The Battle of 2010: TEA PARTIERS VERSUS THE AXIS OF TAXES; THE TAX-PAYERS VERSUS THE TAX-GETTERS

THE TAX-GETTERS HAVE BEEN TOO WELL FOR YEARS; SF IS JUST OE EXAMPLE:

Mayor Gavin Newsom may be San Francisco's leader, but he's only 29th on the list of highest-paid city employees, more than a third of whose earnings topped $100,000 last year.

Newsom, whose salary is $250,903, is one of 9,487 workers who grossed more than $100,000 last year, including overtime.

Top earner Charles Keohane, a former deputy police chief who earned $516,118, retired last year, cashing out stored-up vacation, sick days and comp time.

The highest salary among the city's nearly 27,000 workers is $332,489, earned by Nathaniel Ford, head of the agency that runs the city's light rail and bus systems.

Steve Falk, city Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, says state employment data show city workers average 20 percent more pay than the private sector. The city's Department of Human Resources found that San Francisco pays similar salaries as other locales in the region for some jobs and slightly more for others.

Deputy City Controller Monique Zmuda said city worker salaries averaged $93,000 before benefits. Almost 100 city employees made $200,000 or more in 2009. Six topped $300,000, including overtime and cash-outs.

Salaries accounted for $2.5 billion of the city's $6.6 billion budget for the fiscal year ending in June 2009. That does not include the costs of benefits.

GOVERNOR CHRISTIE IS A CHAMPION OF THE TAX-PAYERS WHO IS WILLING TO TAKE ON THE TAX-GETTERS:

George Will writes about how Gov. Christie is Bringing Thunder-ous change to New Jersey

He inherited a $2.2 billion deficit, and next year’s projected deficit of $10.7 billion is, relative to the state’s $29.3 billion budget, the nation’s worst. Democrats, with the verbal tic — "Tax the rich!" — that passes for progressive thinking, demanded that he reinstate the "millionaire’s tax," which hit "millionaires" earning $400,000 until it expired Dec. 31. Instead, Christie noted that between 2004 and 2008 there was a net outflow of $70 billion in wealth as "the rich," including small businesses, fled. And he said previous administrations had "raised taxes 115 times in the last eight years alone."

So he closed the $2.2 billion gap by accepting 375 of 378 suggested spending freezes and cuts. In two weeks. By executive actions. In eight weeks he cut $13 billion — $232 million a day, $9 million an hour. Now comes the hard part.

Government employees’ health benefits are, he says, "41 percent more expensive" than those of the average Fortune 500 company. Without changes in current law, "spending will have increased 322 percent in 20 years — over 16 percent a year." There is, he says, a connection between the state’s being No. 1 in total tax burden and being No. 1 in the proportion of college students who, after graduating, leave the state.

A MAJOR PART OF THE GREAT REBELLION SHAPING UP IN THE USA IS A TAX REVOLT - HENCE THE RELEVANCE OF THE TEA PARTY APPELLATION.

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANT CHEAPER SMALLER GOVERNMENT, NOT BIGGER GOVERNMENT. WE WANT CHEAPER HEALTH INSURANCE, NOT MORE GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE REGULATIONS.

WHY ARE WE GETTING MORE GOVERNMENT WHEN WE WANT SMALLER GOVERNMENT?

IT'S SIMPLE: IT'S BECAUSE OF THE MACHINE, THE AXIS OF TAXES, THE "CONGRESSIONAL-GOVERNMENT UNION COMPLEX".

• IKE FAMOUSLY WARNED US OF THE "MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX"" IN HIS FAREWELL SPEECH. THE ORIGINAL TEX REFERRED TO THE "MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL/CONGRESSIONAL" COMPLEX.

• IKE WAS REFERRING TO THE COMPLEX BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE INDUSTRIAL MILITARY COMPANIES WHICH WOULD LEAD TO UNNECESSARY AND COSTLY WEAPONS SYSTEMS BEING BOUGHT WHICH WOULD WASTE MONEY AND NOT MAKE US SAFER OR STRONGER.

• HE WAS RIGHT. THE LATE JACK MURTHA PROVED IT'S STILL A BIG PROBLEM.

THERE'S A BIGGER PROBLEM TODAY: THE "CONGRESSIONAL-GOVERNMENT UNION COMPLEX".

THIS IS THE COMPLEX BETWEEN CONGRESSMEN AND THE GOVERNMENT UNIONS LIKE THE SEIU AND AFSCME AND THE NEA.

IT'S THE AXIS OF TAXES.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

THE UNIONS GIVE MONEY TO POLITICIANS AND CONGRESSMEN IN RETURN THEY GET RAISES AND BIGGER EMPLOYEE/UNION ROLLS WITH BIGGER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.

CONGRESSMEN DON'T GIVE A CRAP BECAUSE THEY PAYBACK THE UNIONS WITH TAXPAYER MONEY.

OUR MONEY. NOT THEIRS.

WE CAN END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL BY OUTLAWING ALL UNIONS FOR ALL FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, MUNICIPAL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT WORKERS.

I'D LIKE TO SEE THIS AS PART OF THE NEXT CONTRACT WITH AMERICA.

IN THE MEANTIME: VOTE GOP THIS NOVEMBER.

China: The "World's Fastest Declining Economy"

From World Affairs via Al Fin:

As a result of declining exports and other factors, Beijing presided over the world’s fastest slowing economy. China’s economy, in fact, grew by about 15 percent in 2007, but fell to negative growth at the end of 2008.

Beijing stopped the precipitous decline with a $586 billion stimulus program, announced in November 2008. The plan created a “sugar high” as the central government flooded the country with money, but resulting growth will be short-lived. The state’s stimulus plan favors large state enterprises over small and midsize private firms, and state financial institutions are diverting credit to state-sponsored infrastructure. The renationalization of the Chinese economy with state cash will eventually lead to stagnation.

But the economy could fail before stagnation eventually sets in. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, to fund his stimulus plan, has forced state banks to create the greatest surge of lending in history. One state manager, Lin Zuoming of Aviation Industry Corporation of China, publicly complained last April that central government officials forced him to borrow the equivalent of $49.2 billion from twelve Chinese banks, saying he did not know what to do with all the cash.

Government-mandated lending pushed unneeded funds into the Chinese stock markets, which caused an abnormal jump in prices; similar funds also flooded into the coffers of casinos in Macau, which had been languishing before the stimulus program. Predictions that Beijing’s plan might trigger the biggest wave of corruption in Chinese history now seem correct.

This is one more example of China's Totalitarian reflex.

China will always react to any problem with Socialist solutions. The only time they react with Free Market solutions is when the rising tide of the world's economy is lifting the Chinese economy along with it. In such a situation, the Chinese government will feel they can enact some free market solutions.

But, when things are tough, the answer is always top-down Socialism. The government dictates business solutions which interfere with the Free Market.

These Socialist solutions will always, in the long run, make things worse for China

The world is full of problems.

If a person, or a state, deals with all his problems by enacting "solutions" which make the problem worse, they can be fairly described as sowing the seeds of their own destruction.

China will destroy itself.

NSA JONES APOLOGIZES

HE APOLOGIZED.

• I ACCEPT IT. THIS TIME.
• NEVER AGAIN.

The Islamic ban on depictions of Muhammad is NOT because such depictions are offensive

The usually not-so-clueless James Taranto follows the consistently clueless Ann Althouse today in likening "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" to the Piss-Christ "art" of Andres Serrano.

"... depictions of Muhammad offend millions of Muslims who are no part of the violent threats," writes Althouse: "In pushing back some people, you also hurt a lot of people who aren't doing anything ..."

Sorry Ann, but your premise--that Muslims are somehow offended by the mere depiction of Muhammed--is WRONG. The Islamofascists like to pretend offense because they want excuses to threaten and commit murder, but the actual prohibition on depictions of Muhammad has nothing to do with offense. It is to avoid the risk of Muslims committing idolatry. Since infidels are at no risk of idolatrizing Muhammad, this concern does not apply to infidel art, a point that was made by one of the Jyllands-Posten cartoonists in 2005:



If Muhammad were to be depicted in an insulting manner, then there might be grounds for offense, but the only actually insulting Muhammad cartoons (the ones depicting Muhammad as a pig, a pedophile, and having sex with a dog) were the product of Islamic clerics, who used the images to better inflame the Islamic street to commit mass murder.

The only Jyllands-Posten depictions that were even critical of Muhammad were the turban-bomb Muhammad, the censor-rage Muhammad, and the afraid-to-draw-Muhammad Muhammad. Note that to take offense at these "don't call me 'violent' or I'll kill you" jokes is objectively irrational. To people who believe that Muhammad DID demand for death for insult, having Muhammad depicted as demanding death for insult is NOT INSULTING. It is what they actually believe.

According to the historical accounts that orthodox Islam holds to be accurate, Muhammad did demand death for insult (the basis of the Islamic death penalty for blasphemy). Maybe this is causing some confusion. Maybe Muslims who see Muhammad being depicted as murderous are assuming that the drawings were done by orthodox Muslims, and hence run the risk of idolatry. (That's a joke.)

What about Muslims who are insulted by the idea that Muhammad was violent, despite the orthodox belief that he was in fact violent? There are such Muslims. They are the reformers, and what they are offended by is orthodox Islam, not by cartoons that accurately depict orthodox Islamic beliefs about Muhammad, which is the worst that any infidel cartoonist has done.

For Althouse and Taranto to equate the gratuitous ugliness of Andres Serrano's Piss-Christ "art" to mild criticism of orthodox Islam's actual don't-call-me-violent-or-I'll-kill-you insanity to is, well, not as insane as orthodox Islam, but that isn't saying much.

In particular, the Muhammad drawings by Everybody Draw Muhammad Day founder Molly Norris are completely innocuous. Putting Muhammad's face on a coffee cup, a spool of thread, etcetera, she was intentionally trying to be as whimsical and non-insulting as possible, just as most of the Jyllands-Posten cartoonists were doing. This is what the New York Times and the rest of our Democrat media outlets hid when the censored the Danish cartoons: that the cartoons were not insulting.

It should have been clarified at that time that the actual basis of the Islamic ban on depictions of Muhammad is to avoid Idolatry and that mere depiction of Muhammad by infidels is not considered offensive under Islamic principles. Since the Danish cartoons were not insulting in their content, the whole outrage was a sham. Now Althouse and Taranto are perpetuating this fraud. Even to the Islamofascists, mere depiction of Muhammad is not an insult (much as they pretend otherwise). Piss-Christ IS an insult. The two should not be equated.

Because of the censoring of this debate, American's are now self-censoring all kinds of things that even Sharia law would not censor. The Islamic supremacists love to see this avidity of prostration. Their religion is not called "submission" for nothing. But any liberty-lover must be disgusted by this competition to see who can be the most submissive to totalitarian wishes.

Ignore BHO's Memo On Islam, Get Banned

The title here refers to Franklin Graham's being disinvited to offering prayer at the Pentagon on the upcoming National Day of Prayer.

From this source:

...Apparently Franklin didn’t get the memo that we can’t say squat about Islam anymore. Oh, hell no. Muslims are groovy no matter what they do, and anyone who says otherwise … is … well … evil … in the eyes of the thought police who’re heading up the United States of Political Horse Smack.

Check it out: When Muslims kill 3,000 Americans, we can’t call them “wicked.” When they abuse women, cut off little girls’ clitorises, stone unruly wives, honor kill their teenage daughters for texting someone not named Achmed, and keep precious women in stone-age bondage worldwide, we can’t say that’s BS because that might offend them. And God forbid we should offend folks who’re six bubbles off level and don’t get basic women’s rights.

[...]

...I’d like to thank Franklin for having the holy testosterone—amidst the many craven and neutered capitulating clerics, pundits and politicians across our land—to call Islam’s actions wicked because … duh … they are. Good job, old chap....

Franklin Graham called Islam "evil" in 2001, immediately following 9/11, and has since backed off fromthat label of "evil," even though he still continues to criticize Islam.

Graham's having his invitation rescinded has, as expected, gratified Muslim groups, this group, for one:

Imam Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of MAS Freedom, called the withdrawal of the invitation “a victory against outright religious bigotry and an affirmation that positive and affirming prayer should always be lifted up over the kind of invocations that come from people like Reverend Franklin Graham.”

Information about Mahdi Bray and the Muslim American Society and its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood HERE and HERE at Discover the Networks.

By the way, contrary to the popular rumor, BHO did not outright cancel the National Day of Prayer, scheduled for May 6. Instead:

President Barack Obama will not celebrate the day with a a prayer service in the east room of the White House.

BHO did meet with Billy Graham in North Carolina this past weekend; apparently, Franklin Graham was also present and briefly discussed with BHO the former's being banned from offering prayer at the Pentagon.

RIGHT-WING WINS 68% IN HUNGARY: A FORESHADOWING OF OUR NEXT ELECTION

BBC:

Hungary's conservative opposition party Fidesz has won a two-thirds general election victory, second round results have confirmed.

With 99.22% of votes counted, the party had nearly 68% of the popular vote and 263 of the 386 seats in parliament, the national election committee said.

Almost a third of the seats were left to be decided on Sunday following the first round two weeks ago.

Fidesz promised to create jobs, lower taxes and reduce bureaucracy.

The ruling Socialists were in second place on 15% (59 seats), the far-right Jobbik had 12% (47 seats) and a new Green party called Politics Can be Different had 4.1% (16 seats).

THE GOP WILL JUST AS WELL HERE IN NOVEMBER.

A JOKE HE TOLD IN PUBLIC REVEALS WHY GENERAL JAMES JONES IS OBAMA'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: HE'S AN ANTI-SEMITE

YWL - (VIA INSTAPUNDIT):

As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State. It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.

Earlier this week we may have gotten some insight into why Jones is not a fan of the Jewish Homeland. He was giving the key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy and started it out with a "Joke" that borders on anti-Semitic, teaching the crown that Jews are just greedy merchants in the same vein as Shakespeare's Shylock:

GO THERE; READ THE WHOLE THING, AND THE JOKE.

• AS A JEW - AND AS AN AMERICAN WHO FEELS THAT AN ANTI-SEMITE AND ANTI-ZIONIST HAS NO PLACE ON OUR NATION'S FOREIGN POLICY TEAM OR HAVING ANY RESPONSIBILITY OVER OUR NATIONAL SECURITY, I DEMAND THAT OBAMA FIRE HIM.

• OR OBAMA CAN IGNORE THE WHOLE THING AND ESSENTIALLY ADMIT FOR ALL TO SEE THAT HE'S AN ANTI-SEMITE, TOO.

SYRIAN SCUDS IN LEBANON, AND WHAT SHOULD BE DONE BY THE USA ABOUT IT - IMMEDIATELY

OBAMA DITHERS OUT OF INCOMPETENCE AND/OR A BIAS AGAINST ISRAEL:

According to one school of thought, this is Assad's way of playing hardball with the Israelis in advance of Israeli-Syrian negotiations. No one wants to negotiate from a weak position, so he is amassing chits that he can bargain away later.

An opposing theory is that Assad has no interest in engaging with the Americans or negotiating with Israel at all. This line of thinking concludes that he is simply paving the way for eventual conflict with Israel.

The third, more nuanced analysis portrays Assad as a man in a bind. He has himself so tied up with Iran and Hezbollah that perhaps he can't disengage as easily as those in the West think he can. Also, Assad has always been a gambler and may have simply become entangled in his own web of deals with so many competing interests.

"We do not understand Syrian intentions. No one does, and until we get to that question we can never get to the root of the problem," the official said. "Until then it's all damage control."

Meanwhile, the administration is trying to explain to the Syrians how foolish the weapons transfers are, if they are really happening, while telling the Israelis to be patient and arguing that the only beneficiary of a new Israeli-Hezbollah war would be Iran, which would seize upon a new conflict to deflect international pressure over its nuclear program.

OBAMA DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!?!?!?

• IT'S LIKE THIS IS THE 3AM PHONE CALL AND NEITHER OBAMA OR HILLARY OR ANYONE IN THE ADMINISTRATION KNOWS WHAT TO DO.

• IT'S LIKE A MINI CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS WHICH CAN DESTABILIZE THE ENTIRE REGION, AND OBAMA DOESN'T SEEM TO GIVE A CRAP.

IT'S LIKE THE STUDENT/GREEN REBELLION IN IRAN:

• OBAMA SEEMS MORE UPSET THAT EVENTS ARE DISTURBING HIS SO-CALLED "PEACE PLANS" AND AGENDA FOR APPEASEMENT , THAN IN DEFENDING AND ADVANCING US INTERESTS, THE INTERESTS OF OUR ALLIES AND THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY.

• ALL WE GET FROM OBAMA IS WISHY-WASHY STATEMENTS FROM STATE.

HERE'S WHAT THEY SHOULD DO - IT'S WHAT REAGAN AND IKE AND JFK WOULD HAVE DONE:

• SEND THE 6TH FLEET TO BEIRUT AND ISSUE A PUBLIC ULTIMATUM FROM THE WHITE HOUSE OR THE UNSC:

• DEMAND THE MISSILES BE MOVED BACK TO SYRIA WITHIN 48 HOURS OR BEIRUT AND DAMASCUS WILL BE ATTACKED.

THIS IS WHAT THE ONCE INDISPENSABLE AND ONCE GREAT POWER USED TO DO - WHEN WE HAD A PRESIDENT WHOSE HEART AND SOUL WAS IN THE JOB AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

OBAMA SEEMS MORE LIKE APPEASER IN CHIEF!

UNDER OBAMA, THE USA IS NO LONGER THE DEFENDER OF THE FREE WORLD.

WE CAN END OBAMA'S DITHERING IN NOVEMBER: VOTE GOP.

GOOD SAMARITAN LEFT TO DIE IN NYC

VIDEO: IN NYC, A HOMELESS MAN WHO SAVED A WOMAN FROM A MUGGING, AND GOT STABBED AS A RESULT. DESPITE BEING SEEN LYING IN THE STREET BY DOZENS OF NY'ERS, HE WAS LEFT TO DIE.

DISGUSTING.

Sad.

I live in NYC.

There are a few neighborhoods where this wouldn't have happened.

Some neighbors in some neighborhoods would have allowed the mugging.

Other neighbors in other neighborhoods would've helped the Samaritan.

That's the best I can say.

It's a big city with low crime and very safe.

It's a big city where every day you see drunks and addicts sprawled on the street.

The woman this Good Samaritan saved should have been more attentive to her savior once her attacker fled. She was too frightened to be effective, probably.

Still the story proves that most people in NYC have become quite inured. CALLOUS.

That's one reason the big city LIBS turn to BIG LIBERAL CAUSES like HIV IN AFRICA or CLIMATE CHANGE or even RECYCLING.

It displaces the guilt.

This incident should remind everyone that we should be more attentive to those who are nearby and need help.

May Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax Rest In Peace.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: BOBBY AND MAHMMY SITTING IN A TREE...

SOCIALISTIC GENOCIDAL RACIST TYRANTS OF A FEATHER...
(CLICK PIC' FOR STORY)

FSM INTERVIEW WITH DIANA WEST ABOUT GEN. PETRAEUS

Ruth King interviewed Diana West for Family Security Matters about her problems and disagreements with General David Petraeus. I'm decidedly presenting it here because, although the aforementioned leftard Mark Perry may have been instrumental in distorting info about Petraeus and what he said about Israel, West's argument makes me wonder: did we miss something here?

I guess that's why it's best to let others judge for themselves, and West does have some things to consider, including this:

Why the reticence?

I think I know the answer. I've already mentioned some of my thoughts above on counterinsurgency doctrine. Well, Petraeus wrote the book on COIN -- literally. He is the lead author on the COIN manual that has guided the Pentagon in the execution of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with Iraq in particular being a war that most conservatives and certainly all neoconservatives take immense pride in as a victory for the ages -- another delusional fantasy, in my view (see three part series on whether the "surge" was a success in Iraq here).

Some of them have even acted as consultants or architects of this same, again, in my view, utterly disastrous war policy.

What I think is impossible for them to face is

1) the possibility that their policy has achieved nothing of lasting value for the United States, and

2) the policy has instead done much to reorient our foreign policy around Arab-Islamic objectives in the COIN pursuit of Arab-Islamic hearts and minds.

For what else is the effort, for example, to assuage the "Arab anger over the Palestinian question" as Gen. Petraeus put it to to the US Senate, than the effort to win Arab(-Islamic) hearts and minds?

On the subject of Iraq, she may have a point, which is: if all allied forces could do in Iraq is liberate from its previous tyrant, yet spectacularly fail to confront the problems with Islam itself, and introduce Iraqis to better forms of life, then how can they expect the victory to hold up?

AS EUROPE MOVES RIGHT, OBAMA WANTS THE USA TO MOVE LEFT: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS MATT WELCH AND INSTAPUNDIT BY ER, UM... DAYS, WEEKS AND YEARS

UPDATED - SCROLL DOWN!

MATT WELCH AND INSTAPUNDIT TODAY:

MATT WELCH: President follows Europe into places Europeans no longer want to go. "... The grand irony here is that the very continent we’re scrambling to emulate has been moving aggressively in the opposite direction on taxes and economic policy...."

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS POSTED ON THIS ON 4/22 - AND PREVIOUSLY ON 4/11 - AND IN A GENERAL WAY IN ALL OF OUR 18 OR SO CLEMENT ATTLEE/OBAMA POSTS.

OUR FIRST ONE WAS JULY OF 2008 - NEARLY TWO YEARS AGO, AND THEN AGAIN ON THE DAY AFTER THE ELECTION.

• MCCAIN'S DEFEAT WAS LIKE BRITAIN FIRING CHURCHILL AND ELECTING ATTLEE, AND OBAMA HAS ON THE SAME DISASTROUS COURSE THAT ATTLEE PUT BRITAIN ON.

• WE NEED A THATCHER - OR REAGAN - TO GET US OUT OD THE HOLE OBAMA IS DIGGING US INTO.

UPDATE: SCOOPED HOT AIR ON THIS. WHAT ELSE IS NEW!?

STEPHEN HAWKING: IDIOT

UPDATED - SCROLL DOWN!

Updated again: POMO HOMO ANDY SULLIVAN LINKS. IF YOU'RE COMING VIA THIS CRETIN - WHO HAS SLANDERED A DOWN'S CHILD, THEN PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE POST: IT'S NOT WHAT DREZNER OR SULLIVAN THINKS IT IS.

BBC:

Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens

Mr Hawking says it is 'perfectly rational' to believe in aliens

Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

In a series for the Discovery Channel the renowned astrophysicist said it was "perfectly rational" to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.

But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.

THIS IS KNEE-JERK LEFT-WING IDIOCY.

HERE'S THE TRUTH:

• NATIVE AMERICANS WERE NOT LIVING IN SOME EDENIC PARADISE BEFORE THE EVIL JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WHITE MAN GOT HERE.

• THE NEW WORLD WAS RIFE WITH WARS, GENOCIDE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS.

• INDIANS IN NORTH AMERICA WERE WARRING ALL THE TIME - AND PRACTICED SLASH AND BURN HUNTING WHICH DESTROYED FORESTS;
  

• THERE ARE MORE FORESTS NOW IN MANY AREAS OF THE NORTHEAST THAN WHEN THE EVIL JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WHITE MAN GOT HERE.

• IN MESO-AMERICA, THE AZTECS PRACTICED HUMAN SACRIFICE ON A GENOCIDAL SCALE. FOR EXAMPLE, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT - TO CELEBRATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF TENOCHTITLAN - THE AZTECS SACRIFICED 50,000 PEOPLE DURING JUST ONE "CEREMONY" TO THEIR GODS.

• THE CONQUISTADORS - A GROUP OF MEN NUMBERING UNDER ONE HUNDRED, THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM HOME - WERE ABLE TO CONQUER THE AZTECS AND THE OTHER EMPIRES OF MESO- AND SOUTH AMERICA LARGELY BY ENLISTING THE AID OF THE OTHER TRIBES WHO HATED THE EMPIRES AND WERE SUBJUGATED THEM.

• CHRISTIANITY WAS A HUGE FORWARD STEP FOR THE SO-CALLED "NATIVE" AMERICANS. CHRISTIANITY WAS PROGRESS.

THE LEFT IS FOND OF ACCUSING WESTERN CIVILIZATION FOR ALL THE ILLS IN THE THIRD WORLD, BUT IT IS SIMPLY NOT THE CASE.

IN THE NEW WORLD THE "NATIVE" EMPIRES WERE WORSE.

IN AFRICA, TRIBAL WARS AND MUSLIM VERSUS TRIBAL WARS WERE WORSE.

"NATIVE" CULTURES OF THE THIRD WORLD HAD NO SCIENCE, NO DECENT MEDICINE, NO RULE OF LAW, NO MAGNA CARTA, NO TEN COMMANDMENTS. AND SO ON.

ALL SO CALLED "NATIVE" AMERICANS AND NATIVE AFRICANS - AND EVEN INDIANS FROM THE REAL INDIA - ARE BETTER OFF FOR HAVING BEEN COLONIZED BY THE WEST.

BOOKS: HERE; HERE; ARTICLE HERE. WIKI HERE.

FOR PEOPLE NOT INTERESTED IN BOOKS WHO MIGHT BE LOOKING FOR ACCURATE INFO ABOUT THIS VIA A FEW GOOD FACT-BASED AND ENTERTAINING MOVIES, I RECOMMEND

• MEL GIBSON'S APOCALYPTO,
• MICHAEL MANN'S THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS,
• BERESFORD'S THE BLACK ROBE - OTHERS, TOO...

THESE MOVIES SHOW THE "NATIVE" AMERICANS AS THEY REALLY WERE.

• UPDATE: HAWKING, A PHYSICIST - LIKE CHOMSKY THE LINGUIST - SHOULD STICK TO STUFF HE KNOWS A LOT ABOUT --- THOPUGH NOT ALL HAWKING'S BELIEVED WAS TRUE TURNED OUT TO BE TRUE; HAWKING HAS BEEN PROVEN WRONG ABOUT A LOT, AND HAS CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT A LOT.

• Update #2: A lot of linkage. Thanks! Many are misconstruing my argument. I am attacking Hawking's analogy. And in a way, the whole idea of experts from one field posing as experts in others fields. I have no idea what might happen if aliens came here. I hope they are not leftists. If they are truly advanced, then they are probably not!

• UPDATE #3: SCOOPED HOT AIR ON THIS, TOO. WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

DARTS ANYONE?

AWESOME: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS THE TORIES ON THEIR OWN STRATEGY!

TORIES TODAY:

Nick Wood's daily High Noon column

Judging from this morning's opinion polls, David Cameron is edging ahead in the race for Downing Street.

On ICM, he is up 2 points on 35 and 9 points ahead of a sinking Labour Party.

On YouGov, he is again up 2 points on 35 and Labour is down 3 on 27.

But Cameron is no longer running against just Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. The dark horse in this race - and the one Cameron has to beat to get across the finishing line with a clear majority - is a hung Parliament.

That is the real threat to a Conservative government as polling day comes closer.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS FRIDAY:

THE BRITS WILL NOW BEGIN TO REALIZE THE CHOICE IS NO LONGER BETWEEN CLEGG, BROWN AND CAMERON, BUT BETWEEN THE TORIES AND A HUNG PARLIAMENT RUN BY CLEGG AND BROWN.

I THINK THIS MEANS THAT VOTERS WILL BEGIN TO BREAK BIGTIME FOR THE TORIES.

THEY WANT CHANGE, BUT THEY WANT TO REMAIN BRITISH - AND NOT E.U.ROPEAN.

CAMERON MUST NOW MAKE THIS THE CENTER OF HIS CAMPAIGN: IT'S HIM OR A HUNG PARLIAMENT.

PREDICTION: TORIES WIN A MAJORITY IN PARLIAMENT.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY:

THIS LEAD [FOR THE TORIES] WILL GROW IF CAMERON STARTS POUNDING ON THIS:

IT'S EITHER CHANGE WITH HIM

OR A HUNG PARLIAMENT WITH LABOUR.

THIS WILL BOTH DEPRESS LIB-DEM VOTING AND GET SOME TO VOTE TORY.

(WE FIRST POSTED THIS ANALYSIS/PREDICTION YESTERDAY. I THINK THE TORIES MIGHT BE ABLE TO WIN A MAJORITY!)

WE SAID IT BEFORE ANYONE ELSE IN ANY MEDIA - EVEN BEFORE THE TORIES THEMSELVES!

I'M GLAD THEY WERE LISTENING!

• WE ARE THE BEST!
• NO ONE COMES CLOSE!
• SPREAD THE EFFIN' WORD!

FINANCIAL REFORM NEEDS TO ADDRESS BUBBLE-MAKING, NOT LOSSES

The recession which began in 2008 is NOT the core financial problem we face.

The core problem is the BUBBLE which inevitably led to the CORRECTION.

YES: The recession is not the disease; it's the medicine.

We need to end ONCE AND FOR ALL every federal and state program which inflates BUBBLES.

The Great Recession was the result of 30 years of liberal housing policy which FORCED banks to make BAD LOANS to people with bad credit so they could buy homes.

These bad loans INFLATED the price of homes and INFECTED the entire global financial system.

FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC made trillions in bad loans over these 30 years and then repackaged them as derivatives which had the implicit guarantee of the USG ; (YES: Despite the public and repeated disavowals by Barney Frank - well before the collapse - that FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC were, as GSE's, essentially government guaranteed enterprises. History proves Frank was wrong!).

These TRILLION$$ of bad loans were reprocessed into other derivatives and swaps which further "OPACIFIED" the underlying value - an effect also directly tied to the fact that those who bought and traded these derivatives felt the USG woulds back them up. (IN THE END, THE WERE RIGHT!)

If we want to prevent another bubble we have to stop inflating the housing markets, close FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC, and let big banks fail.

The shareholders of big banks have an interest in how well the companies they own are run, but taxpayers do not, and the taxpayers should not be on the hook for the decisions - good or bad - that private financial companies make.

NYC Rally to Protest Obama's Israel Policy: TODAY!

ALERT:: Rally to Protest Obama's Israel Policy

Join a Rally to protest President Obama's Anti-Israel Policies

Many speakers scheduled, including a special message from Mayor Ed Koch.

Sunday, April 25, 2010
1:00PM
LOCATION: Israel Consulate, 2nd Ave between East 42nd and East 43rd Streets, New York City.

To find out more go to standwithisrael.wordpress.com.

BPOTW: GLENN REYNOLDS ON THE MISPLACED FEAR AND DISPLACED FEAR OF THE LEFT

BEST POST OF THE WEEK:

FRANK ROSS: Re South Park, The Silence Of The Media Lambs Continues. “That’s right: an American-born Muslim convert with ties to a small extremist group operating openly in the United States of America can affect the programming policy of a cable comedy network whose headliners — Stone and Parker, and Jon Stewart — pride themselves on their fearless irreverence.”

Funny how all those talking-heads who solemnly warned us about the danger of violenct speech don’t have anything to say about, you know, actual threats. Maybe if we tell them he’s really a Tea Party mole . . . .

Posted at 8:44 am by Glenn Reynolds

THE FACT THAT THE LEFT FEARS US MORE THAN THE REAL ENEMY SAYS EVERYTHING ABOUT THE LEFT.

BPOTW.

HILARIOUS ROLLOVER AT KISP: BIGFOOT SITED IN ASHEVILLE!?

BWAHAHAHA!

JUST AS I PREDICTED; TORIES EXTEND LEAD

BELFAST TELEGRAPH:

A clutch of polls showed the Conservatives extending their lead in the race for the May 6 General Election, but not making the breakthrough needed to secure an outright majority.

One survey - by Ipsos Mori for the News of the World - suggested that the surge in support for the Liberal Democrats sparked by Nick Clegg's strong showing in the TV debates may have melted away, leaving the party back where it was at the start of the campaign.

But others portrayed the contest as a genuine three-horse race likely to result in a hung Parliament, with the Tories the largest single party.

In the first survey to ask postal voters who they will back, in the Mail on Sunday, BPIX found that 34% said they will back the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats on 30% and Labour trailing on 27%.

The millions of postal voters are a "wild card" in this year's election, as many are expected to send their ballot papers off over the next few days, denying the parties the chance to influence them in the final TV debate on Thursday or the remaining days of campaigning.

The BPIX poll found that overall the Tories were on 34% (up three points since last week), the Lib Dems on 30% (down two) and Labour on 26% (down two).

A YouGov survey in the Sunday Times put Tories on 35% (up two), with the Lib Dems down one on 28% and Labour down three on 27%. In the Sunday Telegraph, ICM had Tories on 35% (up one), Lib Dems on 31% (up two) and Labour on 26% (down one).

THIS LEAD WILL GROW IF CAMERON STARTS POUNDING ON THIS:

IT'S EITHER CHANGE WITH HIM

OR A HUNG PARLIAMENT WITH LABOUR.

THIS WILL BOTH DEPRESS LIB-DEM VOTING AND GET SOME TO VOTE TORY.

(WE FIRST POSTED THIS ANALYSIS/PREDICTION YESTERDAY. I THINK THE TORIES MIGHT BE ABLE TO WIN A MAJORITY!)

BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE ISSUES APOLOGY TO POPE

GUARDIAN:

The Foreign Office was last night forced to issue a public apology after an official document suggested Britain should mark the Pope's visit this year by asking him to open an abortion clinic, bless a gay marriage and launch a range of Benedict-branded condoms.

In a note, the official responsible for sending out the memo – a junior civil servant in his 20s – said: "Please protect; these should not be shared externally. The 'ideal visit' paper in particular was the product of a brainstorm which took into account even the most far-fetched of ideas."

Foreign secretary David Miliband was said to be "appalled", and Britain's ambassador to the Vatican, Francis Campbell, has met Holy See officials to voice the government's regret.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "This is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect UK government or Foreign Office policy or views. Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful. The text was not cleared or shown to ministers or senior officials before circulation. As soon as senior officials became aware of the document, it was withdrawn."

THE MEMO CLEARLY REFLECTS THE OPINIONS OF THE LIFE-TIME CIVIL SERVANTS IN THE FOREIGN OFFICE, A NEST OF LEFTISTS AND ANTI-SEMITES - MUCH LIKE OUR OWN STATE DEPARTMENT.

VIDEO: Dog Saves Owner's Home From Fire

VIDEO: Buddy the dog saves owner's home from fire

A German Shepherd named Buddy saved his owner's home by guiding emergency services to the blazing building.