Saturday, September 11, 2010

Larwyn's Linx: 9/11 remembrance--Set your alarms, steel your resolve

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9/11

9/11 remembrance: Set your alarms and steel your resolve: Malkin
What I Saw on 9/11 from Brooklyn Heights: American Digest
We had a community center on 9/10/2001: Rosett

Never Forget: 9/11 Families Share Memories of Heroes: PJM
9/11 + 9: Remembering Brooke Jackman And Andrew Golkin: RWN
9/11 remembrance: Spitting on their graves: Malkin

Nation

Jim DeMint endorses Christine O’Donnell over Mike Castle: Hot Air
DOJ allows Wisconsin to ignore military vote protections: Adams
'Trapped in his Father’s Time Machine': Driscoll

Another Obamacare Headline and GOP Candidates To Support: Hewitt
The Ruling Class Hits Christine O'Donnell: AmSpec
GOP Candidate Renee Ellmers Speaks Out On Etheridge: GWP

Economy

Election-Eve Stimulus: AT
America’s public servants are now its masters: Zuckerman
Two Years That Changed the World: AT

Climate & Energy

Buy A Nissan Leaf, Or The Polar Bears Will All Die: RWN
No, let's not drill for oil in America: Jalopnik

Media

Roger Ebert's Latest Bowel Movement Unfortunately Legible: Big Hollywood
Fish Wrap Worried About Media’s Role In Koran Burning Issue: RWN
Obama is Not a Muslim: Coulter

Bonfire of the Insanities: Coulter
Nutcase Ted Koppel: America Overreacted to 9/11: GWP
Blog Con 2010 Blogger Conference – Taking Back America (Part 2): GWP

World

Multiculturalism Collapses in Belgium: RWN
Rejecting Dhimmitude: It's a Beautiful Thing: JOdysseus
Is the (Red) Tide Turning in Venezuela?: PJM

Video: Austrian Woman Charged for Criticizing the Koran: BlogProf
Why I think burning Korans isn't such a great idea: DPU
Racist Bigotry... from an unlikely source: Cold Fury

SciTech

The Man Who Makes Your iPhone: Business Week
Cyber-Jihad Group Could Be Behind Worm Clogging Email Servers Worldwide, Researcher Says: Dark Reading
Cockroach Brains May Hold New Antibiotics?: NatGeo

Cornucopia

The Forgotten Man: McNaughton
The Mystery of Flickr's Ghost Car Dealership: Jalopnik
Open For Business: C&S

Images: American Digest.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Christine O'Donnell In the Home Stretch!

QOTD: "In the druidical religion of liberalism, not separating your recyclables is a sin, but abortion is just a medical procedure." -- Ann Coulter


Friday, September 10, 2010

Photos From a Forgotten America

A few select photos spotted at a large collection of ancient Flickr images:











Click here for the entire album.


John Edwards is right -- there really are two Americas. There's taxpayers, and then there's Democrats

Please consider the following data points:

Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in back taxes last year, data show:
Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in overdue taxes at the end of last year, a sliver of the $1 billion owed by federal workers nationwide but one with potential political ramifications for members of Congress... The average unpaid tax bill is $12,787 among the Senate's delinquent taxpayers and $15,498 among those working in the House.

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone
We now know that federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service... You may recall early on that Tom Daschle was the president's top pick to run the Health and Human Services Department. But it turned out the former Democratic senator, who was un-elected from South Dakota in 2004, owed something like $120,000 to the IRS for things from his subsequent benefactor that he just forgot to pay taxes on. You know how that is. $120G's here or there. So he dropped out.

And then we learned this guy Timothy Geithner owed something like $42,000 in back taxes and penalties to the IRS, which is one of the agencies that he'd be in charge of as secretary of the Treasury. The fine fellow who's supposed to know about handling everyone else's money... And under Geithner's expert guidance the U.S. economy has been, well, wow! Just look at it.

Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes. That would cover a lot of special chocolate desserts in the White House Mess.

A while back I suggested renaming the Democrat Party The Funocrat Party, because they're the source of non-stop excitement for the beleaguered little guy. But, whatever you do, don't call them taxpayers.


Related:
Uncle Sam Wants YOU...to pay your taxes

Michelle Obama gets physical, physical, as she humiliates fat kids in race to show them that cheeseburgers and bad genetics really suck

The captions just write themselves, don't they?

Did you know that Michelle put her own kids through a diet program before embarking upon her campaign against child obesity? I know. You have to go overseas to read that news.

Oh. And expect a battery of New York Times articles regarding the Obama arm-toning regimen.


Taking valuable time away from regulating salt, NYC Mayor Bloomberg Endorses Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the Only Man With a Rent-Controlled Mansion

The laundry list of ethical violations reportedly committed by Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) requires a database to keep straight. The man is a career politician who somehow amassed a huge fortune while in office. Not only that, he 'forgot' to report all of his income to the IRS. No matter. He's royalty and we're peons. He's like Steven Seagal -- above the law.

But that laundry list of skulduggery matters not to Bloomberg (the idiot Mayor, not the news service). With no other pressing matters of city management weighing him down -- other than regulating salt consumption in the city -- Bloomberg has taken the time to vocally back Rangel, ethics be damned.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is giving beleaguered Representative Charles B. Rangel a boost with a recorded phone message urging voters to support him. “Tough times require tough leadership, and that is what Charlie Rangel has provided for us, and will continue to provide for us going forward,” Mr. Bloomberg says in the robocall expected to flood Mr. Rangel’s district on Sunday.

In related news, a SWAT team raided Delmonico's early this afternoon and arrested the maître d'.


Welcome to Venezuela: HHS Chief Sebelius Threatens Health Insurers With Promises of Revenge That Are Clearly Cribbed From Hugo Chavez

Here is further proof, as if you need it, that today we live in a Banana Republic.

...the Obama administration called on health plans to stop "misinformation and scare tactics" about the healthcare reform law... The administration's letter to America's Health Insurance Plans comes after several health plans told customers that they were raising rates in part because of the new law. In it, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned: "I want AHIP’s members to be put on notice: the Administration, in partnership with states, will not tolerate unjustified rate hikes in the name of consumer protections."

Sebelius acknowledges that the new law will cause an increase in premiums, albeit "minimal."

"According to our analysis and those of some industry and academic experts, any potential premium impact from the new consumer protections and increased quality provisions under the Affordable Care Act will be minimal," she writes. "We estimate that that the effect will be no more than one to two percent."

Excessive premium hikes, Sebelius warns, will not be tolerated.

"We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014. Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections."

The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats are among the most outrageous economic illiterates the world has ever seen. On the one hand, they command health insurers to increase the age of covered children from the ages of 21 to 26. On the other hand, as premiums inevitably rise as a result of their inane diktats, they screech at the evil insurers. But it is the insurers who actually have underwriting standards, actuarial calculations and understand the health insurance business. Sebelius and her bureaucrats understand little or none of the reality of health insurance. They are Soviet-style central planners -- and nothing more.

Here's proof: remember this story from earlier in the year?

Venezuela president Hugo Chávez warns shops not to raise prices


President Hugo Chávez has ordered Venezuelan troops to raid shops and businesses that raise prices today in the wake of a big currency devaluation.

"Right now, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to be raising prices of absolutely anything," he said yesterday . "I want the national guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation. Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size."

...Speaking on his weekly TV show yesterday, Chávez said blame for any price rises would lie with speculators. The socialist leader told his defence minister to prepare an "offensive" against speculators and gave out telephone numbers to report price gouging.

Sebelius and Chavez have helpfully illustrated for us the madness of socialism: when the central planners' plans fail -- as they inevitably do -- they blame not themselves, but their victims. They do so because their failed ideology commands them to seek ever more power, more control, more authority. To do so, they must steal it from you.

The health insurance industry is simply a metaphor for you. It could be the oil companies. Or the drug companies. Or the coal companies. Or the doctors. Or the patients.

Big government is never to blame. Only you are. And therefore you must surrender more and more of your liberty to the government.

There's a word for this: it's called tyranny.

November will determine whether we begin to resist the slow descent into a Venezuelan-style failed society -- or we resurrect our once-proud Constitutional republic--where the government is limited, not the individual.


Larwyn's Linx: 'Like a Dog'--The Origins of Barack Obama’s Petulance

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Nation

'Like a Dog'--The Origins of Barack Obama’s Petulance: Hanson
Hillary Clinton's Campaign for '12 Is Underway: AT
It's really, really close in the race to replace the Grand Cyclops: Ace

Obama in Ohio--Same Old Demagogue: Pundette
Mike Castle Wimps Out: LegalIns
Joe Miller Formally Wins Alaska Primary: Con4Palin

Economy

George Soros Spending $45M to Sabotage America's Judiciary: Malkin
Growing our way to solvency: PJM
Edujobs: Insult to Injury: Greenroom

ObamaCare already causing insurance price hikes: RWN
The 'Rich' Have Another Name: 'Employers': AT
Obama donors appointed to Stimulus committee: MagNote

Has Life Imitated The Onion Yet Again?: Ace
Obama's Orwellian $50B 'Infrastructure Bank': LogMon
The Student Loan Takeover: AT

Climate & Energy

The Mexican Incandescent Light Bulb Cartel: LegalIns
Family, Man!: SondraK
Mistress of Disaster Mired in BP Mess: Cashill

Media

Gazette calls its readers racist: Surber
More Totalitarianism From THE LEFT: iOTW
HuffPo Comments o' the Day: HuffPoMonitor

Washington Post blogger duped by fake Twitter congressman, and: Blame Bush!: RWN
AP: We Will Not Distribute Photos of Burning Korans: Ace
Busting the Worst Little ACORN Lobbyist in Texas: PJM

It’s On!… Pastor Slams “Lying Imam” – Will Proceed with Koranic Incineration: GWP
And Now, An Important Message From Ezra Klein: AmericanGlob
The Grudge: Barry Soetoro's Indonesian Expatriate Hell: AT

World

The Ayatollah Khomeini Raped a 4-Year Old: Moonbattery
Useful Idiots: SondraK
Did Bill Clinton's Inaction Lead to 9/11?: WIBW

No, Professor Ahmed, the Founders Were Not So Fond of Islam: PJM
Drama In Gainesville, And Its Several Ruinous Effects: HayRide
Tell Me Again Why I’m Supposed To Give A Crap About Moo Ham Head?: iOTW

SciTech

'Here You Have' Worm Floods E-mail Inboxes: eWeek
Fraud At Sprint Offers Lessons For Enterprises, Experts Say: Dark Reading
String Of Deals Shows Demand for Cloud-Based Authentication: Dark Reading

Cornucopia

BigFurHat Makeover: iOTW
North Van dad-to-be's final act saves family: TheProvince
Teach me how to Dougie: Boortz

Images: iOwnTheGore.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Christine O'Donnell for U.S. Senate

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Ground Zero Imam: If Intolerant Americans Force Mosque Move, Tolerant Muslims Will 'Explode' With 'Anger'

Despite some rumors to the contrary, it would appear that the Ground Zero Mosque isn't moving. New York One reports that Doctor Tolerance ain't going anywhere.

The imam and developers of the of the proposed Downtown Manhattan Islamic community center say that their project is not moving away from a location near the World Trade Center, despite numerous claims during the day that a deal was reached to move the mosque... Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, developer Sharif El-Gamal and Soho Properties said in statements today that the Park51 Islamic community center and mosque is not moving from the current location on Park Place.

Further, Rauf has amped up the inflammatory rhetoric over the last few days, stating that if intolerant Americans burn a Koran that rampant terrorism will result.

...capping a daylong rhetorical offensive that began Wednesday morning with an opinion piece in The New York Times, Rauf said he intends to go ahead with the "multifaith" center near the site where Islamic terrorists killed nearly 2,800 people because not doing so would unleash fury abroad.

"If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse," Rauf told CNN. "The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.

"...if we don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world. If we don't do things correctly, this crisis could become much bigger than the Danish cartoon crisis [over images depicting the Prophet Mohammed], which resulted in attacks on Danish embassies in various parts of the Muslim world. And we have a much bigger footprint in the Muslim world."

That's what you call a not-so-veiled threat.

In another example of the famed tolerance for which Rauf's world is famous, a new holiday called Burn an American Flag Day was just declared.

In retaliation for wackadoodle pastor Terry Jones’s Burn a Koran Day on 9/11, a British Muslim activist has called for an international “Burn the Stars and Stripes Day.”

A radical Islamic activist and lawyer in the U.K. has called on Muslims worldwide to burn U.S. flags outside American embassies on Sept. 11, a “direct retaliation” against a Florida church’s plan to burn Qurans on the same day.

Anjem Choudary, former leader of the banned hardline Islamic group Islam4UK, told CBS News in London he was calling for, “an international burn the Stars and Stripes day” on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Tolerant!


Related: Let me see if I get this straight....

ICE: We've Caught-and-Released More Than 500,000 Illegal Aliens Who Are Now Fugitives--More Than Entire Population of Sacramento

There is something quite wrong with an administration that actively encourages illegal immigration while repeatedly suing a state that is trying to enforce immigration law.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) says that as of Sunday, Sept. 5, it had caught-and-released 506,232 illegal aliens who are now fugtives. That is more than the population of Sacramento, California, which currently numbers 486,189.

Fugitive illegal aliens are individuals who were apprehended ICE for being in the United States illegally and then were released ahead of their court proceedings and deemed fugitive when they failed to appear in court.

...In an earlier story on the number of fugitives that are in the United States illegally from countries other than Mexico, CNSNews.com asked ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham to define what DHS considers a fugitive... Brigham said a “fugitive” is defined as an individual who has been found legally deportable and has evaded authorities.

“A fugitive is an individual who has a final order of removal and has absconded,” Brigham said.

In other comforting news, the White House appears to be devoting more energy to catching carp at the border than criminals.


Hat tip: Malkin & Powers.

Mike Castle is a staunch supporter of 'the right to choose'; should help him cope with having his political career aborted by Christine O'Donnell

Mike Castle vs. Christine O'Donnell: Who Gets the Coveted 'Doug McLovin Ross Endorsement'?

I really don't give a crap what the beltway insiders and the faux conservatives think. I'll use a simple analogy.

Imagine you're putting together a football team. You've got an experienced, veteran receiver who, no matter what you do, runs the wrong pattern 50% of the time. It's hard to have a cohesive team with that kind of person playing a key role.

Mike Castle is just that sort of rogue player. He's wearing the wrong uniform. If he wants to help out the other team, he should put on the other jersey. And the Senate is too small a group, each member is too important, to gave a seat to another unprincipled, lifetime political hack.

Castle voted for Cap-and-Trade, the Orwellian DISCLOSE Act, he won't promise to repeal or de-fund ObamaCare, he voted against the CLEAR Act to end the Obama offshore drilling ban, against the Bush Surge strategy, voted for the ludicrous SCHIP bill, and for TARP.

Castle obviously doesn't believe in the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment and likely a whole swath of other conservative principles.

O'Donnell is a normal American. So she had some financial problems. That puts her in the same boat as most folks. Castle has served in Congress been on the public dole since nine-teen-freaking-sixty-six. In the process, somehow, he's amassed great wealth -- and no one's asking how he earned that money.

Regular readers know I've been trying to raise money for Ms. O'Donnell for weeks. Join Sarah Palin and other principled conservatives: click here to send her a couple of bucks.


I'm very sensitive about my middle name

What in the heck were my parents thinking?

'Here You Have' -- the Delightful New Virus Brought to You by Adobe Reader and Microsoft Outlook #hereyouhave #worm #outlookisfun

Twitter is exploding with reports of another delightful computer virus that appears to have been caused by: (a) a zero-day Adobe Reader bug (update: maybe not, see below); and (b) the fact that Microsoft Outlook puts little to no security around the local user's address book. The combination has made for a fairly brutal and rapid spread of the #hereyouhave virus.

Uhmm, first of all: don't click on any email with the subject heading Here you have.

And if you did get hit, here are a few recommendations:

• Temporarily disable your network connection (pull your blue wire or disable your wireless Internet)

• Using the Control Panel, change your file associations to remove the Adobe reader from an automatic assocation (see illustration for Windows XP)

• Check your Outlook outbox -- that's where messages that haven't been sent collect. You may see hundreds or thousands. Delete all of the suspect messages.

• Bring up Task Manager and check to see whether AcroRd32 (the Adobe Reader) is running. If it is, kill it.

• Once you're confident that the virus has stopped trying to send messages (by checking your Outbox), reconnect your network connection (or, better yet, use an uninfected machine) and check your anti-virus vendor to determine whether an update is available -- force a signature update once one is ready

The only positive from this delightful infection is the fact that it so openly identifies those folks who were socially engineered into clicking on this ill-disguised link. Maybe that'll learn 'em.


Update: Commenter says that it is an '.SCR' file disguised as a '.PDF'. In either case--don't click it! If the Adobe Reader is not involved, that would be good news (less moving parts involved).

Update II: Word on the street is that the domain the virus tries to access in order to run the script is http://members.multimania.co.uk (no link, intentionally). Your IT administrator would be well-served to block the link or you personally could edit your HOSTS file.

Update III: Unconfirmed reports that Schwab, Bank of America, JPM Chase, FedEx, Vanderbilt and many other organizations were hit.

Update IV: ABC News is first to get a major story up on the virus. They report that NASA, Comcast, AIG, Disney, Florida Department of Transportation and Wells Fargo were hit. They note that, "Adobe systems on Tuesday advised computer security experts that there were vulnerabilities in the Adobe reader software, noting that hackers were looking to actively exploit a recently detected vulnerability. This could explain why the e-mail was being sent in a .pdf format."

Larwyn's Linx: The Man Out to Topple Barney Frank

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Nation

The Man Out to Topple Barney Frank: Jacoby
ICE: We've Caught-and-Released Half-a-Million Illegals!: Malkin
Corruptocrat Steered Scholarship Money To Her Grandsons: PJM

Ouch: Obama struggles to fill tiny Cleveland venue: Con4Palin
Obama in Ohio: Hello, Illinois!: Ace
Mike Castle: Far Worse Than a RINO: Riehl

John Boehner Proposes Trillion Dollar Spending Cut: GWP
Finding out what’s in ObamaCare: premium hikes: Hot Air
Go ahead, Waxman: Launch another Obamacare witch hunt: Malkin

Economy

The Good Old Days of George W. Bush: AT
Not So Fast, Slub - I Think Ezra Klein's on Our Side!: Ace
Government meddling keeps distorting the housing market: Tapscott

The Mother of All Big Dig Boondoggles: Malkin
Dick Durbin Concerned About Those Crushed by Big Government: RWN
Good reason for English to be the official language: WashExam

Climate & Energy

The stupidity of politics: Green fables, jobs, and the incandescent bulb: Hot Air
Dim-Bulb Dems Doom Edison's Baby: AT
If you have bedbugs, thank Al Gore: AT

Media

Here’s how not to start off your op-ed about why you want to build the Ground Zero Mosque: Treacher
The Political Violence of the Bible and the Koran: AT
2002: Krugman Recommended A Housing Bubble: ZH

Robert Reich's Liberal Economics -- Insular, Misguided, and Obsolete: AT
A Smear Too Far: RWN
Hartford City Council to begin meetings with Muslim prayer: BlogProf

World

Scoop: The Castro Interview: PJM
The Koran: Don't Burn It. Read It: Malkin
Burning Korans...A Stupid Idea That Reveals A Lot Of People Are Stupid: Ace

Ground Zero Mosque: The Bombast of Imam Feisal: Rosett
Appeals court lets government halt torture lawsuit: WashExam
Mysterious decision at Time magazine changed focus of issue from Palestinians to Israel: SoccerDad

Imam Rauf: “We Gotta Build The Mosque At Ground Zero, Otherwise, Islamists Will Get Violent”: RWN
Merkel honors Danish Mohammed cartoonist with freedom of the press award: Hot Air
What a difference a day makes: CBullitt

SciTech

Google Instant: Search for the now generation: CNet
Rupert Mudoch Should Have Listened: The Paywall Disaster: RWN
Scientists Invent a Tractor Beam: Fox

Cornucopia

Michelle's Wedgie: MagNote
The World's Worst Recruiter... in the World: YouTube
Standard advice on good study habits... turns out to be wrong: Instapundit

Images: Barking Crayon.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Retire Barney Frank -- Support Sean Bielat!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

They're not even trying to fake it

It's an ancient game -- and one that always ends in misery. By that I mean the way the 'progressive left' incites warfare between arbitrary groups of people. It's what they specialize in. They divide people based upon income, race, religion, creed and gender -- pitting one group against the other for petty partisan gain.

Last week it was Al Sharpton and the NAACP accusing the Tea Party conservatives of racism (never mind the roughly two dozen national conservative candidates of color). This week it's outright agitprop by a group called 'American Progress'. Hint: they're un-American and anti-progress.

Here, the deficit is portrayed as the fault of the rich. Never mind the $840 billion 'Stimulus' bill that simply propped up bloated state governments. Forget about the half-a-trillion Omnibus Spending Bill that ratcheted up government hiring at an unprecedented rate. And don't you even mention socialized medicine, because it hasn't kicked in yet. Therefore: it's all the fault of the evil rich--the top 2%.

Who are the evil '2%' -- the Bourgeoisie? Is it the police officer who is married to a flower-shop owner in San Diego, who together make over $200,000 in combined gross income? Or is it the 60-year old machine-shop owner in Tulsa who spent his entire life building a business that grosses slightly over $250,000? Are they the evil 'rich'?

For comparison purposes, consider this poster from the Soviet Union, circa 1950.

Uhm...

• The 'fat-cat' rich living in the lap of luxury? Check

• The down-trodden 'middle class' counting their pennies? Check

• The all-knowing, all-seeing government -- hidden from view, but certain to be far more efficient than the free market? Check and mate.

Gee, can anyone tell me how the Soviet Union turned out?

These leftist Democrats are so freaking stupid it makes me nauseous. History, facts, logic and reason make no difference to them. They blindly believe in and follow an ideology -- an ideology that has failed in every time and place it's been tried. But they believe in it with a religious fervor that can only be compared to that of a cult.

Yes: our current leaders are cultists.

It's November or never.


In the name of all that's holy, Pinch, please please please put Krugman behind the pay-wall again

Even the painfully dimwitted Arthur Sulzberger has to recognize the irony of the situation. On 19 September 2007, his family's rapidly diminishing legacy -- The New York Times -- ended its ill-fated experiment called TimesSelect. The test placed articles it considered important behind a "pay-wall" -- but quickly found that readers didn't share management's high opinion of Krugman, Dowd, Rich and other leftist hacks.

This week, nearly three years later to the day after it dismantled TimesSelect, Pinchy (don't ask) confirmed that the venerable Gray Lady would implement a new pay-wall in 2011.

Readers will be allowed to access a certain number of articles free each month, then will be asked to pay... [Sulzberger] confirmed that the paper will work with Google to implement First Click Free, stressing that "we want to ensure that NYTimes.com continues to be part of the open web ecosystem."

Many details of the pay strategy are yet to be decided, however. "We are still working on deciding what type of content will count towards the metre," as photos and graphics may well require different considerations... "We believe that serious media organisations must start to collect additional revenue from their readers," and "information is less and less yearning to be free." Readers are becoming increasingly willing to buy information on the web if it enhances their lives, he said.

A further incentive towards experimentation is that in the digital age, the cost of changing is low. "If we discover that we've tried something that's not working, we could change it." This should not be seen as failure, he emphasised, but as a willingness to adapt and learn. The TimesSelect experiment in 2007 was not aborted because of a failure to succeed, Sulzberger insisted, but because the paper thought it could make more money from advertising revenue.

Catch that? TimesSelect "was not aborted because of a failure to succeed" -- HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH (breath) HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAH (gasp) HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA (ech, *cough*) HAHHA (ow!). Owwwwww. I think I just sprained my diaphragm.

Speaking of Krugman, earlier today the invaluable Tyler Durden used everything but brass knuckles and a two-by-four on the columnist voted 'Most Likely to be Mistaken for a Weasel'.

The year is 2002, America has just woken up with the worst post dot.com hangover ever. Paul Krugman then, just as now, writes worthless op-eds for the NYT...

And then, just as now, the Keynesian acolyte recommended excess spending as the solution to all of America's problems... So what can we say of those who openly endorsed [inflating a housing bubble] as a solution to America's problems? Enter exhibit A: New York Times, August 2, 2002, "Dubya's Double Dip?"

Name the author: "The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance. To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that... Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."

If you said Krugman, you win. Indeed, the idiocy of Keynesianism knew no bounds then, as it does now. The solution then, as now, to all problems was more bubbles, more spending, more deficits. So we have the implosion tech bubble: And what does Krugman want to create, to fix it? Why, create a housing bubble... Well, at least we know now how that advice played out.

And now what? He wants another trillion in fiscal stimulus... Quadrillion? Sextillion (arguably this cool sounding number is at least 2-4 years away before the Fed brings it into the daily vernacular)? And just like the housing bubble he suggested then brought America to the biggest depression it has ever seen, so his current suggestion will be the economic cataclysm that wipes out America from the face of the earth.

Durden's first concluding question is "how does Krugman still have a forum in which to peddle his destructive ways?" -- to which the hopeful answer is Pinchy's new pay-wall.

Durden's penultimate takedown of Krugman's lunacy will definitely leave a mark.

Which transitions well to the conclusion of Sulzberger's prediction.

Asked about his response to the suggestion that the NYT might print its last edition in 2015, Sulzberger said he saw no point in making such predictions and said all he could say was that "we will stop printing the New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD."

Just give us plenty of warning, Pinchy, so we can schedule the week-long funeral bash.


Stratfor Research: 9/11 and the 9-Year War

By George Friedman

It has now been nine years since al Qaeda attacked the United States. It has been nine years in which the primary focus of the United States has been on the Islamic world. In addition to a massive investment in homeland security, the United States has engaged in two multi-year, multi-divisional wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, inserted forces in other countries in smaller operations and conducted a global covert campaign against al Qaeda and other radical jihadist groups.

In order to understand the last nine years you must understand the first 24 hours of the war — and recall your own feelings in those 24 hours. First, the attack was a shock, its audaciousness frightening. Second, we did not know what was coming next. The attack had destroyed the right to complacent assumptions. Were there other cells standing by in the United States? Did they have capabilities even more substantial than what they showed on Sept. 11? Could they be detected and stopped? Any American not frightened on Sept. 12 was not in touch with reality. Many who are now claiming that the United States overreacted are forgetting their own sense of panic. We are all calm and collected nine years after.

At the root of all of this was a profound lack of understanding of al Qaeda, particularly its capabilities and intentions. Since we did not know what was possible, our only prudent course was to prepare for the worst. That is what the Bush administration did. Nothing symbolized this more than the fear that al Qaeda had acquired nuclear weapons and that they would use them against the United States. The evidence was minimal, but the consequences would be overwhelming. Bush crafted a strategy based on the worst-case scenario.

Bush was the victim of a decade of failure in the intelligence community to understand what al Qaeda was and wasn’t. I am not merely talking about the failure to predict the 9/11 attack. Regardless of assertions afterwards, the intelligence community provided only vague warnings that lacked the kind of specificity that makes for actionable intelligence. To a certain degree, this is understandable. Al Qaeda learned from Soviet, Saudi, Pakistani and American intelligence during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and knew how to launch attacks without tipping off the target. The greatest failure of American intelligence was not the lack of a clear warning about 9/11 but the lack, on Sept. 12, of a clear picture of al Qaeda’s global structure, capabilities, weaknesses and intentions. Without such information, implementing U.S. policy was like piloting an airplane with faulty instruments in a snowstorm at night.

The president had to do three things: First, he had to assure the public that he knew what he was doing. Second, he had to do something that appeared decisive. Third, he had to gear up an intelligence and security apparatus to tell him what the threats actually were and what he ought to do. American policy became ready, fire, aim.

In looking back at the past nine years, two conclusions can be drawn: There were no more large-scale attacks on the United States by militant Islamists, and the United States was left with the legacy of responses that took place in the first two years after 9/11. This legacy is no longer useful, if it ever was, to the primary mission of defeating al Qaeda, and it represents an effort that is retrospectively out of proportion to the threat.

If I had been told on Sept.12, 2001, that the attack the day before would be the last major attack for at least nine years, I would not have believed it. In looking at the complexity of the security and execution of the 9/11 attack, I would have assumed that an organization capable of acting once in such a way could act again even more effectively. My assumption was wrong. Al Qaeda did not have the resources to mount other operations, and the U.S. response, in many ways clumsy and misguided and in other ways clever and targeted, disrupted any preparations in which al Qaeda might have been engaged to conduct follow-on attacks.

Knowing that about al Qaeda in 2001 was impossible. Knowing which operations were helpful in the effort to block them was impossible, in the context of what Americans knew in the first years after the war began. Therefore, Washington wound up in the contradictory situation in which American military and covert operations surged while new attacks failed to materialize. This created a massive political problem. Rather than appearing to be the cause for the lack of attacks, U.S. military operations were perceived by many as being unnecessary or actually increasing the threat of attack. Even in hindsight, aligning U.S. actions with the apparent outcome is difficult and controversial. But still we know two things: It has been nine years since Sept. 11, 2001, and the war goes on.

What happened was that an act of terrorism was allowed to redefine U.S. grand strategy. The United States operates with a grand strategy derived from the British strategy in Europe — maintaining the balance of power. For the United Kingdom, maintaining the balance of power in Europe protected any one power from emerging that could unite Europe and build a fleet to invade the United Kingdom or block its access to its empire. British strategy was to help create coalitions to block emerging hegemons such as Spain, France or Germany. Using overt and covert means, the United Kingdom aimed to ensure that no hegemonic power could emerge.

The Americans inherited that grand strategy from the British but elevated it to a global rather than regional level. Having blocked the Soviet Union from hegemony over Europe and Asia, the United States proceeded with a strategy whose goal, like that of the United Kingdom, was to nip potential regional hegemons in the bud. The U.S. war with Iraq in 1990-91 and the war with Serbia/Yugoslavia in 1999 were examples of this strategy. It involved coalition warfare, shifting America’s weight from side to side and using minimal force to disrupt the plans of regional aspirants to gain power. This U.S. strategy also was cloaked in the ideology of global liberalism and human rights.

The key to this strategy was its global nature. The emergence of a hegemonic contender that could challenge the United States globally, as the Soviet Union had done, was the worst-case scenario. Therefore, the containment of emerging powers wherever they might emerge was the centerpiece of American balance-of-power strategy.

The most significant effect of 9/11 was that it knocked the United States off its strategy. Rather than adapting its standing global strategy to better address the counterterrorism issue, the United States became obsessed with a single region, the area between the Mediterranean and the Hindu Kush. Within that region, the United States operated with a balance-of-power strategy. It played off all of the nations in the region against each other. It did the same with ethnic and religious groups throughout the region and particularly within Iraq and Afghanistan, the main theaters of the war. In both cases, the United States sought to take advantage of internal divisions, shifting its support in various directions to create a balance of power. That, in the end, was what the surge strategy was all about.

The American obsession with this region in the wake of 9/11 is understandable. Nine years later, with no clear end in sight, the question is whether this continued focus is strategically rational for the United States. Given the uncertainties of the first few years, obsession and uncertainty are understandable, but as a long-term U.S. strategy — the long war that the U.S. Department of Defense is preparing for — it leaves the rest of the world uncovered.

Consider that the Russians have used the American absorption in this region as a window of opportunity to work to reconstruct their geopolitical position. When Russia went to war with Georgia in 2008, an American ally, the United States did not have the forces with which to make a prudent intervention. Similarly, the Chinese have had a degree of freedom of action they could not have expected to enjoy prior to 9/11. The single most important result of 9/11 was that it shifted the United States from a global stance to a regional one, allowing other powers to take advantage of this focus to create significant potential challenges to the United States.

One can make the case, as I have, that whatever the origin of the Iraq war, remaining in Iraq to contain Iran is necessary. It is difficult to make a similar case for Afghanistan. Its strategic interest to the United States is minimal. The only justification for the war is that al Qaeda launched its attacks on the United States from Afghanistan. But that justification is no longer valid. Al Qaeda can launch attacks from Yemen or other countries. The fact that Afghanistan was the base from which the attacks were launched does not mean that al Qaeda depends on Afghanistan to launch attacks. And given that the apex leadership of al Qaeda has not launched attacks in a while, the question is whether al Qaeda is capable of launching such attacks any longer. In any case, managing al Qaeda today does not require nation building in Afghanistan.

But let me state a more radical thesis: The threat of terrorism cannot become the singular focus of the United States. Let me push it further: The United States cannot subordinate its grand strategy to simply fighting terrorism even if there will be occasional terrorist attacks on the United States. Three thousand people died in the 9/11 attack. That is a tragedy, but in a nation of over 300 million, 3,000 deaths cannot be permitted to define the totality of national strategy. Certainly, resources must be devoted to combating the threat and, to the extent possible, disrupting it. But it must also be recognized that terrorism cannot always be blocked, that terrorist attacks will occur and that the world’s only global power cannot be captive to this single threat.

The initial response was understandable and necessary. The United States must continue its intelligence gathering and covert operations against militant Islamists throughout the world. The intelligence failures of the 1990s must not be repeated. But waging a multi-divisional war in Afghanistan makes no strategic sense. The balance-of-power strategy must be used. Pakistan will intervene and discover the Russians and Iranians. The great game will continue. As for Iran, regional counters must be supported at limited cost to the United States. The United States should not be patrolling the far reaches of the region. It should be supporting a balance of power among the native powers of the region.

The United States is a global power and, as such, it must have a global view. It has interests and challenges beyond this region and certainly beyond Afghanistan. The issue there is not whether the United States can or can’t win, however that is defined. The issue is whether it is worth the effort considering what is going on in the rest of the world. Gen. David Petraeus cast the war in terms of whether the United States can win it. That’s reasonable; he’s the commander. But American strategy has to ask another question: What does the United States lose elsewhere while it focuses on the future of Kandahar?

The 9/11 attack shocked the United States and made counterterrorism the centerpiece of American foreign policy. That is too narrow a basis on which to base U.S. foreign policy. It is certainly an important strand of that policy, and it must be addressed, but it should be addressed through the regional balance of power. It is the good fortune of the United States that the Islamic world is torn by internal rivalries.

This is not dismissing the threat of terror. It is recognizing that the United States has done well in suppressing it over the past nine years but at a cost in other regions, a cost that can’t be sustained indefinitely and a cost that could well result in challenges more threatening than a rising Islamist militancy. The United States must now settle into a long-term strategy of managing terrorism as best as it can while not neglecting the rest of its interests.

After nine years, the issue is not what to do in Afghanistan but how the global power can return to managing all of its global interests, along with the war on al Qaeda.

9/11 and the 9-Year War is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

Don't Bogart Those Poll Numbers: Barbara Boxer's Campaign Is So Depressing, Her Aide Was Caught Smuggling Pot Into the Senate

I'd liken Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) campaign to a train wreck, but that would unfairly impugn train wrecks.

Yesterday word broke that the pint-sized yenta was involved in an ethical scandal involving payoffs to Rep. Maxine Waters (or her crime gang, I forget which).

Today a CNN-Time poll disclosed that GOP contender Carly Fiorina is now tied with Boxer.

But CNN's polling numbers appear to have been *ahem* skewed to make the incumbent Senator look competitive with Fiorina. Jim Geraghty notes that the internals of CNN's polls claimed that 18% of conservatives supported Boxer.

Riiiiiiiiight.

In possibly related news, one of Boxer's aides was just caught smuggling pot into the U.S. Senate.

A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.

Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — chaired by Boxer — was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to “remove and conceal” a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening... Stanley has worked on Capitol Hill since 2007, according to financial disclosure records from Legistorm, and draws a six-figure salary. He has also worked for the Joint Economic Committee.

No word on whether Boxer herself will be drug-tested.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Hey, let’s create a new, government-run infrastructure bank!

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

Hey, let’s create a new, government-run infrastructure bank!: Malkin
Welcome to the 2010 Election campaign cycle!: RedState
The Battle for America: Sept. 8, 2010: PJM

If ObamaCare was so great, why are Dems running away?: RWN
The 9/12 Rally in DC: RWN
It's Time to Worry About Houston: PJM

Economy

Wasn't the first Stimulus supposed to fix our roads?: Virtuous
Scattershot Stimulus: NRO
Obamaconomy: trillions in defict spending bumped GDP 1.6%: WSJ

SEIU’s Illegal Fund-Raising Scheme: GWP
Shockingly, Al Sharpton is also a financial charlatan: Malkin
Barack's Cunning Plan?: AT

Stadium Deal in LA a Money-Pit: RWN
The War on Academic Achievement: AT
Obama's Disengenuous Proposals About Politics, Not Economy: IBD

Climate & Energy

National Temperature Comparison 1931-1934 to 2007-2010….: Virtuous
Australia's Rudd-in-a-dress wants her piece of the CO2 scam: CBullitt (Language)
Naked nuts pedal through Philadelphia to promote cleaner air and stinky bicycle seats: BlogProf

Media

Video: the Forgotten Man: Malkin
Our celebrity President demonstrates classic juvenile bullying tactics while groveling before unions: Toldjah
Did We Really Overreact to 9/11? A response to Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek.: PJM

George Schwartz, the Jewish Nazi: Ezra Levant
Well, Since Time Asked About Us Last Week…: Driscoll
The Delusional Cynthia Tucker: BlogProf

Profile in Bias: Four Years of Katie Couric's Liberal Spin as 'CBS Evening News' Anchor: NewsBusters
'Web of Lies' -- A JournoLiar Browser App?: AT (Lewis)
Michael Moore Goes Ballistic on Rahm Emanuel: FoxNation

World

Islamic Triumphalism: Cruel Lessons From History for New York City -Part I: LATL
Join Us on 9/11 at the Rally of Remembrance at Ground Zero: Atlas
The Ground Zero Mosque’s Strange Background: NRO

Fear of the Nazi Street: GoV
WTF?! Bloomberg Still Wants Ground Zero Mosque Even After Hamas Connection: iOTW
A Totally Different Approach on the "Ground Zero Mosque" Controversy: BRubin

Allama Obama: RWN
George Soros showers $100 million on the virulently anti-Israel Human Rights Watch: Malkin
Britain’s Welfare State: The Model of Unsustainability: RWN

SciTech

R.I.P. 3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website: Convince & Convert
10 Lessons I've Learned from My SEO Career: Powered by Search
Google Introduces Realtime Stats for Blogger.com: Technorati

Cornucopia

How I Saved a 747 From Crashing: Jalopnik
Team Australia, World Police: Blair
Are you gonna finish strong?: Nick Vujicic

Images: Maktoob.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Christine O'Donnell in Maryland--No More RINOs!

QOTD: "The Dems are a cancer that was ignored 40 years ago. It has now metastized. We're going to need more than a November 2010/2012 corrected elections." -- Anonymous


Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Let me see if I get this straight...

Let me see if I get this straight:

• The State Department warns travelers to Saudi Arabia that the "public display of non-Islamic religious articles such as crosses and Bibles is not permitted."

• Travel to Makkah (Mecca) and Medina, the cities where the two holiest mosques of Islam are located, is forbidden to non-Muslims.

• The Saudi government forbids the practice of other religions. There are precisely zero churches, synagogues and temples in the country.

• Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy and is, in most circumstances, punishable by death.

• Proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal, including the distribution of non-Muslim religious materials; if caught doing so, you will be arrested, charged with proselytizing, and forced to serve two or more months in prison.

• Saudi women are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims.

• The Government requires non-citizens to carry Iqamas, or legal resident identity cards, which contain a religious designation for "Muslim" or "non-Muslim."

• Women do not have the right to drive.

• A teacher in Saudi Arabi was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and praised Jews.

But it's American citizens that are intolerant for opposing the construction of New York's 150th mosque -- because it's located at Ground Zero.

What a frickin' crock.

The luminescent brilliance of the Hillary State Department--negotiating position of Palestinian Authority is that Israel should be destroyed

Gee, you mean 'the peace process' got aborted before it even began? Who'da thought it, considering one side doesn't even acknowledge the right of the other side to... eh... exist.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told interviewers that he would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

Abbas reportedly said that his position is no different from those Arafat present in previous negotiations, and that his staff is the same as Arafat's.

He also hinted that the PA may fall apart if there is no hope for a solution in the near future. He then repeated that the PA will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Memo to self: never negotiate with a bloodthirsty murderer who has devoted his life to killing me and my family.