Wednesday, January 06, 2010

How Cold Is It?


The Downfall of Notre Dame Football in Pictures

Don't blame the messenger: this is from Papa B.

Colt McCoy, Quarterback, University of Texas

Tim Tebow, Quarterback, University of Florida


Mark Sanchez, Quarterback, University of Southern California

Matt Stafford, Quarterback, University of Georgia

Jimmy Claussen, Quarterback, University of Notre Dame

'Why This Is Not The Onset Of A New Secular Bull Market'

Via Tyler Durden, David Rosenberg of Gluskin+Sheff offers a cold slap of reality to those Cramer-watchers insisting that a secular bull market is underway. Reasons?

Click to zoomify.

Oh, only about two trillion reasons.


Larwyn's Linx: End of an Error -- and An Open Letter to Jane Hamsher

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

Nation

End of an Error: Chris Dodd Steps Down: Riehl
An Open Letter to Jane Hamsher: LegalIns
What Dems Know: Universal Voter Registration: AT

Airline security idiocy of the day: Malkin
Repeal the Health Bill: AT
Michigan: Muslim H.S. students apparel celebrates 9/11: Atlas

Knee JERK Reaction Of Progressives: Wolf Howling
Idaho Has A Governor With A Spine…: NoisyRoom
State Dept. uses 'Diversity Visas' to import terror: BlogProf

Economy

The Carnivorous Government: Doc Zero
Racial Spoils in Obama's America: AT
'Reform' bodes ill for tax-free health accounts: Times

Once again, unions find a pliant judge: RWN
Government Jobs Overtake Goods-Producing Jobs: Corner
Give us your tired, your poor, your $1.2T in dubious MBS: Ace

Climate & Energy

The CO2 Lie: IBD
Great News: CIA Watching Ice Melt: Morrissey
Global Warming as Climastrology: PJM (Lewis)

Media

The American Thinker turns Six: AT
Crazy Talk: Obama Blames Creation of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula On Gitmo: GWP
Maureen Dowd's Question is Answered: Dinocrat

Dorgan (D-ND) Retiring This Year To Spend Time With Family And Avoid Getting Ass Kicked But Mostly To Avoid Getting Ass Kicked: Ace
The Partisan U.S. President: Flopping Aces
Most transparent administration ever to hold secret closed door meetings on health care: STACLU

On Today: Fill Out Census or You Won't Get Government Goodies!: NewsBusters
Thoughts on the Right to Offend: PJM (Kimball)
RealClimate: Finalist For Best Religious Blog: CBullitt

C-SPAN Challenges Congress to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage As Promised: BlogProf
Pelosi Channels Baghdad Bob: Charlie Foxtrot

World

The Trouble with Yemen: SIGIS
Palin: “It’s War, not a Crime Spree”: Flopping Aces
Spies Hang Together, Not Alone: Brits Dime Out Obama On Intel: Riehl

Did Obama Politicize the Terror Database?: AT (Lewis)
The Suicidal Rules of Arab Political Debate: RubRep
Euro-Med Partnership could bring 50 million Muslims into Europe: Atlas

SciTech

Google's mobile hopes go beyond Nexus One: CNet
Update - The 2009 Weblog Awards are off: Weblog Awards

Cornucopia

Daily Scoreboard: Surber
Green Links: Worst Blog Feature Ever: AmDig
RSM in Southern Cal: AmPow

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

No Choice But Slavery

Modern liberal Democrats like to talk about "choice".

About being "pro-choice".

But when it comes to school choice -- allowing inner-city children to escape the enslavement of teachers' unions -- Democrats shriek in opposition. Studies universally demonstrate "that charter students, typically from more disadvantaged families in places like Harlem, perform almost as well as students in affluent suburbs like Scarsdale." Not just in New York, but in DC and Chicago and every other city choice has been offered.

When taxpayers demand that states balance their budgets, the powerful public sector union bosses spit in their faces. In California, union bosses found a "pliant, left-wing judge in California [who] ruled that the [state] cannot furlough state workers that belong to three powerful public employees unions." Put simply, union bosses are stealing taxpayer money -- enslaving them -- without cause, justification or reason.

And that effort is no aberration: liberal Democrats continue to push for mass unionization of the workplace through purely evil mechanisms like the ill-named Employee Free Choice Act or "Card Check". This change to labor laws would allow union bosses to eliminate the secret ballot for their organizing efforts and increase the chances for intimidation and vote fraud. Though study after study after study confirms the fact that high rates of unionization -- facilitated by pro-union labor relations laws -- constrains free enterprise and hampers small business growth -- Democrats push for a virtual form of enslavement of the workplace.

Consider welfare payments. Studies show -- conclusively -- that 'no-strings' welfare payments inevitably destroy families. These payments grow single-parent families, enslave children and dramatically increase their rates of crime and incarceration.

And when it comes to health care, liberal Democrats endlessly prattle in support of "single-payer" -- wherein the government becomes the sole health insurance provider for every citizen. Of course, single-payer can't work because self-regulated monopolies never do: they simply grow more bloated, more inefficient and costlier until they finally collapse under their own weight. But, in the mean time, enslaved citizens suffer from lower quality care, reduced access and deadlier outcomes. We know this because systems without competition always end up this way.

Just a few short decades ago, when African-Americans were desperately struggling for their civil rights, the Democrat Party apparatus worked tirelessly against them. Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois spearheaded the 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress, and was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (also a Republican) as "able and courageous". King praised Dirksen "for the grand manner of his generalship behind the passage of the best civil rights measures that have ever been enacted into law since Reconstruction". Fighting viciously against Republicans -- and for a form of virtual enslavement of blacks -- were Democrat Senators like Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd (a former high-level official in the Ku Klux Klan). Byrd, in fact, mounted a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act.

This theme is nothing new. Going back as far as the Civil War, Democrats have universally chosen the side of slavery. The Republican Party was, in fact, formed to combat the scourge and 700,000 souls paid the ultimate price before victory had been achieved. During the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas argued, "I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made... by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others."

Finally, Republican President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 by a southern Democrat activist named John Wilkes Booth.

When you remove choice from people's lives, you reduce their state to one of slavery or, at best, some twisted form of indentured servitude.

Liberal Democrats who talk about their support of "choice" are liars. Charter schools. Health care. Welfare. Forced unionization. Slavery.

They support slavery. Of the mind, body and spirit. And they have for more than a hundred and fifty years. It is time that all those who cherish freedom reject the Democrat Party forever.


Caption Contest: Win a Copy of Crisis and Command by John Yoo

Caption this:

...and win this:

Crisis and Command, by John Yoo, is the definitive work on the powers of the Presidency, the Constitution and executive actions under crisis conditions. Of it, Victor Davis Hanson writes:

John Yoo has written a masterful review of some 220 years of the use of Presidentiala power in times of crisis. The result is not just that George W. Bush and other recent Chief Executives were not uniusual in issuing executive decrees... but that they were rather tame in comparison to the likes of Jackson, Lincoln and [FDR].

Max Boot adds:

Those who know John Yoo only from the caricature painted by his critics will be gobsmacked to read "Crisis and Command." It is not the work of some wild-eyed zealot bent on waging war on our civil liberties. Rather it is a careful, scholarly examination of the subject of presidential powers viewed through the prism of history... Far from a partisan polemic, it is a careful and measured work of scholarship that will have to be engaged by those on all sides of the issue.

How do you get your own hardcover copy of this incisive work?

Just add the snarkiest caption possible to this post using our delightful "commenting" feature, below. Remember: to the spoils belong the victor.


Welcome to CaliCare

Due to its lax immigration policies and easy access to welfare -- factors that indisputably increase crime rates -- California now spends more on its prisons than on the entire ten campus University of California system.

In 2001, California spent $680 million on medical services for its prisoners.

In 2004, California spent in excess of $1 billion for prisoners' health care services.

Last year, California spent $3 billion on health care for its prisoners.

In other words, over the last eight years, health care costs for California's single-payer prison system have more than quadrupled.

Yet in a June speech, President Obama justified a government takeover of the entire health care system with an observation on rising costs. He stated, "...more and more Americans are forced to worry about not just getting well, but whether they can afford to get well. Millions more wonder if they can afford the routine care necessary to stay well. Even for those who have health insurance, rising premiums are straining family budgets to the breaking point—premiums that have doubled over the last nine years..."

Compare and contrast: over the last eight years, costs for California's single-payer prison health care system -- controlled by Democrats for decades and heavily laced with unions at every level of government -- have increased more than four times.

The costs of premiums for the private health care system -- with all of its innovation and access to the latest drugs, diagnostic tests, advanced equipment and research, have only doubled in nine years.

Government can't possibly run things better than the free market. And California's prison health care system is just a microcosm of what we can expect.

And something else for seniors to consider: the costs for their care will compete with the health care costs of the federal prison system. And, if California is any indication, the prisoners' medical will come before seniors. There's only so much of taxpayers' money to go around.

Welcome to CaliCare. It's the Democrat Utopia of California translated to the entire freaking United States.

Disenchanted with Obama? Japanese Television wants to interview you!

Are you -- or do you know -- a former Obama supporter who has grown disenchanted with the president's endless series of broken promises, posturing and gaffes? Want a crack at your 15 minutes of fame? If you answered "yes" to both questions, Nippon TV wants an interview.

"Doug," you ask, "how do I take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime offer?"

"Simple," I reply. "Just email me your phone number and email address and I'll relay it the the producer. Your information will remain completely confidential and you may also be eligible for an appearance on a Japanese game show."

"Yes," I continue, after a brief pause to lend additional gravity to the offer, "it's just that simple. You can thank me later."


Larwyn's Linx: The Death of Deliberative Democracy

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

Nation

The Death of Deliberative Democracy: Malkin
“If the election were held today, we’d lose the House”: Hot Air
Who Is the Enemy?: Hanson

Government Anti-Terror 'Expert' on Terror Watch List: Poole
Will MA send ACORN flunky to replace Teddy?: AT
Obama's Health Care Gamble: NewEd

Why Obamacare must be defeated: PJM
WH: Illegals will be eligible for Obamacare: Hot Air
Obamacare for illegals: SIGIS

Abdulmutallab and Eric Holder: Noteworthy News: Maggie
Uh oh: UN hack will help Napolitano with security: Rosett
State Dept. issued bomber's visa; Hillary in hiding: BlogProf

Economy

Expurts ‘r Us: Cold Fury
Willie Brown's Wake-Up Call: WyBlog
Jamaat al-Fuqra/Muslims of America tax fraud plot?: Jawa

Justice Brandeis, Call Your Office: Commentary
A Stand-Pat Society?: Samuelson
How to save 500 million U.S. jobs: NewEd

Economic Rebound? What Economic Rebound?: BizzyBlog
Here's How To Debauch The Currency And Destroy Capitalism: Insider

Climate & Energy

Liberals Against Solar Power to Protect Desert Sand and 24 Tortoises: BlogProf
Moonbat Scientists: dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'; no word on unborn however: BlogProf

Media

NYT cavalry rides to rescue of Obama and Brennan, inadvertently confirms idiocy: Strata
In which Tom Brokaw agrees with me about health care reform: TigerHawk
More Threats Online: JihadWatch

Announcing the Second Annual Islamic Cartoon Contest: Atlas
Secret Service: third person crashed WH state dinner: Hot Air

World

"I Shot 7 Taliban In One Day": Jawa
CAIR is upset? Who cares?: Surber
Killing the Chicken to Frighten the Monkey: Belmont

2010 Won't Be Pretty: Bolton
Freed Gitmo Inmates Headed to Yemen for War: London Times
A Fascinating Look at the Worries of an Attack on Last Year's Inauguration: NRO

Radical Islam: the clues are in Britain, not Yemen: S, C & A
Profile Away: Stossel

SciTech

10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist: Wired
Ahmadinejad's Website Hacked: GWP
Understanding Windows 7's 'GodMode': CNet

Cornucopia

American Digest Daybook for Tuesday: AmDig
Great - now we have to contend with robot terrorists: BigFeed
Image Credit: People's Cube.

Monday, January 04, 2010

50 Years of Dependency

In honor of Rush Limbaugh's apparent recovery from medical tribulations, consider the following highlights of his extemporaneous speech to CPAC ten months ago. Memo to Democrats: no teleprompter was needed.

[T]ake a look at all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. And you tell me if you find any. They're still complaining, still griping about the same problems. Their problems don't get fixed by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises, from government representatives who said don't worry about it, we'll take care of you. Just vote for us.

Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of America. Anybody ever ask -- I'm in awe of our country and I ask this question a lot as I've gotten older. We're less than 300 years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than 300 years -- by the way, we're no different than any other human beings around the world. Our DNA is no different. We're not better just because we're born in America. There's nothing that sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United States of America become the world's lone super power, the world's economic engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an advanced lifestyle that humanity has ever known? How did this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the United States want to destroy it? It saddens me.

[T]he people who have achieved great things, most of it is not inherited. Most wealth in this country is the result of entrepreneurial, just plain old hard work. There's no reason to punish it. There's no reason to raise taxes on these people. Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, have one responsibility, and that's to respect the oath they gave to protect, defend and follow the US Constitution.

They don't have the right to take money that's not theirs and none of it is from the back pockets of producers and give it to groups like ACORN which are going to advance the Democrat Party. If anybody but government were doing this, it would be a crime. And many of us think it's bordering on that as it exists now.

What's the longest war in American history? [The] War on poverty. The war on poverty essentially started in the '30s as part of the New Deal, but it really ramped up in the '60s with Lyndon Johnson, part of the great society war on poverty. We have transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11 trillion, from producers and earners to non-producers and [non-]earners since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign, why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor [are] still poor and they have no hope and they're poor for what reason?

They're poor because of us, because we don't care, and because we've gotten rich by taking from them, that's what kids in school are taught today... You know why they're poor, you know why they remain poor? Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending government hay that's designed to help them but it destroys ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to be self-fulfilling... And it breaks our heart[s]. It breaks our heart[s]. We lose track of numbers with all of the money, with all the money that's been transferred, redistributed, with all the charitable giving in this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, there ought not be any poverty except those who are genuinely ill equipped. But most of the people in poverty in this country are equipped for far much more. They've just been beaten down. They're told don't worry, we'll take care of you. There's nothing out there for you anyway; you'll be discriminated against. Breaks our heart to see this. We can't have a great country and a growing economy with more and more people being told they have a right, because of some injustice that's been done to them or some discrimination, that they have a right to the earnings of others. And it's gotten so out of hand now that what worries me is that... the Barack Obama administration is actively seeking to expand the welfare state in this country because he wants to control it.

When Obama talks about past economies, he somehow always leaves out the recession of the '80s as worse than this one. Why does he leave it out? Because you know why he leaves it out, America? He leaves it out because we got out of that recession with tax cuts... We got out of the 1980s recession with tax cuts. Do you know that President Obama, in six weeks of his administration, has proposed more spending than from the founding of the country to his inauguration?

[T]his is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It's not going to create prosperity and it's also not going to advance or promote freedom. It's going to be just the opposite. There are going to be more controls over what you can and can't do, how you can and can't do it, what you can and can't drive, what you can and can't say, where you can and can't say it. All of these things are coming down the pike, because it's not about revenue generation to them, it's about control. They do believe that they have compassion. They do believe they care. But... we never are allowed to look at the results of their plans, we are told we must only look at their good intentions, their big hearts. The fact that they have destroyed poor families by breaking up those families by offering welfare checks to women to keep having babies... no more father needed... the government's the father, they destroy the family. We're not supposed to analyze that. We're not supposed to talk about that. We're supposed to talk about their good intentions. They destroy people's futures. The future is not Big Government. Self-serving politicians. Powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new. It's not change, and it's not hope....

Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.


[Democrats are] going to overreach. At some point, at some point people have got to realize none of this is possible. You can't have people living in homes they don't pay for. You can't have people driving cars they don't pay for. I mean, you can for a while. But after a while the people paying for it -- screw this. We're not putting up with it. And you're going to see -- you're already starting to see evidence of these. All the tea parties that are starting to bubble up out there. Those are great. Fabulous. ...And here's the big question. Here's the big question. And I ask this again in the context of my first address to the nation... Aside from the bastardization of the Constitution that the Obama plans are, that TARP is, it's not constitutional. Aside from that, where is the evidence that the people offering all of this have ever succeeded in any similar plans before? There's none. There is no evidence it works.


Tower Burj: The View from 828 Meters

The world's tallest building officially opened today, complete with the world's tallest observatory. Though Burj Dubai cost $1.5 billion to build, it is reportedly already in the black with a majority of the structure leased.

What's the view from atop the 828-meter tall structure?





Maktoob Business has the entire gallery and a series of related news stories, videos and timelines.

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State Welcome Signs... The Way They Should Be

Papa B offers more of his politically incorrect fare.