Monday, February 29, 2016

Warning!

Reince, Boehner, and McConnell Broke It, So....

Remember that quote, "If you break it, you buy it"?

Yah.

So Reince, along with Boehner and McConnell, are now within a few months of having broken it, which WILL be the result of a Trump nomination.

Nice work. 

You just couldn't assemble the testosterone to take down Obozo and all his works and all his pomps.

Yes, we know that the Chamber of Commerce wanted you to behave that way.

You made your choice.  Enjoy.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Trump, the Tin-Pot Dictator Wannabee

Further cementing himself as another Obozo with somewhat different objectives (or so we're told), Trump resorts to threatening political opponents and their mothers.

Donald Trump had some choice words earlier this week for the Ricketts family, who owns the Chicago Cubs, over their contributions to a super PAC that is running ads against him. But Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Wednesday his family is simply standing up for their beliefs.

"It's a little surreal when Donald Trump threatens your mom," Ricketts told reporters Wednesday during a press conference at spring training in Mesa, Ariz....

What's that all about?

...Trump, on Monday, said the Chicago-based family "better be careful" after reports emerged that Marlene Ricketts, the wife of top GOP donor Joe Ricketts, who owns the Cubs, had contributed $3 million to Our Principles PAC. The group, led by former Mitt Romney aide Katie Packer, has released ads questioning the Republican presidential front-runner's conservative credentials...

I suppose it's a relief to know that the Tin Pot hasn't yet explicitly threatened force-of-arms, but IRS does have guns, after all.

Preparations Are Underway

Apparently a LOT of people are getting ready for something.

...In 1986, a total of three million firearms were produced. In 2013, it was well over ten million. Pistols (here used to mean semiauto handguns) totaled over four million in 2013 -- so the number of handguns made in that year was greater than total firearms production in 1986. Total gun production doubled, repeat doubled, between 2010 and 2013....

Don't forget the ammo!!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Real Menace? Trump.

I mentioned a while back that Trump is very much like Obama, albeit with a seemingly different agenda.  (Then again, Trump might be lying.)

Here's Harsanyi, making the same case, relayed by MoonBattery.

...Just as some Republicans are already warming to the idea of his candidacy, the temptation in Congress to follow Trumpism — a philosophy based on the vagaries of one man — will be strong. Trump’s inclination is never to free Americans from the state (“we’re gonna take care of everybody!”) but rather to do a better job administering the state through great deals and assertive leadership. Or, everything the Founders didn’t want the presidency to be.

So while gridlock will still hold up most issues conservatives do care about, chances are high, considering his long history of supporting big government, that Trump would try and cobble together a populist coalition for polices they hate.  This will end up marginalizing ideological conservatism from within the party....

That last sentence will tell you why Trump continues to attack Cruz far more harshly than he does Rubio, Carson, or Hillary.  Conservatism is THE enemy--to all of them--so Cruz delenda est.

The solution--for Harsanyi--is this:  if Trump is the nominee, vote (R) DOWN-ticket, let HRC win.  She'll be in Federal prison before 2 years expire anyway, and she's just as hate-able as Obozo, so she won't get anything done.

I would add only this:  BUY.  MORE.  AMMO.








Our "Highly Moralistic" President? Not Even Close

We are subject to continuous lectures by the Moralist-in-Chief about damn near everything.

But The Moralist-in-Chief's war morals?

[F]ormer Director of the CIA and NSA, General Michael Hayden, explained that the administration's drone kill list, contrary to the narrative, was not a masterpiece of judicial and Solomonic judgment by president Obama but simply the result of a computer program. “We kill people based on metadata,” Hayden said....

Hayden was not kidding.

Whatever else one may think about warfare, killing thousands of people based on METADATA is wrong.  If it's not classified as a war crime, it should be.

Grim notes:

...He kills everyone a computer program thinks even might be associated with terrorism, based on opaque metadata that is not subject to an independent review based on other evidence...

Terrorists are not "state actors," but so long as we are at formally-declared war with terrorists, the rules of war applying to active combatants should apply here.

Bear Is Angry!

There's a bear in the Church, and since it's Lent, he's a bit hungry.  And he's angry, too.

...One man is entirely responsible for the papal logorrhea on airplanes. That is currently Pope Francis. Given the confusion he generates, and his helplessness to resist the lure of microphones, the Bear respectfully invites his Holiness' attention to the example of Ulysses and the sirens...

You know THAT story.  Anyhow...

...the Bear will virtually bite the face off of anyone who employs the argument that "it's non-magisterial, it doesn't matter." Yes, the Bear has used that argument himself, but he was wrong. (And he can hardly bite his own face off.)

When the Pope opens his yap, HE IS TEACHING. When Fr. Lombardi follows up with a confirmatory press release, the Church is TEACHING. It is completely foreseeable that people will RELY ON MORAL TEACHINGS THAT COME OUT OF THE POPE'S PIE HOLE. And when one of his commissions comes out with a "non-magisterial" press release to much applause, THE CHURCH IS TEACHING. Don't tell the Bear it's not "magisterial." You think the average Catholic, let alone some reporter, knows the difference between "magisterial" and a magistrate? So, whether it's "magisterial" or not, it does count. Big time
....

(There are a couple of Big Time National Blog-O-Yappers that Bear will be having for lunch.  One is pictured at the top of the linked post.  The other one uses the initial "Z" in his writings.)

The Bear makes a very good point:  Communications technology is a LOT better than it was in the 10th Century, or even the 20th Century.

By the way:  this puts our Bishops in a crack.  We're waiting for them to speak up.  Otherwise, I'll suggest that The Bear will have a very large repast forthcoming.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

More on Apple v. FedGov

We've been Apple-backers since this thing started with the FBI asking for a key.  More from a tech-savvy guy can be found here.

...This isn’t a fight over keys to a single device. This is a fight over encryption, which the government doesn’t want any of us to have, ...

Of note is the fact that any device from the 4th generation forward (beginning with 5s) is impossible – IMPOSSIBLE – to decrypt without the actual key, because Apple has moved encryption duties to a separate System On A Chip (SoC) that runs its own OS, is married to the device by UUID, and totally inaccessible.

The phone the FBI is freaking out over is a 5c, not a 5s....

No matter what Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh say, Apple is right.  The Feds want a universal back-door key to all Apple phones.  If you value your privacy at all, (and I realize that many people do NOT), this is a fight worth fighting.

Monday, February 22, 2016

But Even If the "Nuns in the Congo" Story is True....

There is serious dispute over the "nuns in the Congo" story which was referenced by Pp Francis.  As it is told, nuns working in the Congo area were allowed to use birth control pills (NOT abortifacient pills, by the way) to prevent conception following a rape.

Prof. Janet Smith is, arguably, this country's foremost moral theologian on issues having to do with sexuality.  Here's her analysis of the "Congo nuns" situation.  (Smith takes for granted the truth of the story, by the way).

....It also confuses many that the officials of the Church many decades ago permitted nuns in the Congo who were in danger of being raped to take hormones that prevent ovulation (which is what the “pill” does). In this case the hormones would be taken with the intent of avoiding a pregnancy, but not a pregnancy that would be the result of a spousal act of sexual intercourse. They would not be altering the purpose of a spousal act of sexual intercourse. Rather, they would be defending themselves against the possible consequences of an act of rape. Keep in mind that it is justifiable for a woman to inflict great physical harm, even death, on a man threatening rape. Her act of killing the rapist is not justified as a “lesser evil” because killing is not a lesser evil than enduring rape. Rather, her act is an act of just and moral self-defense. 
 
Thus, for a woman to do something to prevent a rapist’s sperm from uniting with her ovum is a part of justifiable self-defense. Her act has nothing to do with violating God’s plan for sexuality. She is not choosing to use contraception to prevent a spousal act of sexual intercourse from achieving its natural end. She is not refusing to make a complete gift of herself to her spouse.  She is fending off a rapist and all his physicality. Clearly, her use of ovulation-suppressing hormones is not an act of contraception....

There is an implication to the way Smith analyzes the story:  "Rome" could have simply utilized the above analysis for the nuns who asked--thus "giving permission" under the specific outlined circumstances.  

Or, as the legal beagles will say:  it's facts and circumstances, folks.


Scalia: "Two Words"

No matter who nominates the next Justice of the Supreme Court, two words will define the nominee's judicial philosophy.

Due to the wonders of the internet, you can listen to WLW/Cincinnati

There you can hear a fellow named Bill Cunningham, who had dinner with Scalia--who told him that 'in the end, it all comes down to two words.'

Those two words?

"Who Decides?"

To Scalia, the Constitution's 9th and 10th Amendments are clear guideposts; those Amendments LIMIT the power of the Feds and SCOTUS.

The nominee with the right answer to that two-word question should be confirmed, unless you are foolish enough to think that 5 unelected lawyers in black robes should really run the country.

UPDATE:  England gets to answer the very same question, soon.

Marco's Attack on ICE

As usual, Marco tells about half the truth.

...Following an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in which Crane detailed how law enforcement was treated “like absolute trash” by Sen. Rubio during his effort to ram the Gang of Eight amnesty bill through the Senate, Rubio took to national television to denounce Crane and his service to his country....

 ...“He’s not an ICE official. He’s the head of a union,” Rubio declared on Fox News...

Actually, Crane is both.  The Earnest Young Man has a truth-problem.

Chisholm Needs Some Cheese

Have some extra brie?  John Chisholm has a lot of whine.

...The court in July declared the campaign finance investigation into 29 conservative groups and Walker’s campaign unconstitutional and ordered it shut down. In December, the court ruled that the position of the probe’s special prosecutor was invalid since its inception and that his only remaining duties were to inform the people he and his fellow prosecutors spied on and to return the property seized....

So the Attorney General went before the court:

...Schimel argues the defendants in the civil rights case filed by Cindy Archer, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker, seek to “directly contradict” the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s order requiring the “evidence unlawfully seized by John Doe investigators be kept under seal.”...

And Chisholm began to cry:

...the investigators claim that Schimel has publicly besmirched the reputations of such upstanding “lifelong civil servants,” and they “do not deserve to be the target of the Attorney General’s defamatory attacks.” “It is shameful that law enforcement officers have to fear that their own attorney general will trample on their reputations in the media just to score political points,”...

Quick!  Get to the fainting couch!!  The nasty man called NAMES!!

Sum & substance:

...The question is: Why should investigators found to have conducted an unconstitutional investigation be allowed to hold on to those records while the citizens they illegally targeted have to continue to wait for the return of what is rightfully theirs?

“One more note: the legal position taken by the John Doe prosecutors and investigators is that the lawful owners of the property in question should be required to use the civil court discovery process to be able to have access to their own property,” the attorney general said....

Note to Chisholm:  Wisconsin is not a police state and you aren't Checka.  Find a life.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Yup. Pp. Francis Screwed It Up

The current Pope has a bad case of logorrhea--too much talking.  So on occasion (more often than not) the current Pope says something the meaning of which is impossible to decipher; or, as on this occasion, flat-out gets it wrong.

Paul VI – the great one! – in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted sisters to use contraceptives for cases of violenze. [sic]

The whole story is here.  There are two different instances wherein "the Pope" or "Rome" (note that inconsistency) allegedly allowed nuns who legitimately feared rape to take contraceptives, thus avoiding pregnancy.  The first story was about the Congo; the second was about Bosnia.

Cutting to the chase:

...vice-director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Fr. Piero Pennacchini. His words:

“The Holy See never issued texts authorizing women religious to make use of contraceptives, even if they run the risk of being raped”. “I know of no official document by the Holy See on this”.

One final note:  a Jesuit priest started this whole thing with the Congo flimflammery; a Franciscan resurrected it regarding Bosnia.

We pray that Pp. Francis give up press conferences for Lent.  And for the Easter Season, the season of Pentecost, Ordinary time, Advent, and Christmastide.

Throwdown to Reince & Co.

The Treehouse defends Trump-ism with a barrage of 16" shells.

*Did the GOP secure the border with control of the White House and Congress? NO.
• Did the GOP balance the budget with control of the White House and Congress? NO
• Did the GOP even pass a FY 2016 budget with control of the House and Senate? NO.

• Who gave us a $2.5 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill in December 2015? The GOP
• Who eliminated, not just raise but eliminated, the debt ceiling? The GOP
• Who gave us the TSA? The GOP
• Who gave us the Patriot Act? The GOP
• Who expanded Medicare to include prescription drug coverage? The GOP
• Who created the precursor of “Common Core” in “Race To the Top”? The GOP

• Who played the race card in Mississippi to re-elect Thad Cochran? The GOP
• Who paid Democrats to vote in the Mississippi primary? The GOP
• Who refused to support Ken Cuccinnelli in Virginia? The GOP

• Who supported Charlie Crist? The GOP
• Who supported Arlen Spector? The GOP
• Who supported Bob Bennett? The GOP
• Who worked against Jim DeMint? The GOP
• Who worked against Rand Paul? The GOP
• Who worked against Ted Cruz? The GOP
• Who worked against Mike Lee? The GOP
• Who worked against Ronald Reagan? The GOP
• Who is working against Donald Trump? The GOP

• Who said “I think we are going to crush [the Tea Party] everywhere.”? The GOP (McConnell)

Well.  The question is very clear, indeed.  I don't think the answer is "Trump," but there's no doubt that the answer is NOT "Reince, the Chamber of Commerce Lapdog and His Oleagenous Lying Friend  McConnell."

HT:  ColdFury

What Really Counts for Cruz?

When one takes the measure of a man, one looks at the man's actions.

...It is thus worth noting, in this context, that on the very day of the highly important South Carolina Republican Presidential primary, only Ted Cruz made it a point to be at Justice Scalia’s funeral this morning....

Not likely that his campaign staffers encouraged that move.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Rubio, The Earnest Young Liar

Yes, he speaks from both sides of his lingual abilities.  With forked tongue!

Well, DACA is going to have to end at some point. I wouldn't undo it immediately. The reason is that there are already people who have that permission, who are working, who are studying, and I don't think it would be fair to cancel it suddenly.
 
But I do think it is going to have to end. And, God willing, it's going to end because immigration reform is going to pass. DAPA hasn’t yet taken effect, and I think it has impeded progress on immigration, on immigration reform. And since that program hasn’t taken effect yet, I would cancel it. But DACA, I think it is important; it can't be cancelled suddenly because there are already people who are benefiting from it. But it is going to have to end. It cannot be the permanent policy of the United States. And I don't think that's what they’re asking for, either. I think that everyone prefers immigration reform....

Thus he spake--in Spanish--on Univision.

 But his English?  Altogether different.

...In English, he only talks about border security and DACA "ending." In Spanish, he says it will have to end at some point to be determined, and also says that won't matter much anyway, because we'll have a permanent legislative amnesty in place by then. (He also speaks of it ending in the third person -- he won't end it. It will just "end" itself, somehow. If we're doing a close parsing.)...

When Ted Cruz called him on it, he called Cruz a 'liar.'  Trump-esque, eh?

And when Fox News interviews the Earnest Young Liar, they don't ask the question.   Hmmmm.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Dole, a Loser to Clinton, Drools Out Spite

Bob Dole, loser, speaking of Cruz:

He’s self-absorbed. He’s got this giant ego. He’s overly ambitious. 

That from a guy who needs Viagra and who could not defeat the world's second-most prolific liar.

Sacred Art

Another essay which makes distinctions and has import.

...Church architecture and other sacred arts, says Fr. Lang, are different from “spiritual” art. What is spiritual reflects the personal, individual experience of the artist, but what is sacred must be a means for others to reflect on a revealed, universal truth. As such, the object or goal of the sacred arts is to reveal or teach about something that is a fixed part of the Christian, catholic, apostolic tradition. Ultimately that tradition must be at unity with itself... the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church is founded on one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In other words, because sacred art serves public, didactic purpose (as opposed to “spiritual” art), it must be timeless and universal. It’s both a sign and a tool....

Consider music in the church in light of the above.

The Realities of Catholic Moral Teaching

Whether Pp Francis' remarks are "meaningless"  or not (see below post), the realities of Catholic moral teachings remain unchanged, no matter who says what.

...Pope Paul VI, as I understand it, did approve of religious women threatened by rape using contraceptives. It is obvious, though, that such measures were taken in self-defense against criminal acts and, more importantly, would have occurred outside the context of conjugal relations. Avoiding pregnancy under outlaw circumstances is not only ‘not an absolute evil’, it’s not an evil act at all....

...An individual becomes “Christian” by, and only by, (valid) baptism. Donald Trump was apparently baptized Presbyterian, which faith community has valid baptism. Donald Trump is, therefore, as a matter of canon law (c. 204), Christian....

...There is no legitimate “principle” by which a “lesser of two evils” may ever be licitly engaged in. It is fundamental moral theology that even a small evil action may never be licitly engaged in—no matter how much good might seem to result therefrom and no matter how much evil might seem to be avoided thereby. There are, to be sure, principles by which a good or neutral action that has two effects, one good and one evil, might be licitly engaged in under certain circumstances despite the evil effects; and there are principles by which “lesser evils” may be tolerated (not chosen)....

...Abortion (assuming we are talking about doing an action intended to kill a human being prior to birth, and not just suffering ‘abortion’, i.e., miscarriage) is, Francis observed, always evil. Abortion is not, however, “evil” because it is a “crime”. Not all criminal acts are by nature evil and not all evil acts are crimes. Other factors must be considered lest moral principles and legal principles become confused....

...It is important (though some might say it is too late) to distinguish between a Catholic’s stance toward “same-sex unions” and that toward “same-sex marriage”. These are not equivalent terms. Legal recognition of “same-sex unions” might be a good idea, a tolerable idea, or a bad idea, but, per se, “same-sex unions” are things over which reasonable minds (including Catholic minds) may differ; in contrast, Catholics may never approve or support “same-sex marriage”,...

Yes, that was more than "fair use," and there's more at the link.  But this is stuff that must be known.

Well, Well. Mahound Meets "Fr. Z"

A controversial statement from Pp. Francis leads to a Happy Days moment.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Why Levin Is Wrong on Apple

Mark Levin thinks Apple is wrong because Apple told a Fed judge to stick it where the sun never shines after that judge ordered Apple to provide the Feds E-Z access to ALL Apple phones. 

While the Feds are pretending that this is about only one terrorist s*&^ball, it is not.  What they are asking for is the key to the front door for every Apple phone made.

...the Bill of Rights does not empower the government to unlock the iPhones of all Americans, in order to go after one filthy terrorist. This is exactly contrary to every principle we have...

Mostly the Fourth Amendment's 'unreasonable search' prohibition.

Ten years ago, most of us would grudgingly concede that the Feds should get that info.

Now that we know all about the NSA, however, we won't go silently into that night, ever again.   And here in Wisconsin, we have the Chisholm/Schmitz Cabal as a landmark.  Remember, they still have FOUR YEARS' worth of every email and phone call made by the political opposition--which includes names, addresses, phone numbers, and lots of other information on all the friends, relatives, and casual acquaintances of those political opponents.

Screw the Feds--and Chisholm/Schmitz, too.  Apple is right, Levin is living in the Reagan era which--he should know--is long dead.

"Birds of a Feather..."

You know the old saying, right?

President Barack Obama will pay a historic visit to Cuba in the coming weeks, senior Obama administration officials said, becoming the first president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades....

Think that's an unfair conclusion?

Well, then, we can provide evidence from the contrary!!

President Barack Obama is [...] not planning to attend Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral...

The kind of bird Obozo is?

Utterly class-less.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Donald: A Blowhard S*&^ Sandwich Who Lies

There has always been some speculation that The Donald is really a stalking-horse for Hildebeeste Clinton.

I disagree, only because two such egos could not possibly occupy the same room, no matter its size.

What The Donald really is, however, is a monumental liar.  He is a liar so monumental that he has taken the title from Bill Clinton, which places him above Olympic-class.

Kevin Williamson reviews the record

First off, Trump is a banko-artist:

...Trump insisted that he’d never gone bankrupt, and that claims to the contrary are a lie. That’s the Trump magic right there: Lying about your business history is one thing, lying that your critics are lying about it is another.

Then, he lies about 'self-funding' his campaign.

He also lies about his "charity for veterans."

He lies about being 'pro-life.'  He lies about being 'pro-gun.'  He lies about Cruz, Rubio, and Carson.

When all is said and done, The Donald will have ruined the reputations of countless real-estate developers.  But he will have boosted the standings of Congressmen and used-car salesmen in the liars' index.

Surprise!! Gov. Haley Endorses Rubio

Ace ruminates on the Establishment's pocket lady Governor and her...ahh...stinking Establishment endorsement.

The Archdiocesan "Plan": Will It Work?

Following the Archdiocesan synod, a new plan for evangelization has been issued by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.  The intrepid folks at Cream City Catholic reviewed the plan and found it.....ahhhh.....businesslike.

In a recent article from the Milwaukee Catholic Herald published on February 11, 2016, we are subjected to a breakdown of ideas that were offered up from the recent Archdiocesan Synod which, in part, was called to determine the causes of and solutions for low Mass attendance across the Archdiocese.

... “Direct our primary attention and strategic efforts to the weekend so that the music, message, and ministries form a high-impact, integrated evangelizing message of Good News, especially to the lost and seekers.” –Third key initiative on liturgy, 2014 Archdiocesan Synod.

Direct, strategic efforts, high-impact, integrated. . . message. 

Sounds like textbook words right out of Marketing 101. If a marketing director wanted to capture more “market share” of a given target audience, these are the words that would be used....

(To me, "high impact" is a 60 MPH collision with a tree, a howitzer round landing within 10 yards, or a lightning strike.  None of them happen inside Catholic churches on Sunday.  But I digress.)

Cream City's author highlights an interesting point here:

...in true “marketing” strategy, the adherents of fixing problems have identified the problem areas and laid out a strategy to make it all better. McNeil states that, “If we want people to come, then it has to be attractive; we have to have good quality preaching.” She continues, “When we say good quality music, we’re not talking about a specific genre; we’re saying it needs to be well done. And (we need) good ministries that help people participate.”...

[But] ...Much... liturgical music has been replaced with “genres” that are more modern, upbeat, and coated with sugar. The choir and musicians, with instruments ranging from guitar to trumpet, are now placed just off-center stage and in many cases, they write their own music and lyrics to serve an audience that may well get caught up in the moment and burst out with clapping and sing-a-longs....

If we understand the Mass as the re-enactment of the Sacrifice of Calvary; the Mystery of Faith and the cause of our redemption, then true Ms. McNeil's demand for "integration" would call for music which reflects those realities, right?  If we understand the Mass, specifically Communion, as Christ's gift of Self to us as spiritual food, "integration" would call for music which reflects that, right?  Even more to the point:  when the Church provides specific texts to be used at every Mass, it would seem that "integrity" is best served by using those texts, right??  RIGHT???   

Well, "hymns" are NOT those texts.  Surprise!!

In general, the 'marketing plan' fails, for as Cream City points out, 

...Doesn’t it trouble you that an article about Mass has overlooked the most compelling reason any Catholic attends Mass? Where is the Eucharist in all of this discussion? The Eucharist is not mentioned even once in the article about Mass. Not once....

Doh.

What is this 'Good News' about which we speak?  The death, resurrection, and self-gift of Christ, Who overcame sin!  What 'genre' of music is best for that?  The 'genre' of chant which--by the way--is utilized by the entire Eastern church, (uniate or not), by Jews and Muslims, and by Hindus (each mutatis mutandis, of course).  The Anglicans also use chant, sung in English.  It also happens to be the 'genre' mentioned FIRST by every authoritative Church document on the topic.

"Integrity" demands it, ya'know.  Evangelization is not a marketing plan, and the music of the Church is not in place to feed anything but the soul.


Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Marco's Strange Behavior Over Huma Abedin

Should Huma Abedin be considered as much a threat to national security as her boss?

Umnnnhhhh......why not?

The Muslim Brotherhood connections are, at the very least, a matter of concern.  So if they are a concern (or worse), then why did Marco Rubio defend Abedin?

Inquiring minds want to know.
How do we know, as events unfold, that the very emails deemed too classified for investigators and congressional staffers to even analyze were not, in fact, passed on to another server maintained by the very Muslim Brotherhood - See more at: http://moonbattery.com/#sthash.ydZusyhE.dpuf
How do we know, as events unfold, that the very emails deemed too classified for investigators and congressional staffers to even analyze were not, in fact, passed on to another server maintained by the very Muslim Brotherhood - See more at: http://moonbattery.com/#sthash.ydZusyhE.dpuf
How do we know, as events unfold, that the very emails deemed too classified for investigators and congressional staffers to even analyze were not, in fact, passed on to another server maintained by the very Muslim Brotherhood - See more at: http://moonbattery.com/#sthash.ydZusyhE.dpuf

A Word to the Wise About SCOTUS

Grim makes a very important point here.

...Nothing could be clearer than that the Federal courts have become too powerful. Admittedly, this is an old argument for me. I've been arguing it probably since I've been writing here, certainly since 2006 (see "The Judiciary" here). The most important work we could do right now would be to strip the Federal courts, and the Supreme Court, of much of their authority. The Supreme Court's ability to amend the Constitution on the fly has risen at the same time that increasing diversity in the nation has made amending the Constitution legitimately, through Article V, more and more difficult to accomplish.

The Supreme Court has become much like the One Ring. Instead of trying to use that concentrated power to defend our position, we need to destroy the power lest it fall into other hands....


...It is in the interest of nearly every American to disperse this concentrated power, which is a threat to the peace and stability of the Republic. Unfortunately, I suspect the siren song of power -- of finally being able to force the other side to submit and obey -- will prove too strong.

The alternative is a giant bowl of Not Good.

By the way, if you think Grim is not your brand of thinker, how about Abe Lincoln?

...Perhaps the most famous opponent of judicial supremacy in our nation’s history was Abraham Lincoln, who as President directly defied the abominable and inhuman monstrosity that was Chief Justice Taney’s ruling in 1857’s Dred Scott v. Sandford.

"...the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."

Hmmmmmm?

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Scalia: "Remember Polonius Was an Idiot"

Something that high-school lit teachers forget is that ol' Bill Shakespeare cast Polonius as an idiot, not a sage.  In fact, Plotonius was a suck-up.

Scalia:

“[A] platitude I want discuss comes in many flavors. It can be variously delivered as, ‘Follow your star,’ or ‘Never compromise your principles.’ Or, quoting Polonius in ‘Hamlet’ — who people forget was supposed to be an idiot — ‘To thine ownself be true.’ Now this can be very good or very bad advice. Indeed, follow your star if you want to head north and it’s the North Star. But if you want to head north and it’s Mars, you had better follow somebody else’s star.

“And indeed, to thine own self be true, depending upon who you think you are. It’s a belief that seems particularly to beset modern society, that believing deeply in something, and following that belief, is the most important thing a person could do. Get out there and picket, or boycott, or electioneer, or whatever. I am here to tell you that it is much less important how committed you are, than what you are committed to...Quoted at Cold Fury

Damn, that guy was smart!

How's Your Spanish, Marco?

The Earnest Young Man tried to score a point by arguing that Ted Cruz doesn't speak Spanish.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTT

Cruz does speak Spanish, and Cruz does know what Marco said about immigration (in Spanish) on TV--which is not what The Earnest Young Man says in English.

Everybody Lies (Except The Donald). Really??

The Donald has now declared that G W Bush lied to get us into the Iraq war.

Hmmmmmm.

I was never a fanboy of that war.  I think that John Paul II's warnings about taking out Saddam were based on much better on-the-ground humint and a far, far, better understanding of the geo-politics (and of Mohammedanism) than G W Bush had; and I think that Bush made a judgment call which was not well-founded.

But G W Bush is not a "liar," particularly about Great Matters such as war.

The Donald is apparently a resident of wacko-ville.  This happens to people who are oversaturated with adulation (see damn near anyone on the Hollywood "A" list, e.g.) 

In the case of The Donald, it's self-adulation. 




Saturday, February 13, 2016

Crime Story: Serve Spotted Cow

In Minnesota, it is a felony to serve Spotted Cow beer.

So.  Should it be a felony to wear Vikings gear in Wisconsin?

Why not?

Discuss.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

The Church and the USA: Parallel Tracks?

Interesting medium-length paper here from Douthat.  He remarks on the recent (last ~50 years) history of the Church.

This cut won't do justice to the essay:

...In that sense, even after three decades and two ­conservative popes, conservative Catholicism is often still a counterculture within important institutions of the Church. In the pews, too, 

Western Catholicism remains a faith deeply divided....

Douthat goes on to 'splain what that means in more detail.

At that point, it occurred to me that this has been roughly paralleled in the US, which is also "deeply divided."  Look to Congress v. Obama, or even at just the Republican Party.

Is the parallel perfect?  Nope.  Pp. Francis, for all his (frankly) silly talk about Globull Warming and Eeeeevil Capitalism, is a moral 'conservative,' albeit he's being pushed very hard by a small cabal of ultra-liberal Bishops and Cardinals.

Obama has no conservatism of ANY sort to cloud his thinking.

But still, an interesting parallel.

Obozo's Departing Fart in Your Face

You won't be surprised at the "budget" that Obozo tossed over to Congress.

You MAY be surprised if McConnell/Ryan actually reject it.

Think College Deans Are ....Stupid?

For those of you who suspect that universities are run by rummies and twits, Norm Matloff (a Ph.D. U of California professor) will not give you much comfort.

Here he demonstrates that actual math is foreign to deans of Engineering(!!?) and that to those people, age discrimination AGAINST American citizens is not only OK--it is absolutely necessary.

...I was speaking to about 150 deans of engineering, certainly a remarkable audience....

...Unfortunately, some of the deans in the audience were somewhat less welcoming, and the Q&A session was rather tense. (I don’t know whether those who asked the questions were representative of the group as whole. In my account below, I am referring only to those who spoke up.)...I am sure, for example, that the people who essentially said (both during the session and privately to me afterward) that age discrimination in tech is justified would have been appalled by such statements had they heard them in their pre-dean days....

Yup.  So?

They openly defended the fact that employers are bypassing older Americans in hiring young new foreign grads. (Interestingly, no one challenged my statement.)...

Go to the link to read the question offered by a female dean for what is possibly the most ironic question of 2016, even though there are 10.5 months remaining.

So far, only Ted Cruz has campaigned on this matter.  No wonder he is a pariah in 'polite company.'

When you go to the link, pay particular attention to Norm's 

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

A Chant Master Has Died

We note in sadness:

Cistercian Father Ralph March, a founding member of the CMAA, died on February 6 at the age of 93

The obit is filled with landmarks, by the way.

...he was ordained a priest in the Abbey of Zirc by Jozsef Mindszenty,...He joined fellow Cistercians exiled from Hungary in the Cistercian monastery of Spring Bank in Wisconsin. He taught at Marquette University until the foundation of the University of Dallas, where he served on the first faculty in 1956...At the invitation of the cardinal-archbishop of Cologne, Fr. Ralph became the music director ("Domkapellmeister") of the city's monumental cathedral, a post he held for ten years...

We had the occasion to hear Fr. March's choirs twice; once at St Anthony's/Milwaukee, and once at the U of Dallas.  His rendition of Chant is definitive.  (Much lesser 'lights' in the Church don't agree, some of them actively flogging their E.F. creds in a town west of Milwaukee by about 90 miles.)

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.  And may the Angels lead him into Paradise (etc.)

ObozoRegime: Is It Treason Yet?

Explosive charges laid at the feet of Obozo.

...Just before that Christmas Day attack, in early November 2009, I was ordered by my superiors at the Department of Homeland Security to delete or modify several hundred records of individuals tied to designated Islamist terror groups like Hamas from the important federal database, the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS). These types of records are the basis for any ability to “connect dots.”  Every day, DHS Customs and Border Protection officers watch entering and exiting many individuals associated with known terrorist affiliations, then look for patterns. Enforcing a political scrubbing of records of Muslims greatly affected our ability to do that. Even worse, going forward, my colleagues and I were prohibited from entering pertinent information into the database.

A few weeks later, in my office at the Port of Atlanta, the television hummed with the inevitable Congressional hearings that follow any terrorist attack. While members of Congress grilled Obama administration officials, demanding why their subordinates were still failing to understand the intelligence they had gathered, I was being forced to delete and scrub the records. And I was well aware that, as a result, it was going to be vastly more difficult to “connect the dots” in the future—especially before an attack occurs....

Is it treason yet?

HT:  Moonbattery

They're 'Qualified' Nuts, Ted

Ted Cruz on drafting women into combat positions:

...we have had enough with political correctness, especially in the military. Political correctness is dangerous. And the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong, it is immoral, and if I am president, we ain’t doing it....Politico quoted at HotAir

That's absolutely right, Ted.

But as we demonstrated yesterday, none of the three actually endorsed drafting women into combat.  They very carefully lied by evasion.  (That is, they are typical politicians.)

So while we agree that drafting women into combat positions is wrong and immoral, The Three are 'Qualified' Nuts.

See??


Monday, February 08, 2016

R U Jacksonian?

Grim brings Jacksonianism with pictures and discussion.

Yup. Doritos Had the Best Commercial

Leon Wolf noticed the Femi-Hag reaction to three Super Bowl commercials.  I'm pleased to note that Leon and I agree:  the Doritos ad was the best of the entire crop.

We also agree that the Hyundai Dad-Ad was #2.

Good work, Leon!!!

Three Evasive Schmucks: Bush, Rubio, Christie

Quite a stinking pile of BS left on the floor by these three.

Here's the question (from an extreme Left partisan): 

"....should young women be required to sign up for selective service in case of a national emergency."

The key word is "REQUIRED" and BushRubioChristie--all favorites of The Establishment--evaded the answer.

Rubio:   "...I do believe that selective service should be opened up for both men and for women in case a draft is ever instituted.”

Bush:  "...they ought to have the right to do it, for sure."

Christie:   "... if a young woman in this country wants to go and fight to defend her country she should be permitted to do so..."

"Having a right," and 'opening it up' are flat-out evasions of the question; the draft is legally binding.  One does not "have a right" in this matter, at all.

Cruz later said that he thinks drafting females is 'crazy.'  He's right, again.

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Jamming the Banks With Fake "Stats"

We'll remind you that the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" is NOT subject to Congressional de-funding, and as a result, "oversight" by Congress is largely decorative, not substantial.  This arrangement was put in place by the Statist Obozo and his ally, Fauxcahontas Warren.

Newly uncovered internal memos reveal the Obama administration knowingly exaggerated charges of racial discrimination in probes of Ally Bank and other defendants in the $900 billion car-lending business as part of a “racial justice” campaign that’s looking more like a massive government extortion and shakedown operation....

Their lawyers knew it:

...“Some of the claims being made in this case present issues, such as use of [race] proxying and reliance on the disparate-impact doctrine, that would pose litigation risks meriting serious consideration prior to taking administrative action or filing suit in district court,” the Oct. 7, 2013, memo addressed to CFPB chief Richard Cordray acknowledges....

But the settlements were paid.

Why?

Because Ally wanted to gain Federal Reserve and FDIC approval for some other ventures they had in the works.  IOW, the Feds had them by the short hairs and Ally copped a plea.

Moral of the story:  there's WAAAAAYYYYYY too much Gummint, and that Gummint is run by Statist wacko-birds whose end goal is to demolish private industry.  It's not a co-incidence that this Statist bunch jammed ObozoCare down your throats, folks.

Rubio the Robot

Indirectly mentioned this in a long-ago (October?) post when I characterized Rubio as an 'earnest young fellow'.  That came up because I saw Rubio on a Fox News morning-show segment, where it was clear to me (a former forensics coach) that Rubio was jamming his talking points into every available second of time, (which is why he talks so damn fast).

Now comes Ace, who watched Christie nuke Rubio's canned chatter.

...Chris Christie has exposed him to be simply a robot repeating shallow, poll-tested mini-answers. That cuts at the idea that he's well-prepared -- instead, it now looks like he just has a good memory -- and that he's likable -- instead, he just looks like, well, a robot programmed to say "Good day!"....

Yup.  He's an earnest young man who cannot and will not think through his answer(s).

Contrast Cruz, who actually is 1) directly responsive; and 2) answers the question with a logic trail.


Thursday, February 04, 2016

South Milwaukee's Next Problem...

....is the church that the Archdiocese is selling to the Muslims.

...the Islamic Law of Sacred Space makes clear that when Muslims build mosques they are claiming ground for Islam.  Specifically, a radius of up to three (3) miles from the mosque belongs to Islam.  This explains why the Muslim Brotherhood, with funding from Saudi Arabia and others, are building huge mosques in the middle of nowhere in America.  They are claiming ground for Islam.  Now all they have to do is occupy that ground....

Shari'a law will have an impact on the taverns.  How distant is the Patrick Cudahy plant, anyway??

For another look at "how Musselmans played a part in American history," you will do well to remember the history of the Barbary pirates, with commentary from Ben Franklin.




Muslim "Peace"?

This clown Obozo...

President Barack Obama said today in a speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore that one fact that has not been “communicated on a regular basis through our media” is that “for more than a thousand years people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace.”...

Of course, that "peace" often became reality only if one assumed room temperature.

Paul Ryan, the Fiscal Inebriate

UPDATE:  For even more on Paul Ryan's growing lunacy, see this site.

Apparently Paul Ryan can't (or won't) remember his own plan for spending.

...In October, in his effort to “clear the barn” for Ryan, then-Speaker John Boehner helped negotiate a two-year budget deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats. It raised the 2017 spending level roughly $30 billion above the total lawmakers set in 2011 to control spending.

In other words, Boehner--who is not only a 'fiscal' inebriate--went the Obozo route.


Though the majority of Republicans did not vote for the Boehner-Obama budget deal, the new House leadership has indicated spending bills for fiscal year 2017 must abide by the higher spending level prescribed by the October agreement.
But a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projecting trillion-dollar deficit levels by 2022 appears to be persuading more than just the usual suspects to ignore the budget deal and insist on a lower spending level..

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon it's real money.

Paul, what happened to you?  Or do you like your "F" rating from Conservative Review?

Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Rubio, the New Permanent War Candidate

Marco may well be Limbaugh's "conservative" but he's also a big-time Neocon.

...Heading into 2016, neoconservative foreign policy needed a new, untainted brand and a less experienced, more malleable candidate—someone who wouldn’t be as wary as an old Bush might be. In Marco Rubio, everything was ready-made. The fact that Rubio’s brand isn’t foreign-policy failure—the legacy the Bushes must live with—but rather that of a fresh-faced Hispanic, a new and different kind of Republican, meant that the media and public would not guess that what they were in store for was more of what was worst in the George W. Bush administration. As if to taunt the forgetful, the Rubio campaign adopted as its slogan “A New American Century”—counting on no columnist or newscaster to remember the name of the defunct Kristol-Kagan invasion factory. Rubio has been similarly blunt in his hawkish statements throughout the Republican debates....

The war against Eastasia will never cease!

Conservatives Stand Up to Ryan

Just before his lunch with Obozo, Paul Ryan tried to persuade House Conservatives to incur another $Trillion or so in national debt.

The response what not what Ryan wanted.  That's why his face is all over the WaPo talking about how he's actually a 'conservative.' 

Reality?  He's not John Boehner.  And he spends too much.


Bush's Death Penalty, Again

The Bush-men are pro-death.  For babies.

On today's "Morning Joe" program on MSNBC, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, told Mike Barnicle that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are unelectable in the fall, because they do not make enough exceptions for abortion.
“If a woman is raped in Ted Cruz’s world, she’s going to have to carry the baby of the rapist. I'm pro-life, but I won't go there. I think that's hard to sell with young women,” said Graham...

So.  In the Bush/Graham world, it's fine and dandy to kill the child for the sin of the child's father.

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

The Ruling Class vs. The Car Lovers

The guy who writes this column has been around cars for a long, long, time.

Here he talks a little bit about the Ruling Class' plans for your car.

[A very influential automotive exec] expressed much trepidation about the agenda being put forth by the Connected, Autonomous, Ride-Sharing Imperative Zealots, as I refer to them, because it will impact all of us, whether we want to go along for the ride or not.
 
The country is racing headlong into an abyss of bleak unfamiliarity when it comes to our transportation fleet, and the fundamental rift between the “Zealots” and the “Realists” will only grow more intense over time. As I said last week, this means that there will be a clear demarcation going forward that will be cause for much consternation, on both sides.

We will have auto companies being forced to service the commoditization side of the business by churning out, for all intents and purposes, true appliances for the sharing masses, and all the ugliness that will entail. This is the arena that Silicon Valley has jumped in with both feet, and the Realists at the global automakers are scrambling to meet this threat head on, or make deals with the tech protagonists in order to make sure that they’re not left behind.

The chief executive I spoke to last week said that his company is being forced to participate in both arenas, even though his concern and primary focus, as he told me, “must remain on designing, engineering and building automobiles with passion, vehicles that will have genuine, useful appeal to people for years and years to come.”

I was encouraged by his words but it also puts forth a crucial distinction, because the harsh reality for the Connected Zealots is that it will be a very long time before even a slice of their vision for a utopian driving future makes a dent in our society, and even then it will still be largely confined to the most major of urban centers. Think about that for a moment, because the hype is far exceeding the reality surrounding this subject....

Your car is the next target.

Monday, February 01, 2016

Is There More to Malheur? Like the Clintons?

The Captain has an interesting post which includes uranium, Clinton contributors (heavy money), Malheur County uranium, and the still-utterly-ridiculous BLM prosecution of the Hammond family.

You can draw your own conclusions about what's presented--but given the complete corruption of anything Clinton, it's not hard to be persuaded that the Hammond family has been railroaded for the benefit of a Russian mining company.

New York Values!

In our latest example of "New York Values," we find the New York endorsing Hillary Clinton.

Oh, yah, and John Kasich, who didlotsastuffingummint, don'cha know.