McCain-Levin: Far, Far, Worse than McCain-Feingold

We've mentioned this before.  McCain now teams with Levin (D-MI) to repeal the Posse Comitatus act.

Some "conservatives" think this is just great, because--after all--AlQuaeda is a horrific, continuing threat, and they have lotsa boots-on-the-ground in the US.  Why, yes!  We read reports of their arrests and detentions every day, don't we??  (Note the sarcasm...)

Anyhow.  The Administration wanted to veto the act, and demanded a change, to wit:

The administration’s veto threat has nothing to do with protecting civil liberties: indeed, quite the opposite. As Sen. Levin noted in his remarks, a bit of politicking went on at the secret Senate hearing:

“The initial bill reported by the committee included language expressly precluding ‘the detention of citizens or lawful resident aliens of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.’ The Administration asked that this language be removed from the bill.”

Plainly spoken, the bill--with the modification demanded by Obozo--will allow the Administration and its successors to order the US Military to arrest and detain ANYONE that the Administration deems to be 'an enemy combatant'.

Anyone.  The.  Administration.  Says.  Is. A. "Combatant."

No proof is needed outside of the Administration's declaration.

This is the final step in a process that will enable the President to establish a de facto military dictatorship: it’s the “unitary presidency” meets the global economic crisis. “America is part of the battlefield,” says Sen. Ayotte, quite accurately – and Americans are the target. Resistance is “terrorism”: dissent is a crime, and you’d better shut up and take it if you know what’s good for you. That’s the message they’re sending...

And the self-declared "conservative" radiomouths fall into line.

Lefty Confession: Obozo Is Not That Smart

Took 'em a while.


...Jon Meacham, former editor of Newsweek and ridiculous liberal, is also noting that Obama thinks he's really smart and perhaps above it all. In 2008, of course, that crucial word -- "thinks" -- would not have been part of this sentence.

The spin being offered is "Obama is too smart and too full of goodwill to actually be good at politics." That is certainly not new; we've been hearing that for years.

But the new stuff liberals are tentatively adding is that he just "hangs back," "doesn't understand," "thinks" he is truly an important figure. Amid the spin, something closer to the truth reluctantly emerges.

--Ace, taking off from a Tina Brown admission on Scarborough's radio show.

Yes, he has one.  Didn't know?  Most don't.

Aaron Rodgers, Franciscan (!!)

Nah, he hasn't run off to a monastery.

But he pays attention.

"I feel like my stance and my desire has always been to follow a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, who said, 'Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.'"

Cool.

So far, he has not communicated with chipmunks.......that we know of.

Now the Fed Monetizes Europe? Great!!

Perhaps DJIA loves auto-destruction of the US.  It's popped as much as +400 points today.

Why?

The Fed -- along with central banks of the eurozone, England, Japan, Switzerland and Canada -- announced a coordinated plan to lower prices on dollar liquidity swaps beginning on December 5, and extending these swap arrangements to February 1, 2013.

A swap takes place when the Fed provides U.S. dollars to a foreign central bank, in exchange for the equivalent amount of foreign currency from that central bank.

Got that?

The Fed will trade fiat USDollars for fiat European currencies--which are going (soon) into the black holes of Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.  Later, into Ireland.

Helluva deal.

HT:  Peter

"You Don't Really Need Energy".......Obozo & Co.

Chapter 23,445 of the "Screw YOU!" approach by the Obozo-ites.

...President Obama called for annual lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), not necessarily out of any conviction that increased domestic energy supply is good for prices and national security, but basically to perpetuate the myth that the oil companies refuse to drill in leased or leasable areas.

Phillips/Conoco accepted his challenge.  They weren't supposed to, of course, but they did.

So he had to find another way to stop domestic energy production, and he DID!!


...To get it out, Conoco Phillips wants to build a road bridge and pipeline over the Colville River on the edge of the NPRA to get drilling supplies in and the oil and gas out.

The Army Corps of Engineers, backed by the usual environmental suspects, says a pipeline under the river, which is frozen half the year, is preferred even though the oil company has said it would be less safe.

The oil firm argues that since the pipeline will carry a mix of oil, gas and water, it would be at greater risk of corrosion and leaks under the water. An above-ground pipeline would be easier to monitor and maintain.

But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has impeded domestic energy production anywhere he can on environmental grounds, supports the Corps' decision.

The usual EnviroGeek twaddle then gushes forth--with the other vomitus--from the mouth of Salazar.

What IS That Stuff?

Many people will be happy to tell you that I am not au courant on a lot of stuff, including food.

So tell me:  what in Hell IS this stuff?

First lady Michelle Obama enjoyed a lovely evening at Co Co. Sala on F Street on Monday night. A Yeas & Nays source tells us she dined with seven friends for dinner and, of course, dessert -- which featured an edible chocolate sculpture and house-made artisanal chocolates by Chef Santosh Tiptur. We're told Obama's favorite savory was Chef Tiptur's Moroccan Swordfish Sliders with chermoula marinade, fennel salad, aged pecorino and hazelnut coffee dressing.

I get swordfish and chocolate-and fennel.  But not chermoula, nor pecorino.

Whatever happened to anchovy pizza?

A Co-Incidence, Right?

Nothing to see here.  Move along.

The notary who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday. The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing.....Vox quoting MyNews3/Vegas

Banks are un-harmed.

Opaque Is the New "Transparent"

Noted:

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. --Gateway quoting Judicial Watch

Also:  remember Solyndra?  Remember that the FBI carted off box-loads of computers and records from their offices?

Now remember this:  the FBI reports to AG Holder, who is rapidly becoming the most corrupt AG in our history.

Much, much, more from Malkin on the same "Transparency":

...behind the scenes, Obama’s lawyers systematically have stymied public information requests, carved out crater-sized disclosure loopholes, fought subpoenas on scandals from Fast and Furious to Solyndra, and made routine the holiday document dump.

...As the Center for Public Integrity reported earlier this year, the[White House visitor] logs (which disclosure advocates forced into the public eye after suing) “routinely omit or cloud key details about the identity of visitors, whom they met with and the nature of their visits. The logs even include the names of people who never showed up. These are critical gaps that raise doubts about the records’ historical accuracy and utility in helping the public understand White House operations, from social events to meetings on key policy debates.”

Malkin also mentions several WH meetings which the MFM has........ahhhhhh.......failed to mention.

Fifth Column, indeed.

Who Is This Bozo Akerman?

The Obozoite Akerman was appointed Big MucketyMuck at GM.

So how're things?

We are in the midst of transforming an iconic American company so 20 and 30 years from now (taxpayers) will look at this company and they’ll say, ‘Absolutely it was the right thing to do,’ ” Akerson said. ”And it shouldn’t be measured on did it sell for $43 or $53 (a share) or did they lose a couple billion dollars?”

Well, actually, Akerman, it's about $24Bn, not "a couple."  Dumbass.

And that's BEFORE the Volt's little spontaneous combustion problem.

Paulson the Leaker

Big BizNews story today is that Hank Paulson (ex-Goldmine) told a bunch of hedgies that the USG would put the GSE's into 'conservatorship.'

Not illegal, we're told (although acting on it would have been VERY illegal.)

You still don't believe that there's a Ruling Class? 

Paulson obviously does.

"For Official Use Only"--Including Obama Campaign?

The dirtball/Democrat machine in action.

...Homeland Security Advisory Council member Mohamed Elibiary downloaded sensitive Texas Department of Public Safety reports from the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC) database, then shopped them to at least one left-leaning media outlet. Elibiary claimed the reports represented a pattern of “Islamophobia” under GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry’s watch.

Not only are they "Official Use Only" documents--Elibiary accessed them from his HOME COMPUTER!

So happens that this Elibiary character also "advises" the FBI, the Nat'l Counterterrorism Center, and the Office of the Director, National Intelligence.

Perhaps their files are more "confidential" than those of Napolitano.

G'Bye, Herman

This pretty much sews up the tarp before the body gets tossed into the sea.

Block'll be back here looking for another $280K/year gig, soon.

The FDA Is Going to "Help" You!!

Believe it or not, (and LIKE it or not), FDA's going to take care of you.

With little publicity, the federal Food and Drug Administration has begun laying groundwork for one of the more audacious regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration: mandatory reductions in the salt content of processed foods in the supermarket aisle and at restaurants.

In a September 15 “Request for Comments, Data, and Information” (PDF) published in the Federal Register, the FDA solicits from the public “comments, data, and evidence relevant to the dietary intake of sodium as well as current and emerging approaches designed to promote sodium reduction.” Among the specific ideas it has in mind: setting federally prescribed “targets” for “stepwise” reductions in the amount of salt allowable in various foods, the phased nature of the reductions indicated because consumers’ “taste preference for sodium is acquired and can be modified.”

To which we propose that 'consumer's taste for Gummint is acquired and can be modified, drastically.'

(It's a nice way of showing the one-finger salute, eh?)

HT:  Agitator

Christie: 'What the Hell Do We PAY Him For?'

Nicely done.  Christie's a RINO, but he gets leadership.

Obozo?  He was golfing last Saturday.

HT:  Gateway

Fifty Years!

This is a pleasant surprise.

At the time of her launch, this was Big News--a nuke pushing a ship.

The pictures at the link are humorous....

A $Trillion-Two? No Problem!!

Hey, if a game-show host and 10 monkeys can find $1.2Tn in budget cuts........

Never mind.  I know the answer.  Congress is outmatched by that team.

HT:  Al

White Working Class? Under the Bus for Obama Campaign!

Can a narrowcast win?

All pretence of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.  --NYTimes quoted by AOSHQ

Very interesting strategy.  PEU members, lawyers, and artistes?

Doh. Democrats Lie? Republicans, Too?? Doh.

Abp T. Dolan, 'splaining why the New York State Bishops didn't go all-out opposing the gay "marriage" law.


...In retrospect, said Dolan, he and the other bishops are wondering if they weren’t being deceived.

“We fell for the assurances of people that we thought were political allies that this wasn’t going to go anywhere,” Dolan told Arroyo, pointing out that there was “some credibility” to this claim, since past efforts to legalize gay “marriage” in New York had failed.

“So we had political allies who said, ‘Bishops, keep your ammo dry, you don’t have to pull out all the stops, speak on principle, speak up against this bill, but don’t really worry because it’s not going to go anywhere.’

Six days later, the bill was passed.

Doh.

Say WHAT, Sen. McCain?

Well, here's a jolt for your Monday.

The Senate is set to vote on a bill today that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

 ...The bill was drafted in secret by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), before being passed in a closed-door committee meeting without any kind of hearing. The language appears in sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA bill.

“I would also point out that these provisions raise serious questions as to who we are as a society and what our Constitution seeks to protect,” Colorado Senator Mark Udall said in a speech last week. One section of these provisions, section 1031, would be interpreted as allowing the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on U.S. soil. Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil.

Yes.  Well, you know, being anti-abortion, or loudly Christian, or a gun-owner, or gold-buyer---all these are marks of 'terrorists' according to Homeland "Security".

So there are lotsa folks which the US military could summarily arrest.

New Romney Campaign Slogan!!

Evidently the Romney gang in Wisconsin (Steve Kanavas) has been working over the radio boyzzz.

Heard this AM that 'Romney will be the President you want him to be'--which is what his campaigners are saying was the case when Romney governed Massachusetts--a Leftish State.

"I'll Be Whatever You Want"

Now that's an integrity-inspired slogan, eh?

Does that make him "electable"?   Not if you consider the "OWS" event.

So happens there's a Loyal Opposition to Romney.


...He will lose a lot of conservatives because we fear that he will energetically return to his past persona as a liberal New England governor if he is elected. As the GOP winning the Senate in 2012 is very close to a “gimme” we have to ask: can conservatism survive a President Romney and a Senate Majority Leader McConnell? 

He will lose a lot of GOP, as opposed to conservative, support because he is a supremely smarmy and untrustworthy character whose core value is defined by a strong belief that he should be president and nothing more.

...which would account for the "I'm eminently plastic" [both senses] tack he's taking.

Electable?


...Obama can’t attack Romney as a flip-flopper because many of the flips and flops Romney has held dear at one time or another are actually Obama’s own positions. The Romney response to that line of attack in a national election is easy: I held that position then but have sense developed information that makes me believe it was incorrect and I have changed it and everyone want’s a pragmatic president who can change his mind, right?

The main attack will be on Romney’s long time affiliation with the corporate chop-shop known as Bain Capital. In an environment were most people are concerned about their jobs and virtually everyone is angry at Wall Street, Romney will be the perfect poster boy for the 1% that the “99%” rails on and on about.

The Left/Democrats inspired that "99%" yappaflappa for a reason, and the reason is Romney.  They'll tear him to shreds on that miasmatic-but-vaguely-populist concept.

Another Death Threat to Another (R) Governor

Not heavily covered by the LameStream....

When 26-year-old Nathan Shafer heard about the arrests of 19 Occupy Columbia members outside the State House last Wednesday, he did what lots of people do when they get angry — he vented about it on the Internet. He saw Gov. Haley’s Facebook post about the arrests and Haley’s comment that she “appreciate[s] freedom of speech,” and that’s when authorities say Shafer crossed the line. 

“I hope someone murders you before I do,” Shafer said he commented on the post. “How’s that for freedom of speech?”  --AOS/Verum quoting KLTV

In this case, the perp was arrested and will be prosecuted.

Benedict XVI Can Read the Tea Leaves

B-16's address to some US Bishops on their ad limina visit:

...I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes....

That 'relativism' thing.

More "Science of Climate"

Coyote links to Small Dead Animals who posts a couple of news stories.

Canada's Beverly herd, numbering more than 200,000 a decade ago, can barely be found today.[...]

From wildlife spectacle to wildlife mystery, the decline of the caribou — called reindeer in the Eurasian Arctic — has biologists searching for clues, and finding them.

They believe the insidious impact of climate change...  AP, 2009

Oooops.

A vast herd of northern caribou that scientists feared had vanished from the face of the Earth has been found, safe and sound -- pretty much where aboriginal elders said it would be all along.   CP, 2011

Bbbbbbbbbbuuut it's CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!

More Tea Party Cowbell? Or .......Third??

Cold Fury cites McCarthy:


...In truth, the two parties are largely in agreement: The blob must grow. Yes, Obama Democrats want to grow it by about $6 trillion over the next decade, but Republicans are nearly as bad. Writing with Reason editor Nick Gillespie, NRO Cornerite Veronique de Rugy points out that the GOP would grow it by close to $5 trillion — a 30 percent increase.  

If Republicans really thought the growth of government was unsustainable, they’d stop growing it. As it is, the truly profound difference on “a vision of government” is between those who believe that government “growth” is unsustainable versus those who realize that government is unsustainable as is....

...It was only a decade ago that we were getting by on 18.2 percent of GDP, and only about half a decade ago that a $400 billion annual deficit (about a trillion less than what we’re running now) was considered unconscionable. Where are the Republicans who are going to tell us how we get back to that?

Meantime, "conservatives" vote for a Balanced Budget Amendment which neither controls spending nor taxes.

Buy More Ammo!!!

Semi-Busted: The "CRA/Feds/Barney/Clinton Made Us Do It" Housing Myth

Barry's lengthy essay is half-dispositive of the narrative that "CRA (et al) Made Us Do It" vis-a-vis the housing boom/bust.

It certainly didn't help that most elected officials were pushing "everybody owns a home" as some sort of Magic Beans Solution to poverty, crime, drugs, illicit children, and any other social ill.  And it did not help that the Fed's interest-rate policy made mortgage debt attractive. 

(One could argue, by the way, that the earliest cause was the massive entry of women into the workforce, which increased family incomes and gave them a lot of surplus cashflow.  However, after 30 or so years, that increase in incomes (in 1970 dollars) diminished, as the supply of labor increased faster than the demand, reducing incomes for men if measured in 1970 dollars.  When recessions hit in 2000 and 2009-10-11, the effects were devastating.)

But the array of evidence presented in the essay is useful.

The boom and bust was global.  (Chart at the link).  Obviously, US mortgage policy, law, and regulation did NOT have an effect on Birmingham, England, or South Dogpatch, Ireland.  But the boom/bust was present there--and lots of other places.  This is the biggest trump card in Barry's deck, and it is important.

...if the CRA was to blame, the housing boom would have been in CRA regions

This is a weaker argument.  CRA shares some blame; what happened is that CRA made credit available (forced it, perhaps) in some areas.  People bought homes there--but those who SOLD the homes moved to more upscale areas, perhaps with weaker-than-necessary income streams.

Nonbank mortgage underwriting exploded from 2001 to 2007, along with the private label securitization market, which eclipsed Fannie and Freddie during the boom

Umnnnhh....even weaker.  It's true that Countrywide--a non-bank--was a Big Playah here--as were many other non-banks (like e.g., Central States Mortgage in Milwaukee.)

However, some of the "non-banks" were subsidiaries of banks.  WellsFargo, USBank, and Chase each had mortgage-banking subsidiaries (non-regulated) which contributed to the problem.  (Chart at the link).

It wasn't Fannie/Freddie until the very end.

Fan/Fred didn't get into the game until '06/'07.  Their standards were much tighter than those of the 'bundlers' and the MBS buyers such as Lehman and BearStearns.  However, they DID get into the game, and it will cost taxpayers a bunch of money.

Hizbollah Mole?

Twelve CIA agents were captured in Iran.

One source suspects that it was an inside job.

...it is the effective penetration of a U.S. intelligence agency by Iran and Hizballah that disturbs most. 

Phares said, “The reality is someone who knew of these names must have leaked them to the organization [Hizballah].”

The leak was not an accident, he said.

 “That person or persons is either a member of Hizballah or they are working with the terrorist group. The U.S. Congress should investigate the possible penetration Hizballah may have developed over the years enabling it to have these kinds of access to names,” he said...

That would be Prof. W. Phares.

DWD's Headache

Umnnnhhh....

An official with the state Department of Workforce Development who was fired in October said she had earlier filed a harassment complaint against a secretary of the agency. 

A week before she was dismissed, Administrative Services Administrator Allison Rozek sent an email to one of her bosses saying he had avoided her for two weeks and met with her staff multiple times without her present. She asked if his treatment of her was related to her filing a harassment complaint against former Secretary Manny Perez or her "prior connection" with then-Secretary Scott Baumbach.

Five days after she sent the email, Baumbach resigned as secretary, and Gov. Scott Walker appointed Deputy Secretary Reggie Newson as the head of the Department of Workforce Development. Three days later, on Oct. 27, Newson let Rozek go.

One didn't need to be psychic to tell that there were some very odd moves at DWD.

Incisive Comment on the Decline of Church Music

Found in a combox, well worth the time:

The changes of Vatican II arrived at the very moment that post-modern thought was approaching its apogee. Post-modernism rejects the idea of "masterpieces" or the preeminence of art music over popular music. All aesthetics are culturally relative and learned phenomenon. Intellectually, these claims have merit, but theologically they simply cannot apply. Once we say that all church music should arise from the local culture, it becomes quite difficult to convince that local culture of the absolutes embodied in the faith. My Protestant friends wonder why Catholics are so hide-bound (if they only knew). I see the adherence to tradition and practices as a reflection of our belief in certain theological absolutes. The two work in hand in hand in the best of situations.  --M. O'Connor

Fits right in with what we've seen:  radical deconstructionism (Derrida, et al.)  I'm not certain that 'these claims have merit' in any venue, whether music, poetry, graphic, or literature, either.

Good synthesis.  One can talk all day about the effects (lack of sense of sacred, etc.) but the cause?

Well, there it is.

Ryan Wuz Right! (Doh)

Side-note about a Wisconsin hero.

Though it reached no agreement, the special Congressional committee on deficit reduction built a case for major structural changes in Medicare that would limit the government’s open-ended financial commitment to the program, lawmakers and health policy experts say. Members of both parties told the panel that Medicare should offer a fixed amount of money to each beneficiary to buy coverage from competing private plans, whose costs and benefits would be tightly regulated by the government. The idea faces opposition from many Democrats, who say it would shift costs to beneficiaries and eliminate the guarantee of affordable health insurance for older Americans. But some Democrats say that — if carefully designed, with enough protections for beneficiaries — it might work. The idea is sometimes known as premium support, because Medicare would subsidize premiums charged by private insurers that care for beneficiaries under contract with the government.  --Enterprise quoting NYTimes

Since it was NYT, perhaps the MJ-S will report it.

Porkulus: Mostly Useless, With Long-Term Harm

Well, well.

Congressional Budget Office admits the "Doh":

After nearly all the stimulus money has been spent, the Congressional Budget Office now admits it cost more than advertised, did less to boost growth and will hurt the economy in the long run.

...the CBO says the extra infrastructure money didn't boost growth as much as it previously claimed, because states reacted by spending less out of their own budgets on highways.

So in other words, the CBO now says it's possible that the stimulus had virtually no meaningful effect on growth and employment despite its massive price tag.

All this comes after the CBO increased that price tag to $825 billion from its initial $787 billion — a 5% hike.

Oh, by the way, that's the GOOD news.

...the new report also says the stimulus will hurt economic growth in the long run because of "the resulting increase in government debt." Each dollar of additional debt, it reports, "crowds out about a third of a dollar's worth of private domestic capital."

It's the SPENDING, STUPID!!

HT:  McCain

Got Android? Be Careful!

Schneier:

I believe that smart phones are going to become the primary platform of attack for cybercriminals in the coming years. As the phones become more integrated into people's lives -- smart phone banking, electronic wallets -- they're simply going to become the most valuable device for criminals to go after. And I don't believe the iPhone will be more secure because of Apple's rigid policies for the app store.

Or you could just use the damn thing as a cellphone.

Detroit Penalties: Co-Incidence?

Near the end of the item discussing Suh's stomp:

...In 2006, Albert Haynesworth - playing under then-defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz with the Tennessee Titans - stomped on the head of Dallas' Andre Gurode and was suspended for five games.

Jim Schwartz, eh?

Obozo Rattling the War-Sticks?

Vox sees another distraction upcoming. 

...But probably the most damning evidence that the "western world" is about to do the unthinkable and invade Syria, and in the process force Iran to retaliate, is the weekly naval update from Stratfor, which always has some very interesting if always controversial view on geopolitics, where we find that for the first time in many months, CVN 77 George H.W. Bush has left its traditional theater of operations just off the Straits of Hormuz, a critical choke point, where it traditionally accompanies the Stennis, and has parked... right next to Syria.  --Vox quoting T Durden/Zerohedge

Well, a good war has almost always secured re-election, ya' know.

FDR's Thanksgiving-Date FAIL

Interesting little side-note to the NFL's Thanksgiving Day games tradition.

In August 1939, Lew Hahn, general manager of the Retail Dry Goods Association, warned Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins that the late calendar date of Thanksgiving that year (November 30) could possibly have an adverse effect on retail sales. At the time, it was considered bad form for retailers to display Christmas decorations or have "Christmas" sales before the celebration of Thanksgiving.

In keeping with a custom begun by Lincoln in 1863, U.S. Presidents had declared a general day of thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday in November. By late October of that year, President Roosevelt decided to deviate from this custom and declare November 23, the second-to-last Thursday, as Thanksgiving that year.  --Ace quoting Wiki

Whaddya know.  Retailer greed accomodated by a Progressive/Lefty Democrat! Who'd a-thunkit?

A lot of states -- Republican-controlled -- refused to follow Franklin's diktat and observed Thanksgiving on the regularly-scheduled day.

In 1941, FDR proclaimed a national day of prayer on the fourth Thursday of November, and this became the national date of observation. 

Eventually. Many states kept the final-Thursday-in-November rule. Texas, for example, continued observing Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November until 1956.

Texas was right.  You can smell the LBJ influence in the 1956 change.

Happy Thanksgiving!

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.

Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? 

Ps 118

More of the Same: Propaganda in JS Headlines

The story's headline:

Walker Signs Bills He Says Will Help Protect Children.

"He says"?

Does the JS "think" otherwise?

Coulter's Schoolgirl Crush on Romney

While it's fine that Ms. Coulter has a crush on Romney, it's not fine for her to invent her own facts in support of him.

That's the gist of this editorial.  A few highlights:

...Coulter wrote messages to the effect she believed Romney acted properly, but once again, she is ignorant of the basic facts regarding this case. The court did NOT order Romney to initiate gay marriage, and indeed, the Massachusetts Constitution specifically reserves the right to determine marriage policy to the legislative branch. And the legislative branch refused to change the marriage statutes, which, to this day, remain focused on male/female marriage. Romney unilaterally, and without any legislative authority, ordered justices of the peace to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Over a dozen constitutional scholars have stated that Romney improperly implemented what was clearly an unconstitutional decision. 

...Coulter was sent a list of taxes Romney had raised; she responded by claiming, "not according to Cato …" referring to the libertarian Cato Institute. But Cato said that Romney's claim to have not raised taxes was "mostly a myth. His first budget included no general tax increases but did include a $500 million increase in various fees. He later proposed $140 in business tax hikes through the closing of 'loopholes' in the tax code."

The Cato Institute added, "If you consider the massive costs to taxpayers that his universal health-care plan will inflict once he's left office, Romney's tenure is clearly not a triumph of small-government activism."

Plenty more at the link. 

Love is blind.  Voters should not be.

Obozo Gets What He Wanted: Chaos (in Egypt)

Well, the wonderfulness of pixie-dust, unicorns, and magic ponies has devolved to the reality.

...the prognosis for liberal democracy is no better in Egypt, the most populous Muslim country in the region. Long gone are the images of the tweeting “Facebook kids” that charmed many in the West into thinking a liberal democracy would arise out of the ashes of Mubarak’s rule. The biggest beneficiary of regime change has been the Muslim Brothers, which is now poised to dominate the forthcoming elections in November given their superior organization and unified aims compared to the more numerous, ideologically fragmented secular parties. Despite the fantasies of many in the United States, the Muslim Brothers have not evolved into “moderates” that can be integrated into a democratic government and restrained by electoral accountability.  --Insurrection quoting Thornton/Heritage

Smooth move, tossing Mubarak under the bus!

The "Sequester Cuts Spending" BS

You should have known that Congress was kidding about 'cutting spending.'

As usual, the Left will be screaming about dead grannies, and the Right will be screeching that there will be no D of Defense left.

Not really.

...the perceived spending “cuts” are merely reductions in the overall rate of growth in spending, not actual cuts addressing the fundamental drivers of U.S. debt problems.

...Between 2013 (the first year that sequester “cuts” kick in) and 2021, federal spending will increase by $1.6 trillion versus $1.7 trillion without sequester. A further breakdown of specific budget programs shows that sequestration provides relatively small reductions in spending rates across the board: Under sequestration, defense increases 18 percent (vs. 20 percent); nondefense discretionary increases 12 percent (vs. 14 percent); Medicare increases at roughly the same rate; net interest increases 136 percent (vs. 152 percent).

Congressional salaries, benefits, and perks will remain un-disturbed.

The Debt Nuke and When It Detonates

Nice, short summary:

When does debt go from good to bad? We address this question using a new dataset that includes the level of government, non-financial corporate and household debt in 18 OECD countries from 1980 to 2010. Our results support the view that, beyond a certain level, debt is a drag on growth. For government debt, the threshold is around 85% of GDP. 

Great.  According to this source, we're WAY past 85%.

HT:  Peter

On Translation for Beauty

Esolen is a serious academic.  By no co-incidence, his essay touches on the concept of 'beauty' in translated texts.

...Apologists for the cardboard-twinkie texts we gnash down every week argue for something called “dynamic equivalence,” by which is meant the translation of the general idea of an original text into something that conveys that idea in the receiving language. But the premises here are corrupt at the roots. To see why, consider the Bauhaus modernist architecture of the twentieth century. Architects like Le Corbusier proclaimed that they were going to create “machines for living,” utterly rational – it was supposed – boxes designed for maximum efficiency for our daily needs. But who wants to live in a box?

Umnnhhhh, good question!

Human beings are embodied souls. They crave beauty. They like music. They invent poetry. The Italian housewife in the second story of a medieval stone house festoons her balcony with geraniums and eggplants. She keeps pictures of her nieces and nephews in a glass hutch with fancy knobs, next to a statue of Jesus of the Sacred Heart.

American housewives do that, too.

...When we speak, we do not simply convey information, as data might be fed into a computer. We express surprise, gratitude, humor, sadness, love. We revel in the physicality of our words. We bring whole scenes of life to mind....the good translator seeks to penetrate more deeply into the beauty and the richness of the words and the expressions in the original language. Poetry should be translated as poetry, prayer as prayer, oratory as oratory. 

...It’s nonsense to suppose that some “common language” of the street corner exists, into which the common Greek of the New Testament should be translated:  nonsense, because in both contexts we are dealing with human beings, not data processors, and human beings, especially in the time of Jesus, speak one way when they are ordering their groceries, and another way when they are praying. They launch into flights of fancy; they rhyme, they alliterate, they build to a climax; they repeat themselves, they reverse direction; they shed light upon a vista of meanings as various as the flowers in a garden, then they shroud all in darkness. Thus it may be rightly said that the problem with a mechanically literal translation is that it is not literal enough, that is fails to capture the fullness of meaning suggested by the fascinating bodiliness and spirituality of the speaking human person.


All of that applies, mutatis mutandis, to music-for-worship, too.  It is simply inane to drag la strada (or the hotel lounge, or Alpine Valley) into a church and pretend that it is 'music for worship.'  The language is different; it serves a different purpose.  In a lot of cases, the music is not even 'beautiful.'

The Regime Is Striking Its Enemy: Catholicism

Don't be foolish enough to think that the Lutherans aren't next.

...Bishop William Lori, Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, [...] joined Fox and Friends to speak about the disappearing religious freedoms in this country right now.

He said, according to Fox News, that while he’s engaged in a dialogue with the administration, “We certainly are experiencing right now some immediate and palpable threats to religious freedom.”

 ... “Catholic hospitals, catholic charities, our schools, provide first-rate services, and I believe it’s the duty of government to accommodate our religious beliefs and convictions and allow us to perform those services according to our own light, even when we are engaged in a government contract.”

Ask Belmont Abbey about that.  Or Catholic priests, nuns, and laity who will be forced to provide abortion-coverage in their group-health plans.

Abp. Dolan was fooled by the "nice-nice" chatter of Obozo, whose stone-babykiller reputation is earned.  Bp. Lori seems to understand the Green Goddess worshipers much better.

HT:  CMR

"Glee"-ful? Not in the Least

Apparently, "Glee" will feature a couple of sex scenes in the near future. 

Great.

Concerned Women for America released a major study on sexually transmitted diseases in July that describes some 49 types of STDs, some curable, others not. Twenty percent of all AIDS cases are among college-aged young people. Having three or more sexual partners in a lifetime multiplies by 15 a woman’s odds of contracting cervical cancer. The shocking facts about the extent of STDs among young people are documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - 19 million new cases a year, with half of those cases among 15- to 24-year-olds. These STDs are hidden by the glossy advertisements in the media that make them appear to be an insignificant health threat and suggest that all are cured or controlled without difficulty or complications (as anyone who has seen the TV ads for herpes medications can attest). Sadly, most of the young people with STDs will be dealing with the symptoms and consequences for the rest of their lives. In the United States, new cases of STDs are triple what they were just six years ago. Many of the STDs are incurable and others have persistent, significant symptoms requiring bothersome, expensive, lifelong treatment.

There's stupid, and then there's Hollywood Stupid. 

HT:  Shepherd

6-Year-Old Threatened With Jail in Wisconsin

There is such a thing as 'prosecutorial discretion.'  Not hard to find it; see, e.g., Izzy Osanne, who never sees a death-threat to a Republican as an offense.

Then there's his opposite number, who DA's in the Wausau area.

Even More Obozo-ite Regulation--from BLM

The Bureau of Land Management oversees a bunch of national parks, preserves, and other Federal land-holdings.   Since the Feds own a very large percentage of land in the West, BLM regs on land-use have a significant impact.

Well.  The Obozo-ite BLM doesn't like shooters.  (Doh.)  So they're proposing new regs for target-practice folks who happen to target-practice on Federal lands.

Here's the proposal:

“When the authorized officer determines that a site or area on BLM-managed lands used on a regular basis for recreational shooting is creating public disturbance, or is creating risk to other persons on public lands; is contributing to the defacement, removal or destruction of natural features, native plants, cultural resources, historic structures or government and/or private property; is facilitating or creating a condition of littering, refuse accumulation and abandoned personal property is violating existing use restrictions, closure and restriction orders, or supplementary rules notices, and reasonable attempts to reduce or eliminate the violations by the BLM have been unsuccessful, the authorized officer will close the affected area to recreational shooting.”  --Captain quoting USNews

...which is to say 'for any damned reason I THINK is a reason today.'

Right.

Screwing the 99%, Obozo's Way

The flex-account is a marvelous invention.  It provides a tax-free method of paying medical bills.

So it's now going to be severely limited, beginning 2013--by edict of the Democrat Party, Ms. "I'm a Heretic" Pelosi and, of course, Clueless Harry and Obozo.

For anyone with a large family--or with a child with disabilities--or someone who has a chronic illness but still works--it's going to be a serious problem.

But hey!  They're part of the 99%, so it's all good, right?

Hewitt's Hot Rumors

Hewitt announced that he hear two hot RUMORS.

1)  HRC's bundlers have been put on alert by HRC.

2)  There are more Solyndra emails--from other Obozo supporters w/Solyndra ties--which have surfaced.  They were sent to Eric Holder (!!)  Supposedly the NYTimes has them.

Fun never stops!

Big Gummint to Kill Family-Farm Jobs

Yes, kids can be killed or injured.

So--of course--Big Gummint has an answer.

No more family-farm jobs!!

Here, as in all other Big Gummint "he'p youse" programs, the sledge is applied.  Judgment and nuance?  Hell, no.

Vatican to Establish Music and Architecture Commission

This should be fun.

A team has been set up, to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Its task is also to promote singing that really helps the celebration of mass. The “Liturgical art and sacred music commission” will be established by the Congregation for Divine Worship over the coming weeks.

...Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Benedict XVI, consider this work as “very urgent”. The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls. 

Well, garage-church, garage-music.  Makes sense. 

Teacher Health Insurance: Sweet, Sweet, Deal

Noted in the middle of a story on Muskego-Norway's health insurance coverage:

The district will continue to pay employees 87.4 percent of the premium for single coverage if they take insurance from the employer of a working spouse. That will come to about $6,900 next year.

Meaning that the full cost of single coverage at M-N would be around $8,000.00

As for the rest of us?

Average single-coverage premium was about $5,000.00 in 2010 in a non-union shop.  Even adding a very generous 10% hike (2011) and another 10% hike (2012), it's still just $6,050.

M-N teachers should take the deal without blinking.

If You Like US Debt, You'll Love This!

(Click for larger image.)

CBO gives three estimates, not just one, of the US debt-load.

The first (and lowest) assumes that there will be ZERO economic effects from the debt-load.

Wanna bet on that?

The least optimistic puts Debt/GDP at 252%.  Can you spell "G R E E C E"?

Lurch Created by Dodd-Frank

Exactly what did Dodd-Frank create?

The "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."  Feel good?

Don't.

The reality is the agency, created by the Dodd-Frank law, will be run by a single director who can be removed by the President only under extreme circumstances; will have over $500 million to spend without getting Congressional approval, and will duplicate the functions of other agencies (i.e. another layer of bureaucracy).

Buy More Ammo!!

"Draconian Cuts" Not to Worry!

Since the un-Constitutional fig-leaf superbozo committee broke up, we hear TEOTWAWKI screeches from bot the Left and the Right.

They're spinning and posturing.

Congress’ emergency backup budget-cutting plan now takes over but the roughly $1.2 trillion in cuts doesn’t kick in until January 2013 and that allows plenty of time for lawmakers to try to rework them.

So the Pentagon will not shut down next week, nor will the EPA.

However, the Post Office might.

HIstory Counts in "Global Warming" FooFoo

Not "history" in the usual sense.  Think Big!  (It's what separates Conservatives from the NinnyWankers.)


...global warming actually began around 10,000 BC, when the ice sheets that had covered large portions of North America and Eurasia retreated to the poles. And what has happened since this (entirely natural) warming began? The Neolithic Revolution, the dawn of civilization and the expansion of human populations like never before.

In other words, homo sapiens, which existed in its more or less anatomically modern form for 100,000 to 200,000 years, began to flourish and thrive as a result of this most fortuitous warmth.

Well, it 'flourished' until the Obozoites took over, anyway.

Badge Not Enough?

This is a bit amusing.

...At 4 p.m. Thursday United Education called police a third time, this time concerned about two vehicles parked in its lot. An employee said she had approached the occupants in the vehicles who both said they were with the FBI. The business asked police to verify this, and officers confirmed they were FBI employees monitoring the site based on threats made.

So the 'occupants' say they're with the FBI and (presumably) show their FBI ID papers.

That's not enough?

(Meantime, the dipshit with the 612 phone could fall off the edge of the Earth and nobody would miss him.)

Boehner/Cantor: Testicular Deficiency Twins

Boehner never left the "Big Gummint" mindset.  Cantor's busy primping himself every morning.

So it's no surprise that they have no intestinal fortitude, either.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) says that Congress is not going to cut off funding for Obamacare or Planned Parenthood because House Republican leadership is afraid of the threat of a showdown with Senate Democrats and the president – they’re afraid that Republicans would be blamed for a government shutdown.

King said the House GOP leadership, if asked, would say that they did pass a repeal of Obamacare – and would blame the Senate, which didn’t take up the measure.

(That's like the notoriously toothless "BBA" that Sensenbrenner voted for.  He's waving that around and talking about being 'conservative'--when we all know that there was no spending--nor taxing--limit in the proposal.  C'mon, Jim.  You think we're stupid??)

That's what you get when you elect ninnies instead of men.

Lena Taylor's Rooming House (??)

Seems that Ms. Taylor, ("Don't you know who I AM??") has quite a few friends and family members--all living in her house.

Media Trackers discovered that over 20 individuals voted, some illegally, from one of Senator Lena Taylor’s (D-Milwaukee) properties during the April 5, 2011 spring election. According to a Media Trackers open records request with the City of Milwaukee Election Commission, the property at 1018 N 35th St. in Milwaukee currently has 36 active voter registrations and at least 23 individuals voted using the address.

Unfortunately, the City's zoning restrictions limit "residents" to only 8 or so.

Further, it seems that one of the "voters" is a felon who does NOT have the right to vote, and another may actually live in Chicago.

"Just one name," Mayor Tommy? 

How about 20 or so?

This Russky-ette Gets It!

You'll enjoy the video of Ms. Tatiana Limanova, especially her manually delivered imperative at the mention of Obozo.

"Occupy" Phase Two!

Oh, goodie.

The website encourages occupation or simple boycotting of retailers. The group cites a connection between fourth quarter profits for retailers, credit card usage and the stock market as being the source for the protests on the Friday after Thanksgiving. … 

In addition to encouraging site visitors to not spend money on Friday, the website encourages occupation, and “Occupy” protesters typically have featured sit-ins, on-site camping, slogan cheering and sign-waving as their modes of protest.  --AOSHQ quoting Commentary

They would be foolish--maybe suicidal--to get between shoppers and the stores on that day.  Prolly a good thing, overall.

That AOSHQ post, by the way, has pretty good intel on the old-fart Canadian Commie organizer of "Occupy."

Eyes on Europe, Part 201: The Lesson

Nice insight from RRReno.

...Most of my leftist friends regarded the financial crisis of 2008 as a “market failure” that vindicated their views about the evils of capitalism. The debt crisis in Europe offers no such consolations to modern liberals, who may now be facing their Waterloo.

 That’s because it is very hard to ignore that the Eurozone crisis concerns sovereign debt. Greek bonds have become toxic because of decades of political decisions. Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian bonds may go the same way, and for the same reasons. It is important, therefore, to understand these political decisions, for they have not only created problems in Europe but also here in the United States as well. They can be summed up with a single term: social democracy. Thus at the end of this decade we may find ourselves looking back and summing it up with a single phrase: the end of social democracy.

That is a 'good news/bad news' insight.  While the social spending in the Eurozone will be severely curtailed--if not stopped altogether--a 'pendulum-swing' event is not necessarily a good ending.

That's what Paul Ryan's trying to avoid with his "Roadmap."  Bending the curve is a helluvalot better than breaking it. 

Don't count on Obozo to see clearly what's happening in Europe.  As Schoen & Caddell observe, he's an ideology-blinded buffoon who will blow up the (D) Party in the next election.  That may be for the best, but it will be a most interesting time, in the Chinese-proverb sense.

Just How Much Did Corzine Steal?

Seems there's a revised count.

Three weeks after MF Global's collapsed, furious former customers are still fighting for access to billions of dollars as they question why as much as two-thirds of their money is still stuck.

While authorities have touted the fact that they are returning 60 percent of the collateral and cash that had been frozen in the wake of the broker's October 31 bankruptcy, a closer look shows that in fact only about 40 percent of customers' total funds have been authorized for release so far.

The remainder, more than $3 billion, ostensibly remains on hand to cover a shortfall originally estimated by MF Global to regulators at just $600 million.   --Ticker quoting Reuters

So.  Are the Feds providing 5x coverage?  Or is the $600 million the low-end guess?

Althouse: It's Feingold

Oh, goodie.  Russ-Russ returns!!

If and when the recall Walker campaign come to fruition, there will be a painful, embarrassing dearth of willing Democratic candidates. The cry will reach a crescendo: Help us, Russ Feingold, you're our only hope!

And then, not for himself, not because he lost the Senate seat, not because he'd like to set himself up for a run at the presidency in 2016, but humbly, out of a pressing sense of duty, for the sake of the People of Wisconsin, Reluctant Russ will step forward. Oh, the liberal love that will gush forth that day!

Can you say "Extreeeeeeeeeeeeeme Left"?

The Long History of Federal Power-Grabbing

PowerLine points to an essay by Richard Epstein which reviews SCOTUS' history of facilitating Congressional power-grabbing.  It could be subtitled "The Death of Federalism by 1/2 Dozen Cuts.)

(You'll be shocked---SHOCKED, I say--to learn that the erosion began to gather steam under both Roosevelts.)

Suffice it to say that Wickard is the most likely focus of the upcoming ObozoCare decision.  Epstein does not believe that SCOTUS will overturn Wickard.

But he DOES think that they could limit its scope, and thereby invalidate ObozoCare.

"Just Close Down Marquette" --EPA

You'll see the usual line of BS in the article--that coal powered plants result in asthma*, heart failures, syphilis, black plague, the common cold, pimples, and dead children.

Uh-huh.

Looming environmental rules may lead We Energies to shut down the only major power plant serving Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the next five or six years.

And similar scenarios are playing out across the Midwest, where operators of coal-fired plants - the predominant producers of electricity in the region - are grappling with how to comply with impending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards limiting emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants from their smokestacks.

WE pays about 17% of all prop-taxes in Marquette and is a major employer--not to mention that Cliffs Mining depends on power from that plant to run its mining operations.

But hey!  Who needs Marquette, MI?

*On the "asthma" claim, note that while California's measured 'pollution' decreases, asthma diagnoses increase.  But that doesn't bother the Green Goddess worshippers, who'd prefer to sacrifice Marquette, MI. and its residents.  Human sacrifice is preferred, ya' know.

NY "Occupier" Has a Real Job

Interesting--particularly if Deloitte is charging this out to a client.

The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.

... Spitzer, 24, an associate at financial-services giant Deloitte, which netted $29 billion in revenue last year, admitted he joined the protest at Zuccotti Park several times.

“I’m staying here for work,” said Spitzer, dressed down in a company T-shirt and holding a backpack and his suitcase. “I do finance, but I support it still.”

Yes, hotels in NYC are waaaaaayyyyyyy overpriced; a close acquaintance stayed in the Tribeca neighborhood and was hit up for $450/night--and shared the room with lotsa bugs.  Helluva deal.

HT:  Zippers

Need Names, Tom Barrett??

Aaaaaaaaaaaannd they're OFF!!

Recall Walker says they have 100,000+ signatures.

How many from 10-year-olds?

HT:  Gateway

Buffett Sues IRS Over Taxes

Gee.  Is this the same Warren Buffett who wants YOU to pay more taxes??

NetJets, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., this week sued the Internal Revenue Service over what it called an "illegal" $643 million tax assessment.  --AOSHQ quoting WSJ

The substance of the claim is fine, but hey!  NetJets is a "1% bunch" if there ever was one; Warren might well say that 'they'll never miss this'.

Uh-huh.

Bambis Galore

South side of I-94, about 15 miles east of Madistan, 0730 this morning, five little Bambis cantering across a farm field, not more than 50 yards from the road.

Two hunters, both more than a mile away.

Oh, well.

The "Catholicism" Series

EWTN is running Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" series.

Neat stuff; even Lefties will be pleased, as he included a segment on Peter Maurin's Catholic Worker Movement (which has been the subject of lotsa 'socialist' noises from inside and outside of the Church).

The series, being video, uses awesome photography, including the now-Muslimized Hagia Sophia and Sant' Chapell (?spelling) in France; but it also includes lots, and I mean LOTS, of people.  Pilgrims at Lourdes, Rome, and Warsaw.  Kids in Africa.

And the music score is interesting, largely drawing on Gregorian Chant:  the Kyrie theme from Mass VIII, the 'Attende, Domine' Lenten hymn, the sequences 'Veni, Sancte Spiritus' and 'Victimae Paschali' --all, significantly, very lightly orchestrated (noble simplicity, anyone?) to good effect.  The incipit of "Christus Vincit" is used at the beginning of every program-segment.  He also uses Vivaldi's "Gloria" and a bit of Mozart's "Requiem" Mass.  The music, of course, controls the 'mood' of the series, as music always does.

Halfway through, Fr. Barron does a lengthy piece on the Beatitudes, reminding us that Thomas Aquinas listed the four "opposites" of them as the desire(s) for Power, Pleasure, Honor, and Riches.

He includes a strange musical interlude from a Chicago church and darn near wears out the term 'social justice,' --which as others point out, is something of a contradiction in terms.

Regardless, it's worth seeing, because the series does a good job of capturing the 2,000 years in sight and sound--precisely what it intended to do.

Kevin's Common Sense Suggestions

Got one of them there 'recall'-istas at your door?

Here's a list of stuff to do, and NOT to do.

It's clear that having a camera at the ready will be important. 

Guns or Wimmin?

Oldie, but goodie....why men prefer guns to wimminfolk.

You can trade an old 44 for a new 22 AND nobody gets hurt.

A gun doesn't take up a lot of closet space.

A gun doesn't ask, "Do these new grips make me look fat?”

There are others.

And, for you wimminfolk who read this--(we're fastidiously EEO here):

You can easily trade that snubby in for something with a longer barrel.

A gun doesn't complain if you want to spend more than 15 minutes at the range.

A gun doesn't need to take a nap after each shot.

Umnhh.

Owl's Wiser?

Stop to think about this.

Dakota, the stolen great horned owl, is still hooting from his wild tree roosts Friday evening after fleeing his juvenile captors, according to Lisa Rowe, director of operations for Wildlife In Need Center, an Oconomowoc wildlife rehabilitation center.

"The bait from the feeding station was not taken last night," Rowe said. "It's been a really hard time for our staff and our volunteers."

Uhhhmmnnhhh.....

Maybe the owl has decided he's had enough of Wildlife in Need's "food" and wants Culver's instead?

Maybe he's looking for a hot owlette? 

Maybe he's sick and tired of being the Designated Owl for all those bratty grade-school kids?  You know:  Bird in a Gilded Cage and all that...

'Nuff Signatures for Recall?

Althouse thinks not.

...The eager enthusiasts would have signed on early, and there was tremendous publicity leading up to the kickoff of the signature campaign, with midnight parties and intense press coverage. So 50,000 in the first 2 days looks like weak support to me. And I'm assuming the organizers are telling the truth about the number of signatures collected, and I'm ignoring the potential for invalid signatures and the increasing difficulty of collecting signatures on the darkest, coldest days of the year and when people are preoccupied with holiday travel and celebration.

Well.....

Yes, there is a "quiet period" of 10 days beginning 23 Dec and ending 2 Jan.  And yes, the enthusiasts have by and large already signed up.

But 500K more will not be impossible.  Challenging, maybe.  Not impossible.

Four Disappointments from Wisconsin

I kinda thought that Sensenbrenner, Ribble, Duffy, and Petri were better men; but they're not.

The House of Representatives failed to approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, 261-165. Only 25 Democrats voted with Republicans to support the amendment. 

Four Republicans voted nay: Paul Ryan, Louie Gohmert (TX), Justin Amash (MI) and David Dreier (CA). All four voted no from the right, with Ryan worrying that, in the Washington Post's words, "the version of the BBA on the floor would have led to larger government."

So when Ribble, Duffy, Sensen, and Petri come around, waving that blank check for Mo' Gummint in their hands, politely but firmly tell them to shove it where the sun never shines.

HT:  AmSpec

If You Want Real Energy, Dump Obozo

The Gulf of Mexico was first; then mountaintop coal-mining, then XL.

Now:

President Obama's United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.--AOS quoting Examiner

It won't be "six months", either.  Like XL, the project will be delayed, if not cancelled outright, until Obozo is out of office.

The Romney Machine

Interesting little story here about how the Romney Machine really works.

See, during the 2008 campaign I worked for Sam Brownback. During the course of the campaign I became friendly with someone who worked in the Romney campaign’s communications department. After Brownback pulled a Pawlenty and bowed out after Ames, I reluctantly became a Romney supporter (viewing him as a far better choice than McCain). When I announced my support for Romney on the front page, I started receiving a steady deluge of emails from this friend pitching stories that were… well, pretty much exactly like the Newt Gingrich attack piece Jen Rubin wrote today.  --AOS/Brewer quoting Wolf

Uh-huh.

After I read the Drudge headline yesterday about Gingrich going ahead in Iowa, I posed a bet to Ace and the co-, open-, and guest-bloggers. I bet them $5.00 Rubin would have a Newt bashing piece up by 10:00 a.m. the next day (today). Ace wrote back about a minute later, "RD, she has a piece up now calling him a 'Phony Intellectual.'" Zoinks. So I replied that it was too obvious and posed a second bet: "Okay, $5.00 says she'll have another Newt bashing piece by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow." No takers. 

Well, if someone had gotten-in on that action, they would have been $5.00 richer. Because Gingrich: How Can He Rehabilitate Himself? came out at 10:15. I missed it by 15 minutes.

Obviously, Coulter--who is supposed to be smart--ain't smart enough to detect the pattern.

A Loss for Milwaukee

Breaking:

George Dalton, co-founder of industry giant Fiserv Inc., has died of natural causes, following months of health problems. He was 83.

He founded the company with Leslie Muma in 1984. Fiserv, based in Brookfield, is one of the world's largest data processor for financial institutions.

Dalton was especially known for his role in acquisitions, bringing other strong firms into Fiserv. By the time he stepped down as chairman in 2000, the firm had some 10,000 clients, 14,000 employees and revenue of $1.4 billion.

Dalton began in "Data Processing" at the Marine National Exchange Bank, and when John Kelly, Dave Herzer, and Ron Frary left MNXB to found the Midland National Bank, Dalton came along and started Midland Data Processing, which was the IT support for the Bank.  Over the next dozen years, Midland Data became a very large service bureau in its own right with the development of a package of savings-and-loan IT services for savings, checking, and mortgage loans. 

Midland Data Processing did not disappear when the Midland Bank foundered; rather, it became an independent entity, eventually becoming FiServ.

It is noteworthy that FiServ, M&I Data, and Deluxe Data--the three largest bank-IT service bureaus (with Deluxe serving as 'the switch' for TYME/debit cards) were all in Milwaukee.

Dalton was, as the newsbrief indicates, an enormously likeable man who liked everybody.  He also developed a lot of young talents.

He's a legend.

In the Good Old Days, "online" (real-time) processing was hot.  Naturally, Dalton's boyzzz had a package for that, but there was one problem:  repeaters.  Repeaters were absolutely necessary for online processing, but weren't being built nearly fast enough for the demand, which was off-the-charts.

So when Dalton traveled to the usual business conventions, he'd scour the closets of banks in whatever town he was in, looking for "spare and lonely" repeaters--which found their way into the Midland Data Processing network.  (The check was in the mail, of course.)

A legend.

Nota Bene

At the right is a new picture, combining a couple of favorites.

HT:  Apostacy

On Music in Church

Hard-hitting short essay on the collapse of music in church(es).  The author is a Protestant minister.

...Beginning with the charismatic revival and the Jesus movement, the most theologically conservative Protestant churches abandoned the tradition of Christian music and took on musical styles adapted from popular music. It has been an astonishingly rapid and thoroughgoing change. Praise songs routed gospel hymns, and today Reformation-era Psalms and chorales are unknown in wide swathes of American Protestantism. Presbyterian theologian T. David Gordon captures the shift with an anecdote about a theology student at a Protestant seminary puzzled by a professor’s reference to Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress.” Musically, evangelicals are all charismatics now.

Contemporary music arose just as general music education collapsed in our schools. As Ken Myers points out, the church did nothing to fill the gap, apparently content to let advertisers, disk jockeys, the Stones, Steve Jobs, and Madonna provide musical training for Christians, especially young ones. It is no surprise that contemporary worship music takes its cues from commercial pop. No surprise, but surely a concern. Pop music is a relatively new cultural phenomenon with its own set of commercially driven values—accessibility, immediacy, instant gratification, freedom, sex. It has its own, extremely limited, range of musical and emotional possibilities. For all its variety, pop music is dismally monophonic.

Is remedy available?  Maybe not.

Expertise is one of the values of modern culture, but expertise has always had a limited scope. We trust experts in physics and computer programming and perhaps foreign affairs. But the suggestion that there are experts in aesthetics, musicians who know what music one should appreciate, is greeted with hostility, also in the church. “I know what I like” stops every argument, buttressed by “Musical taste is subjective.” Lebanese organist Naji Hakim has lamented that in the Catholic Church “many in positions of liturgical responsibility, with no musical education as regards technique or aesthetics, have come to believe in a tabula rasa, denying any lineage whatsoever.” Professional musicians have been “sidelined” as “the lost common denominator has become the rule.” He wonders whether Catholics “realize the level of mediocrity which the present liturgy has reached.”

In the Catholic church, much of this is true, but not all of it.

And the new translation will present a distinct contrast to the pops-praise bunch's musical offerings.  That contrast will be noticeable to the people in the pews.  And eventually, the generation of Woodstock will pass.

Las Vegas Metro "Police"? Nope. Thugs

We've mentioned the Erik Scott shooting.  It appears to be a very bad shoot, indeed.

But the LVPD intends to make matters worse for itself and the citizens of Las Vegas--at least, those citizens who memorialize Erik Scott.

...I refer, of course, to Samantha Sterner, Erik Scott’s girlfriend and arguably the most important witness in the upcoming civil trial regarding the metro police shooting of Scott on July 10, 2010. In Update 7 (the SMM archive with all Erik Scott related posts is available here.) I wrote of the fact that Sterner had recently received two traffic citations and several friends had been followed by the police for such distances that mere coincidence was not a credible explanation. The common factor was that all of the vehicles involved displayed a red, white and blue Erik Scott memorial ribbon on their rear surfaces....

McDaniel has several long posts on the entire affair; frankly, the LVPD's "oops!!" cash-account will soon be depleted.

Princess Nancy's Tell

Princess Nancy--who needs no further introduction--gives us a 'tell.'

Addressing the effects such legislation would have on Catholic health care providers, Pelosi said:

"I'm a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing." (Emphasis added.)

Ponder the use of "they"--in apposition to "we." 

HT:  American Thinker

What's "Controversial" About This?

I'm no fan of Gingrich for a variety of reasons.

But Althouse posted this remark of his, using MediaMatters' 'controversial' label:

Discussing actions by individual protesters of Proposition 8, Newt Gingrich stated: "I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion."

That's the facts, folks.  There's no controversy here at all.

The TEA Party Budget

Unlike the scuzzbuckets who populate the North Ave. bridge (and who terrorize, rape, kill, and fire-bomb in other cities), the TEA Party folks actually thought about it, and present a plan.

--Repeals ObamaCare in toto.

--Eliminates four Cabinet agencies — Energy, Education, Commerce, and HUD — and reduces or
privatizes many others, including EPA, TSA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. 

--Ends farm subsidies, government student loans, and foreign aid to countries that don’t support us
— luxuries we can no longer afford.

--Saves Social Security and greatly improves future benefits by shifting ownership and control from
government to individuals, through new SMART Accounts.

--Gives Medicare seniors the right to opt into the Congressional health care plan.

--Suspends pension contributions and COLAs for Members of Congress, whenever the budget is in
deficit.

All of which will achieve what?

This:

Balances the budget in four years, and keeps it balanced, without tax hikes.

--Closes an historically large budget gap, equal to almost one-tenth of our economy.

--Reduces federal spending by $9.7 trillion over the next 10 years, as opposed to the President’s
plan to increase spending by $2.3 trillion.

--Shrinks the federal government from 24 percent of GDP — a level exceeded only in World War II
— to about 16 percent, in line with the postwar norm.

--Stops the growth of the debt, and begins paying it down, with a goal of eliminating it within this
generation.

Which (R) candidate will have the cojones to endorse this?

Not Romney.

The Real Meaning of "TSA"

When you come right down to it, the real meaning of "TSA" is "Boondoggle!!"

--Since 2001, TSA staff has grown from 16,500 to over 65,000, a near-400% increase.  In the same amount of time, total passenger enplanements in the U.S. have increased less than 12%.
--Since 2002, TSA procured six contracts to hire and train more than 137,000 staff, for a total of more than $2.4 billion, at a rate of more than $17,500 per hire. More employees have left TSA than are currently employed at the agency.
--Over the past ten years, TSA has spent nearly $57 billion to secure the U.S. transportation network, and TSA‘s classified performance results do not reflect a good return on this taxpayer investment.
--On average, there are 30 TSA administrative personnel—21 administrative field staff and nine headquarters staff—for each of the 457 airports where TSA operates.

Wunnerful.

Another meaning for "TSA"?  Testicle Squeezing Agency.

Tax-testicles, or the ones 1/2 of us were born with.  Makes no difference to Gummint.

HT:  Agitator