"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Compare and Contrast - Bob Dylan Vs. Henry Louis Gates

Wandering Jew - Bob Dylan - Picked Up For Being "Suspicious and Eccentric"



Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.
The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.


A novice policewoman picked up an "eccentric old man acting suspiciously", completely unaware that it was Bob Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

Harvard Professor - Henry Louis Gates - Arrested For Being A "Black Man In America"

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.


gates072009.jpg
Gates

Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. '

Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had "no idea who he was messing with,'' the report said.

Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because "I'm a black man in America.''

Friends of Gates said he was already in his home when police arrived. He showed his driver’s license and Harvard identification card, but was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours last Thursday, they said.

The police report said Gates was arrested after he yelled at the investigating officer repeatedly inside the residence then followed the officer outside, where Gates continued to upbraid him. "It was at that time that I informed Professor Gates that he was under arrest,'' the officer wrote in the report.



To me, this demonstrates the difference between a G-d-fearing man like Bob Dylan, and an egocentric man like Henry Louis Gates.

Dylan is an amazing man to me.

I read another article this morning where they mentioned that he's known for this kind of stuff. He was seen getting on a public bus to go to his concert in Belfast, etc.

An amazing lack of pretense.

You might remember the post I did on him at AB on the song and video of Blood in My Eyes. If I am not mistaken, Dylan's world-weariness is born out of "a long contemplation of God". His wandering around in middle-class neighborhoods, and using public transportation to go to concerts, betrays a sense of wonder amidst the world-weariness.

This is not a man focused on his ego. He is focused on something bigger.

Gates is the opposite.

ANTI-OBAMACARE ROUND UP

We are at a turning point in the ObamaCare debate.

AMERICAN POWER has a round up:

ISRAELI SELF-HATING JEW WHO BECAME A "PALESTINIAN" HAS BEEN ELECTED TO FATAH'S REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL - OH YEAH: HE'S A SOCIALIST, TOO!


URI DAVIS:

HE LOVES KARL MARX AND A DISCREDITED 150 YEAR OLD IDEOLOGY RESPONSIBLE FOR 150 MILLION DEATHS...

OVER HIS NEARLY 4000 YEAR OLD FAITH WHICH GAVE RISE TO THE WEST, THE FREE WORLD AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

NOW HIS DREAM IS FULFILLED:

HE'S A BIGSHOT AT A MUSLIM TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

WHAT A FREAKIN' SICKO - AND WHAT A GOOD LEFTIST!

WHO YA GONNA BELIEVE, ME AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE OR A MOB OF SENIORS, INDEPENDENTS AND CHRISTIANISTS!?

JUST ASKING...

CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRAT RATS ABANDONING OBAMA'S SINKING OBAMACARE SHIP

MURTHA AND CONRAD... HAVE EACH FASHIONED INTERESTING ESCAPE HATCHES FROM THE DEBACLE ALSO KNOWN AS OBAMACARE.


WATCH OUT FOR JUMPINGS RATS!

.... STAY TUNED...

IN MANY BRITISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS, MUSLIMS NOW OUTNUMBER CHRISTIANS!

WZ:

The UK is still well on its way to becoming an Islamic Emirate....

Christian pupils are now outnumbered by Muslims at Roman Catholic schools in some parts of England.

THIS IS ALSO TRUE ON CoE SCHOOLS IN BRITAIN:

THE SUN IS SETTING ON THE BRITISH, AND THE CRESCENT IS RISING: MANY INNER CITY CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOLS ARE MAJORITY MUSLIM!
LTIMES:
Christian families are such a rarity in some inner-city communities that two Church of England schools now cater exclusively for Muslim pupils, The Times has learnt.

In many church primary schools in English cities, more than half of the pupils are Muslim.

In at least a dozen such schools, more than 80 per cent are from Islamic homes.
THE NYTIMES SAID THIS WOULD TAKE A FEW DECADES:
NYTIMES: GREAT BRITAIN IS RAPIDLY BECOMING ISLAMIC

NYTIMES: CLITHEROE, England — On a chilly night this winter, this pristine town in some of Britain’s most untouched countryside voted to allow a former Christian church to become a mosque. Britain may continue to regard itself as a Christian nation. But practicing Muslims are likely to outnumber church-attending Christians in several decades, according to a recent survey by Christian Research, a group that specializes in documenting the status of Christianity in Britain.
BRITS USED TO BE TOUGH CHRISTIANS; NOW...???:
UK: PUSSIES NOW; MUZZIES SOON. RELATED?
TELEGRAPH: Does Britain need more 'manly men'?
British boys are suffering from a lack of masculine role models who exhibiT old-fashioned values of bravery and resourcefulness, according to the historian Neil Oliver.

“Manly men… have been hunted to extinction in the British Isles,” claims Mr Oliver, who regrets the decline of the “stiff upper lip” among today’s boys.
TELEGRAPH:Practising Muslims 'will outnumber Christians by 2035'
Practising Muslims will outnumber worshipping Christians in Britain within 30 years, according to research published today.

By 2035, there will be about 1.96 million active Muslims in Britain, compared with 1.63 million church-going Christians, according to calculations by Christian Research, a think- tank.

The figures are published in the latest in a series of reports entitled Religious Trends.

The think-tank has warned that 4,000 churches could close by 2020 if congregations continue to shrink at current rates.
I THINK IT WILL HAPPEN BY 2020 UNLESS WE GET TOUGH NOW. VERY TOUGH.

SADLY, THE LEADERS OF THE CoE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ARE DHIMMIS WIMPS.

(BENEDICT NEVER RECOVERED FROM HIS REGENSBURG SPEECH.)

NIGHTLY RIOTS IN CHICAGO DUE TO THE CHICAGO MACHINE'S CORRUPTION, MALFEASANCE, AND LIBERAL POLICIES

FACTS AND PICTURES HERE.



  • THE CHICAGO MACHINE IS THE MOST CORRUPT AND POWERFUL IN THE USA.
  • AND OBAMA AND AXELROD AND RAHM ARE IN IT UP TO THEIR FREAKIN' EYEBALLS.
  • CHICAGO HAS HORRIBLY HIGH CRIME, TERRIBLE SCHOOLS, AND LOTS OF VIOLENCE - ALL THANKS TO THE LIBERAL CROOKS RUNNING THE SHOW FOR THE LAST 75 YEARS.
  • OBAMA IS TRYING TO DO TO THE USA WHAT THEY DID TO CHICAGO.
  • WE MUSTN'T LET THE CHICAGO MACHINE SUCCEED.

OBAMACARE FACTS, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE


FACTS & LIES...


VIDEOTAPE...


CLICK PIC' FOR POST.

VIDEO: NO TREATS FROM BARACK OBAMA

LOL!



One smart dog!

The humble light bulb: a victim of political stupidity green zealotry and economic ignorance

Every journalist in the land seems to be going ga-ga over the new "energy saver globe". This is the eco-friendly alternative to the devilish and grossly inefficient incandescent bulb. We are being incessantly told by our media mavens that the new alternative is cheaper in the long term than the old light bulb and that it will save just oodles and oodles of energy and that it would be irrational not to buy it.

The funny thing is that Joe Public has to be mandated by arrogant politicians into buying the next best thing to sliced bread. Why is this so? Because in the eyes of his intellectual and moral superiors in the media and politics he is just too dumb to know a good thing when he sees it. Therefore his betters must intervene to save him from his ignorance short-sightedness.

Irrespective of what smart-aleck journalists and pompous politicians think Joe Public is being perfectly rational in choosing the incandescent bulb over the new wonder light, despite the fact that calculations showing the technical superiority of the new product are correct. The principal problem is that politicians and journalists are economic illiterates. If it were otherwise they would never have confused technical efficiency with economic efficiency.

If technical efficiency was the sole determinant then consistency would demand that these advocates should also promote silver, gold and platinum as alternatives to copper wiring because they are superior conductors. But, as they would argue, these metals are too expensive for the job and that's why we need copper.

The same goes for solar panels. If these were 100 per cent efficient they would still be grossly inefficient economically because they involve massive diseconomies of scale where as centralised power generation gives us economies of scale. When it is realised that what really matters is economic efficiency the case for mandating fluorescent lighting and other alternatives falls to the ground.

Philips' figures show that the running costs of a $6 11 watt energy globe (the equivalent of a 60 watt incandescent globe) over a three year period would be $6.60 while the $1.0 alternative would cost 36 dollars for the same period. A "slam dunk deal", as Americans say. Only it ain't. Let us return to our hapless consumer, the one who is too stupid to know how he should spend his money.

In a free market he would have the choice of both products and he would choose on the basis of which one gave him the greatest satisfaction. In this case let us make it the destructive incandescent bulb. Running this light for one year will cost him $12 while the other one will cost $2.20. What is being overlooked, however, that he is not calculating costs in this mechanical way. He is comparing $1.0 for the incandescent bulb with the $6 for the so-called eco-friendly alternative.

By spending $1 he finds himself with $5 to spend on other goods. What we have here is an example of opportunity cost. It is very clear, therefore, that he values the additional goods more than he values the 'eco-friendly' light. But what about future savings? This question brings us to time preference, the preference for present goods over future goods. In other words, we value present goods more highly than those in the future.

If one were to ask these journalists if they would prefer to have a $100 today or $100 in a year's time, they would choose to have $100 today. By making this choice they reveal that they value $100 today more highly than $100 in the future. This means that these sums of money are being correctly treated as two different goods, with time making the difference. (Incidentally, this is why we have interest). If they were being treated as identical goods it would then be a matter of complete indifference to our journalists whether they chose $100 today or vice versa. The same goes for buying lights or any other goods.

Future cost savings are just that — in the future. If the consumer chooses the incandescent light then he is clearly stating that the cost of the alternative exceeds the value of its future benefits. In general, the lower the consumer's income the higher his time preference is likely to be. From this we conclude that mandating these lamps reduces the welfare of the less well off, as does the absurd tax on plastic bags. (Plastic bags v. greenie bigotry). However, this fact didn't faze [Australian politician] Malcolm Turnbull, one of the economic illiterates responsible for the policy of banning incandescent light bulbs.

This leaves our activists with the externality argument. According to them the humble light bulb is a case of market failure that is 'polluting' the environment and as this cost is not built into their price they must phased out in favour of an alternative that produces very little in the way of externalities. Two free market economists nailed this argument when they pointed out:
Taxes do not result from a market process, nor do they reflect allocation decisions of resource owners . . . In other words, taxation is a method of intervening, not an alternative to intervention or nonmarket allocation. (O'Driscoll and Rizzo, cited in Efficiency and Externalities in an Open-Ended Universe, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007, p. 13).

(For those who might be a little confused on this point, there is no fundamental difference between mandating incandescent bulbs out of the market or putting a prohibitive tax on them. As for pollution, Co2 is a nutrient and not a pollutant. Moreover, thousands of scientists are now challenging the phony science of man-made global warming. In addition, there has been no global warming for ten years. These scientists know that the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is a mere 0.38 per cent while the Martian atmosphere is 95 per cent carbon dioxide. These are facts that you will not find in our scaremongering rags)

We must now examine the greens' hypocrisy. Back in the late '60s or early '70s green fanatics whipped up hysteria about traces of mercury being found in tuna and how it would poison us. Research later found that the amount of mercury found in tuna was perfectly normal and had nothing to do with industry. I raised this case because mercury is a necessary component of the greens' new wonder lamp. So the same fanatics who railed against traces of mercury in tuna are perfectly happy to bully us into installing mercury-laden lamps in every room in the house. (This raises the question of who should be sued if someone is harmed by mercury from one of these 'eco-saving' lamps).

If I break a an ordinary bulb I merely have to sweep up the bits and put them into a bin. Not so with 'green lights'. When they break they need to be disposed of in a responsible manner. Philips, one of the companies manufacturing these lights, states:
All mercury-containing products must be disposed of responsibly. As more of us adopt CFLs to help save energy and contribute to a better environment, it becomes more important that our community has a recycling programme for mercury and other environmentally unsafe materials. (Make the switch to energy efficient lighting).

Will the policy of phasing out the incandescent raise the demand for electricity?

Minimising energy in an effort to lower production costs is self-evidently good business practice — but it also has the ironic effect of raising the demand for electricity. This is because reducing the use of electrical energy per unit of output in production processes is similar to reducing its price. What matters is not the ratio of energy to output but the ratio of the value of the output to the value of the inputs, of which the energy source is one. Therefore it does not matter for demand whether the fall in the cost of energy as an input is caused by a reduction in price or by an innovation, the result is the same. Economic history has numbers of examples of this process and only economic rationalism (market economics journalists) can explain it.

The steam engine is an excellent example of this process. Before Watt's innovations the steam engine was horrendously wasteful. The introduction of Watt's separate condenser alone improved 'energy conservation' by a factor of four. This not only increased the demand for coal but also for more steam engines which in turn led to more innovations which in turn.... This very early example of 'energy conservation' was brought about by market forces, not meddling politicians or ignorant 'journalists', and its reverberations were quickly felt throughout the economy by stimulating economic growth and raising the demand for labour.

Those who may think that the steam engine is only isolated example should look at the findings by Herbert Inhaber and Harry Saunders in a 1994 study, Road to Nowhere; Energy Conservation Often Backfires published by the New York Academy of sciences. The authors gave historical examples to support their case that as the amount of energy per unit of output falls the demand for electricity RISES.

SOURCE


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

UNBELIEVABLE: MAN SURVIVES 10,000 FOOT FREE FALL

BBC:

A skydiver survived after his main parachute failed to open properly during a 10,000ft freefall.

He crashed on to the roof of a hangar at Tilstock Airfield in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The injured man was rescued from the roof by firefighters.

He was treated for head and neck injuries then flown to hospital, but is not thought to be seriously injured.

The skydiver, aged in his 40s, had been filming tandem jumps for the Parachute Centre.

The accident happened just after 1500 BST.

"He's very lucky and I think he will make a full recovery"


MAYBE WE CAN SURVIVE OBAMA, AFTER ALL!

WHICH IS WORSE, BIG BUSINESS OR BIG GOVERNMENT?

The left would have you believe that Big Corporations and their profits are evil and that the solution is Big Government.

This is wrong.

No Big Corporation has ever forced me or anyone else to do bupkus.

We choose to buy their stuff or not. And they have to compete among themselves - on price and quality - to get me to buy their stuff.

If I don't want it, then I don't buy it.

And if I buy it and don't like it I can often return it. If not, then I can try to resell it in the open market.

This competition for my hard-earned dollar is why things get better and values improve.

But Big Government is coercing me all the freakin' time: they take a third of my earnings every week - BEFORE I get them. They spend a lot of it on stuff that I disagree with, or that's wasteful, or that is basically corrupt because it really just benefits allies of the politicians who run Big Government and the unions who operate Big Government - the SEIU, the NEA and AFSCME.

This is why Attlee's post-WW2 nationalization - GOVERNMENTALIZATION REALLY! - ruined Britain's economy and living standards and why Thatcher's privatization (de-governmentlaization) improved them.

(Previous post on Attlee and Obama here and here.)

Obama and his comrades in the Democrat Party and the SEIU, NEA, and AFSCME and his cohorts in the Chicago Machine are trying to take us down the road that Attlee took Britain down.

It will have the same disastrous results.

Which is why we musty fight Obama and Reid and Pelosi and Rahm and Axelrod and the SEIU, NEA and AFSCME with everything we've got - and then some!

Big Government run by the likes of them is far FAR more dangerous and restrictive of our rights than Biog Corporations are or ever were.

Lawyers - who along with the Big Government unions control the Democrat Party (they are Obama's biggest donors and have given more to Obama than anyone else!) - are just as destructive to us as Big Government, and they all drive the costs of all the things I want up UP UP.

Maybe we can't reduce the size of Big Government quickly, but we can lower the cost of everything if we had Tort Reform, and it wouldn't take more than ten pages to write the bill.

To do this we probably need to stop electing lawyers and anyone connected to unions to high office.

(Lawyers like Arlen Specter - a tool of the lawyer lobby.)

OBAMA: A CHILD OF THE LEFT: IN EFFECT, BRAINWASHED BY THE KGB


ATBASHIAN/PJM:
The Soviet Union may have self-destructed in 1991, but the seeds of intellectual deception it had planted gave such a bountiful crop that seventeen years later America has elected a leader who is guided by received notions designed to subdue and destroy this country.

TODAY'S GUARANTEED NOT PHOTOSHOPPED: MUSLIM DOUBLE DATE

OBAMA IS AHAB AND OBAMACARE IS HIS MOBY DICK

WILL THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS LET OBAMA DO TO THEM
WHAT AHAB DID TO THE PEQUOD?

It seems so.

Pity. BWAHAHAHAHA!

Friday, August 14, 2009

SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE ARE THE OPIATES OF THE MASSES

Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid were sold to the working man as benefits, but actually social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are actually huge rip offs of the working man!

If you're a working stiff making $50,000 you pay a 15% tax rate PLUS 12% for Social Security (half paid by the worker) PLUS 6% for Medicare (half paid for by the worker).

So, a working guy who works for $50 gees per year from age 25-65 - 40 or so years - has paid about $200,000 into the system. (NOT INCLUDING HIS INCOME TAX.)

If he has a good 10 year run after retirement and is healthy until he's 75, then gets REAL SICK and needs $45,000 in surgery and drugs, the federal government is still WAY WAY AHEAD!

And when he dies A FEW YEARS LATER, all that money leftover (which includes the interest on it) STAYS WITH THE GOVERNMENT!

His heirs got nada, zilch bupkus. IOW: they get screwed. Money he sweated for HIS WHOLE LIFE goes to the government bureaucracy.

If the working guy had put that money into a savings account, then he'd have 300,000 on retirement - MORE THAN ENOUGH TO PAY FOR HIS HEALTHCARE NEEDS WHEN HE'D PROBABLY NEED THE MOST - AS A SENIOR, and if and when he dies ... HE GETS TO LEAVE THE MONEY LEFTOVER TO HIS HEIRS, NOT THE GOVERNMENT.

This is a powerful incentive to stay healthy: you get to leave more to your working class kids!

As it stands now, the system screws the working man and ensures that he doesn't build up wealth in his lifetime which he can leave to his children and grandchildren to give them a better chance at being INDEPENDENTLY wealthy.

If working folks could bequeath the money they NOW send to Washington Dc to their children instead, we could COMPLETELY wipe out poverty in the country in 40 years.

The same is true of Social Security - only more so
.

It would be much better for the working man and his kin if he put his Social Security contribution into a PRIVATE ACCOUNT which bought USG bonds and T-BILLS. for the same reason.


Liberals have sold these programs as benefits for the working man, but actually they are chains.

OPIATES.

And Obama is offering more of the same.

(BTW: Instead of the employer paying half these taxes as a benefit to the worker (and getting a write-off for doing so), the worker would be better off with a RAISE and paying all the tax himself --- BUT INTO A PRIVATE ACCOUNT!
)

BOTTOM-LINE: PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WOULD BE THE BEST POSSIBLE THING WE COULD DO FOR THE WORKING MAN AND TO WIPE OUT POVERTY.

"Confusing the individual with society": WHY OBAMACARE IS GUARANTEED TO FAIL

KRAUTHAMMER:
Free mammograms and diabetes tests and checkups for all, promise Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, writing in USA Today. Prevention, they assure us, will not just make us healthier, it also "will save money."

Obama followed suit in his Tuesday New Hampshire town hall, touting prevention as amazingly dual-purpose: "It saves lives. It also saves money."

Reform proponents repeat this like a mantra.

Because it seems so intuitive, it has become conventional wisdom.

But like most conventional wisdom, it is wrong.

Overall, preventive care increases medical costs.

This inconvenient truth comes, once again, from the CBO.

In an Aug. 7 letter to Rep. Nathan Deal, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf writes:

"Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness."

How can that be? If you prevent somebody from getting a heart attack, aren't you necessarily saving money?

The fallacy here is confusing the individual with society.

For the individual, catching something early generally reduces later spending for that condition.

But, explains Elmendorf, we don't know in advance which patients are going to develop costly illnesses.

To avert one case, "it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway." And this costs society money that would not have been spent otherwise.
THIS FALLACY - CONFUSING THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY - IS A TYPE OF FALLACY WHICH IS VERY COMMON - ONE AT THE VERY ROOT OF LEFTISM:
  • INDIVIDUALS ARE REAL (THEY GET SICK, WORK, ETC).
  • " PUBLIC HEALTH" IS NOT REAL; IT IS A HEURISTIC CONSTRUCT.
  • A SIMPLE WAY TO LOOK AT THIS FALLACY IS TO SEE IT AS "THE IS/AS CONFLATION" - WHEN A PERSON MISTAKES A METAPHORICAL OR FIGURATIVE ASPECT OF AN OBJECT (IT'S AS IF HE WAS AN OGRE") FOR THE OBJECT ITSELF, (HE IS LITERALLY AN OGRE).
  • IT IS ALSO KNOWN AS REIFICATION:

    Reification (also known as hypostatisation, concretism, or the fallacy of misplaced concreteness) is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it were a concrete, real event, or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating as a "real thing" something which is not a real thing, but merely an idea. For example: if the phrase "holds another's affection", is taken literally, affection would be reified. Note that reification is generally accepted in literature and other forms of discourse where reified abstractions are understood to be intended metaphorically, but the use of reification in logical arguments is usually regarded as a mistake (fallacy). For example, "Justice is blind; the blind cannot read printed laws; therefore, to print laws cannot serve justice." In rhetoric, it may be sometimes difficult to determine if reification was used correctly or incorrectly.

A PROGRAM OR POLICY BASED ON A FALLACY CAN NEVER SUCCEED.

DOT IG: PORKULUS WASTES MONEY ON AIRPORTS: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS INSTAPUNDIT BY FOUR DAYS!

INSTAPUNDIT TODAY:
Gov’t watchdog questions airport stimulus projects. “The Obama administration used economic stimulus money to pay for 50 airport projects that didn’t meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants, a government watchdog said Monday.
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS HAD THIS ITEM THE DAY IT WAS REPORTED - MONDAY.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

WE DON'T JUST FOLLOW THE BIGGIES; WE LEAD.

SPREAD THE WORD, BLOGROLL US, BOOKMARK US.

AFTER HIS OBAMACARE-WATERLOO, OBAMA WILL NOT COMEBACK AS CLINTON DID: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS POWER LINE

POWER LINE TODAY:
the current uproar over Obama's government takeover of health care dwarfs anything that happened in 1994. And Obama isn't Bill Clinton. Clinton is, I think, much smarter than Obama. He had a basic understanding of economics that Obama lacks. And in a pinch, Clinton didn't really believe in much of anything, while Obama is a hard leftist, by American standards. So the eclipse and resurrection of Bill Clinton may or may not be a model that Barack Obama will, or can, follow.
THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS WEEKS AGO - YUP: LAST MONTH! - HERE AND HERE; EXCERPTS:
  • CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY RECOVERED FROM GAYS IN THE MILITARY AND FROM HILLARYCARE.
  • OBAMA MIGHT COME BACK, TOO - BUT I DOUBT IT:
  • OBAMA IS NOT AS SEASONED A POLITICIAN AS BJ CLINTON WAS:
  • BJ HAD RUN IN A DOZEN STATEWIDE CONTESTS IN ARKANSAS AND KNEW FIRST HAND WHAT HE HAD TO DO IN ORDER TO SURVIVE POLITICAL TREACHERY.
  • AND HE DID WHATEVER HE HAD TO DO TO SURVIVE -
  • AS WHEN HE PROCLAIMED THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT OVER.
  • WHEN HE HAD TO ADAPT, CLINTON DID.
  • OBAMA IS TOO MEGALOMANIACAL AND TOO COMMITTED TO LEFT-WING POLICIES TO MAKE A SIMILAR ABOUT-FACE.
  • SO WHEREAS BJ CLINTON WON REELECTION, OBAMA WON'T.
AND HERE:
  • OBAMA'S PLAYBOOK HAS FAILED EVERY TIME AND EVERYWHERE ITS EVER BEEN TRIED.
  • AND HE WON'T RETREAT AND REINVENT HIMSELF THE WAY BJ CLINTON DID.
  • NO: OBAMA IS TOO MUCH OF A BORN AND BRED RED DIAPER DOPER BABY TO RETREAT FROM HIS LEFT-WING PLAYBOOK, AND HE HAS WAY TOO BIG AN EGO.
REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

WE DON'T JUST FOLLOW THE BIG BLOGGERS; WE LEAD.

SPREAD THE WORD, BLOGROLL US, BOOKMARK US.

Obamacare roundup

Voters Now Trust Republicans More than Dems with their Health: "In the midst of a tumultuous healthcare debate—including Congressional town hall meetings that end in punching matches—U.S. voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on the handling of the healthcare issue. For the first time in two years of polling, the Rasmussen Report national telephone survey shows that voters favor the COP on the issue 44 percent to 41 percent. The new numbers come at time of rampant skepticism, particularly among older, white voters, of President Obama's healthcare agenda. This skepticism has manifested in the form of false rumors, intense protests and even vandalism and blatant racism, reports NPR. Experts say the intensity is growing in a shattered economy. "I've never seen as angry an electorate as this one," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist, in an interview with NPR. Lehane is a California-based pollster who routinely conducts swing-voter focus groups. "They're as scared as I've ever seen them, and that manifests into anger. There is a general fear that the American dream is not going to be there for them or their children. There is concern about trust broken between government and the people."

Evil Ezekiel downplays the need for rationing but still targets "unnecessary care": "Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, the White House official targeted by Sarah Palin and other conservatives as an advocate for health care rationing and "death panels," said Thursday his "thinking has evolved" on the need to decide who gets treated and who does not. "When I began working in the health policy area about 20 years ago ... I thought we would definitely have to ration care, that there was a need to make a decision and deny people care," said Dr. Emanuel, a health care adviser to President Obama in the Office of Management and Budget, during a phone interview. "I think that over the last five to seven years ... I've come to the conclusion that in our system we are spending way more money than we need to, a lot of it on unnecessary care," he said. "If we got rid of that care we would have absolutely no reason to even consider rationing except in a few cases." [His father was an Irgun man so I suppose a certain ruthlessness is to be expected -- but ruthlessness in a good cause is a lot different from ruthlessness towards those who have hurt nobody]

Senate committee eliminates “end of life” provision in Obamacare: "A plan to provide hospice counseling and other end-of-life advice to patients and their families is being dropped by US Senate health care negotiators after critics charged that it would lead to the formation of federal ‘death panels,’ a key GOP senator said yesterday. … The original sponsor of the provision and a variety of specialists all debunked the allegation and said end-of-life counseling can help families deal with difficult choices. Nonetheless, Senator Chuck Grassley, the Senate Finance Committee’s top Republican and one of six committee members trying to hash out a bipartisan bill, said yesterday that the provision could be misinterpreted and that it will not be contained in the committee’s proposed legislation.”

Ringo’s law and the healthcare system of doom: “Some years ago, noted philosopher Ringo Starr described an important and now-famous discovery: “By now it should be clear to anyone: This government ‘help’ has made things dramatically worse in healthcare, just as government reliably makes things worse in all spheres of life that government involves itself in. For many reasons, coercive government is the worst way to do anything. Like gravity, Ringo’s Law is a built-in rule of the universe, omnipresent and unavoidable. There is no country on Earth where the Law is not conspicuously on display: ‘Everything government touches turns to crap.’”

Medical mosh pits : "Clashes keep breaking out at the ‘town hall’ meetings devoted to discussing health care reform. Usually the excitement amounts to some angry questions and heckling, but sometimes there’s more. Six people were arrested at a demonstration outside a meeting in St. Louis. Violence erupted at a town hall in Tampa after opponents of ObamaCare were locked out of the building. A North Carolina congressman cancelled a meeting after receiving a death threat; the pro-market group FreedomWorks, which was involved in some of the protests, fielded a death threat of its own. Supporters of the president’s health care reforms, who used to tout the support he’d received from the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, are now accusing the very same companies of riling up ‘mob violence’ to stop the plan.”

Eyes on the real prize: “If you asked House Democrats what they most wanted to leave as their legacy in public office, it’s a good bet that a healthy number would offer a variation of ‘a government-managed health-care plan that is available to every American citizen.’ Some would classify it as ’single payer,’ others would want the ‘public option,’ but they all add up to a massive new entitlement, in which Americans depend upon the federal government for their health care. Conservatives have dreaded it; looking around the globe, they know that once created, these programs are just about politically impossible to repeal. Many congressional Democrats, told that passage of the sweeping health-care legislation will cost them their seats, may find the choice a harder decision than many observers think. Yes, no one should doubt a politician’s instinct for self-preservation. But it’s quite possible that long-serving Democrats might want to enact a sweeping social change instead of taking the safe route.”

Trust the government : “How much is one additional year of your life worth? Or one more year of life for your father or your wife? For your child? In Great Britain, the government has settled on a number: $45,000. That’s how much a government commission with the Orwellian acronym NICE has decided British government-run health care will pay for one additional year of life for a British subject. Think it could never happen here? Then you need to pay closer attention to what Washington is planning for your health care.”

If Uncle Sam becomes your doctor: “Americans are doing their homework on healthcare reform. And, unlike some members of Congress, they’re reading the legislation, even though it’s more than 1,000 pages long. They see that the numbers don’t add up. They note the contradictory claims by the Obama administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. And they recognize the unintended consequences of the government controlling one-sixth of the US economy. According to several recent polls, on key issues of access, quality of care, and cost, Americans don’t support this government power grab.”

Health care protests on target: “Now we know the enemy in the health-care debate, the really, truly despicable people, the worms who ought to be stuffed back in the dirt they crawled out of. It’s ordinary citizens who have had the temerity to show up at meetings of their representatives in Congress, asking in so many words — ‘What in the name of heaven are you planning to do with our lives?’ Happy enough to be cheerleaders when Cindy Sheehan and her ragtag followers were out and about calling George W. Bush a mass murderer, Democrats, the left generally, some pretend journalists and a number of big-name commentators are aghast at a lack of respect for the Washington malefactors, fearful that someone will think everyday Americans actually know what they’re talking about and worried about how hard it will be to set the record straight if their critiques are widely circulated.”

Busting the Bay State: “Health care’s silly season is upon us. If we can be sure of anything, it is that President Barack Obama and his congressional allies will do whatever they can to hide the cost of their health plan. Lucky for them, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, has shown the way.”

Obamacare meltdown: “The revelation last week that a majority of Americans may actually disagree with the President was something for which his team was clearly not prepared. Their attempt to marginalize citizens across the country who dared to speak out against a government-takeover of health care is shameful, arrogant, and desperately sad. With the American people growing increasingly unhappy with the President’s health care plan, Democrats in Congress are working feverishly to cast those who are concerned as radical props to the special interests. … The notion that Americans may not want the federal government making health care decisions on their behalf appears to be truly beyond the comprehension of Democrats in Congress and the White House. So they have responded by slandering honest folks looking to have their voices heard.”

Yes, they really are mad as hell: “Who, exactly, were these people who had converged in the middle of Lebanon to protest ObamaCare? Walking through the crowd, finding them waving signs as they chatted with each other, they were happy to talk. These were in fact the flesh-and-blood of John O’Hara’s Pennsylvania world. There was the registered nurse who was so incensed about the President’s plans she went on the Internet to find Senator Specter’s list of town meetings — and drove two hours from her home in Chambersburg only to find the meeting already filled. She chose to stay, her own sign held high with a scrawled message on free speech, her feet firmly planted on the street corner. There was the local small businessman, the woman who had lost a beloved sister to cancer — teary but deeply gratified that her sister had health care choices every step along the way. Her friend, a child of immigrants who arrived in 1924 — ‘legally’ she added with a smile — shyly gave a name but preferred to think of herself as just ‘an American patriot.’”

This Libertarian and health care: “In this I differ from a lot of other Libertarians. I am a Braudelian: super-concentrations of capital beyond a certain point become anti-free-market and threaten human freedom in almost as many ways as the State can. But that does not exonerate the State here either: there are literally thousands of Physicians’ Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, and even LPNs or midwives who would be more than willing to make careers in the small towns across America providing low-cost basic care to good people. Yet the licensing laws that the health professionals’ lobby have so carefully cultivated over the years prevent that.”

Health reform must endure for the long term: “Health reform has dominated the news lately, but many Americans are wondering what reform will actually entail for them. According to a recent survey conducted by my firm, most believe that healthcare reform will provide coverage for long-term services and supports. These are medical services for people who can’t care for themselves for extended periods of time due to illness or disability. And they’re of critical importance, as 60 percent of Americans over the age of 65 will require long-term care during their lives. But it’s hardly a foregone conclusion that the final health reform package will ensure that Americans have access to affordable long-term services.”


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

SAME OLD ASSAD: off to Tehran to congratulate Ahmadinejad

THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT:

Syrian President Bashar Assad was scheduled to embark on an official visit to Tehran next week, during which he was expected to congratulate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his recent election victory. This visit marks Assad's fourth such trip since Ahmadinejad first rose to power in 2005.

The Iranian news agency reported Friday that Assad and Ahmadinejad were to discuss ways to strengthen relations between their respective countries, despite repeated requests by Israel and the U.S. that Syria sever ties with Iran if it is interested in maintaining ties with them.

WE SHOULD HAVE BOMBED THE CRAP OUT OF ASSAD DURING THE IRAQ WAR.

INSTEAD, WE'VE CODDLED HIM IN THE HOPE THAT HE'D SEE THE ERROR OF HS WAYS.

WHAT A WASTE.

MEANWHILE, SYRIA GOES ON HELPING IRAN AND HIZBALLAH AND HAMAS.
WANT PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

TOPPLE ASSAD. AND ALL OTHERS LIKE HIM.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

SIX BAD TATTOOS?








BAD TATS VIA.

LOS JIHAHDIS Y LOS CHAVEZISTAS

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER: CHAVEZ AND NASRALLAH.

IF RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE COULD OVERTHROW SOVIET MARXISM, THEN WE CAN CERTAINLY DEFEAT OBAMA AND ROLL-BACK THE GREAT SOCIETY AND THE NEW DEAL


  • IT TOOK THEM ABOUT 80 YEARS TO OVERTHROW THE SOVIET UNION.
  • FDR'S NEW DEAL IS ABOUT 80 YEARS OLD.
  • THE TIME TO DISMANTLE IT AND FREE AMERICANS FROM THE SHACKLES OF THE NEW DEAL'S COLLECTIVIST POLICIES HAS COME.
  • IOW: THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS UNFINISHED BUSINESS.
  • WE NEED A NEW ROUND OF HAYEKIAN REAGAN-THATCHER INNOVATIONS AND WE NEED THEM ASAP.
  • BY USING CONSERVATIVE POLICIES, WE CAN AND WILL DEFEAT THE LEFT'S ATTEMPT TO RESUSCITATE THE WELFARE STATE.

JUST SAYING...

LAWYER INSTAPUNDIT ASKS A DUMB QUESTION ABOUT LOWERING HEALTH CARE COSTS

GLENN:

TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: A GPS with speech recognition for under two hundred bucks. Why can’t we harness these forces to lower health care costs?

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THIS IS IDIOTIC.

WHAT HAS MADE HEALTH CARE COSTS HIGHER IS BETTER CARE AND HIGHER MALPRACTICE INSURANCE RATES.

AN MRI MACHINE IS MORE COMPLEX THAN A GPS BY A FACTOR OF 1000. AND IT'S PRICE HAS COME DOWN IN THE LAST TEN YEARS - MORE THAN THE PRICE OF A GPS.

AND IT IS READILY AVAILABLE ALL OVER THE USA.

A CAR WITHOUT A VOICE-ACTIVATED GPS WOULD BE LESS EXPENSIVE THAN ONE WITH IT.

AND HEALTH CARE WITHOUT ALL THE THINGS WHICH HAVE MADE HEALTH CARE BETTER THAN IT WAS JUST A FEW YEARS AGO WOULD ALSO BE CHEAPER THAN IT IS.

YOU CAN GET HEALTH CARE AS CHEAPLY TODAY
AS YOU DID IN 1960.


JUST SETTLE FOR 1960 CARE
AND THE RESULTS 1960 CARE YIELDED.


IOW: HEALTHCARE INFLATION IS BS - A BOGEYMAN MEANT TO DEFLECT BLAME FROM THE REAL CULPRITS:
  • THE LAWYERS AND THEIR TORTS
  • AND THE LIBERAL POLITICIANS AND THEIR RESTRICTIONS ON INTERSTATE TRADE AND THEIR REFUSAL TO GIVE FAMILIES THE SAME TAX BREAK THEY GIVE BUSINESSES .

YES - COINCIDENTALLY, GLENN IS A LAWYER.

ONE WHO TRAINS PEOPLE TO BECOME LAWYERS.

WHO MAKE MANY MANY THINGS MORE EXPENSIVE WITH THEIR UNBRIDLED TORTS.

LAWYERS LIKE JOHN EDWARDS.

AND THESE LAWYERS OWN AND OPERATE THE DEMOCRAT PARTY I THEIR OWN INTEREST AND IN THE INTEREST OF THEIR COMRADES THE UNIONS WHO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT: THE SEIU; THE NEA; AND ASFSCME.

OBAMA'S OBAMACARE LIES, DISTORTIONS, HALF-TRUTHS AND PROPAGANDA

CLICK PIC' FOR OBAMA'S TOP TEN LIES ABOUT OBAMACARE.
(IT WAS HARD TO LIMIT IT TO TEN!)

MEET RIFQA BARY, AN APOSTATE WHO COULD USE SOME HELP FROM PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT FREEDOM


Jihad Watch points to the emerging story of Rifqa Bary, a girl from a Muslim family in Ohio who converted to Christianity and later fled to Florida fearing that her parents would murder her for doing so. Here's more at Front Page Magazine.

As usual, the MSM, but even the authorities themselves, would rather look the other way and not consider the parents' preferring to resort to taqqiya. After reading some of this (also via Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs), I have to wonder: is the police sergeant mentioned here qualified to judge? Perhaps what he needs to do is consult some of the following Q&As on penalties for apostasy (also via Jihad Watch and The Jawa Report).

Even ABC News has been serving as apologists for the parents, who deny that they threatened her. I do think that stupid network is way past its prime already. Ever since Disney bought into them, that's how low they go.

Here is the latest on the story from Newsmax (also via Jihad Watch):
Rifqa Bary is alive. She ran to Florida and escaped the fate her father had in mind for her — unlike Amina and Sarah Said, two Muslim teens in Texas who ran away but returned home at the insistence of their mother, Tissie Said, only to be brutally murdered by their father, Yaser Said, on New Year’s Day 2008. Rifqa got away, unlike Aqsa Parvez, a Muslim teen in Canada who stayed with friends only to return home and get murdered by her father for refusing to wear the Islamic headscarf.

But now Rifqa Bary is in court, in a custody battle that could send her to her death. “They want me back home,” she says. “I can’t go back to Ohio, you guys don’t understand. That community, they’re like — I will die within a week. My life is at stake.”

“You guys don’t understand,” Rifqa said. “Islam is very different than you guys think. They have to kill me. My blood is now halal, which means that because I am now a Christian, I’m from a Muslim background, it’s an honor. If they love God more than me, they have to do this. And I’m fighting for my life, you guys don’t understand. You don’t understand.”

Americans don’t understand because the “experts” aren’t telling them. I pray that Rifqa’s defenders bring to the court experts who know about honor killings. Family members who have lost their relatives to honor killings (for less) should be giving testimony. Amina and Sarah Said’s aunt, Gail Gartrell, should speak; Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan (who is forced to live in hiding in the United States because of Islamic death threats), and Robert Spencer should speak; Phyllis Chesler and friends of Aqsa Parvez should speak.

This is the front line — right in Florida. While our finest young Americans engage in hard-fought battles on the front lines of the global jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israel is on the front lines of the global jihad in the Middle East, Muslim women all over the world are on the front lines in the war against Islamic jihad. The battlefield is their homes. They live their lives in abject terror in homemade concentration camps.

The control of women is central to the battle between free men and slaves. The horror of the Islamic subjugation, abuse, and murder of women has made its way to our shores. Our ignorance or worse, silence, is complicity in their deaths. Invariably, the terrible sociological result is a reduction in the status of women in Western society.

Are we in the free world going to stand by silently while Muslims in the West brutalize women and converts from Islam, and treat them as worthless trash? We failed Amina and Sarah Said, Aqsa Parvez, and thousands of other women held captive by the “devout.”
No one who cares about an innocent girl's safety should be sitting silent while this goes on. I think that it's high time that some real experts go to testify in the girl's defense.

Speaking of Parvez, a memorial has finally been built for victims of honor murders in Pelham and Jerusalem.

OBAMA AND OBAMACARE ARE WEAKENING THE US ECONOMY BY WEAKENING THE DOLLAR

NYTIMES:

Benchmark crude for September delivery added 41 cents at $70.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude prices climbed 74 cents to $73.63 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil prices should be depressed right now, given the tepid demand for gasoline and a growing surplus of crude in the U.S. But Newedge analyst Antoine Halff said the tactic of buying oil contracts as a hedge against inflation is ''back with a vengeance.''

Benchmark crude, which is priced in dollars, tends to rise when the dollar falls as foreign investors gain more buying power. It's recently become a convenient place to park large amounts of cash as the dollar loses ground to other currencies.

...
government reports showed that the economy remains on shaky ground.The Commerce Department said Thursday that retail sales fell 0.1 percent last month. Economists expected a gain of 0.7 percent. And the Labor Department said initial jobless claims grew more than expected to a seasonally adjusted 558,000.
PORKULUS FAILED!

IF OBAMA WAS CUTTING TAXES AND SPENDING - INSTEAD OF SPENDING MONEY LIKE A DRUNK SAILOR ON ALL HIS CRONIES AND PUSHING FOR HUGE NEW SPENDING PROGRAMS - THEN THE ECONOMY WOULD BE GROWING ALREADY, AS GERMANY'S IS, AND THE DOLLAR WOULD BE STRONG.

WITH A STRONG DOLLAR ENERGY COSTS REMAIN FLAT: THE PRICE MIGHT FIRM UP DUE TO AN INCREASE IN DEMAND, BUY BUYING POWER ALSO STRENGTHENS.

UPDATED: TROPICAL STORM SCIENTISTS: LAST DECADE'S HURRICANE FREQUENCY HIGH BUT NOT UNNATURALLY SO

BBC:

The last decade has seen an average of 17 hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic - earlier in the century, half that number were recorded.

But current levels were matched and perhaps exceeded during the Mediaeval Climate Anomaly (also known as the Mediaeval Warm Period) about 1,000 years ago.

"I think if there's one standout result (from this study), it's that the high storm counts we've seen in the last 10 to 15 years could have been matched or even exceeded in past periods," commented Julian Heming, a tropical storm specialist from the UK Met Office who was not involved in the new research.

"So it's worth feeding into the debate about whether what we're seeing now is exceptional or something related to multi-decadal or even multi-centennial variability; and it does tell us that the levels we're seeing at the moment are within the bounds of uncertainty."

IOW: CLIMATE CHANGE - AND HURRICANE FREQUENCY VARIATION - ARE NATURAL, STUPID!



ASIDE: HOW DID THE BBC FEATURE THIS NEWS ON THEIR WEBSITE?

LIKE THIS:

Atlantic hurricanes 'at 1,000-year high'
Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean are more frequent than at any time in the last 1,000 years, scientists say.

CRANKING UP THE FEAR AND DISTORTING THE TRUTH - LIKE GOOD LITTLE LEFT-WINGERS!

UPDATE#1 - SATURDAY AUGUST 15:
NOAA: More tropical storms counted due to better observational tools, wider reporting. Greenhouse warming not involved.

BECAUSE OF HIS DEMAGOGUERY ON OBAMACARE, OBAMA HAS LOST ALL CREDIBILITY

Kirsanow/NRO/The Corner, (paraphrased):
How can our president expect to maintain any credibility on the health care issue when he:

  • recklessly distorts health-care facts (on tonsillectomies and foot amputations for example),
  • underestimates the projected costs - (by a mere $1,000,000,000,000)
  • falsely claims that certain organizations have endorsed the bill (AARP!),
  • has not even read the legislation
  • and has urged Congress to ram the 1000+ page bill through with no deliberation
  • and before anybody even had a chance to read it?
Just asking...

THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA'S CONSTANT GUSHING OVER BHO

Today, the Washington Post offered this front-page puff piece, presented as historical analysis. The following paragraph appeared above the fold:
President Obama will bring his notably calmer, cooler demeanor to the Vineyard when he arrives Aug. 23 for a family vacation....
The WaPo couldn't resist adding this barb, also on the front page:
The president who preaches bipartisanship has chosen to stay at the private estate of a prominent Republican....
According to the article, BHO is paying for the vacation himself - at least $25,000 to rent the estate, then goes on to gush about how wonderful it is that BHO is paying for his own vacation:
Obama's public vow to pay his family's portion of the rent on Martha's Vineyard is unusual, several historians said.
If BHO were the family man he claims to be, he'd give the $25,000 to one of his poverty-stricken relatives. No mention of any of those relatives in the WaPo, of course. Mustn't put "The One" in a less-than-perfect light. **snerk**

OBAMACARE UNFAIR TO SENIORS: LAWYERS SHOULD BEAR CAN AND SHOULD BRUNT OF REFORM, NOT OUR SENIORS!

GLENN LINKED TO THIS:

The dangers of decompartmentalized health spending: “The elderly consume 70% of all health care spending. That means that when it comes to cost control, they will bear the brunt of the burden.

WRONG. There's a way to reduce costs without hurting our seniors or our doctors:

Tort reform would reduce "defensive testing" and lower malpractice insurance fees and so reduce costs without reducing care.


IOW: Lawyers can bear the brunt of the cost of reform, not seniors.

Why isn't this in the bill?

SIMPLE: The Democrat Party is in the tank for trial lawyers - like John Edwards.

TORT REFORM WOULDN'T COST TAXPAYERS A PENNY - IT WOULD SAVE BILLIONS - AND A BILL COULD BE WRITTEN IN UNDER 10 PAGES.

THE GOP FAVORS TORT REFORM.

WANT A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER? THEN, VOTE GOP IN 2010.

Australian Senate kills Warmist laws

The Senate has defeated legislation to establish an emissions trading scheme, forcing the Government to negotiate with the Opposition or persist with its bill with the threat of an early election. Just after 11am, the Opposition, Greens, and the independents, Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding, voted to defeat the package of 11 bills that sought to establish a scheme from 2011 onwards.

If the Government waits three months to reintroduce the bills, and they are defeated again, it would serve as a trigger for a double dissolution election. [An early election which dissolves both the Senate and the lower house]

Before the vote, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong called it a "day of reckoning" on climate change. "This is a reform that is long overdue, that is in the national interest, that both major political parties said they would implement when they went to the last election," she said. In summing up the Government's case before the vote, Senator Wong said: ''This bill may be going down today but this is not the end. We will press forward, we will press on with this reform for as long as we have to. ''We will bring this bill back before the end of the year."

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said he was willing to negotiate amendments to pass a scheme in the event the Government reintroduces the bills. But his party room is divided and he faces a tough test ahead, even though he has majority support to negotiate.

Senator Wong said again this morning she would consider amendments "when Mr Turnbull has serious and credible amendments that have the support of his party room". Debate on the scheme began about 10am but there were few speakers left to make a contribution. Family First Senator Steve Fielding told the Senate of his concerns that humans were not the cause of global warming.

SOURCE

But early election trigger won't work

KEVIN Rudd's plans for an early double dissolution election have been sunk, with the discovery of a legal defect in his Emissions Trading Scheme. The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, is understood to have confirmed that even if Mr Rudd were to go to a double dissolution election to get his ETS through Parliament, the scheme could still be blocked by the Senate.

Mr Evans an expert on Senate practice is understood to have based his argument on the fact that most of the ETS relies not on law, but on regulation. The Standing Orders of the Parliament state those regulations could still be struck down by the Senate even if the laws establishing the ETS were passed at a joint sitting of Parliament following a double dissolution election.

Mr Evans' views are based on the 1987 precedent of the failed Australia Card. Then Prime Minister Bob Hawke went to a double dissolution election using the Senate's obstruction of the ID card as a trigger. He won the election and was preparing for a joint sitting of the Parliament when it was discovered by the Opposition that the start-up date for the card was governed by regulation and a hostile Senate would vote it down. In a humiliating backdown, Mr Hawke had to abandon the ID card.

Mr Evans believes Mr Rudd is now in the same position.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Evans declined to comment publicly. It is understood that shadow attorney-general George Brandis shares Mr Evans' opinion. It is likely Mr Evans' view will be confirmed in writing this week when Senator Brandis approaches him for confirmation of his opinion.

SOURCE

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

OBAMACARE RESTRICTS YOUR FREEDOM 5 WAYS

TAT:
... five freedoms that Americans would lose under Obamacare:

1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan...

2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs...

3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage ...

4. Freedom to keep your existing plan ...

5. Freedom to choose your doctors...

RTWT.

Updated: RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP MYSTERY DEEPENS



BBC:

Russian navy ships are hunting in the Atlantic for a 4,000-tonne cargo ship that vanished more than two weeks ago, triggering an international mystery.

Observers have suggested the ship was hijacked, possibly because of a Russian commercial dispute.

The Maltese-flagged ship, the Arctic Sea, has a 15-strong Russian crew.

Carrying timber reportedly worth $1.8m (£1.1m), it sailed from Finland and had been scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.

The ship was last sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July, according to the Russian media.

I THINK IT MIGHT BE TERROR RELATED... ETA, AL QAEDA... STAY TUNED...

********UPDATE/REUTERS:

Mikhail Boytenko, editor of Russia's respected Sovfracht maritime journal, said that the ship may have been carrying a secret cargo unknown to the vessel's owners or operators.

"I think there was probably some sort of secret cargo on this vessel, not criminal but secret, and a third party of some sort did not want the cargo to get to another party so this highly sophisticated operation was cooked up," he told Reuters.

"I don't think that it was pirates who took this vessel but it really smells of some sort of state involvement. This is real cloak and dagger stuff, like a (John) le Carre novel."


*******UPDATE #2: FRIDAY: FOUND - OFF THE COAST OF AFRICA!?!?

***UPDATE #3:

Mystery still surrounds a missing Russian-manned cargo ship, with a sighting off Africa's Cape Verde islands still to be confirmed.

The Arctic Sea, with 15 Russian crew members on board, was last sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July.

Cape Verde officials say they think the ship is 400 nautical miles (740km) off one of the islands.

But Moscow's envoy to Cape Verde said he had not been informed of any confirmed sighting.

The 4,000-tonne Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been carrying timber, went off radar after passing through the English Channel.

*******UPDATE #4*******

BBC:
Finnish police say a ransom demand has been made for a missing Russian-manned cargo vessel, the Arctic Sea.

The demand - which has not been confirmed as genuine - was put to the ship's Finnish owners, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation said.

A Finnish radio station said it had been told the 15 crew members' lives would be at risk if it was not paid.

Mystery surrounds the location of the Arctic Sea, last sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July.

The 4,000-tonne Maltese-flagged vessel, which had been carrying timber, went off radar after passing through the English Channel.

A recent sighting off Africa's Cape Verde islands is still to be confirmed.

STAY TUNED...