of the Koolaid drinkers is a critical component in determining clearing prices, and which is simply non-existent despite the government's eagerness to provide subprime loans to everyone (or no one as the case may be) who wishes to buy a GM vehicle... Expect the broader media and Wall Street economists (and Joe LaVorgna) to completely ignore this data point as it roundly negates everything the propaganda machine has been spouting for months.

The pain for dealers is real as this report from Bloomberg (the news service, not the idiot mayor) explains.

General Motors Co. (GM) stocked Jim Ellis Chevrolet in Atlanta with plenty of Silverado full-size pickups in early 2011, part of a wager on a strong economic recovery. The strategy is backfiring.

“We thought that this year would bring back the kind of economic activity that would translate into us selling more trucks,” Mark Frost, the dealership’s general manager, said in a phone interview. “It’s not happening.”

Supply of Silverado has ballooned to 6 1/2 months worth at the dealership, a figure Frost, 52, calls “a little scary.” The Detroit-based automaker, 33 percent owned by the U.S. after its 2009 bankruptcy, has 280,000 Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups on dealers’ lots around the country. If sales continue at June’s rate, that would be enough to last until November.

After GM’s truck inventory swelled to 122 days worth of average sales, the company said 100 to 110 will be normal going forward for such a large and complex line of vehicles, compared with 60 to 70 days for most models. Peter Nesvold, a Jefferies & Co. analyst, isn’t convinced. Ford Motor Co. (F), which makes similar trucks, is running at 79 days, and Nesvold says GM averaged 78 days on hand at year end from 2002 to 2010.

It’s unbelievable that after this huge taxpayer bailout and the bankruptcy that we’re right back to where we were,” Nesvold, who has a “hold” rating on the stock, said in a telephone interview. “There’s no credibility.” In a research note he asked: “Is GM falling into old, bad habits?”

You mean that abrogating bankruptcy law, screwing over secured creditors and rewarding Democrats' union supporters with billions in equity, tax breaks and subsidies didn't really fix GM?

Gee, that was hard to predict.

From my vantage point, President Obama may be the biggest crony capitalist ever.


Linked by: Hot Air, Protein Wisdom and Labor Union Report. Thanks!

Worst-Designed Armored Vehicle of All-Time

Spotted at EnglishRussia, the award-winning, worst armored vehicle of all-time.

"390 gun armoured cars BA-6 were made in the period from 1935 to 1938. The fuel bank with capacity of 108 kg of petrol, is located in the upper part of the cabin. It means that the burning petrol was spilt over into the heads of the crew."

The BA-6 is sort of the Obamacare of military vehicles, the inevitable result of Soviet-style, central planning in some far-off capitol. In other words, fail de epic.


Larwyn's Linx: America, Then and 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

America, Then and Now: ProWis
Celebrating America’s Enduring Principles: Foundry
A day to remind government of the Founders' vision: Exam

Why Bachmann has them scared: Surber
What 'Nation-Building At Home' Really Means: RWN
Rubio is ready for political prime time: Thomas

The CIA’s exoneration and Holder’s reckoning: Thiessen
@FoxNewsPolitics Twitter Feed Hacked: Powers
Obama Golf Streak Ends at 13: Dossier

Economy

Why the Racine Fire Union Voted Against the Float: HisCon
Taxing Rich Guys: P&F
Talking With Gov. Kasich About the Huge Change in Ohio: Hewitt

Hello Roman Senate, Goodbye American Congress: NoisyRm
Teamsters' Convention Calls for Union Pension Bailouts :RS
The Obama Economy: Coney Island Rationing Toilet Paper: GWP

Climate & Energy

Peer-reviewed study: “global surface temperatures did not rise between 1998 and 2008″: WUWT
Hybrid Hypocrites: Wizbang
NRG Energy Finds It's Not Easy Going Green: RS

Media

Politico does its usual fine job of tearing down Republicans: RSM
Satan Reads This Blog: RSM
DeMint book reveals widening GOP divide: Miami Herald

Liberal Media Celebrates the Fourth: RWN
Another Turncoat on the Left Using Profanity in Reacting to Obama’s Presser: Portnoy
Effort to Recall Louisiana Gov. Jindal Falling a Few Signatures Short: Malkin

TIME Magazine identifies one way to keep kids from voting Republican: avoid Fourth of July parades: WZ
Patriotism when you don’t love your country: RWN
New Documentary on Gray Lady Ignores Paper’s Institutional Bias: PJM

World

Choosing Our Wars: NRO
Why the Case Against Huma Abedin Cannot Be Dismissed: PJM
Statue of The Great Man Unveiled in London: Ace

Hizballah Brags About Waging War on America; The U.S. Government Ignores It: BRubin
During Break in Peace Talks With Obama – Taliban Kidnap and Execute British Soldier: GWP
Aerial Bombing, No Longer an Act of War: NoisyRm

Obama appointee “excited” to speak on Muslim Brotherhood-founded panel at ISNA: Creeping
Australian authorities need proper protection to deal with cases involving veils: TAB
Muslim group kicks off National Sharia Campaign: Creeping

SciTech

WARNING: An Amazing New Technology Is Sweeping The Streets Of New York :Insider
RIM's Summer of Discontent: CNet
Facebook blocks contact-exporting tool: CNet

Cornucopia

Finding Marizela: Month Four: Malkin
Campaigning in Massachusetts: C&S (NSFW?)
Who Wrote Dreams From My Father?: MB

Image: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical (NSFW?)
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Michele Bachmann for President


Monday, July 04, 2011

Charting the GOP Candidates on Conservatism

Nate Silver's column at The New York Times is usually about as exciting as listening to two safety engineers argue the merits of non-glare glass. But this chart, pointed out at Ace o' Spades, is actually quite fascinating.

If you want more big government, more cap-and-trade swill, and just a slower on-ramp to Marxism, well, then Huckabee Huntsman and Romney are your guys.

Otherwise, the only candidates worth supporting at this point are Bachmann and Cain (Perry would be a reasonable choice if he ever throws his hat in).

Here's an interesting conjecture: I would bet Sarah Palin would be closer to Perry than Bachmann. What say you?


Related: Throw Michele Bachmann a couple o' bucks if you have em' to spare.

The Case for a Balanced Budget Amendment in Three Disturbing Charts

When the federal government steals money from one individual to give to another it doesn't term it "Redistribution of Wealth" in any official capacity. No, that would be too close to the actual Marxist policies driving the modern Democrat agenda. No, instead they call this legalized form of theft "Personal Current Transfer Receipts."

Personal Current Transfer Receipts Examples

• Medicare • Medicaid • Food Stamps • Social Security • Unemployment Insurance

Personal Current Transfer Receipts:

Note that transfer receipts are nearly $2.4 trillion.

Federal Government Receipts:

Ratio of Personal Transfer Receipts to Federal Government Receipts:

Notes

• Nearly every dime of federal government receipts goes to personal transfer payments.
• Between 1960 and 1970, personal transfer payments were 30-35% of federal government receipts.
• From 1980-2000 the percentage fluctuated between 50% and 65%.
• If (when) the economy slips back into recession personal transfer payments will exceed 100% of federal government receipts.

Given personal transfer receipts take up nearly 100% of federal government receipts, in theory, there should be no room for anything else, including wars, roads and bridges, and wages of federal employees.

Which is why Congressional Republicans must reject any hike of the debt ceiling until a Balanced Budget Amendment is passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.


Report: Obama to drop Biden in '12 reelection bid, replace with cute fuzzy mascot or Andrew Cuomo

The New York Post relays a report from Beltway insiders that Joe Biden -- who "doesn't bring anything to [the] ticket" -- will be dropped from Barack Obama's troubled 2012 reelection bid.

A Prominent Republican is joining a prominent Democrat in predicting that Gov. Cuomo will become President Obama's running mate for vice president next year.

Former New York GOP boss William Powers, credited with playing a key role in electing Rudy Giuliani mayor and George Pataki governor, was effusive in his praise of Cuomo's successes in the just-ended legislative session, and in his prediction of the freshman governor's political future... "I don't think there's any doubt Obama is going to pick him as his running mate. The president is in trouble and [Vice President Joseph] Biden doesn't bring anything to his ticket.

...Cuomo, who saw a flurry of predictions last week in the wake of the gay-marriage victory that he'll run for president in 2016, has repeatedly refused to discuss the possibility of higher office.

...Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown earlier this year also predicted that Obama would pick Cuomo to replace Biden, who he claimed would be named by the president to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

...Cuomo wouldn't have to resign as governor to run for vice president, although many voters would likely react negatively since he could be leaving office just two years into his four-year term.

Should the New York Governor indeed replace Biden, expect a spotlight on Cuomo's culpability in the housing meltdown as head of HUD under Bill Clinton. His role in the 2008 economic collapse earned him the well-deserved nickname "Architect of Ruin."


Hat tip: Wanda.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama and the Second American Revolution

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

Obama and the Second American Revolution: AT
Three Things You Can Do For Liberty: Reynolds
Does The New ‘White House Rural Council’ = UN’s Agenda 21?: Blaze

The Face of Tyranny: RS
Barack Obama’s disappointing 2Q?: RS
Pro-Life Group Thrown Out of Illinois July 4th Parade By Jaycees: BG

Demonic Excerpt: The Revolution: Coulter
Republican Freshmen Say ‘No’ to Obama’s Recess Appointments: RS
Bachmann's Compassion: Will Help Obama Find A Job: RWN

Economy

Revisionomics: Blumer
Obama’s Economists Admit: ‘Stimulus’ Cost $278,000 per Job: WS
Push to make Michigan a right-to-work state gets rolling: Freep

Californa's Mess Isn't Texas' Fault: HE
Replacing property as a source of wealth creation: Barone
Putnam County, Illinois and lower sales taxes: Marathon

Climate & Energy

Obama continues his war on cheap American energy: AT
Nissan Leaf sweeps past Chevy Volt: Bayonet
Time for U.S. manufacturers to declare independence -- from government: Exam

Media

Natural Gas "Bubble" Report: Market Tinkering or Shoddy Reporting?: RCP
Michele Bachmann Gains in Strength: Can She Get the Republican Nomination?: PJM
Confucius Say Never Forget Kindnesses: PCP

Confessions Of A Jew-Basher (Eric Boehlert is Almost Right): Lid
ABC's 'This Week': Founding Fathers Were 'Guys Who Didn't Give Women the Vote and Let Slavery Stand': NB
Krauthammer Challenges Shields: Where Is Democrat Budget? What's Their Plan?: NB

Dimwitted bimbo Sarah Palin claims Abraham Lincoln Built the “Intercontinental Railroad” (No Such Thing!): RWN
McCotter's Key Votes: Malkin
What You're Missing If You Don't Read The Times: Kimball

World

Leon Panetta has been brought in to oversee significant cuts to the U.S. Defense budget: OTB
Aerial Bombing, No Longer an Act of War: NoisyRm
Iran: Mullah Regime Escalates Crackdown On Christians As Number Of Muslims Converting Rises: WZ

State Dept. Official Hails Che Guevara as Symbol of Freedom: Fontova
Egypt’s Religious Establishment Takes On the Muslim Brotherhood: PJM
Back To The Drawing Board: S&P Says Greek Rollover Debt Plan "Would Likely Amount To A Default": ZH

Video: Chavez back in Venezuela: Fausta
A Moment of Clarity from Hamas’ Supporters in America: Commentary
Muslim weightlifter submits US Olympic Committee: Creeping

SciTech

Sexual Activity Tracked By Fitbit Shows Up In Google Search Results: Crunch
Lightning Review: HP TouchPad: PopMech
Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima?: Atlantic

Cornucopia

How Beautiful We Were: American Digest
Lost Seal Of The Errand Boy Sent By Grocery Clerks: PCP
Feelin’ Pretty Damned Unappreciated: MOTUS

July 4 Heartwarmer: A Marine and His Miracle Dog: PJM
Brad Paisley – Alcohol: iOTW
Independence Day 2011: Happy 235th birthday, America: Malkin

Image: Sad Obama wishes you a Happy inDependence Day
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Political Clown Parade

QOTD: "The inconvenient truth for liberal media members is Congressional Democrats haven't proposed a budget since... April 3, 2009... That's 27 straight months without a budget proposal from a Democrat in either the House or the Senate, and people like Shields have the gall to go on television and complain about proposals from Congressional Republicans.

The idea that in the midst of a serious budget crisis in this country, one political party has completely abdicated its primary responsibility should be drawing media ire on a daily basis... Instead, these shills point fingers at the only party trying to rectify the situation.

It really makes you wonder how they look themselves in the mirror when they brush their teeth." --Noel Sheppard

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Typical: Democrat official celebrates violence against Republicans

The party of tolerance, free speech and the democratic process is at it again: advocating violence against political opponents, Third Reich-style.*

And now... a special message about the importance of civility in politics, brought to you by the same people who continually claim the Tea Party is a bunch of violent extremists. Via Legal Insurrection:

This Tweet is from Graeme Zielinski, the Communications Director for the Wisconsin State Democratic Party. Would you be surprised to learn he used to be a “reporter” for The Washington Post...?

Uhm, in truth? No.

This is yet another example demonstrating how far the modern Democrat Party has fallen. Harry Truman and JFK would no longer recognize their party, hijacked by the likes of George Soros and other monied, hard-left forces of internationalism.

Their hatred of the Constitution is palpable. Violence and suppression of free speech are on their menu if it will help them retain power. Elections don't matter, laws don't matter, our history and traditions don't matter.

Which is why we must obliterate them -- politically -- in 2012, leaving them no more a force than are the Whigs. We have no choice if we are to save this Republic.


Hat tip: Instapundit. Linked by: Memeorandum. Thanks!

Combating class warfare rhetoric the easy Doug Ross way

My critics on Twitter revel in the standard class warfare rhetoric endemic to failed revolutions throughout history. The French Revolution. Russia in 1917. Peron in Argentina. The game-plan is always the same: demonize the rich, attack private industry, segregate political constituencies by race, gender, creed and religion in order to prey upon the weak-willed.

Such is the recipe of one Barack Obama, who has attacked industry after industry: coal miners, oil companies, health insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical professionals, and "millionaires and billionaires", among others.

The following are the kinds of messages I often receive on Twitter:

• Maybe we should just hand over country to REpub/CorpAmerica

• I found that Laws are about controlling WallSt,but we suffer too. Loopholes/oxymoron clauses have brought #us to the brink.

• UR to smart NOT to believe CorpAmerica wants to pay any Taxes

Unfortunately, we've bankrupted the Treasury with the alternative: the collectivist roadmap. And it's failed like it's failed every other time in history. Central planning by masterminds in some far-off capitol has a perfect track record. Zero-for-Eternity.

Remember that "Stimulus" program? How's that working out for ya', Sparky? Or the Department of Education? Working out swimmingly for low-income students? And that solar technology in which Jimmy Carter invested billions of taxpayer dollars? Remember how it revolutionized our energy infrastructure?

Spewing Marxist class warfare rhetoric is simply indicative of a lack of education.

To paraphrase Milton Friedman: who are these angels on Earth that can redistribute everyone's wealth?

There isn't a corporation on Earth that can force you to pay it whether you want to or not.

There isn't a corporation on the planet that can throw you in jail for failure to adhere to its millions of pages of laws, regulations and dictates.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can make you buy a one-size-fits-all health care plan, or a certain kind of light bulb, or a low-flow toilet, or a certain kind of car, and so on and on.

There isn't a corporation anywhere that can command you -- the citizen -- to participate in multi-trillion dollar Ponzi schemes like Medicare, set to collapse in only ten short years.

No, there isn't any corporation powerful enough to do these things.

Only a giant, enormous, bloated federal government can ruin our economy in these ways. And, then, only because a certain group of power-hungry, easily corrupted politicians, lawyers and judges have ignored our highest law: the Constitution.

Our Framers created the Constitution to prevent the rise of an all-powerful, autocratic, authoritarian central government.

It wasn't the corporations that have ruined the economy: it's the politicians who violate their oath of office every day of the week. That's what the Tea Party is all about. And that is why every one concerned with the future of America should support Constitutional conservatism.


Good news: Obama's own economists admit that each job "saved or created" by the Stimulus cost only $278,000

It turns out that the Obama administration could have written a $100,000 check to each person whose employment was allegedly saved by the "Stimulus" and saved $427 billion.

When the Obama administration releases a report on the Friday before a long weekend, it’s clearly not trying to draw attention to the report’s contents. Sure enough, the “Seventh Quarterly Report” on the economic impact of the “stimulus,” released on Friday, July 1, provides further evidence that President Obama’s economic “stimulus” did very little, if anything, to stimulate the economy, and a whole lot to stimulate the debt.

The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That’s a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job.

In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.

Furthermore, the council reports that, as of two quarters ago, the “stimulus” had added or saved just under 2.7 million jobs — or 288,000 more than it has now. In other words, over the past six months, the economy would have added or saved more jobs without the “stimulus” than it has with it. In comparison to how things would otherwise have been, the “stimulus” has been working in reverse over the past six months, causing the economy to shed jobs.

In other words, Obama's own economic advisers have confessed that the Stimulus was a failure.

Obama and the 111th Congress burned trillions and trillions of our dollars -- more money than the annual budgets of the Defense Department or Medicare -- in the furnace of government cronyism.

Our children and grandchildren are on the hook for these so-called "Stimulus" funds, with interest payments, that utterly and completely failed. Unless you count rewarding Obama's public sector union supporters.


Hat tip: TrendingRight.com.

Cause and Effect in California -- Cause: Raise taxes on evil, rich corporations. Effect: Everyone suffers.

California's recent attempt to raise new taxes on Internet retailers like Amazon and Overstock has had the predictable consequence. It is hurting small businesses and entrepreneurs. In order to avoid the tax, Amazon killed off its affiliate programs in the state, halting a reliable revenue stream for thousands of small businesses and individuals.

Consider this Exhibit 42,303 in our library of evidence proving that liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid.

Amazon, Overstock thumb nose at California tax


San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 3, 2011

So, I went online Friday looking to buy a copy of John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967." Thought it might be timely to revisit the Harvard economist's distinction between "private affluence" and "public squalor."

Barnes & Noble's website was selling it for $26.53. Total, which included California sales tax: $28.79. "Total Before Tax" at Amazon.com: $26.40. "Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $0.00."

At Overstock.com, I could still buy furniture and various knickknacks free of the 7.25 percent tax, even though California's law mandating out-of-state Internet retailers to start collecting the taxes was now in effect.

In other words, screw you, California, and your laws.

"They're not intending to comply, by all indications," said Betty Yee, former chairwoman and current member of the state Board of Equalization, the agency charged with implementing the law. Friday evening, the board posted a "special notice clarifying the obligations of out-of-state retailers" on its website...

"So, we'll bill them at the end of this quarter, based on estimates either they provide or we come up from other data sources. Then, if they don't come forward and pay, we'll consider other courses of action."

That most likely means litigation, or, as Amazon and Overstock might see it, a game of "catch us if you can."

I believe our educational system has to be reformed to teach two simple concepts to liberals.

• Economics is not a zero-sum game.

• Businesses do not operate to fund government; they are in business to make money. And if they can't do so, they go bankrupt or relocate.

Not overly difficult, true, but these basic tenets are rocket science to the doltish nincompoops on the Left.


On the Road to Totalitarianism With the Sixth Circuit

Last week's decision on the constitutionality of Obamacare, which was handed down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, is troubling on many fronts.

Two of the three judges asserted that Congress has the authority under the Commerce Clause to compel individuals' behavior by dint of their mere existence. A requirement that citizens purchase a product -- in this case, health care insurance -- whether they wish to or not, has never before occurred in all of American history.

Virtually everyone will need health care services at some point, including, in the aggregate, those without health insurance. Even dramatic attempts to protect one’s health and minimize the need for health care will not always be successful, and the health care market is characterized by unpredictable and unavoidable needs for care.

It is under this rubric that the Court shreds the United States Constitution, eviscerates the Declaration of Independence and completely ignores the stated intent of the Framers in The Federalist Papers.

Because, the Judges assert, that most people will participate in the health care market, the federal government has the right to compel -- with the force of law -- individuals to purchase health insurance contracts of the central government's design.

How is the health care industry segregated from other industries to prevent the federal government from encroaching upon every other segment of human activity? The judges spare but a few words on this critical issue, stating "...unlike nearly all other industries, the health care market is governed by federal and state laws requiring institutions to provide services regardless of a patient’s ability to pay."

In other words, the only "firewall" the judges construct to shield other industries from the Orwellian reach of the government is one made of cardboard. In essence, because the health care market is already regulated, the industry is said to be unique and therefore can be utterly controlled by the central government.

Consider:

All citizens will need shelter and many regulations already dictate the nature and construction of housing. Can the central government compel individuals to purchase certain minimum levels of housing and builders to offer certain services under a regime of price controls? Apparently so.

All citizens will need food and a battery of regulations at every level of government already dictate every aspect of food manufacture and distribution. Can the central government require individuals to buy certain foods -- perhaps under the aegis of healthy eating -- and businesses to offer a menu dictated by a central authority? Apparently so.

All citizens will require transportation and a host of regulations govern every modality of travel -- by air, bus, automobile, and even bicycle. Can the central govenrment require all individuals to buy, say, bicycles under the banner of healthy living, clean energy and personal transportation? Apparently so.

Under this decision, with this Court, the destruction of our country -- through its transformation into a totalitarian regime -- comes one step closer to reality.

2012 may be our last chance to save this Republic, if indeed any time remains at all.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama's Declaration of Dependence

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

Obama's Declaration of Dependence: Steyn
Lives, Fortune and Honor: ZH
'Whites Are Liars': Obama's 20-Year Mentor Spews Hatred: Blaze

Democrat Party Meltdown: Surber
ATF’s “Fast & Furious” guns showing up in US crimes: ProWis
Rep. Walsh to Spitzer: Obama ‘Acted Like a 10-Year-Old’: Publius

Economy

WI: Child Hating, Anti-Education Bill Saves A School District: Joshua
NEA: It’s About Union Power, Not Children: Foundry
Biden Warns Teamsters to Vote Democrat: Malkin

Deconstructing the latest White House propaganda: RWN
Top 10 Obama Attacks on Capitalism: HE
TSA: A Portrait in Islamization: AT

Why doesn't Obama admit that he wants to raise taxes?: RSM
Dems dig in: GOP trying to sabotage economy: ProWis
There's Gonna Be Fireworks: Ace

Climate & Energy

Agenda 21: Conspiracy Theory or Real Threat?: RWN
Latest research: no, the Reef isn’t being killed by warming: WUWT
The Ultimate Greenwashing Ad From Coca-Cola: CBullitt

Media

Daily Beast Writer Claims Obama Is a Victim of Washington’s ‘Pundit Class’: RSM
The Community Organizer Who Would be King: Feldman
Moonbat: Justice Ginsburg can "prevent a real shift in the balance of power on the court: Althouse

How to Celebrate the 4th of July: Pundette
A Review of ‘Bring Her Down: How the American Media Tried to Destroy Sarah Palin’: C4P
Presidential Seal on Obama’s Limo Falls Into Ditch Alongside US Economy: Powers

Obama Campaign To Go After Conservative Critics Of His Anti-Israel Policies: WZ
Tea Party Congressman To CNN's Spitzer: Press Must Stop Protecting Obama: NB
How Mortgage Giant Fannie Mae Primed the Bubble, Covered Its Assets: BlogProf

World

Iran Delivers Threatening Letter to President Obama: Kahlili
Obama Wussed Out: AT
Pakistan's largest university misunderstands Islam, holds pro-Bin Laden essay contest :JihadWatch

June Deadliest Month for U.S. Troops in Iraq in 3 Years: Michelle Obama Didn’t Know Troops Were Still in Iraq: BP
Pic o' the Day from the US-Funded West Bank: WZ
Obama Gives $20 Million to Tunisia So They Can Ban Israel: GWP

Vetting Obama – “Palling Around With Terrorists”: NoisyRm
Europeans Are Major Force Behind Second Gaza Flotilla: PJM
Obama's Final Solution: Lewis

SciTech

A new tech bubble? Not quite, say US investors: Telegraph
Secret Treasure Found in Kerala Temple Could Be Worth $10 Billion: GWP
First Microsoft, now Google: Does the government have it in for consumers?: CNet

Cornucopia

Hail Caesar (Rodney)! An American Hero: AT
Onion Moon Landing: Onion
Switch Hitter VS Switch Pitcher Pat Venditte: ShoonSports

Image: Pics from the Front
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Michele Bachmann for President

QOTD: “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” --American Federation of Teachers president Al Shanker

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Counting Down to July 4th: The Sermon on Iwo Jima [MGySgt]

The Master Gunnery Sergeant:

An interesting fact that many of you may be unaware of is the historic events that surrounded a Jewish chaplain on [Iwo Jima, where of 70,000 American Marines, 1,500 were Jewish].

Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, assigned to the Fifth Marine Division, was the first Jewish chaplain the Marine Corps ever appointed. Rabbi Gittelsohn was in the thick of the fray, ministering to Marines of all faiths in the combat zone. His tireless efforts to comfort the wounded and encourage the fearful won him three service ribbons. When the fighting was over, Rabbi Gittelsohn was asked to deliver the memorial sermon at a combined religious service dedicating the Marine Cemetery.

Unfortunately, racial and religious prejudice led to problems with the ceremony. What happened next immortalized Rabbi Gittelsohn and his sermon forever.

It was Division Chaplain Warren Cuthriell, a Protestant minister, who originally asked Rabbi Gittelsohn to deliver the memorial sermon. Cuthriel wanted all the fallen Marines (black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish) honored in a single, nondenominational ceremony. However, according to Rabbi Gittelsohn's autobiography, the majority of Christian chaplains objected to having a rabbi preach over predominantly Christian graves...

To his credit, Cuthriell refused to alter his plans. Gittelsohn, on the other hand, wanted to save his friend Cuthriell further embarrassment and so decided it was best not to deliver his sermon. Instead, three separate religious services were held. At the Jewish service, to a congregation of 70 or so who attended, Rabbi Gittelsohn delivered the powerful eulogy he originally wrote for the combined service:

Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding. And other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and Whites, rich men and poor, together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed.

Among these men there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy! Whosoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or who thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it commemorates, an empty, hollow mockery. To this then, as our solemn sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves: To the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of White men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the democracy for which all of them have here paid the price.

We here solemnly swear this shall not be in vain. Out of this and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this, will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.

Among Gittelsohn's listeners were three Protestant chaplains so incensed by the prejudice voiced by their colleagues that they boycotted their own service to attend Gittelsohn's. One of them borrowed the manuscript and, unknown to Gittelsohn, circulated several thousand copies to his regiment. Some Marines enclosed the copies in letters to their families.

An avalanche of coverage resulted. Time magazine published excerpts, which wire services spread even further. The entire sermon was inserted into the Congressional Record, the Army released the eulogy for short-wave broadcast to American troops throughout the world and radio commentator Robert St. John read it on his program and on many succeeding Memorial Days.

In 1995, in his last major public appearance before his death, Gittelsohn reread a portion of the eulogy at the 50th commemoration ceremony at the Iwo Jima statue in Washington, D.C. In his autobiography, Gittelsohn reflected, "I have often wondered whether anyone would ever have heard of my Iwo Jima sermon had it not been for the bigoted attempt to ban it."

ANOTHER DAY TO SERVE THE CORPS Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis!

Graphic: More fun facts about the award-winning, worst-in-the-nation, Illinois Pension System

Isn't it fun to ruminate on the fact that the same jamokes destroying Illinois are now running Washington, DC?

You can download the PDF version of this fact-sheet to distribute to your friends in Illinois.


Kewl: Top 100 Illinois Teachers' Union Retirees to Receive Nearly $1 Billion in Lifetime Benefits

While the California teachers' unions are effectively destroying one school system after another, an alert commenter pointed me to some even more shocking news from Illinois. Their pension system for educators is -- if you can believe it -- even farther off the reservation.

Using actuarial calculations from the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS), Champion News reports that the total estimated pension liability for the top 100 retirees will equal...

Make sure you're sitting down.

Seriously.

$887,925,790.00

You read this right. The top 100 retirees, by themselves, will cost Illinois taxpayers nearly one billion dollars.

I can think of only one possible, rational reaction.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #1: We must do something. He's serious this
time.

Beleaguered Taxpayers: -He's right.
-You're right. We got to do something.
-Absolutely.
-Know what we gotta do?

Beleaguered Taxpayer #2: Toga party.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #1: We're tens of billions in debt! We can't afford to have a toga party.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #2: You guys up for a toga party?

Beleaguered Taxpayer #3: -Toga! Toga!

Beleaguered Taxpayer #2: -They like the idea.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #1: Please don't do this.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #3: I've got news for you, pal. The SEIU is going to screw us, no matter what we do.

Beleaguered Taxpayer #2: So we might as well have a good time.

Beleaguered Taxpayers: Toga! Toga! Toga!

(Chanting louder and louder)

(All chanting)

Chart: Browser Usage Report Shows Chrome Is Kicking Butt

This doesn't make life easier for web designers, who must now ensure compatibility with five browsers.

Prevailing trends in the rising and falling fortunes of Web browsers continued through June, with Apple's iPad carving out a sizable slice of usage.

Google's Chrome continued its ascent of usage, rising from 12.5 percent in May to 13.1 percent in June, according to Net Applications' monthly tallies. Microsoft's Internet Explorer dropped about the same amount, from 54.3 percent to 53.7 percent.

Second-place Firefox, from the non-profit Mozilla organization, continued to tread water, staying at 21.7 percent. Apple's Safari ticked up from 7.3 percent to 7.5 percent, but Opera dropped from 2 percent to 1.7 percent.

Apple is a rising force in mobile browsing. Its iPad surpassed 1 percent of browser usage worldwide...

Sooner or later, a device manufacturer like HTC or Samsung will figure out how to build an Android tablet to compete with the iPad. And when that happens, developers will have yet another browser to test against.


'Just what you need to make sure you do not get ANY work done'

Bumped: That's how Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion's William Jacobson describes the conservative news site TrendingRight.com.

The idea behind it is simple: what if you could monitor social networks for the hottest stories among center-right and conservative news sites? TR combines a "real-time" dashboard (so you can see what stories are rising and falling) along with the most popular stories for the last 24 hours, seven days and 30 days.

Check it out!