Doug Ross @ Journal: December 2012

at 10:56 PM

Eh, perhaps it's because they don't want to expand their carbon footprint, or something.

According to Automotive News, the sales of the Volt at some dealerships does not justify the cost of special tools needed to repair and service the vehicles. Dealers are spending up to $5,000 on tools, including a new item that is needed to drain the vehicle’s battery to send back to GM in case of repairs.

Despite sales of the Volt reaching 20,828 through November, some dealers are unable to sell enough of the range-extended electric cars to make up the cost of the parts. Requiring to sell just five Volts to break-even on the costs of the tools, some dealers are instead opting out of the Volt authorized dealer program...

For those of you wondering, the accompanying photo (as I understand it) depicts the first Volt arriving at a dealership sometime last year.

at 7:29 PM

An interesting debate is occurring over at Legal Insurrection, where Professor William Jacobson asks, "When journalists start a privacy war, where does it end?"

The publication of the names and addresses of gun permit holders by the NY Lower Hudson Journal News , a Gannett paper, sparked controversy, including publication by a blogger (additional here) of equally personal yet publicly available information about the editors and writers of the Journal News...

...Which brings me to a comment submitted last night. It was from a first-time commenter, and it contained personal contact information for the Chairwoman of Gannett, including home address, telephone numbers, second home, neighbors, and relatives... I don’t like the tactic, but it is something done by a Gannett newspaper (at least as to names and addresses).

I’m on board with adopting some of the left’s Alinskyite tactics, like holding them to their own rules, but does this go too far, particularly since she was not directly involved?

An LI commenter, one "Subotai Bahadur", offered what I thought was an exceptionally insightful response:

Professor, we are literally in the end stage of pretending that politics as normal mean something. The Constitutional order has been de facto overturned, while retaining the external trappings of the old order.

The government is at open war on the Bill of Rights. Congress has lost the power of the purse and no longer represents anything but their own vested interests. The rule of law is gone.

Who you are and who you are connected to decides if you will be prosecuted for any crime. No connections [means] no mercy and frequently no due process. If connected to the regime, you are immune [Ed: see Jon Corzine].

Our courts have withdrawn from the fray or have been subverted. In any major issue, it seems that the courts rule that there is no one who has standing to oppose the will of the State; so the State wins. And if a matter does get before the courts, the courts rule based on politics, not law.

The Supreme Court is no longer a barrier defending the [Constitution]. When Chief Justice Roberts suddenly reversed his entire life’s work to rule that the Federal government could violate the Constitution so long as it did it in the guise of a tax; it was obvious that he has been [co-opted] and is now merely a tool of the regime.

Moderating our conduct while the country is still on this side of violence will not prevent things going from bad to worse. Things are going to get worse even if we become martyred saints. Our restraint in the face of ongoing attacks merely removes restraints on the conduct of those who seek the destruction of our country and Constitution. If their escalations are only met with feeble responses on our part, they are encouraged to push the envelope until they reach the point of violence.

So long as no law is broken [after all, that is the standard of combat that they have set; akin to say the real rules on the use of poison gas in warfare] then hit back twice as hard. Make them deal with their families and their neighbors being angry at them. And publicly out the nature of their biases in every thing they publish. Keep in mind that just recently the State got the power to wiretap, investigate, and arrest people without warrant of probably cause. Do you think that they are going to limit what they dig up in the name of “decency”? Look at their record.

Every employee of the paper should have a full background check, as deep as can be done within the bounds of the law. If a prospective employer can find it, then it should be legal. And publishable. Criminal records, court judgments, membership in various organizations, political contributions, public statements. If the investigation leads to family members, so be it. Reveal it all.

Publish the ownership/management details of all the companies who advertised in the editions where the permit holders are/were mapped who continue to advertise with them. There will be the implication that they could receive the same detailed attention as the employees. And if Gannett does not rein in the Journal News; move up the corporate food chain.

Given the nature of the Journo-List 2.0 media; it would be wise for all of their major personalities to be subject to the same investigation as the Journal-News’ staff just to have in reserve for when they next outrageously lie. And every personality in the current administration. There is a lot of work to do.

Oh, and one more little cross check on the Journal-News’ map. Do not take it on faith that their map was complete. Follow up on it and make sure that they did not “accidentally” forget to publish the names of various politically or otherwise connected individuals that they did not want to offend. If there are political or other celebrities who are calling for the abolition of the 2nd Amendment while themselves being armed; that needs to be Alinsky-ed out.

If we are to have a hope of stopping the enemies of our country before they physically attack us, we have to make them pay a price and show that they will be opposed if they cross that line. Yielding to them does not accomplish that end.

I am reminded of a quote by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his The Gulag Archipelago that seems on point. It was about the greatest regret of those in the slave labor camps:

What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? --Part I The Prison Industry, Ch. 1 “Arrest” (p13, The Gulag Archipelago, Collins 1974)

The forces of the Left right now know that they attack us short of violence in perfect safety. We cannot let them think that that safety will be there when they inevitably turn to violence. Thus, we must strike back overwhelmingly before that line is crossed.

Hand-wringing aside, it turns out a simple Google search reveals that same personal information.

I'm guessing that women with restraining orders against abusive ex'es, those who had been threatened for their religious or political views, and others revealed by Gannett's unconscionable disclosures would back Subotai's position.

at 6:39 PM

This is what the President called a "balanced" approach.

If there was a single piece of evidence that additional "revenue" (Democrat code word for higher taxes) would be used to offset deficits, reasonable people might be able to support it.

at 6:06 PM

Your QOTD comes from Pravda, of all places, where Stanislav Mishin writes:

While President Putin pushes through reforms, the local authorities, especially in our vast hinterland, do not feel they need to act like they work for the people. They do as they please, a tyrannical class who knows they have absolutely nothing to fear from a relatively unarmed population. This in turn breeds not respect but absolute contempt and often enough, criminal abuse.

For those of us fighting for our traditional rights, the US 2nd Amendment is a rare light in an ever darkening room. Governments will use the excuse of trying to protect the people from maniacs and crime, but are in reality, it is the bureaucrats protecting their power and position. In all cases where guns are banned, gun crime continues and often increases. As for maniacs, be it nuts with cars (NYC, Chapel Hill NC), swords (Japan), knives (China) or home made bombs (everywhere), insane people strike. They throw acid (Pakistan, UK), they throw fire bombs (France), they attack. What is worse, is, that the best way to stop a maniac is not psychology or jail or "talking to them", it is a bullet in the head, that is why they are a maniac, because they are incapable of living in reality or stopping themselves.

...No it is about power and a total power over the people. There is a lot of desire to bad mouth the Tsar, particularly by the Communists, who claim he was a tyrant, and yet under him we were armed and under the progressives disarmed. Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question. They hate guns in those whom they have slated for a barrel to the back of the ear.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tips: Image and BB.

at 6:15 AM

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

QOTD: "Central banks have become the great enablers of fiscal profligacy. The overarching belief is that there will always be someone or something there to act as the safety net. The safety nets worked so well recently that investors now trust they will be underneath them ad-infinitum. Markets and economists alike now believe that quantitative easing (“QE”) will always “work” by flooding the market with relatively costless capital. Unlimited QE and the zero lower bound (“ZLB”) are likely to bankrupt pension funds whose expected returns happen to be a good 600 basis points (or more) higher than the 10?year “risk-free” rate. The ZLB has many unintended consequences that are impossible to ignore.

Our belief is that markets will eventually take these matters out of the hands of the central bankers. These events will happen with such rapidity that policy makers won’t be able to react fast enough. The fallacy of the belief that countries that print their own currency are immune to sovereign crisis will be disproven in the coming months and years. Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation." --Kyle Bass

at 7:23 PM

Let's recall a few immutable facts regarding the "Fiscal Cliff":

1. A week ago, according to Salon Magazine, the President told John Boehner during fiscal cliff negotiations, that "You get nothing."

2. The Bush Tax Cuts -- which Democrats have fought for a decade -- are suddenly critical to the survival of the Republic (hypocrisy much?).

3. Senate Democrats have refused to pass a budget for nearly four years, an act unprecedented in modern American history.

4. President Obama's budgets have failed to receive a single Democrat vote.

5. Republicans have passed four (4) budgets this year, all of which were defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

6. The recommendations of the President's own bi-partisan deficit commission, which contained a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts, were -- in the words of Democrat commission member Erskine Bowles -- "scuttled" by Barack Obama.

This entire situation belongs in the lap of Barack Obama.

The world's dumbest blogger -- Ezra Klein -- hardest hit.

at 6:48 PM

Courtesy OverLawyered:

With the Democrat Party in the thrall of the Trial Lawyer Lobby, I believe this warning label is only slightly tongue-in-cheek.

at 3:54 PM

But there's nothing to cut!

Most people run to the corner bodega for a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, but some welfare recipients are plunking down $500 at a time in suspicious transactions... Welfare users are only allowed to use their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards to buy food, yet they are rung up like fat cats in tiny stores in The Bronx and Brooklyn where the priciest item is usually an $8 pound of ham.

Earlier this year, an owner and a cashier at Glenwood Food Corp. in Canarsie, Brooklyn, were arrested for ringing up bogus transactions... A federal sting found the bodega was recording phony purchases on EBT cards, handing customers about 70 percent of the amount in cash — and pocketing the rest. Goods were rarely exchanged in the scam, which defrauded taxpayers out of $985,000 in two years...

Sheridan Mini Mart in Morrisania, The Bronx, rang up single sales of $543.40 and $473.50 on June 4, 2012, alone. That’s a lot of bread for a store where the most expensive item is an $11.99 jug of cooking oil... At Tremont’s Palenque Supermarket Corp., ETB where the priciest product is an $18.99 gallon of olive oil, transactions reached as high as $400 last year... Desi Grocery, a tiny East New York store now known as Anchor Grocery, racked up a $585 sale and several $400 sales through June 2012...

Robert Rector of The Heritage Foundation called the USDA’s anti-fraud procedures “a joke... “There’s virtually no oversight or effort from the USDA to stop this at all,” Rector said. “A store gets disqualified from the program and miraculously it’s back in business in the next two weeks with a new name on the front door.”

How many hundreds of billions of dollars in our money are "redistributed" through fraudulent Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamp transactions?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.

at 11:55 AM

The very statistics and reports that the gun control crowd selectively market prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that "gun control" increases violence.

5. Violent crime rates tracked by "Right-to-Carry" (RTC) States vs. non-RTC. RTC states are significantly safer:

at 11:16 AM

Michelle Malkin, among others, is encouraging Americans to support Hobby Lobby in its fight against Obamacare's unconstitutional abrogation of the First Amendment (see "Hobby Lobby Won't Violate Faith over Abortion Drugs").

It's going to be a long, expensive fight against Obamacare, and the company can use your help.

If you'd like to show your support with your pocket book, visit Hobby Lobby's coupon page for online and in-store deals.

Hat tip: BB.

at 10:29 AM

Guest post by John A. Shaw

In the run-up to the 2012 election, a story surfaced about an Iraqi billionaire who managed to buy access to Washington policy makers while funding a Chicago Pay-to-Play scheme that helped produce a Governor, a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, a President of the United States.

The story was eight years in the making, yet despite the extent of his political influence, this Iraqi’s name remains largely unknown. He wants it that way. In fact, he has spent a significant sum attempting to hinder the reporting of his activities by the news media. The lack of attention paid to him, however, is inversely proportional to his level of importance.

His name is Nadhmi Auchi.

Auchi is now a British citizen. He bought respectability in Britain and in Europe through both donations to charities and self-serving gifts to politicians.

He was once Saddam Hussein’s arms merchant. He morphed into Saddam’s main financial operative in Europe. Today, he is one of the richest men in the world, and has, over the last few decades, been a player in nearly every noteworthy, corrupt, international deal involving Europe and the Middle East.

He was convicted of fraud in a $504 million corruption scandal -- the Elf Aquitaine case – the largest corruption trial in French history.

He was a central figure in one of the largest corruption cases during the Iraqi reconstruction, involving $3 billion dollars.

His U.S. visa was revoked for his alleged facilitation of $30 million in bribes to American and British officials in Iraq.

Auchi was a primary beneficiary of the widely abused and notoriously corrupt U.N. "Oil for Food" program while he was the single, largest stockholder in the merged French megabank BNP Parisbas. The bank was a major conduit for the funds flowing through the U.N. program.

He also reportedly gained access to the White House over the course of four separate administrations, beginning with George H. W. Bush, through the Clinton era and that of Bush 43. And it goes without saying that he was intimately involved with the political career of one Barack H. Obama.

Auchi's Chicago proxy was a man named Tony Rezko, best known for his curious land deal with Obama. At the same time, Auchi staged his worldwide operations out of London. But Chicago was the Alpha and Omega of his empire.

Rezko reportedly used Auchi money to grease political skids and buy access into the shadowy world of the Chicago political machine.

at 8:55 AM

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

"We Can and Will Force Christians to Act Against Their Faith": CNS
The Dec. 16th shooting you didn't hear about: Nice Deb
Report: Obama will nominate Hagel for Secretary of Defense: Scoop

‘Gun Control Fails,’ Say Statistics from… Gun-Control Advocates: PJM
Molon Labe: AmmoLand
'Biggest crowd ever for biggest gun show on East Coast': Twitchy

Will Joe Biden Voluntarily Give Up His Shotguns?: RWN
The Fiscal Cliff is a Diversion from the Real Problem: CFP
Next Phase Of The Gun Control Fight....Gun Shows: Ace

Economy

Deal or No Deal?: Power Line
Take a Powder: You Voted for Him: Salamander
Is Obama About to Roll Over the GOP?: Dossier

Obamacare Dead on Arrival, Part I: CDN&V
Unemployment Benefits are Becoming a Dependence Problem: AT
Jihad-Free Holiday Gifts: BadEagle

Scandal Central

Obama 2008: “I Am Not Going To Take Your Guns Away”: GWP
Hillary Too Concussed to Testify About Benghazi, But OK to Fly to Dominican Republic for Vacation: JWF
Obama’s ‘welfare case’ space pioneer buys $17 million mansion: Hoocoodanode?

Climate & Energy

Teens Dump Higher Ed for Brown Jobs: Mead
AR5 Chapter 11; Hiding the Decline (Part II): Watts
EPA Sued Over Heinous Experiments on Humans: NLPC

Media

NY Paper Publishes Names, Addresses of Gun Permit Map-Publishing Journal News Employees: BizzyBlog
N.Y. Newspaper Announces it Will Publish More Names & Addresses of Gun Owners: Blaze
Shusher in chief: Obama gets testy at fiscal cliff presser: Twitchy

500 murders? Chicago sure could use a gun ban! Oh. Wait...: AWD
Aspiring Bolshevik Thom Hartmann Wants US to 'Outlaw Billionaires': NB
Recent shootings shine spotlight on assault rifle: USA Today

NBC DC Anchor: Grisly Crime Scene Photos from Newtown Should Be Public to Further Gun Control: NB
Apparently, laws don’t apply to David Gregory: DC
David Gregory defender Howard Kurtz schooled on DC gun law enforcement: Twitchy

World

First They Came For The Guns…: MagNote
Muslim Brotherhood reaches out to Hezbollah: RS
Comedy Gold: Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tells Jews To Leave Israel, Return to Egypt: JoshuaPundit

"It will make 9/11 look like peanuts": Atlas
Memo For File CLXXVI: RWN
Woman charged with murder as a hate crime in deadly New York subway push: Fox

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Facebook’s High-Stakes Poker Game: Crunch
Windows 8 wrestles with PC's legacy: CNet
Microsoft confirms zero-day bug in IE6, IE7 and IE8: CompWorld

Cornucopia

Fatso the Cat: American Digest
Uno, or not to Uno?: PRS
Obama’s Facebook Page Features ‘Favorite’ Photos of 2012 (Can You Guess How Many Feature Him?): Blaze

Image and sponsored by: Our Rhinestone in the Rough (Ruff?)

QOTD: "Decades hence, our offspring will listen in disbelief when we tell them we used to pay billions of dollars to warehouse children in “gun-free zones” overseen by morons; that 21st-century kids were groomed for 19th-century jobs and came out functionally illiterate but experts nonetheless on the subjects of Kwanzaa, “safe” sex, and something called global warming." --Kathy Shaidle

at 7:56 PM

Biff Spackle gives us a preview of this week's Meet The Press, where David Gregory plans on demonstrating a .50-cal. Desert Eagle.

Gregory claims that D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department is incompetent and would never prosecute a member of the media.

at 3:54 PM

History and reason both tell us that the Democrat Party is so completely addicted to power that they are willing to toss our highest law -- the Constitution -- into the sewer at every opportunity.

I'm starting to think the Democrat Party should rename itself the Fascist Party. Its love of an all powerful, centralized government, and contempt for independent, successful individuals, are traits of a fascist mentality. Killing the long-standing Senate filibuster while in the majority, but using it unconstitutionally to block judicial nominations when in the minority, underscores an ends-justifies-the-means treachery.

Power is the obsession, not societal improvement through virtue, prudence, and justice.

In 2009, I created an illustrated definition of the word "fascism". Read it, and weep for our Republic.

at 3:45 PM

Let me guess: he's doing it for the children. His children, that is.

Taxpayers footed the bill for a $465 million loan to troubled electric carmaker Tesla as part of President Barack Obama’s “green energy” stimulus. But Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk is now riding high with the purchase of his new $17 million mansion.

Here's a photo of the exterior of Musk's home in Bel Air, a 20,000-square foot palace equipped with wine cellar, tennis court, and pool.

Mr. Musk’s 20,248-square-foot hilltop mansion boasts breathtaking views, a two-story library with rolling ladder, a home theater, and a five-car garage to house his taxpayer-subsidized, pricey Tesla vehicles.

In September, The New York Times reported that Tesla had burned through cash and missed production targets, raising “questions about the long-term viability of the company” and igniting “ criticism of the government’s energy loan program, which has been heavily promoted by the Obama administration..."

Reportedly you can see the ocean from the terrace.

Coincidentally I'm sure, Musk donated over $100,000 to the Obama 2012 campaign.

And Tesla produced a grand total of 359 cars last quarter.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when the complete history of the Obama administration is written, it will make the Teapot Dome look like a case of shoplifting.

Never have so few stolen so much from so many.

Hat tips: Sad Hill News and Lee.

at 11:19 AM

Here's something you probably didn't read in the funny papers: $2.1 trillion has been added to the national debt in the last 16 months alone.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has alerted Congress that the nation will once again hit the debt ceiling on Monday, but that his department can take “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills for another few months.

Incredibly, the debt ceiling was raised from $14.294 trillion in August 2011, to its current level of $16.394 trillion. Thus in the span of only sixteen months, the Obama administration has added a whopping $2.1 trillion to the national debt. [Source]

The entire hullabaloo about the "Fiscal Cliff" is a politico- and media-manufactured diversion.

The real discussion we need to have -- but won't -- concerns the "Fiscal Abyss" (in the words of former Comptroller General David Walker) facing our nation.

Raising taxes is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed femoral artery.

DON'T RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

I've thought long and hard about this issue -- and have arrived at what is probably a controversial opinion: Republicans should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without huge spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

Here's a news flash: President Obama wants the country to default. He has layered on so much debt, so fast, that the U.S. simply can't honor its obligations.

And the administration's cascade of regulations (like "Boiler MACT") are explicitly designed to prevent the economy from growing fast enough to help make up the difference.

DEFAULT NOW -- OR DEFAULT LATER?

The real question we should be asking is whether a default now is preferential to a default later.

I believe a default now is by far the best solution for the vast majority of Americans: when the default occurs, it will shock the financial system, rattle markets around the world, and -- in all likelihood -- herald the onset of another Great Depression.

A default several years down the road, however, will be far worse for America:

• The crash will be much larger, and much more catastrophic for the citizenry -- and it will hit seniors and the poor much harder;

• America's manufacturing sector will be less able to recover than it is today, having been downsized by this administration's regulatory onslaught;

• And America's citizens will be even less self-reliant, whether it comes to EBT cards, firearms, family-owned farms, and every other measure of independence;

• The military will be weaker, having been gutted by years of Obama's efforts to defund national defense;

The real question we must ask is this: do we want the economy to crash on Obama's timing -- or ours?

THE NEXT DEBT-CEILING DEBATE

I believe that the House of Representatives should refuse to raise the debt ceiling without immediate and immense cuts and entitlement reforms. Barring, say, a $900 billion reduction in annual spending (removing the Stimulus from the baseline budget, for example), the House should refuse to raise the debt ceiling.

Let the country default.

It is provably better to default now than later.

We know that President Obama wants the country to default. That much is clear with the accompanying chart, which comes to us directly from the White House. He just doesn't want the default to happen quite so soon, before he's had a chance to -- in his words -- "fundamentally transform" America.

So let's default now, before things get immeasurably worse.

at 7:56 AM

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Ban Schools, Not Guns: Taki's Magazine
Laws Are For the Little People: Steyn
The Day the War Began: TL in Exile

Feinstein: All Gun Owners Should Be Registered, Fingerprinted: Breitbart
An Open Letter to President Obama on Gun Control: Kuznicki
Feinstein's Gun Control Bill Will Trigger The Next American Revolution: ZH

Obama Flies From Hawaii To Offer Same Craptastic Cliff Deal: RWN
Here's Why Someone Would Need To Own An 'Assault' Rifle: IBD
Dick's Refuses to Honor "Military-Style" Rifle Orders: Blaze

Economy

$1 Trillion Obamacare Tax Hike Hitting on Jan. 1: ATR
The best and worst economic ideas of 2012: Peth
Nation running out of ammo: LI

Obama Orders Pay Raises for Federal Workers: WS
The Obama NLRB’s Christmas Gift To The Unions: LoneCon
‘Fiscal Cliff’ Distracts As ‘Fiscal Abyss’ In Japan, UK and U.S. Cometh: ZH

Scandal Central

Lisa Jackson forced out of EPA: Moe Lane
Remember When the Left Used to Freak Out About News Like This?: Powers
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Something is fundamentally wrong with the media in this country: Scoop

Climate & Energy

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012: Foundry
New Hawaii Senator Who'll Take Many Fossil Fueled Air Trips Pledges To Tackle Hotcoldwetdry: Cove
An open letter challenging the EPA on CO2 regulation: Tucson

Media

The No Santa Clause: MOTUS
Gannett’s Journal News Produces New Maps: iOTW
Chelsea Clinton, Still NBC’s Pretend Journalist: Daily Download

Hard Lines: TL in Exile
Everybody Hates Piers Morgan: RSM
What will be the likely model of american insurrection, if "gun control" doesn't "go well?": Winter Soldier

Steyn: Laws are for little people: Ace
Experts: Trained Police Officers Better Than Armed Guards In Schools: RWN
Jesse Jackson Spews Nonsense Trying To Defend Chicago Gun Ban After 500th Homicide: Bruce

World

FLASHBACK: Kerry Voted Against Gulf War, Proposed Multilateral 'New World Order': Breitbart
Caribou Coffee, Church's Chicken owned by Muslim Brotherhood-linked bank: JihadWatch
Where will Assad go?: Fausta

Hagel Slammed on Sunday Shows: Beacon
Indian Muslim leader: "Remove police for 15 minutes, we will finish off one billion Hindus": JihadWatch
Chinese Hackers Suspected in Cyber Attack on Council on Foreign Relations: Beacon

Yasser Arafat’s widow admits Palestinian terror campaign in 2000 was premeditated: DC
Desert Storm Victor Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf R.I.P.: IBD
Special Report: Inside the West's economic war with Iran: Reuters

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

China Patches a Hole in the Great Firewall: Mead
Congress decides every aspect of your electronic life can be spied on without a warrant...: BoingBoing
CALEA Is Watching YOU!: 90 Miles

Cornucopia

Yellow Toes: iOTW
Can’t Even “Hang On By My Fingernails”: Zilla
There Were Two "Rocket Launchers" Turned in at LA's Gun Buyback Program: AtlWire

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Shopper, Please Come Forward and Accept Your 2012 PUK Award Nomination

QOTD: "If we are foolish enough to embrace a ban on any weapon in the coming Congress, then we are unwittingly embracing a ban on every weapon.

Republicans in the House and Senate need to let Feinstein and company know this is a non-starter, and voters need to start weighing potential congressional candidates for 2014 on the basis of where they stand on the 2nd Amendment.

Gun-grabbers need not apply." --AWR Hawkins

at 10:17 PM

Q: Why is it so difficult to solve a murder in Arkansas?

A: All the DNA matches and there are no dental records.

Note: For those Arkansanians offended, feel free to substitute AL, KY, LA, MS, or WV when forwarding.

Hat tip: PointsNFigures.

at 9:12 PM

iOwnTheWorld is conducting its third annual PUK awards as a series of cage matches. Click here for the first one.

I don't care who you are, that there is funny.

at 8:46 PM

Biff Spackle has $25 burning a hole in his pocket for the winner:

at 8:28 PM

A perfect idea:

Since our wise rulers in the governmedia have determined that gun-free status makes schools safer, if you care about the safety of the president and his children, you might want to sign this White House petition:

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around them.

The explanation makes perfect sense:

Gun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians.

Our rulers care enough about us little folk to want us to be safe from evil guns. Shouldn’t we care just as much about them?

And since Sen. Dianne Feinstein seeks to ban firearms, she should be a big supporter of these new gun-free zones.

at 7:56 PM

Dan from New York:

It goes without saying, Americans are uneasy about criticizing Islam.

Saudi detains dozens for "plotting to celebrate Christmas"

It's Official: Muslim Population of Britain Doubles

Number of mosques in US grew 74% since 9/11

After all, we’ve grown up with a First Amendment that this particular ~~religion~~ political system (and certain government officials) appears to despise.

at 7:38 PM

Considering that the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of gold since 1973 is roughly 17.2%, who's to say this ad wasn't right?

An ad from a 1973 issue of Barron's provides clear proof that feverish concerns about imminent economic collapse and a concomitant enthusiasm for precious metals has long been a theme amongst modern investors.

With the race to devalue currencies around the world -- led by Ben Bernanke's magical printer -- and unsustainable sovereign debt, it's pretty clear that a collapse will come.

The only question is whether it's two years away -- or 10. History and arithmetic both tell us it won't be longer than that.

Hat tip: BadBlue Money News.

at 6:24 AM

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Obama's GOP Tax Collectors: Jeffrey Lord
Laws, Little People, and the Public Interest: Malkin
You say you want a revolution?: AWD

Obama vs. America's Fiscal Health: DLim
At a Campus Near You: The End of Democracy In America: LI
Malkin hammers Cuomo on gun confiscation, Dem gun hypocrisy: Scoop

Hypocrisy Of Liberals Who Cling To Their Guns: IBD
Boy Uses AR15 To Stop A Home Invasion: Howling
GUN-FREE CHICAGO: Fatal Shooting Lifts Homicide Total to 500: Trib

Economy

Fiscal Cliff's Dirty Secret: It's Not About Taxes At All: Rand Paul
What I Learned in the Poverty War: City Journal
President Obama's Legacy: $20 Trillion in Debt for 2016 Victor: Forbes

Businesses Look for Ways Around Health Care Law: FreeEnt
The FHA: A home wrecker: AEI
Santelli goes off: rips Fed, Obama, Geithner, Congress: GWP

10 Facts on the Fiscal Cliff, Debt, and Spending: Foundry
Why DC’s Business As Usual Crowd Fears The Fiscal Cliff: ConHQ
A Word on Sector Selection for 2013: RefBroker

Scandal Central

"Richard Windsor," aka Lisa Jackson, Resigns From EPA, Using Her Own Name for a Change: Ace
Senate Republicans refuse to confirm Kerry until Hillary testifies about Benghazi: Hot Air
Attorney claims EPA chief resigned over alias email accounts: Fox

Climate & Energy

“EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson resigns”: ProWis
The Obama Green Energy Scam You May Have Missed: Townhall

Media

Public Safety Map: Where Are The Journal News Employees In Your Neighborhood?: WZ
Anonymous Narrative Arrives to Defend Gregory in Meet the Press Magazine Brandishment Episode: Blumer
Gun Debate Exposes Media’s Bias, David Gregory Exposed Their Hypocrisy: Mediaite

Dueling Headlines, TMZ/Obama Edition: Powers
Obama’s Family Vacation for Dudes: Dossier
Blogger publishes names, address of newspaper staff after gun-permit database disclosure: Fox

Allen West: ‘What the president is proposing is reflection of him living in some type of fantasy world’: Scoop
Gallup Poll: NRA Way More Popular Than the Media: JWF
CNN Feeds Anti-Gun Talking Point to Dem Congressman: NB

Desperate Screams of the Press Clowns: Erickson
Unexpected!: Cold Fury
MSNBC’s Toure: Gun Owners Should Be Treated Like Sex Offenders: WZ

World

FBI report from 1970 sheds light on PLO and Fatah penetration of the American political Left: Glick
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen invites Sen. Harry Reid to discover the real meaning of the term ‘dictatorhip’: Babalu
China wants Obama to ban all firearms: 90 Miles

Muslim Brotherhood Gets Top Security Clearance: Sentinel
Putin’s Adoption Ban Hits Senator Rubio Close to Home: Shark Tank
Saudi Arabia: 41 people arrested for "plotting to celebrate Christmas": JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

10 Raspberry Pi creations that show how amazing the tiny PC can be: Ars Technica
Windows 8's uptake falls behind Vista's pace: ComputerWorld
Putting Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch And Other Infomercial Workout Systems To The Test: Consumerist

Cornucopia

2012 Wardrobe Malfunctions: Reaganite (NSFW)
Kill All Republicans: A Sign Of Times: Cube
Corvette stolen in 1989 sold to OC man on eBay: KABC

Image: David Gregory’s Legendary “Gun Magazine of Perpetual Legality”!!
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Petition: Eliminate DC Armed Guards, Establish Gun-Free Zones Instead

QOTD: "AP: We're Pretty Sure That Holiday Sales Were Bleak Due to Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown Massacre

Anything bad that happens under Obama's watch is beyond his control. He has no power over the economy -- its dire health is attributable to ATM machines, Japanese earthquakes, and the NRA's promotion of murdering children.

Of course, whenever there's a speck of positive economic news, that is due to Obama's mastery of the levers and gears of production...

...Much, much later the article mentions another possibility -- the coming financial cliff and people's fear of the next dip in the endless recession." --Ace

at 8:55 PM

Truly tragic:

In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers...

The spiral continues each year. Married couples with children have an average income of $80,000, compared with $24,000 for single mothers.
“We have one class that thinks marriage and fatherhood is important, and another which doesn’t, and it’s causing that gap, income inequality, to get wider,”

...Though income is the primary predictor, the lack of live-in fathers also is overwhelmingly a black problem, regardless of poverty status, census data show. Among blacks, nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother...

[One black father] is quick to blame the absence of fathers to deaths or incarcerations, though women point out that many absent fathers live around the corner...

The inconvenient truth? The "War on Poverty" and the Left's failed welfare state policies have decimated the two-parent family and ruined the lives of millions.

Of that, there can be no debate.

at 8:19 PM

Or is the name Lisa Jackson? I'm so confused.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson has decided to resign her post as top environmental regulator, a move that comes as Congress applies pressure on her for complicating oversight of the EPA by using at least one secondary email address under an alias.

...Lawmakers and the EPA inspector general wonder if Jackson used a private email account created under an alias to develop those policies in a way that would be invisible to watchdogs and congressional oversight...

...Jackson used a private email under the alias “Richard Windsor” to correspond with EPA colleagues, a decision her staff defended by saying that her official email account received too many messages for her to use it efficiently.

Her official email received too many messages?

Gee, I'm no Bill Gates, but I figure with 17,000 employees and an $8 billion budget the EPA could marshal the necessary brainpower to add a lisa.jackson2@epa.gov to their Exchange server.

Investors Business Daily summarizes the story as a question: "Is The EPA's Lisa Jackson Trying To Dodge A Federal Probe?"

Answer: of course she is. Just add this scandal to the list.

at 7:56 PM

Hat tip: Papa B:

at 7:29 PM

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has revealed the contours of her second-generation Assault Weapons Ban and it includes restrictions on handguns as well as the mandatory registration of firearms.

Summary of 2013 legislation
Following is a summary of the 2013 legislation:
Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:

120 specifically-named firearms;

Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and

Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.

Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:

Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;

Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and

Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.

Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.

Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:

Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;

Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and

Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons.

Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:

Background check of owner and any transferee;

Type and serial number of the firearm;

Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;

Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and

Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.

A pdf of the bill summary is available here.

Did you catch that? The Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 will require registration of firearms, which is always -- always -- the precursor to confiscation by a tyrannical government.

REGISTRATION IS CONFISCATION

The Holy Grail of the gun control crowd is registration of firearms.

This is because once a gun is required to be registered, it is virtually confiscated. The government will know who possesses which firearms and where those arms are stored. And when they desire physical possession of those weapons (which history tells us is inevitable), they can then order the citizenry to voluntarily turn in their weapons.

This has happened over and over again throughout all of recorded history. In the 20th century alone, mandatory registration followed by confiscation occurred in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Red China, and Cambodia. More recently, registration and confiscation have occurred in Great Britain and Australia.

Once registration has been accepted by the citizenry, the rules for gun ownership are gradually tightened. This serves to further reduce the number of gun owners and to help facilitate the eventual confiscation step.

THE "GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE"

The gun control crowd likes bleating about a "Gun Show Loophole" that ostensibly allows an individual to visit a gun show and purchase weapons without a background check. This is utter nonsense. The vast majority of guns sold at shows are by licensed dealers, all of whom must pursue background checks for each firearm they sell.

The background check requirement is only waived for private gun sales, which helps prevent a registration list from being developed.

There is no "Gun Show Loophole"; there is only an exception for private sales. This protects Americans from a government run amok.

Because a government that pushes for gun registration distrusts its citizens, and have thereby earned the citizens' distrust.

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT GUNS

The clearest reason for the Second Amendment is to insure that the people retain a large measure of power, to balance that of the government.

The Second Amendment codified the God-given right of the individual to defend himself, his family, and his community. It is a right, granted by God, not a permission or license granted by government.

In the 20th century alone, the wisdom of the founders has been validated over and over again.

It could never happen here, you say? Perhaps. I wonder what the Japanese-Americans who were thrown into internment camps during World War II would tell us.

I suspect that this legislation will serve as a line in the sand for many.

Hat tips: Dean Weingarten and @HollyR_J.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Nation

Economy

Scandal Central

Climate & Energy

Media

World

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Cornucopia

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Nation

Economy

Scandal Central

Climate & Energy

Media

World

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Cornucopia

Saturday, December 29, 2012

DON'T RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

DEFAULT NOW -- OR DEFAULT LATER?

THE NEXT DEBT-CEILING DEBATE

Nation

Economy

Scandal Central

Climate & Energy

Media

World

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Cornucopia

Friday, December 28, 2012

Nation

Economy

Scandal Central

Climate & Energy

Media

World

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Cornucopia

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Summary of 2013 legislation

REGISTRATION IS CONFISCATION

THE "GUN SHOW LOOPHOLE"

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT GUNS