Monday, November 30, 2009
Climategate Heats Up
This is a scandal that won't die. Nor should it.
Tiger II
As predicted by Spencerblog, it appears another woman was involved. The National Enquirer has the story. And let's face it, they got the John Edwards "Love Child" story right.
What is lame is Tiger's attempt to blame the supermarket media for being curious about his extra curricular love life while obviously hiding the truth about what occurred.
In a statement on his website, Woods (or someone authorized by him) wrote:
As you all know, I had a single-car accident earlier this week, and sustained some injuries. I have some cuts, bruising and right now I'm pretty sore.Notice, he doesn't mention how he managed to drive into a fire hydrant, then and a tree, at a speed slow enough not to cause his airbags to deploy.
This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me. I'm human and I'm not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn't happen again.
This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way. Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.Fine. But notice he doesn't deny an inappropriate relationship with the woman in question. In the most round about way he seems to admit it while telling everyone it's none of their business.
The only person responsible for the accident is me. My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false.Translation: "I got caught cheating. My wife came after me with a golf club. I took off in my Cadillac Escalade to avoid a confrontation. She followed me and smashed out two back windows as I tried to drive away. It distracted me enough for me to plow into a fire hyndrant.
"If I hadn't been cheating, she wouldn't have had to do that. She's brave. She was just protecting her family when she attacked me and my Escalade. I was horny and stupid. I won't cheat again. I promise. Now everybody else, mind your own business. Especially you bastards at the National Enquirer."
Tiger has declined to discuss what happened with the police. I don't blame him. My favorite part of the story is the police chief saying Mr. Woods is under no legal obligation to give a statement. That's damn right.
Meanwhile, the world will construe according to its wits... and Tiger should "no comment" it from here on. He's already in enough trouble.
What's the Big Idea?
Take away Roger.
Mr. Smith and Washington
More and more such residents are declaring themselves independents.
"These are the people that might not attend a Tea Party, but they find them aligned with their concerns," says pollster G. Terry Madonna. "They are less and less happy with government ... so they end up unaligned."But this is especially bad news for Democrats, which is the party of government.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A Blast From the Past
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Party Crashers in Perspective
It came from a tomb call The Big Book of Jokes and Riddles and it went like this:
Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jumped over
a candlestick.
Big deal.
When my mom read that I laughed so hard I nearly popped a stitch.
Crashing a party at the White House may not be quite as funny, but when it comes to "big deals" it's about as impressive as jumping over an unlit candle.
Tiger By the Tale
UPDATE: TMZ has a more plausible (yet still unverified) story. It involves another woman, a furious Mrs. Woods and a golf club. This isn't just a great story. It's the punchline to my favorite golf joke.
COP: So, Elin, how many times did you hit him?
ELIN: I don't know four, five... put me down for a six!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Howling Into The Wind
Money Q:
For decades, a large amount of “liberal” politics had really been tribal hatred. This helps explain why there’s nothing resembling a progressive politics in this benighted, laughing-stock nation. In all honesty, pseudo-liberals are in this game so we can vent at the unwashed masses—at the tea-baggers, the redneck racists, the people whose limbic brains don’t work right.
Global Warming Chicanery
Charles Krauthammer made an excellent point the other day when he reiterated that the language used by the warmists and their acolytes in the media to discredit skeptics is meant to marginalize them socially as well as politically.
They are called global warming "deniers" the same phrase used to describe "holocaust deniers" to put them all beyond the pale. This is ridiculously unfair and inaccurate given that the holocaust already happened and disastrous global warming is "speculative" based on theories and computers models that have been proven less than wholly accurate at best.
These activists and scientists are NOT rigorously, dispassionately and objectively admitting what they DON'T KNOW. They are acting like they can predict the future when THEY CAN'T. Many of their predictions from just 10 years ago have already been proven wrong. Nonetheless, these people want to impose draconian environmental regulations and costs on a world that is undergoing the worst depression in 80 years.
These people are very close to meeting the definition of fanatics.
Polanski Bailed Out
He will be under electronic monitoring at his chalet in Gstaad.
I have no problem with this as long as Swiss officials don't go soft and decide his recent incarceration is enough in the way of justice. Justice requires he be returned to the U.S. from which he fled to avoid sentencing for his crimes back in the late 1970s.
It is not the Swiss government's job to punish Polanski. It IS it's job to return him to the scene of his crimes so that he might get his just desserts.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Congressman Copperfield
When you knowingly pay someone to lie to you, we call the deceiver an illusionist or a magician. When you unwittingly pay someone to do the same thing, I call him a politician.Not quite.
We don't unwittingly pay politicians, we KNOW we pay them. We also know they as a group they lie, or least evade telling us hard truths and make tough decisions.
As for magicians, in the 80s a comedian used to do a bit about how he didn't like magicians because their job is to make fools out of us.
As in: "Here's a quarter. Now, it's gone. You're a jerk!"
Magicians have more in common with politicians than they should.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Forte gets 15
Over 13 years he fleeced some 76 people out of more than $34 million and ruined dozens of lives.
He said he was sorry.
More tomorrow in my print column
His Forte Was Stealing
Here's the column I wrote after Forte appeared in federal court to answer charges against him earlier this year. I think it holds up pretty well.
Who Let This Cat Out?
He gets house arrest. The good news: The Eagles are interested in signing him.
Climategate II
Yet even a partial review of the emails is highly illuminating. In them, scientists appear to urge each other to present a "unified" view on the theory of man-made climate change while discussing the importance of the "common cause"; to advise each other on how to smooth over data so as not to compromise the favored hypothesis; to discuss ways to keep opposing views out of leading journals; and to give tips on how to "hide the decline" of temperature in certain inconvenient data.UPDATE: Note that a huge player in this scandal is from our own state university, Michael Mann, director of Penn State's Earth Systems Science Center.
UDATE: Megan McCardle has a fair post on matter. (Fair as in reasonable, not mediocre).
Monday, November 23, 2009
Not Evil, Just Wrong
Why? Well, for one thing, it has killed innocent children by the millions.
That "Historic" Health Care Bill...
Historic? OK, but then so was Waterloo, the Holocaust and the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
What the Senate agreed to do was NOT pass the bill, but debate the bill.
And those mean old Republicans? According to the AP, they're "eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama," NOT "save the American people from a deficit-busting, liberty-curtailing legislative disaster."
Thank you, AP for that bit of objective, non-ideological fact-checking.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
A Scientific Warming Scandal?
Late on the night of of November 19, news broke on PJM and elsewhere that a large amount of data had been stolen from one of the major climate research institutions by an unknown hacker and made available on the Internet. The institution is the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, home institution for Dr Phil Jones and one of the world’s centers of research into anthropogenic global warming (AGW), or “climate change.”
The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear.
The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.
The emails are incendiary.
The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their roots.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
"Let's Roll.... Over."
He was impressed, but not favorably.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), displayed the division in our country not only visually—the Democrats were seated on the left and the Republicans on the right—but in every aspect of the proceedings. I expected that some members would agree with Mr. Holder and that others would have challenging questions about his decision. What I did not anticipate was the level of partisanship showed by the majority party. It seemed clear to me and other family members of victims that party loyalty is trumping concern for America's security interests.
Friday, November 20, 2009
That Mona Lisa Strangeness in His Smile
You Call Yourself a Black Man?
But you can admit to wanting to castrate Barack Obama and call yourself a black man. As long as you apologize for it.
Jackass Shooters Nabbed
Money Q:
According to the arrest affidavit, a witness heard Johnson and Smith laughing the day after Stewart was shot about “an old lady getting shot in the bed.”I'd have a beef with the anyone who shot a friend of mine in the eye. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't kill an innocent woman in her mother's home to get even.
“They don’t give a f—- if one of our moms got shot, so I don’t give a f—- about her,” the affidavit quotes Smith. “Man, f—- that b—-.”
When asked if they had been in the area when Stewart was shot, Johnson allegedly responded, “Yeah, we did that s—-, we was chasing the bull on Franklin Street and hit the corner while we was shooting.” According to the affidavit, Johnson said they didn’t mean to kill Stewart, but added, “It is what it is.”
The two suspects allegedly said they had gone to the William Penn development because of a “beef” over one of their friends being shot in the eye.
BTW, good police work too.
Stuart Taylor for Attorney General
I am not convinced. But Taylor makes the case much better than Obama's own attorney general Eric Holder.
Taylor for AG.
Palin Derangement Disorder
UPDATE: My friend Donna checks in to ask:
Is there a vaccine available? According to the "experts", we seniors over 65 are not supposed to be as susceptible to H1N1. Certainly hope this applies to PDD. I have had my flu shot, my pneumonia shot,my booster diptheria shot, and even a shingles shot! I would definitely take a vaccine for PDD. I also recommend that Letterman get in line.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Needful Suffering
In overturning the conviction of a murderer, the state Supreme Court claimed that the victim didn't "suffer needlessly" while trying to prevent the robbery of her home. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed:
The jury saw autopsy photographs showing Steacy McConnell’s mangled head, her skull crushed by 15 to 20 blows from a steel dumbbell bar the jury found to have been wielded by Belmontes. McConnell’s corpse showed numerous “defensive bruises and contusions on . . . [her] hands, arms, and feet,” . . . which “plainly evidenced a desperate struggle for life at [Belmontes’] hands.” Belmontes left McConnell to die, but officers found her still fighting for her life before ultimately succumbing to the injuries caused by the blows from Belmontes. The jury also heard that this savage murder was committed solely to prevent interference with a burglary that netted Belmontes $100 he used to buy beer and drugs for the night.Obviously, the learned justices in California concluded Ms. McConnell suffered just the right amount.
Pass the Haterade, Palin Wrote a Book
As David Harsanyi points out you don't have to be a supporter of a Palin presidential run to think the Sarah Palin haters (Andrew Sullivan, Thomas Frank, Maureen Dowd, et al) have issues. They are trashing her autobiography "Going Rogue" with unmitigated glee.
For this bunch it is required to hate Palin in order to be considered cool. Call it "Going Vogue."
UPDATE: WaPo's Richard Cohen joins the club. Make that an institute.
Finally, the Institute for the Study of Sarah Palin will mull what she represents. She has a phenomenal favorability rating among Republicans -- 76 percent -- who have a quite irrational belief that she would not make such a bad president. What they mean is that she will act out their resentments -- take an ax to the people and institutions they hate. The Palin Movement is fueled by high-octane bile and it is worth watching and studying for these reasons alone.High-octane bile, as opposed to the Anti-Palin Movement which is fueled by love, sweetness and light.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Hunger Strikes America
I'm one of them. I haven't had my breakfast yet. I'm hungry.
UPDATE: I just had a banana. Make it 48,999,999.
Yuppie Moonshine?
10. Super yuppies can drink obscenely-priced moon water.
AVBL v. Penn Delco School District
More later.
UPDATE: Just checked the courthouse for the filing but all it contained were preliminary filing from AVBL attorney Frank Catania. These documents signal the intention to sue. But there is no formal lawsuit with a bill of particulars yet.
Andrew Cohen, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and You
The Atlantic's Andrew Cohen points the finger at the real culprit: YOU!
For years, you didn’t raise your voice and tell your elected officials that you welcomed a fair trial for the detainees under military rules. For years, you didn’t demand that the detainees have lawyers, or access to some of the evidence against them, or meaningful appellate review, or protection from abuse. Either you didn’t have confidence in the evidence against the men, or the application of the law, or you believed that America would somehow be rendered diminished and vulnerable by giving people like Mohammed more justice than they deserve. When the White House and the Congress reluctantly followed the letter but proudly not the spirit of the Supreme Court’s rulings in Hamdan or Hamdi or Boumediene you just changed the channel and moved on with your life.Don't you hate yourself? No? What? You're wondering who the hell is Andrew Cohen to lecture you? What? You want to punch Andrew Cohen in the face and tell him: "Move to Brussels, hippie!" See, that's what's the matter with America. Not enough people listen to Andrew Cohen and President Obama. They are smart. You are stupid. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You should be embarrassed.
Look, idiot, when a pollster calls, don't tell him what YOU think! Who cares what YOU think? You're a moron! Listen to Andrew Cohen and the President of the United States and repeat after them: "If we don't try the 9/11 terrorists in a civilian court in New York City, the terrorists will have won." Or "This will show the world, America isn't afraid to live up to its principles." Got it, Stupid? Sheesh. Having to explain things to YOU is like talking to a coffee table. Now go back to your pathetic boring little life, doing whatever it is you do do and don't make Andrew Cohen have to lecture you again.
Shot Twice in the Head; Recovering
.A homeowner told police a teenage boy had knocked on the door five minutes earlier complaining about a head injury. When police arrived, the teenager was gone. He was subsequently located at Third and Main streets, semiconscious and bleeding from the back of his head, police said.This kid must have a pretty hard head. Lucky him.
The victim, who suffered two gunshot wounds to the back of his head, told police he didn’t know what happened to him. He said he had been on his way to visit a girlfriend in Darby.
Father Busted for Beating Son
If at anytime during the beating he said "This hurts me more than it hurts you," turns out he was right.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Lies, Lies, and More Lies
But the unpopularity of Obamacare isn't because of Republican lies about it. It's because of the president's lies about it.
Robert Samuelson explains here.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Meet the Manhattan Madam
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Another Bad Call, Eric!
The most distressing part of Kobach's piece: It could take 5 years before any such trial begins.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Harvard Whores for Spitzer
Dear Professor Lessig:Good letter. Check out the rest of it.
I have been informed that you are having former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speak on ethics this Thursday November 12, 2009. This sounds fascinating and I would love to attend but the restrictions of my probation won't allow me to travel out side New York City.
For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.
Muslims Don't Tolerate Muslim Fanaticism
In places like Algeria, Egypt and Libya, Muslim officers watch over their Muslim conscripts with relentless scrutiny lest any unscripted forms of freelance worship sneak into the picture. Their prisons are full of Muslim Brotherhood conspirators undergoing torture--if they haven't already disappeared into secret graves. In Saddam's military, turbulent believers often went straight to the frontlines during the Iran-Iraq war. Others found that their views rebounded onto the limbs and lives of family members in the most palpable of ways.Read the whole thing, it's fascinating.
Not that we should follow Saddam's lead. But the least we should do is not be cowed by the sort of political correctness that leads people to turn a blind eye to these fanatics.
That's The Guy!
Phones at the police station must be ringing off the hook.
At least, you can tell from the eyes it isn't Roman Polanski.
Odious Evasions
"I cringe that he's a Muslim. ... I think he's probably just a nut case," said Newsweek's Evan Thomas. Some were more adamant. Time's Joe Klein decried "odious attempts by Jewish extremists ... to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs." While none could match Klein's peculiar cherchez-le-juif motif, the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.Yeah, right.
They suffered. He listened. He snapped.
But this too needs to be said. While in some media precincts these sorts of idiotic evasions have been circulated, the real facts of the story have gotten out. Krauthammer quotes NPR's reporting at length. While some commentators and editors continue to avoid certain obvious truths about this terrorist act, a lot of good, solid reporting is being done. The facts are getting out to the public, and the public in general understands what happened at Ft. Hood and why.
More and more it is obvious that the Army brass looked the other way while Maj. Hasan was publicly expressing deeply anti-American and pro-jihadist views. If he had been a white supremecist, he would have rightly been drummed out of the military in short order. But fear of appearing anti-Muslim, seemed to have prevented the top brass from acting in Hasan's case. That fear allowed Hasan to carry out his religious/terrorist mission against U.S. military personnel. Those officers who looked the other way should be held to account.
One of the dumber things that has been said in the aftermath of all this, wasn't said by a media knucklehead. It was said by the Army's top officer, Gen. George Casey.
"Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said.
This was beyond insensitive to families of the soldiers under Casey's command who were murdered. It was a ridiculously stupid thing for him to say. But it goes to show just how politically correct even the U.S. military has become when it comes to worshipping diversity.
Let's be clear: There is NO chance the "diversity" of our military services is going to threatened by some imagined backlash to Hasan's crimes. Not a single serious person has argued for removing all the Muslims serving in our military. And no serious person will.
But 14 people are dead. Not because of "diversity" but because too many in the military bureaucracy became too fearful of being accused of being anti-Muslim to deal with an obvious and known security threat.
Heads should roll. Maybe even Casey's if he actually believes his own idiotic statements.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
About that Crash; It's the Cops' Fault
Read the comments on this story and you'll find one from somebody who wants to blame the police.
Sheeez!
Lentz v. Vitali?
But isn't he afraid that his much more experienced colleague, anti-global warming zealot Greg Vitali (D-Havertown), will jump into the race?
For some reason, I don't think so.
Blink, You're Dead
Read the whole thing.
Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance
A few weeks ago, Zachary Christie of Newark, in Joe Biden’s Grand Duchy of Delaware, joined the Cub Scouts. In the course of so doing, he acquired one of those combination knife-fork-spoon utensils that come in so useful when you’re in tucking in to a hearty meal round the camp fire. Zachary is only six so he can’t be blamed for not knowing that the Scouts are systemically homophobic and that it’s dangerous to sit round camp fires without wearing protective gear at a distance of at least 200 yards and with a federally-licensed fire control operative supervising conflagration.Read it all.
We Are Shocked, Shocked...
About That Abduction Attempt
The bus driver told FOX News she didn't see anyone and the girl didn't say anything to her when she go on. The girl texted her father from the bus about what allegedly happened.
Question: Is everybody reasonably sure this guy exists?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Revolution Continues
No comment yet from Mr. Sean Penn, noted Bush hater, Castro apologist and movie actor.
UPDATE: Add "aspiring journalist" to Penn's bag of tricks.
Can You Believe It!
More here on this lunacy from Stephanie Gutmann.
The Executioner's Song
Nice job, girls!
UPDATE/Correction: It was only the standard 72 Virgins. I was thinking of trombones.
An Unserious American Elite
The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the struggle against Islam is the central feature of American foreign policy. It ignored the fact that this narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.Brooks is being kind (or circumspect) in not naming his own editors as being complicit in this unseriousness. It is liberal elites - both political and in the media - that fall victim to this kind of dangerous political correctness. Even military elites are suseptible to its power in the name of "diversity."
It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.
Brooks:
Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.Such is the contempt these brilliant feelers have for the American people. No wonder, more and more they are being laughed at and ignored.
Dems Healthcare Bill, Stosselized
Here's ABC's John Stossel on the Democrats' monstrosity of a healthcare bill:
The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by "experts" means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs.
Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to "homeowners" who turn out to be 4-year-olds. Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance.
Al Gore: Catastrophe Salesman
The truth is, evidence of man's impact on climate remains maddeningly elusive, in part because man's impact on climate is so small as to be hard to disentangle from natural variability. This is not Mr. Gore's position, of course. If anything, however, the case for action has become less closed since he pronounced it closed in 1989, if only because of the huge sums and manpower poured into the subject to little avail.Read it all.
More here from George Will on the absurdity that is the Waxman-Markey climate bill.
(It's) goal is just slightly more than 1 billion tons of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2050. The last time this nation had that small an amount was 1910, when there were only 92 million Americans, 328 million fewer than the 420 million projected for 2050. To meet the 83 percent reduction target in a nation of 420 million, per capita carbon-dioxide emissions would have to be no more than 2.4 tons per person, which is one quarter the per capita emissions of 1910, a level probably last seen when the population was 45 million—in 1875.Not since Steve Martin set the small goal of becoming the "All Being, Master of Space, Time and Dimension" has a goal been so laughably unattainable. But then, Martin was going for laughs. Vladimir Waxman and Karl Markey are going for something else.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
UPS vs. Federal Express
Educational and fun too.
Mad About Mad Men
For more read Thomas Hibbs' review on NRO.
My one prediction for this unpredictable show next season: Betty (the smokin' January Jones) will not be happy in her new relationship.
While Krugman Whimpers, Zakaria Analyzes
The bottom line on last week's elections is simple—the Republicans did well. Yes, these were a grab-bag collection of races with local particularities and low turnout. But notice that independents, who had shunned the GOP over the last few years, voted for the party in large numbers. And the overall results are consistent with a surprising trend across the Western world—the rise of the right.Democratic leaders especially should read the whole thing.
Update: More here, on the GOP victory in Virginia from Jennifer Rubin.
Krugman = Hysterical Hypocrite
Funny, we don't recall Krugman being frightened by leftists and their Hitler references to George W. Bush (just keep scrolling) during his time in office.
If Krugman's fellow leftists use Hitler comparisons, no problem. If anti-Obamacare protestors use them, "something unprecedented is happening... and it’s very bad for America."
The New York Times supposedlly hired Krugman because of his expertise in economics. What it got was a far-left partisan hack who is becoming more unhinged by the day.
UPDATE: New and improved link above for all those tasteful Bush=Hitler photos.
The Magic Number is 60
“They know they don’t have 60 votes,” said former Senator John Breaux, who now heads a lobbying firm that represents the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s Washington trade group. “They have to go back to the drawing board” on the plan to set up a government-run insurer, he said.
When Political Correctness Kills
He also cites newspapers that didn't shrink from providing inconvenient facts:
The Sunday Telegraph reports that Hasan "once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats":More here.
He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July. . . .
Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second."
One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.
UPDATE: In related news...
Monday, November 9, 2009
"Going Muslim"
The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage--the camouflage of integration--in an act of revelatory catharsis.Read it all.
In spite of suggestions by some who know him that he had a history of "harassment" as a Muslim in the army, Maj. Hasan did not "snap" in the "postal" manner. He gave away his possessions on the morning of his day of murder. He even gave away--to a neighbor--a packet of frozen broccoli that he did not wish to see go to waste, even as he mapped in his mind the laying waste of lives at Fort Hood. His was a meticulous, even punctilious "departure."
Barack Bears Reponsibility?
UPDATE: Maybe it's the bears' way of protesting Obama's economic policies, by going pachyderm to show their support for their American cousins.
Scuzzy Political Thinking
Dede Scozzafava, the choice of ridiculously out of touch GOP bosses, was a far-left liberal who supports gay marriage, abortion on demand and Obama's huge stimulus plan that not a single Republican in the house supported.
Call her what you want but Republican "moderate" doesn't apply.
Avatar Baby
Can a movie studio make money on a film based on an original and unfamiliar story, with no Hollywood superstars, a vanishing DVD market and a price tag approaching $500 million?Having seen the previews the answer is "No!"
This looks like one of those straight to DVD jobs, if not for the ridiculous budget. Prediction: This is James Cameron's Titantic. His ego plays the iceberg.
The Terrorism That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Money Q:
President Barack Obama's display on Thursday made my point more clearly than it usually can be made, for he turned on a dime. He assumed the "presidential grieving tone" over the Fort Hood massacre, the moment after he'd just done an equally scripted segment of light joking banter for the benefit of the Tribal Nations Conference he was addressing. Millions in the television audience must have watched this incredibly cynical "quick flip." I wonder how many noticed it?More than a few.
Buy This Book, Or We'll Shoot This Puppy
Did you know your dog has a bigger carbon paw print than a Toyota Land Cruiser? Well, it does. Read the book.
My buddy Mulshine said a UPS driver, had a better title:
Wok the Dog!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Nancy Rams Through Her Health Bill
Money Q:
The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.
United in opposition, minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.
"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, 'this is making me sick,'" jabbed Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., adding that Democrats were intent on passing "a jobs-killing, tax-hiking, deficit-exploding" bill.
It's a Shooting Match
UPDATE: After only half the vote was counted last night but running 2 to 1 against Dottie Berry, she congratulated her opponent, John Hendry, on his victory and left the club to go on a long-planned vacation. More than 600 members of the Delaware County Field and Stream Association turned out to vote over the weekend in this contentious election.
More tomorrow.
UPDATE II: Berry running mate Don Taylor just checked in to say the vote went 4 to 1 againt their ticket.
"I thought it was going to be closer. All you can do is put yourself out there. The membership has spoken. It was an historical turnout. If nothing else the club had a sense of the democratic process."
Even better, no one was wounded or killed.
Congrats to the winners, John Hendry, Bud Feindt (as in Pint), John Moloko and the rest of their slate.
Three Cheers!
The athletes (of which Jake Spencer is one) are the stars. But the heroes are the incredibly kind Villanova students who show up to cheer them on.
Not to mention the parents and adult volunteers from all over the state who drive, coach and care for them.
Kudos to them all.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Imagine One for the Gibber!
Ah, yeah.
Happily Ever After - NOT!
On November 3, the fairy tale died. The election results in Virginia and New Jersey dismantled the self-satisfied, just-so story that Democrats have been telling themselves about last year's election.Sing with me now:
Fairy Tales can come true,
It can happen to you
If you're dumb at heart...
Friday, November 6, 2009
Mr. Green Genes
A Date That Will Live in Infamy
The Dem's Tippy Canoe and Obama Too
Kim Strassel reports:
"We don't look at either of these gubernatorial races . . . as something that portends a lot for our legislative efforts," insisted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday, as New Jersey and Virginia voters gave Democrats a thumping. Unfortunately for the White House, its opinion no longer counts.Read the whole thing.
On Jan. 20, Barack Obama began a race against time. The White House knew its liberal agenda would prove unpopular in many parts of the country represented by Democrats. So long as the president looked strong, those Blue Dogs and freshmen and swing-state senators would stick. Show them any sign of weakness, however, and rattled Dems would begin to care more about their own re-elections than they did their president.
Tuesday, the White House hit that tipping point.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hope and Change in New Jersey
A Bridge Too Far
"It reminds me of Major Nicholson, the obsessed British major in the film 'Bridge on the River Kwai,'" one Democrat told me. "She is fixated on finishing her health care bridge even as she's lost sight of where it's going and what damage it could cause to her own troops."What does she care if a few Democrats lose their seats in the next election. Her seat's safe. Harry Reid's? Not so much.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
GOP Has a Good Night
Obama has three years to right his own ship. But last night's election returns do not bode well for the party as a whole next year.
Suddenly, millions of voters don't think the country's in the very best of hands.
UPDATE: In New Jersey, in particular, where Obama appeared three times to bolster support for Jon Conzine, voters were not swayed.
"Get a mop," was one of Obama's big campaign lines. In New Jersey, the voters did.
UPDATE II: And that's bad for Obama and other big-government progressives.
This Bud's For You, Science Man!
If Basil's the designated driver get me a go-cup for the trip back to earth. Ummm, Beer!
Dems Win in Chester
Fred Pickett might be an excellent basketball coach but that doesn't mean he's necessarily well-qualified to help manage a city government.
Linder and West are hardly radical insurgents from the Barbara Bohannon Sheppard school of political symbolism. They are thoughtful, responsible people who it appears will work with the Republicans on council and Mayor Wendell Butler to manage the city - to the extent that Chester is a managable city.
Elsewhere, Republicans manage to win county-wide offices by large margins which, given the big increase in Democratic registration over the last couple election cycles, is a tribute to the GOP machine.
Collins Loses But is No Loser
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
A Winning Personality: NOT!
Stuart Rothenberg has seen enough to hold him up as the poster boy on how NOT to run for re-election.
Election Day
Went to Chester and ran into Thaddeus Kirkland, John Linder, Portia West, and even Mayor Wendell Butler working the polls. Beautiful morning but turnout seemed lighter than light. It was downright effervescent. Maybe everyone is sleeping in after last night's World Series game.
If you went to sleep early thinking the Phil's 8-2 to lead was safe in the 8th, I envy you.
More on Collins in tomorrow's print column.
State Rep. Greg Vitali is on his way in to the Daily Times to explain why it's not only environmentally important for the state to pass new mandates on energy providers and businesses to use cleaner energy, but how it makes economic sense and will create jobs.
I can't wait.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thuggish Liberalism at Work
And what does Planned Parenthood do about it? It sues her.
The Wisdom of a Conservative
A true conservative today should stress construction, encouragement, moderation and understanding instead of destruction, prohibition, extremism and slogans. A conservative thinks in terms of countless minor corrections and improvements based on experience and experiment rather than in terms of a universal, uniform solution based on theory and enforced by inflexible law.Read the whole thing.
A conservative, in the best sense, sees the world and its inhabitants as an interdependent organism, comprising innumerable local communities and territories, each adapting to particular conditions. A conservative is someone who goes with the grain of humanity and the nature of the physical world, rather than trying to regiment and fashion a utopia through force of law. And, needless to say, an acceptable conservative is not one who thinks all the answers are obvious but is a modest person who admits that problems are not easily solved, that perfection is unattainable in this world and that it is often necessary to admit mistakes, change one's mind and start again.
Pelosi's Frankensteinian Health Bill
A Season On The Brink!
That said, there is no reason to believe this series is over. The Phillies are not in the World Series by mistake. They played their way here and are perfectly capable of beating any team in baseball three straight games, including the New York Yankees.
Tonight, the best pitcher in baseball, Cliff Lee, takes the mound. With their backs against the wall who doubts the World Champions won't rally behind him?
Back in New York, if the Phillies can get an early lead in Game 6, the Yankees might start getting nervous. Win that and anything can happen in Game 7. The Yankees have proven their ability to collapse when the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat them in the 2004 ALCS.
The Phillies can still win this thing.
It's my birthday and I can dream if I want to.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The Nut Store
Hmm. If ACORN thinks it so important for the citizens of Chester to have a supermarket, why doesn't build them one? ACORN received tens of millions in federal funds over the last ten years, certainly enough to build a $4 million supermarket.
Recently, America learned ACORN was more interested in giving advice to hookers and pimps on how to import child prostitutes into this country than opening grocery stores for the poor.
It would probably be illegal for ACORN to use taxpayer money to open a for-profit business but why should that stop them? Poor people and their advocates can't be expected to obey the laws everybody else has to live by. It's just not fair.