The Buffoonery of the WSJournal

Now and then the WSJ Editorial Boyzzzz demonstrate that they just love Big Gummint.

(They're part of the Ruling Class, you know.)

Ticker wastes no time destroying them:

....This strange alliance has developed in response to one of Congress's rare bipartisan achievements—the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). That bill affirmed the long-standing distinction between civilian justice and the rules of war by letting the President detain terrorists (including U.S. citizens) captured anywhere and question them as long as necessary. A President can decide to try them in either military or civilian courts, and the right of habeas corpus to challenge detention in court, established by the Supreme Court's 2004 Hamdi decision, is unchanged.

...A tea party outfit called the Tenth Amendment Center calls the law "an unconstitutional and dangerous federal power grab"—though the statute merely codifies existing practice under Presidents Bush and Obama.   --Ticker quoting the Morons

Next they'll call that a "long-standing tradition" or some such bullsh*t.

You all thought that the Fourth Amendment was in force here, hey?

Dummies.

...First you arrest them, then you try them, and only after finding them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt do you execute them.

The ACLU and Tea Party, along with Libertarians, are not uninformed about the faux "war on terror." 

There is in fact no such war.

War is a declared thing.  Congress has not declared war.

Besides, Obozo's State Department has told us that the War on Terror is "over."

There's a reason the Constitution has the provisions it has regarding war, regarding habeus corups, regarding civil rights.  There's a reason we originally had 10 Amendments to the Constitution passed with it; they're an inviolate part of the whole. 

If the WSJ (or anyone else) believe that the Constitution needs to be "updated" to deal with a "more modern" warfare paradigm, then let's see an attempt to amend it.  Propose the amendment, pass it in the Congress, ratify it in the States.

Go ahead.  Make our day!

This is nothing more than Milhouse DC protecting itself from "enemies"--who happen to be more numerous every day.

Buy.  More.  Ammo.

ObozoCare Goes to the Dogs

We all know our President's song, "How Much Is That Doggie in the Oven....?"

But you prolly did NOT know that ObozoCare provides de-sexing of little Fido and Fidette.

A controversial anti-obesity “slush fund” under Obamacare was used in Nashville, Tennessee to spay dogs and cats. The reasoning: stray dogs scare people from exercising outdoors.The Nashville health department issued a press release last year that told residents in one neighborhood that they could get free pet spaying, neutering, rabies shots and other services as part of $7.5 million grant from the Communities Putting Prevention to Work, which is part of the Public Health and Prevention Fund that will soar to $2 billion in 2015 under Obamacare.

Death to grannies who've outlived their utility--and neutering for the rest, I guess.

The Cantor Pirouette

Cantor is a Joisey Boy who dances ballet, judging from his pirouette skills:  talk "conservative" but spend, spend, spend--and then (of course) spend some more on flunkies and sycophants.

"Young Guns" or just old, diseased, flaccid,........ahhh..........???

You be the judge.

Did Pius XII Demolish the Nuns?

A history of 'the problem with nuns' has some surprising elements.

...Beginning on December 8, 1950, and continuing through December 12, 1957, Superiors General of women's institutes who had generalates in Rome were repeatedly ordered by Pius XII to "update" and "adapt" to the world by not only modifying their rules, constitutions, and customs, but also by modifying their traditional habits, and doing away with "outmoded" acts of devotion or penance.

The resistance to Pius XII's aggressive program of aggiornamento came from two sources — the Italian-dominated Curia which traditionally acted as the watchdog of the Faith, and the Superiors General themselves. Tensions ran high....

...One cannot express spirit of the great St. Teresa in slacks and Woolworth crockery, because that is not how she expressed it....

The contention is that it is no longer genuine poverty to have voluminous habits and old-fashioned brown ware when modern fashions in both would be so much cheaper. We are told that we are paying large sums in order to surround ourselves with an artificial atmosphere which simply annoys postulants who come in having seen real poverty in the world....--Sr. Imelda (a Carmelite) in the 1950's.

Her comment--especially in the context of the article--immediately calls to mind the "liturgy of Vatican II" fantasies and phantasms, does it not?

HT:  BadgerCath

Solidarity AND Subsidiarity

Ryan's Subsidiarity Budget was not constructed without notice of solidarity.

...Adapting themes from John Paul II in the 2003 apostolic letter Ecclesia in Europa [The Church in Europe] and Benedict XVI in his 2011 address to the German Bundestag, Paul Ryan has carefully measured history’s verdict in Europe. The massive and increasing space that national governments and Brussels occupy in European public life has further constricted the already-sclerotic associational and philanthropic instincts of Europeans. And the decay of those instincts has helped erode the political culture that makes rational democratic decision-making possible (cf. Greece; Italy; etc.)....

The Usual Suspects at Marquette, G'town, and within the USCC are very good at proof-texting various Papal documents and semi-calumny, but not so good at applying reason and prudence

But we knew that already, right?

Of particular interest is this Objection of the Faculty:

Pell Grant funding

....which--for some obscure reason--college professors find "inadequate" in Ryan's plan.

(P.S.:  Terry has found recommended reading for the G'town folks right there in the Compendium which they recommend to Cong. Ryan.)

The REALLY BIG G'town Protest

REALLY big--against Paul Ryan's Subsidiarity Budget.

The rest of the protesters were looking for the free birth-control pills, I guess.

HT:  CMR

The Ugly: Illinois' Debt Problem

This isn't precisely "debt"--but it's a sibling.

...Rahm Emanuel recently offered a stark assessment of the threat to his state's future that is posed by mounting pension and retiree health-care bills for government workers. Unless Illinois enacts reform quickly, he said, the costs of these programs will force taxes so high that, "You won't recruit a business, you won't recruit a family to live here."

..."Companies don't want to buy shares in a phenomenal tax burden that will unfold over the decades," the Chicago Tribune observed after Mr. Emanuel issued his warning on April 4. And neither will citizens.

Hmmmm.  Wonder when Boeing's lease expires on its Chicago HQ.....

...Indiana's debt for unfunded retiree health-care benefits, for example, amounts to just $81 per person. Neighboring Illinois's accumulated obligations for the same benefit average $3,399 per person.

And of course, there's Sears/KMart/Allstate, and State Farm (a very good prospect, indeed) ...

...Business leaders are now speaking openly about Illinois' fiscal failures. Jim Farrell, the former CEO of Illinois Toolworks [sic] who is heading a budget reform effort called Illinois Is Broke, said last year that the state is squandering its inherent advantages as a business location because "all the other good stuff doesn't make up for the [fiscal] calamity that's on the way." Caterpillar, the giant Peoria-based maker of heavy construction machinery, made the same point more vividly when it declined in February to locate a new factory in Illinois, specifically citing concern about the state's "business climate and overall fiscal health."

Then there's....ummnnhhhh....Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Cat, and whatever remains in Rockford.....

....Chicago's former chief financial officer, has projected that the average city homeowner paying $3,000 in annual property taxes could see his tax bill rise within five years as much as $1,400. The reason: A 2010 Illinois law requires municipalities to raise the funding levels in their pension systems using property tax revenues but no additional contributions from government employees. The legislation prompted former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in December to warn residents that the increases might be so high, "you won't be able to sell your house."

.....and Waste Management, Dominick's, Grainger, Tenneco, Aon, Abbott......

HT:  Althouse

"Illegal, Schmaliegel!" Obozo's Looting of the Treasury

November cannot POSSIBLY be here soon enough.

...The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified this “demonstration project” as a sham. The GAO highlights the project’s myriad “design shortcomings,” including its excessive focus on 2012, its awarding “most” of its “quality bonuses” to average-performing plans, and its lack of a control group. The GAO, not known for its bluntness, concludes that the secretary of health and human services (HHS) “should cancel” the project and perhaps, sometime in the future, consider “conducting an appropriately designed demonstration.” The GAO also notes that the demonstration “does not .  .  . conform to the principles of budget neutrality.” The administration is running up the national debt by another $8.35 billion in order to boost Obama’s reelection prospects.

The Obozo excuse?  A law which doesn't apply to the case at hand.

...a president isn’t generally thought to possess the power to reallocate Americans’ resources to shore up his political vulnerabilities. In defense of its actions, the administration is relying on a 1967 law that says the HHS secretary can spend money without specific congressional approval on “experiments” aimed at improving the execution of current law. Obama’s $8.35 billion allocation, however, isn’t aimed at improving the execution of current law. It’s aimed at delaying the execution of current law and thereby masking the effects of that law until after Obama’s reelection bid.

The list of Obozo/Holder/Sibelius/BigSis' legal, ethical, and Constitutional violations grows exponentially every month.

The next Administration should look at prosecuting and imprisoning the perps.  Forty-to-life sounds about right.

The Reality of Conservatives

Luntz is a reliable pollster, so his definitions are far more accurate than the Lefty-held stereotype.

...Luntz believes polls are beginning to show that conservatives are less concerned about "large government, small citizens" theory than about practical measures to ensure increased accountability, so that whatever is spent on government will give demonstrable bang for the buck.

 ...Liberals are confusing Wall Street with Main Street.  Conservatives are more enamored of the free market than of abstract "capitalism," and would happily see some of the miscreants in the housing market scandal strung up by their thumbs (though they may disagree about who the miscreants are).

...most conservatives want to preserve [SocSec and Medicare], but believe they'll collapse altogether without reform.  Conservatives are also much more likely to believe that reforms based on individual choice and market competition will be broadly benign in their results

More at the link (HT Grim's gang.)

Naturally, the comments following Luntz' piece at the WaPo reflect the acute intellectual prowess of the Left (read them at the link).

Big Sis' Cache

The numbers here are rather large.

ATK ATK +1.75% announced that it is being awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) agreement from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS, ICE) for .40 caliber ammunition. This contract features a base of 12 months, includes four option years, and will have a maximum volume of 450 million rounds.

Not to exceed ~112 million rounds per year?

That's one helluvalotta target practice.

"Dust Thou Art...."

The Camp found a real gem.

...At the portal of the Capuchin Church, a member of the funeral procession strikes the closed door with his staff. Behind the door a monk asks who seeks entry. The functionary replies: “Otto von Hapsburg” and proceeds to recite the latter’s long list of imperial, royal, grand ducal and other hereditary titles. From behind the door, the monk answers, “We know him not.” Again, the functionary strikes the door with his staff , this time listing Otto von Hapsburg’s many personal achievements, public positions, and honors. And, again, the monk replies, “We know him not.” For a third time, the door is struck and the monk asks who seeks entry. The answer is much shorter this time: “Otto, a poor dead sinner.” “As such,” the monk responds, “he may enter.” The door opens and the last Imperial heir is laid to rest, like his ancestors, not as one of the mighty of the earth but as a simple child of God....

I'm reminded of an old Jewish proverb:  "If you seek equality, go to a cemetery."

"WouldaCouldaShoulda" Doesn't Get the Money

The Dick Lugar collapse.

The American Action Network, a super-PAC that backs establishment Republicans, has pulled out of Indiana's Senate race, the latest bad omen for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.).

"We've decided we're going to let this race play out," AAN spokesman Dan Conston told The Hill Friday evening.

The group had committed to spending nearly $600,000 on television attacking Lugar's Tea Party opponent, Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R), and has been on the air in Indianapolis for two weeks. But they have pulled their online advertising and will end their TV buy on Tuesday, a week ahead of the May 8 primary.

It ain't over yet.  But I hear the epilogue-music in the background and Fat Lady is clearing her throat.

Take 39 on AGW

Having to acknowledge that one's very own pet model doesn't work is tough.

So what to do?  What to DO??

Invent a new, more complex, and even Darker-Titled model!!

"Warming Hole Delayed Climate Change Over Eastern United States," declares the headline at Science Daily, describing the results of new studies from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).  It seems that particulate pollution in the late 20th century created a regional "warming hole," a/k/a a cold patch, a/k/a a place where the global warming model was an abject failure for many decades....--Grim's Hall quoting some damn fool or other

Whatever.

The Summary of ObozoSpeech

Nicely done!

...instead of cheering the president as he stutters his way through a campaign speech offering you a binky and a cuddle...--B&S quoting R. Lucas.

Excellent image.

The (D) Machines At War in Wisconsin

Get out the popcorn, folks.

Regrettably, as well intentioned as Wisconsin for Falk no doubt is, the impact it will have on the recall election will almost certainly be to undermine, not bolster, the chances of successfully replacing Scott Walker as governor. By funneling out-of-state special interest money to support Kathleen Falk’s campaign, Wisconsin for Falk muddies what had been absolutely crystal clear waters in the recall effort. --Progressives United

That's a crying shame.

Heh.

B Hussein Milhous Obozo's "Enemies List"

The White House Slime Machine goes critical.

Obozo's not the first (see the headline reference), nor will he be the last.  Believe it or not, however, there's more than just the sliming:

...The White House even ginned up an executive order (yet to be released) to require companies to list political donations as a condition of bidding for government contracts. Companies could bid but lose out for donating to Republicans. Or they could quit donating to the GOP—Mr. Obama’s real aim....WSJ (HT:  Warrior)

But slime--no matter who throws it--is slime.  And, as Tricky Dick learned, it usually splatters back.

Skewering Sibelius

This video is fun to watch!

The Congressman very calmly destroys the Aborto-Fanatic at HHS.

ObozoCare for the Internet

A very simple explanation of "Net Neutrality".  The comparison to ObozoCare will be obvious.

Net Neutrality covers a range of regulatory proposals designed to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all web traffic as equal, instead of selling precious bandwidth at varying price and performance levels. The key word is “force.” Massive new regulatory powers would be needed to impose Net Neutrality on companies that currently labor under the delusion that they own the infrastructure they have created, and can therefore rent it out as they see fit.

Or you could think of it this way:  you're going to buy a car, and when you get to the dealership you find that the Escalade is priced exactly the same as the KIA, because the Socialist Statist Mob decided it will be so.

Think the Escalade is going to remain a high-end offering for long?

The Big Lie: Rachel Carlson's "Spring"

The Warrior does a public service.

In brief, Carlson was a serial liar, a propagandist, and caused enormous wasted expenses.

IOW, she was AlGore's progenitor.

The Summary on Arizona's Illegal-Alien Law

Quick and easy:

...what's wrong about the states enforcing Federal law? There is a Federal law against robbing Federal banks. Can it be made a state crime to rob those banks? I think it is...  --A. Scalia

Can you say "HolderBama loses again?"

HT:  Grim

The TEA Party is "Dead"? Au Contraire....

Over the last few months, the Professional Yammering Class has memed that 'the TEA Party is dead.'

Not according to this survey, folks.

...Today, just one in three has a favorable view of the federal government — the lowest level in 15 years, according to a Pew survey. The majority of Americans remain satisfied with their local and state governments — 61 percent and 52 percent, respectively — but only 33 percent feel likewise about the federal government.

In 2002, nearly double that figure, 64 percent viewed the federal government favorably, and Americans held their local and state governments in similar esteem, at 67 percent and 62 percent, respectively....

Hmmmmm.

In 2004, the Democrats took Congress, and with the feckless GWB as President, began their Long March to take over every single aspect of living in the US.

How'd THAT work out, Mr. President??

(Also see the Law of Subsidiarity)

Anyhoo, if there is one thing that the TEA Party stands for, it is LESS Federal (and State) Gummint.  This survey tells us that the TEA Party is not "dead"; instead, it has grown significantly.

Your Nanny-Nag Speaks Again!

The Nanny-Nag opens his pie-hole.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called on Thursday for a federal law to ban talking on a cell phone or texting while driving any type of vehicle on any road in the country.

Tough federal legislation is the only way to deal with what he called a "national epidemic," he said at a distracted-driving summit in San Antonio, Texas, that drew doctors, advocates and government officials.

First of all, that decision belongs to the States, not the Feds.  But Nanny-Nag needs something to do every day--aside from spending more than the entire budget of Italy--so he proposes to run the world from his office.

Secondly, if Nanny-Nag thinks that he or anyone else can eliminate highway deaths, he should see his shrink.

Gummint: What's It Good For?

Nothing like a modified rock-n-roll line as a title....

Here's Robby George's short-and-sweet take on Gummint:

What are the obligations and purposes of law and government?

(1) To protect (a) public health, (b) safety, and (c) morals, and (2) to advance the general welfare -- including, preeminently, protecting people’s fundamental rights and basic liberties.

Wouldn’t this require the granting of vast and sweeping powers to public authority?

No; the general welfare -- the common good -- requires that government be limited.

You distinguish between government’s primary and subsidiary roles. What are the government’s primary responsibilities?

Government’s responsibility is primary when the questions involve (1) defending the nation from attack and subversion, (2) protecting people from physical assaults and various other forms of depredation, and (3) maintaining public order.

That comes in the middle of a discussion of Paul Ryan's Budget of Subsidiarity.

Some Catholics (and they ought to know better) screech hysterically that the Subsidiarity Budget is evil, depraved, an assault on women/children/elderly/transgenders/blacks/Hispanics/.........(ad nauseam).

.......while they studiously ignore (moral culpability is in play here) the Obozo Contraception Mandate, which is the natural end of their fatally-flawed concept of "Gummint."

The Founders wrote the 9th and 10th Amendments for a reason.  They came to the same conclusion as had the Church, which tells you that 'subsidiarity' is good governance, not "Catholic" governance.

Fr Reese (who was removed from his slot at America magazine for a reason) and his ragtag band of dissenter/followers, including the Cancer of Marquette Maguire, should take a 40-day Ignatian retreat devoted to the study of subsidiarity.

Then they can apologize.

Why Conservatives Often Despise Republicans

The Republicans spew lots of ......stuff...... about 'fiscal responsibility.'

Then they join the Left and spend like the craven cowards they really are.

Here are the names of 25 of the jackasses:

Aderholt (Ala.)

Alexander, R. (La.)

Austria (Ohio)

Bonner (Ala.)

Calvert (Calif.)

Carter (Texas)

Cole (Okla.)

Crenshaw (Fla.)

Culberson (Texas)

Dent (Pa.)

Diaz-Balart (Fla.)

Emerson (Mo.)

Frelinghuysen (N.J.)

Granger (Texas)

Kingston (Ga.)

Latham (Iowa)

LaTourette (Ohio)

Lewis, Jerry (Calif.)

Nunnelee (Miss.)

Rehberg (Mont.)

Rogers, H. (Ky.)

Simpson (Idaho)

Wolf (Va.)

Womack (Ark.)

Young, C.W. (Fla.)

The Obozo Economy: Still Staggering

One can argue--and I do--that the Obozo Economy is 'recovering.'  All the major indicators have been positive for more than a few months.

But "positive" does not mean "great."  In fact, it doesn't necessarily mean "good."

...we learn that the Glorious Obama Recovery seems to have hit a rough patch. Employers added only 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls last March after several months of averaging twice as many. Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of new unemployment claims hit 381,750. This is as poorly as this indicator has fared since early January....

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index deflated last month; it's anemic.  Same with the ECRI Index.  The Fed won't be increasing rates soon, by their telling of it.

It's a bit like watching a drunk walking.  A few halting steps forward, then a pause, reconnoitering, then a half-step backwards, then a lurch forward again, and a hand goes out to feel the way along the wall, then a pause.....

State Department: "War on Terror Is Over" Good!!

The US State Department tells us that the 'war on terror is over.'

Really?

Went to Gen. Mitchell Field yesterday.  Still couldn't park in front of the terminal; still had deputies-with-dogs all over the place; still had dozens of blue-suited crotch-grabbers.

Lotsa payroll cuts coming, right??

PRChina Still an Enemy

Well, the war on terror may be over, but we still have enemies.

Intruders from China hacked into computers and stole the blueprints for America’s new joint strike fighter planes, the F-35 and F-22,  according to the chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) made the statement during a Tuesday hearing on cyber security.

....The commission's 2009 Annual Report to Congress, citing a Wall Street Journal article, discussed "intruders, probably operating from China, that exfiltrated 'several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems' of the F-35 Lightning II," one of the most advanced fighter planes under development...

Who'd a thunk it??

Not a Good Day for Abortionistas

Three bits of very good news from Pennsylvania:

Planned Barrenhood spent $100K in a statehouse legislative race--and lost.

The BabsBush-ish ex-chair of the Bucks County Pubbies--another pro-abortion woman--was slapped silly by her pro-life opponent, 63/37.

And a pro-abort Dem also lost to a pro-life Dem in another primary for a Congressional seat.

Erickson Dancing, Mis-Stepping

Erick Erickson, proprietor of RedStates, is dancing.  But he ain't gonna win "Dancing with the Stars".

President Obama is, unlike President Bush, a progressive, but he is not a fascist.

There's a lot to unpack in that sentence.

GWB carried a lot of Progressive water; like Obama, he was and is a "Big Gummint" guy, and the criticism of his 'unitary Presidency' was not just from the Left; it was from Conservatives, too.  Does that make Bush a "Progressive"?  Well, it makes him a Hooverite/FDR-ite, to a certain extent.

As to Obama's 'fascism,' Erickson quotes Wiki:

[ f]ascists advocate a state-directed, regulated economy that is dedicated to the nation; the use and primacy of regulated private property and private enterprise contingent upon service to the nation, the use of state enterprise where private enterprise is failing or is inefficient, and autarky.

...and then claims that Obama doesn't fit into that definition.

Really?  REALLY?

"State-directed, regulated economy"....certainly "regulated"--which happens to lead to "directed" easily (see, e.g., windmills, solar, the killing of coal and petroleum).

"Dedicated to the nation"...or perhaps 'against the "rich"'?

"Primacy of regulated private property ..contingent upon service to the nation"....

That one is a bit more murky, but we could argue that a number of Federal initiatives--principally the attacks on the Catholic Church's immigration and social-services arms are a manifestation of the inverse of 'service to the nation.'  That is to say, just as killing off coal has the result of 'directing' the economy toward wind, solar, (etc.), so killing off the Church's services in the name of "service to the nation" has the same ultimate effect.

"the use of State enterprise where private enterprise is failing...."  Ever hear of College Loans (now strictly a Federal enterprise), Erick?

Rumors abound that we haven't seen the end of Obama's "Unitary Presidency" schemes and plots.

How far does he have to go to get Erickson's attention?

Attack Totalitarians, Get Smacked

Bp. Jenky is absolutely right.

He preached a strongly worded homily denouncing President Obama’s HHS mandate, in which the bishop said that in his attacks on freedom of religion the president “seems intent on following a similar path” as past totalitarian dictators such as Hitler and Stalin.

Naturally, the Perpetually Aggrieved went ballistic, using the curious (and utterly wrong) "Proprietary Holocaust" meme which is the hallmark of ADL.

Sorry, ADL, but 'following a path' is a warning about the Totalitarian-in-Chief's direction.

And, by the way, you do not OWN the Holocaust.  Several million Catholics were specifically targeted by Hitler and Stalin, too.

So get off your "We're Offended" rant. 

Schumer's Right, and There's More to Come!

It's hard to ignore this blowhard, especially when he's right.  (Not often the case.)

He called the Arizona [immigration] law an “assault on the domain of the federal government”

And it's long overdue.

"No Vote Fraud", Eh?

The Usual Bozos will trumpet this, saying (artfully) that "there were no prosecutions, and no convictions."

True.

But:

total of 194 cases statewide where police determined a violation likely occurred have been closed because the commonwealth's attorneys in those localities declined to prosecute those individuals, police said.

See?  No prosecutions, no convictions, ergo, no fraud.

Uh-huh.

HT:  AOSHQ

The Pubbie Establishment Problem

The Establishment Pubbies have a problem.  They deny that they exist, of course--which is a problem in itself.

But in addition, they're reduced to nihilist rationalizations, to wit:

”I’m not for Dick Lugar for what he’s done, but for what he can do.”  --Establishment Member Mitch Daniels (ex-GWB aide.)

Brilliant.

Here's a translation:

"Ignore Lugar's despicable track record.  Hope for Change!!!"

Vaguely familiar, no?

HT:  Insurrection

Benedict XVI and Allan Bloom: Frenemies

There's a lengthy essay about Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" over at the Standard.  (Yes, I read the book, and yes, I still have it.)  The book is now 25 years old.

Bloom and Benedict XVI have, perhaps, only one thing in common--this wisdom:

...Darwin survives, undiminished and if anything enlarged, as the font of a new materialism whose effects Bloom foresaw even then and witheringly described. I can think of lots of reasons why The Closing of the American Mind deserves as many readers as it earned in the eighties; Bloom’s sly wit and the torrential energy of his prose are worth the price of admission, in my opinion. But this one carries a special urgency. As well as anyone then or now, he understood that the intellectual fashion of materialism​—​of explaining all life, human or animal, mental or otherwise, by means of physical processes alone​—​had led inescapably to a doctrinaire relativism that would prove to be a universal corrosive. 

The crisis was​—​is​—​a crisis of confidence in the principle that serves as the premise of liberal education: that reason, informed by learning and experience, can arrive at truth, and that one truth may be truer than another....

Don't believe that?  Look at what occupies the White House--or what passes for "entertainment" these days.

Or this:

What follows when a belief in objectivity and truth dies away in higher education? In time an educated person comes to doubt that purpose and meaning are discoverable​—​he doubts, finally, that they even exist. It’s no mystery why fewer and fewer students in higher education today bother with the liberal arts, preferring professional training in their place. Deprived of their traditional purpose in the pursuit of what’s true and good, the humanities could only founder. The study of literature, for example, was consumed in the trivialities of the deconstructionists and their successors. Philosophy curdled into positivism and word play. History became an inventory of political grievances.

Thanks, Mr. Ferguson!!

Ratzinger on "Social Justice"

Here's the REAL word on 'social justice.'

Political moralism, as we have lived it and are still living it, does not open the way to regeneration, and even. . .blocks it. The same is true, consequently, also for a Christianity and a theology that reduces the heart of Jesus' message, the ‘kingdom of God,’ to the ‘values of the kingdom,’ identifying these values with the great key words of political moralism, and proclaiming them, at the same time, as a synthesis of the religions.”--Benedict XVI

There are implications which we see played out today:

If we pursue this a bit, it looks as if for those formed by secularism anything from outside of our situation, like revelation and what can be drawn from revelation, is to be covered over or completely denied. This strand of thinking goes all the way back to Spinoza and during the radical Enlightenment Voltaire himself advocated that man simply work things out with his own (very truncated form of) reason in a kind of “top-down deist reformism” (Jonathan Israel).

But evidently at the same time Voltaire foresaw a residual elite because: “Enlightenment is not for the majority.” The elite had replaced revelation. In contemporary terms, the elite identify the kingdom values that they judge suitable for the people.

Ahhh, the "cognoscenti"!  Can you say "Ruling Class", as did Prof. Codevilla?

ObozoCare: A Quick Review

Written by a ConLaw prof back in '09.  He deserves plaudits for actually reading the whole damn thing (no elected Democrat has done so yet), and analyzing it vis-a-vis the actual US Constitution (about which no elected Democrat gives a rotten damn, anyway.)

...I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

...The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4^th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3^rd and 4^th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed “acceptable” to the “Health Choices Administrator” appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a “tax” instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5^th Amendment. However, that doesn’t work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the “due process of law.

Other than that, it's just dandy!!

HT:  Blosser

Quick Quiz

OK, scholars.

Who said that our forebears fought for the concept that:  “the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

Hint One:  he was a President of the US.

Hint Two:  he was a Democrat.

Hint Three:  he was elected in the 20th Century.

Hint Four:  Dallas.

Yup.  JFK.

HT:  Shepherd

$3 Million Down the Drain. Awwwwwww.....

Seems that the AFSCME and WEAC just pissed $3 million down the drain.

Couldn't happen to nicer guys.

...Wisconsin for Falk, a coalition of labor groups, has spent an estimated $3 million on statewide TV ads and multiple slick fliers touting Falk's candidacy - all without seeing her gain traction against the Democratic front-runner, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

The most recent public and private polls show Barrett with a double-digit lead.

Then Wisconsin for Falk took the most unexpected step in the race so far.

In the middle of last week - with the primary just over two weeks away - the group went dark.

Uh-huh.  She's a loser, with a capital "L", if she's the (D) candidate in June.

The Madistan Establishment has taken a serious body-blow, and they know it.  There they are, kicked to the curb.

Awwwwwwww.......

"STFU", He Explained

The Commie who used to work in the Obozo Administration:

They seem to resent most of America’s achievements over the last century, including unions and public education and environmental protection and so many of the things that made the American century the American century. So I don’t get why we don’t just tell them to sit down and shut up.  --Hot Air quoting Rolling Stone

I'll tell you why, dumbass.  We have more guns.  And ammo.

Elections As Usual (Democrat Style)

McPain got what he deserved:  a loss.

John McCain’s 2008 campaign staff allegedly had evidence that Democrats stuffed ballot boxes in Pennsylvania and Ohio on election night, but McCain chose not to pursue voter fraud, according to internal Stratfor emails published by WikiLeaks...

 McCain decided not to pursue the voter fraud in PA and Ohio, despite his staff’s desire to make it an issue. He said no. Staff felt they could get a federal injunction to stop the process. McCain felt the crowds assembled in support of Obama and such would be detrimental to our country and it would do our nation no good for this to drag out like last go around, coupled with the possibility of domestic violence.  --Gateway quoting BizInsider

Also:  The Democrat Party gave J Jackson several hundred thou to shut his mouth about "Da Joos"--and there apparently was a bunch of Russki money in the Obozo campaign coffers.

We know that Obozo can NOT lose Wisconsin this fall.  Speculate with me as to why the Left-o-Wack Madistan circuit judge "temporarily" invalidated the Wisconsin Voter-ID bill.

Could he have been acting on orders from the White House?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm?????

Brick by Brick: Dump the RINOs

Orrin Hatch thought he'd bought the caucuses.

He didn't.  Off by 50 votes.

So now he has to face a primary election instead.

Too bad, Orrin.  We despise RINOs.  They make us puke.

Noonan Finally Gets It!

Whaddya think Santorum's campaign was all about, Peggy?

...I've long thought that public dissatisfaction is about more than the economy, that it's also about our culture, or rather the flat, brute, highly sexualized thing we call our culture...

The column is now behind the WSJ's paywall--but Ms Noonan mentions a few of the problems with the adults:  the NYC sex pervert/schoolteachers, the Secret Service whoremongers...and others.

Dumb Republican Tricks

Now--it's budget season--we get to watch the Stupid Party at work.

Frelinghuysen [the subcommittee chairman and obviously a Stupid Party member] said the legislation would provide $1 billion to “strengthen” Energy Department programs focused on determining the causes and impacts of high gas prices in the future, a $36 million boost from current levels. It also would provide $554 million for fossil energy research and development, including a new $25 million shale oil program “to both increase the efficiency and improve the impacts of shale oil recovery,” ...he said.  --RedState quoting GC

Maroon. 

Why RoJo's Under Attack by RINO Snake McConnell

Sen. RINO McDonnell, the Club-Member of the (R) (but not Conservative) persuasion, unleashed an attack on Sen. Ron Johnson the other day.

Wanna know why?

...Without a budget resolution to guide the topline spending numbers, the Senate Appropriations Committee has already begun markups on the 12 appropriations bills at the subcommittee level.

It goes without saying that Senate Republicans wouldn’t reward this behavior by voting for their approps bills – spending bills that fail to eliminate a single wasteful program or agency within the burgeoning government bureaucracy.  There is no way they would help grant Harry Reid superior leverage over their allies in the House like they did last year, right?

Wrong.

Of the 14 Republicans on the full committee, which includes Mitch McConnell, there is only one conservative.  That would be the most junior senator, Ron Johnson.  As CQ reports, Ron Johnson was the only no vote against the Transportation-HUD (subcommittee roster) and Commerce-Justice Science (subcommittee roster) approps bills – the first two spending bills considered yesterday.  Those bills are typically approved by voice vote, but Johnson forced a roll call recorded vote on the spending bills.

IOW, Ron Johnson is doing what he promised to do.

McConnell?

The word "snake" doesn't quite describe him adequately.

The EPA, Hiding the Numbers (Again)

Not yet in the MFM, and not likely to be trumpeted by same:

• EPA has been conducting air pollution effects tests on human subjects since at least January 2010.
• By the time the EPA researchers had published their September 2011 report in Environmental Health Perspectives, they had conducted 41 such tests.
• Of the 41 human experiments, clinical effects were reported by the EPA in only two study subjects. Both of these are controversial. One is the case study reported in Environmental Health Perspectives, which has been previously debunked. The other study subject flagged by the EPA researchers as experiencing a clinical effect (“a short episode of an elevated heart rate during exposure”), in fact, denied feeling any effects. This reported effect was most probably due to some pre-existing condition or other stressor given the low-level of PM_2.5 to which the study subject was exposed. Certainly the EPA has no reason to believe that was not the case or that the alleged heart rate jump was due to the PM_2.5 exposure.
• The other 39 study subjects were exposed to PM_2.5 levels up to 21 times greater (i.e, up to 750 μg/m³) than the EPA’s own permissible exposure limit for PM_2.5 on a 24-hour basis (i.e, 35 μg/m³). All reported exposures among the 39 study subjects were greater than the EPA’s 24-hour PM_2.5 standard. Seven study subjects were exposed to levels 10 times greater than the EPA’s 24-hour PM_2.5 standard. No clinical effects were reported for any of these exposures. 

"We Know Where You Were, Comrade..."

Not only where you were, but how fast you got there.

A bill already passed by the Senate and set to be rubber stamped by the House would make it mandatory for all new cars in the United States to be fitted with black box data recorders from 2015 onwards.

... Although the text of legislation states that such data would remain the property of the owner of the vehicle, the government would have the power to access it in a number of circumstances, including by court order, if the owner consents to make it available, and pursuant to an investigation or inspection conducted by the Secretary of Transportation...

...or whenever they damn well feel like it.

Buy.  More.  Ammo.

No, Obozo Is NOT the Only Statist in D.C.

Never let it be said that the Republicans in Congress aren't Statist-inclined twits.

The Republican House of Representatives may soon follow the Democratic Senate and give the IRS the power to confiscate your passport on mere suspicion of owing taxes. There's no place like home, comrade.

'America, Love It Or Leave It" might be an obsolete slogan if the "bipartisan transportation bill" that just passed the Senate is approved by the House and becomes law. Contained within the suspiciously titled "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act," or "MAP 21," is a provision that gives the Internal Revenue Service the power to keep U.S. citizens from leaving the country if it finds that they owe $50,000 or more in unpaid taxes — no court ruling necessary ....Vox quoting IBD

Well, if there's a tax deficiency, properly proven and documented, I have a better solution:  let them leave, but not RETURN until arrangements are made for payment.  Make it clear well in advance.  No need to take away the passport at all!

Vatican to Lefty Nuns: "You're Outta Here!"

It is very unusual for the Vatican to speak in a candid manner.  That alone is a sign of the level of concern here.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has launched a 5-year reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)...

 ...The CDF doctrinal assessment, released today, criticized positions espoused at LCWR annual assemblies and in its literature as well as the absence of support from LCWR for Church teaching on pro-life issues, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

The CDF said that the documentation “reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death...

“Further,” the CDF report said, “issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”

The CDF said, “The Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems....

This is long overdue; problems with these nuns have been extant since about 1975.

HT:  Gateway

Heil! ObamaReich!!

Quin Hillyer has a convenient list of the Reich's most recent assaults on the Constitution.

NLRB:  ...The company asserts that the NLRB acted through the agency of three board members improperly appointed in January, and therefore ineligible to exercise power. Obama appointed the three, along with Richard Cordray as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though the Senate never requested, and the House never granted, permission to adjourn at all during the Christmas season.

Legal precedent had established a ten-day “recess” as the minimum time the Senate must be out before the president can make a key appointment without the usually required Senate confirmation...

EDUCATION:   As George Will noted, citing a thorough study by former Department of Education lawyers Kent Talbert and Bob Eitel,  federal law prohibits the national government from interfering in local or state curricula. The administration, however, has misused the “waiver” process in the No Child Left Behind law to force its own curriculum choices on the states...

"CARD CHECK":  Despite repeated congressional refusal to change the rules governing union-formation elections at individual companies, the administration’s NLRB is proceeding to require union-friendly “card check” rules by executive fiat...

CARBON EMISSIONS:   Congress refused to add tighter restrictions on carbon emissions – so Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, willfully using bad science as a basis, imposed new rules anyway, again by decree

 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY:  The administration’s edict forcing faith-based employers to provide insurance that includes free provision of abortifacients (and other contraception) likely will not stand, but it is an egregious attempt to strangle religious liberty in its very crib...

Hillyer suggests that der Fuhrer's attempts should be arrested.

My suggestion?  Arrest der Fuhrer, not the "attempts."

Lies, Damned Lies, and Democrats

As usual, the Democrats want to raise taxes.  And as usual, the MFM covers it up.

The two leading Democrat candidates for governor in the looming recall election have come out in favor massive tax increases and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel seems bent on framing that in an uncritical and positive light. Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk, both local government executives, have unveiled similar plans to repeal tax cuts approved by Walker during the first year and a half of his administration. Reporting on the tax hike proposals, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel used opaque and arcane language saying the two Democrats were proposing to “roll back some tax decreases.”

OK.

Marty Kaiser asked if his reader(s) wanted to participate in an online survey about the JS.  

Why would anyone waste the time?

Well, We Regret Having Leon Panetta!

Awfully damn civil of him:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday he regrets the cost to taxpayers for his weekend trips to his Carmel Valley home, but says it's important "just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight."

Panetta said he'd try to find some savings, with each round trip costing approximately $32,000.

"I regret ... that it does add costs that the taxpayer has to pick up," Panetta said...

Stuff your apology where the sun never shines, Leeeeeon.  Just put on your big-boy pants and move to DC like a real job-holder would.

Bob Lutz, Moron

Lutz is a very smart car-guy.

The smarts end there.

“If I were emperor of the United States, I would raise the fuel tax in the United States by 25 cents a gallon per year,” said Lutz during a panel discussion on energy independence co-sponsored by the Hudson Institute.

... Lutz claimed an annual tax hike on fuel would create predictability in the auto market and consumers would be more inclined to buy electric cars.

He also called the 18 cents per gallon federal tax on fuel, “ridiculous,” because 18 cents a gallon is in his view too low, and lamented the political risk in the U.S. of advocating for higher taxes on fuel.

“In the states, the political process is such that we can’t use the market mechanism of fuel price to drive demand for these alternative fuel vehicles. So we leave taxation where it is, and then we have to find a somewhat artificial means to incent customers to look at these [electric] vehicles,” he said.

Those damn States and that damnable 10th Amendment.  Who needs that, anyway?

No reporter has looked in Lutz' garage to determine if he drives ONLY Volts, by the way.   That might make interesting television, no?

One Step From the Gulag: the "Justice" Department

The US Department of Justice prefers to bury its mistakes, thankyouverymuch.

Justice Department officials have known for years that flawed forensic work might have led to the convictions of potentially innocent people nationwide, but prosecutors failed to notify defendants or their attorneys even in many cases they knew were troubled.

This is not a Republican or Democrat problem.

This is a manifestation of Statism; of the corruption bestowed by absolute power. That "Wolverines" stuff didn't start because someone was bored.  It started because--going all the way back to Ruby Ridge--people are paying attention.

RoJo, GM, The Titanic. Get the Connection?

Sen Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is actually doing what he said he'd do:  raising Hell in the Clubroom.

Maybe it's not a coincidence that he started the trouble just before the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's demise.

...Senate Republican Leadership staffers are now attacking Johnson either on behalf of leadership or because Senate GOP Leadership has lost control of their staff. Either way it’s bad, and Senators must be wondering about McConnell’s leadership skills.

After the leadership fight, instead of backing down, Johnson has voiced his displeasure with the lack of a coherent conservative strategy from McConnell’s office.

In typical fashion though, rather than taking Johnson’s advice and developing a conservative strategy, Leadership retaliated last week with a cowardly hit piece on Johnson. The article contained quotes from a “senior GOP aide.” The aide was too gutless to be named, but my Hill sources say it is likely someone from McConnell’s office.

Look folks:  this is not hard.  The United States is on the same glidepath taken by the Titanic and General Motors.  The Clubroom management, having been insulated and isolated in its own little world for years, ignores the red-screen of the radar--or of the balance-sheet and income statements, and proceeds, full speed ahead.

Politics-as-usual, which usually means talking a lot and doing nothing substantive, is no longer an option.  There is no Bailout Daddy for the Federal Government as was the case for GM.

There is only the cold, deep, ocean.

Maybe the "Buffet Tax" Should Target Only Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet earns his money the old-fashioned way:  by manipulating the Federal Government.

...Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a Berkshire Hathaway investor, “bragged at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that he took advice from Warren before he voted for the Wall Street Bailout.

Ummhnnnhh, yah.  So then what happened?

As economist Susanne Trimbath points out, “We may not want to look too closely at where [Buffett’s] money comes from – like the 15 percent return he’s earning on the $5 billion investment he made in Goldman Sachs the week before they got a $10 billion bailout; or the fact that Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder in American Express Co. when they received $3.4 billion from Uncle Sam.”...

No, he's not the only one.   But he sure likes to talk about increasing taxes. 

Guilty conscience at work....

Dostoevsky, MLK, Santorum, and Moral Relativism

R R Reno contributes on the question of moral relativism.

In The Brothers Karamazov, the rationalist and unbelieving Ivan is visited by the devil, who lays out the moral consequences of atheism. After belief in God is extinguished, “man will be exalted with the spirit of divine, titanic pride, and the man-god will appear.” Of course few will have the courage of the “man-god” to live in an entirely secular world. Ivan has the courage to face the fact that God is dead, or so the devil seductively suggests. And thus for him, “everything is permitted.”

Reno observes that "everything is permitted" really means that only SOME things are permitted, in the relativistic world of atheism (or practical atheism--which is the world we live in.)

...Matthew O’Brien allows that there may be natural reasons to believe in moral absolutes, but argues that they are not enough. Sometimes circumstances are such that following a moral absolute seems to invite disastrous consequences. The classic example is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States directly targeted innocent civilians—a violation of the moral prohibition against killing the innocent—but the alternative of invading Japan would probably have resulted in the death of many more people, perhaps even more innocent people.

Saturation bombing with conventional explosives in Europe involved a similar suspension of the moral absolute. Ever reliable as a theorist of our secular age, John Rawls (whom O’Brien helpfully cites) defended the total-war doctrine that we tacitly adopted during World War II: The “incalculable moral and political evil for civilized life everywhere” that a Nazi victory portended “justifies invoking the supreme emergency exemption.” The same way of thinking underwrote the West’s Cold War nuclear policy of massive retaliation: mutually assured destruction. In dire situations, we can suspend moral absolutes. The “supreme emergency exemption” is plenary—and thus “everything is permitted.”

(Whenever Rawls is cited, it's time to be on guard.)

...I’ve come to see that this describes the moral atmosphere of our times quite well. We each take on the role of commander-in-chief, often invoking the “supreme emergency exemption” to address what we imagine to be dire circumstances in our lives, or the lives of others. For example, a friend recently asked me if I honestly believed that abortion is always immoral. “What if your daughter was fourteen and became pregnant? Would you really refuse to make an exception? Would you really force her to live with the consequences?” The question is typical, reflecting not an insouciant and amoral relativism, but instead an anguished awareness of dire circumstance. Most Americans who support Roe v. Wade see abortion as a personal Hiroshima. The same holds for euthanasia. It’s “tragic,” but “necessary.” We’re to respect life—except when, regrettably, we’re not.

Something similar is at work in relaxed attitudes toward divorce and permissive views of sexual morality. Both involve a desire to make accommodating adjustments. “Would you really want a couple in conflict to stay married? Do you actually think that homosexuals should have to live with the unhappiness of their sexual desires unfulfilled?” These questions and others that point out the hard demands of rigorous moral judgments give rise to the paradox of moral relativism, one that Dostoevsky saw emerging in his own day. We must deny moral truths for the sake of humanity, for the sake of a moral task that seems urgent in an unbelieving world. We need to re-engineer right and wrong to make everything come out right in the end.

Perhaps not "atheism", eh?  Maybe just each of us being 'like unto God.'  CF:  Genesis, or Babel.

...The language of human rights has become very influential in recent decades, suggesting that our secular world is capable of a new set of strong moral norms that can replace the old absolutes. Yet, without religious belief I doubt that the West can sustain a robust commitment to rigorous moral principles of any sort. Relativism has a moral mission. Its goal is to allow us to adjust to difficult situations, making exceptions to moral principles, or revising them to better fit human realities and mitigate human suffering. In dire circumstances what is normally prohibited is permitted. And as we get accustomed to our roles as moral commanders-in-chief the threshold gets steadily lower.

Uhmmmmnnnnnhhhh....

...The progressive mentality tends to see dire circumstances everywhere, and this mentality, in conjunction with the way in which atheism tempts us to take charge and ensure justice by whatever means necessary, helps explain the contemporary dictatorship of relativism. The sort of reasoning Rawls provided to justify the total-war doctrine against Nazism justifies the violation of every moral principle, including the essential rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And in a world dominated by an atheistic elite, I’m afraid they very likely will be violated, always for the sake of the high moral purpose of preventing an “incalculable moral and political evil for civilized life everywhere.” It will be part of the moral mission of relativism...

Indeed.

If you've raised children, the phrase "just this once, Mommy [Daddy]??" should be ringing in the back of your head.  And those children could appear to be adults, too.

Now you know where that came from.  Dostoevsky merely repeated what he'd learned by reading Genesis.

...In recent decades a consensus has emerged that religious ideas and theological notions are sectarian and private in character, and therefore they should not be offered in the public square. A genuine “public philosophy,” to use the term of art, must appeal to principles of “public reason,” another term of art, which are accessible to all citizens. It is therefore supposed that a public philosophy can’t rely on the sorts of claims about God, providence, salvation, and morality that religious people make. Religious themes can be used for their rhetorical effect. Martin Luther King used a rich biblical imagery to promote civil rights, and his sermons and speeches are widely admired. But his core ideal of equality remains non-theological, or so it is claimed...

So not even MLK can withstand the parsing of the Progressives, eh?  Now THERE'S a conundrum!

But MLK is hardly the last target of the Progressive Practical (or real) Atheists:

When Rick Santorum makes the altogether rational and sensible observation that racism involves moral judgments about skin color (an odd basis for moral judgments) while opposition to homosexual acts involves moral judgments about behavior (the usual basis for moral judgments), his views are labeled as “controversial.” Meanwhile, proponents of gay marriage make arguments that are controversial and divisive, as the current political climate indicates, and yet are deemed acceptably “public.” One cannot avoid the conclusion that a “controversial” stance largely means a policy, principle, or position that liberals oppose.

Just ask Mrs. Romney, or Sarah Palin.

HT:  Terry

Good News!! We're in "Recovery"!!!

It's all good!!

The National Bureau of Economic Research, the arbiter of the start and end dates of a recession, determined that the recession that began in December 2007 ended in June 2009.

This is a Democrat "recovery," which is why the labor-participation rate is for crap, why unemployment won't really move off the mark, and why Obozo still calls it "Bush's fault."

HT:  Insurrection

Here's the Flow-Chart

Everything you need to know!!

HT:  MoonBattery

Dipwad-in-Chief Pushes Statism Economics

This poor bastard sees the world through the wrong end of the scope.

"This [Buffet rule] is not just about fairness, this is also about growth,” he added. “It’s about being able to make the investments we need to strengthen our economy and create jobs. And it’s about whether we as a country are willing to pay for those investments.  --AOSHQ quoting The Hill

Yah, that's the ticket!!!

Squeeze (or eat, what the hell) the RICH, which means that Obozo gets to pick and make "investments."

Like, for example, Solyndra.

Marx and Goebbels would be proud of him.

As for real Americans:  BUY MORE AMMO!!

Remember the Milwaukee Sentinel?

There's a screenshot of the old Sentinel's "news" page at this site.

And a really good prediction, too!!

Slave Labor? Close To It! And IT, Too!

Not really surprising.

Information Technology firm and high-tech industry powerhouse, Infosys, is being accused of bringing low-paid foreign wokers to the U.S. illegally, CBS News reported.

You've all heard that those H1-B's are smarter, faster, and better-trained, right?

Bullsh*t.

...Palmer said at first, most came over on H-1B visas. These visas are for people with specialized talents or a level of technical ability that can't be found among American workers.

When asked if all the people had some special expertise that couldn't be found in the U.S., Palmer said, "Absolutely not. Not even close. Many of them is what we call freshers. People that would just come over, whoever they could get to come over. Whoever got accepted for a visa." 

"Many of the people brought in, in fact, didn't know what they were doing at all," Palmer said. "There was not a project or program that I was involved in that we did not remove somebody because they had no knowledge of what they were doing," he said.

Palmer says that Infosys' motive to bring in foreign workers was purely for profit. 

Palmer says the Indian workers on his team were paid substantially less than an American would have made in the same job.

When the U.S. State Department began to limit the number of H-1B visas, Palmer said Infosys began using another type of visa, the B-1. The B-1 is meant for employees who are traveling to consult with associates, attend training or a convention. But Palmer said the employees were brought in not for meetings, but for full-time jobs.

These are literally slaves.  They cannot leave Infosys without being forcibly ejected from the USA, so they cannot go to the next body-shop and increase their wages.

And of course, Infosys is billing out large dollars for these people--who are incompetent.

I'm sure that the US companies who are contracting with Infosys are diligently checking out the situation.

/sarcasm

What's That You Said?

We've arrived in 1984.

...the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

So why is it under construction now?

Hint:  A Democrat-dominated Congress and the Totalitarian/Marxist-in-Chief.

Bradley, Shirley Must Go

Prosser's right:  Bradley and Screechin'Shirley must recuse from Prosser's hearing.

Anyone running a pool on that?

We note that the MFM's headline on this matter refers to Bradley and Screechin'Shirley as "rivals."

How about "assailant and accomplice"?

Buffet the Fraud

Like most high-visibility folks, Buffet likes the rules:  one rule for you, another rule for him.

...Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's holding company, owns NetJets. NetJets is a company millionaires use in order to arrange fractional ownership of private jets -- time shares, of sorts. NetJets lobbied like crazy, as Ryan Grim and Ariel Edwards-Levy at Huffington Post explained last month, to change the treatment under the tax code of flights on fractionally owned jets.

It's complicated, but basically it's about whether to charge a per-passenger tax as Washington charges commercial flights or a per-gallon tax as Washington charges the operators of private jets that are owned by one party. The latter treatment results in lower taxes.

Congress -- mostly Ohio Republicans Pat Tiberi and Rob Portman, according to media accounts -- stuck the NetJets provision into the transportation bill. The result is a "a much-reduced tax liability" for NetJets customers, and thus much higher profits for Warren Buffett. And earlier this month, the IRS began implementing this tax-law change.

See how that works? Go ahead--YOU can try that, too!

Go Ahead: Pay a LOT for Gas!!

The story on Channel 12 is not too slanted. 

Since Our Benevolent Master's EPA has determined that Milwaukee is no longer a PollutionPit, let's dump the ultra-pricey reformulated gas.

Personally, I don't care; I buy in Madistan and have not yet paid more than $3.97/gallon this year.

"Stand Your Ground" Has NOTHING To Do With Zimmerman

As usual, the MFM is totally inadequate to the task of telling the truth.

...other states took a common-sense approach to self-defense, which the U.S. Supreme Court in Beard v. U.S. endorsed as early as 1895, when the Court unanimously declared that an innocent person under attack was, “not obliged to retreat, but was entitled to stand his ground, and meet any attack upon him with a deadly weapon, in such a way and with such force as … [he] honestly believed, and had reasonable grounds to believe, was necessary to save his own life, or to protect himself from great bodily injury.”

Ummmhhh....yah, so ....?

...Florida’s SYG law provides that a person under attack can use force—including deadly force—against his attacker if he, “reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm … or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.”

...Under any version of the facts, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law did not apply in the Trayvon Martin incident. If Zimmerman pursued a confrontation with Martin, then Zimmerman was an attacker and cannot claim SYG. If Zimmerman’s account is true that he was on the ground and Martin was on top of him, then retreat was impossible, so there would be no duty to retreat anyway. A victim in such a situation can use deadly force, but only if he reasonably believes he is being attacked with deadly force.

To our knowledge, that is the law in all fifty states. It was the law before SYG statutes were ever passed, and SYG did nothing to change it.

(Having no more facts-in-evidence than what's been presented by the media (and the far-more-reliable blogs), it appears to me that Zimmerman is going to have one helluva time proving that he was being 'attacked with deadly force.'

Interesting that the DA charged 2nd degree--which will ALSO be difficult to prove.)

Back to the Moron Parade, led by No-Salt/No-Fat Bloomie of Gotham:

Bloomberg, joined by leaders of national African-American groups, announced the “Second Chance on Shoot First” campaign aimed against a law in Florida and elsewhere in the country that allows individuals to use lethal force whenever they feel threatened, commonly known as the “Shoot First” law. 

Actually, it's "Stand Your Ground".  Now that you've read the reality about SYG, you understand the monstrosity of the lies propaganda of such as Bloomie--who travels with his own personal armed-guard security force called the NYPD, by the way.

Salt-and-fat deprivation must have effects on cognition.

The Correct Epitaph for Santorum's Run

Belvedere has it exactly right:

As for Rick Santorum…

You tried to get people to start understanding how cultural and social decay is linked directly to economic and political decay.

You showed that you understood what John Adams meant when he wrote:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

There are smaller minds--specifically in Madistan--who substitute 7th-grade caricatures and "thinking" for criticism of Santorum, Grothman, and others.

Too bad. 

The Forest Service Says "Die, Dogs!"

Ahhh, the joys of totalitarian regimes!

...In 2011, the Monument Fire ripped through the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona-land belonging to the U.S. Forest Service.  Following the fire, floods and torrential mudslides destroyed mountain spring water lines to the town of Tombstone.

Approximately one year later, "The Town Too Tough To Die," is still unable to fix its water lines, affecting 1,500 residents and more than 400,000 annual visitors. 

Due to the location of the springs being on a government wild land area, Tombstone residents cannot use the heavy machinery necessary to fix its water supply-Forest Service rules won't allow it. 

Yes, there's even MORE!!

...Because of the damaged water supply, an element called arsenic is running through Tombstone resident's tap water at a higher level than allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

What the hell.  Drink the arsenic, or die of dehydration.

The Forest Service will be just fine, of course.