Tuesday, April 30, 2013

House of Representatives Science Caucus Says.....

I, for one, never knew the level of scientific knowledge present in the House Democrat delegation.

A number (of) House Democrats have written a resolution calling on Congress to recognize that climate change will hurt the plight of women more than men; driving women into “transactional sex” for survival — among other horrible fates.  HE quoted at Cold Fury

Empirically proven cause/effect thing, right?


Monday, April 29, 2013

Platonic Pelosi

If you didn't know better, you'd think Nancy was acquainted with the works of Plato.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a gathering in Cleveland that childcare for all should be the next “pillar” of American government and “the president comes close in his budget when he says ‘preschool for all’

Nancy is merely a Statist.  Plato--well, at least he understood righteousness.

Lectures And What One Learns

Recently, I've had the experience of being lectured-by-blogpost.  It's interesting.  The blog-lecturer in question is a Famous Fellow in some quarters.

The business at hand involves a set of "rules", some of which are hard-and-fast, others of which are subject to reasonable debate.  Sadly, one of us isn't following the "hard-and-fast" rules (that is, the ones which are written and very explicit.)  Not on my side of the ledger, mind you. 

The debatable ones?  Well, rather than actually have the discussion, there are blog-posts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson had something to say about this sort of thing:

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. 

Indeed.

Founders: Smart Dudes, Except for Subsidiarity

Grim points to something interesting in our Constitutional setup.

...What the Founders did was to give us a system that not only checked three branches with three separate functions against one another. They also provided us with a system in which the three basic kinds of government were all present, and counterbalanced. We could get every good Aristotle saw in every system; and when one branch went bad, there was the hope that the competing interests of the other forms of government might right it.

OK.  So?

...There is only one problem, and it is one Aristotle did not consider: the problem of scale. More and more, I think a government must adhere to a human scale in order to be just. I mean by "a human scale" that maximum set of people such that the members can all know one another, and care about one another. At levels beyond this, a fundamental aspect of humanity is lost: we don't love each other any more, and are content to treat the unloved members as less than the beloved ones....

Yah.  The solution is called "subsidiarity," which the Catholic Church has been pushing for centuries.  There's a reason for that, and it's coming into focus.

Illegals, ID Theft, and The Stupids

Kudos to Fox6 News for running a story that mentions the horrific damage that illegals do.  Paul Ryan won't like this--nor will Marco Rubio.  Tough s**t.
 
And we can't forget The Stupids:  our Gummint's very own IRS!!

Home loans denied. Their credit trashed.  And a Wisconsin couple had no idea why it was all happening. But the Federal Government did....

...After Suarez was released from prison, the Guenterberg’s lost track of him.  But the FOX6 Investigators tracked him down in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago....

“You used his social security number to buy cars and houses and get jobs and he has been dealing with this for years,” said FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn.

“No, no that`s not true,” said Cornelio Suarez.  “I used them for work. Just to, like, bring food to my family.”
Suarez claims he only used Robert Guenterberg’s social security number …not his name.

“I use my name, I no use his name and everything.  I was paying my bills.  I pay my bills and not like regular people like do. I do not do bad things to nobody,” Suarez said.

In other words, Suarez doesn’t think he did anything wrong.

Suarez is lying like a rug, of course.  But hey!

Illegals are good for the economy!  So says Paul Ryan and all the other Brilliant Ones in DC.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Jim Doyle's Grand Theft Victim Now in Trouble

For some strange reason, the local newsrag forgets recent history.

Here's a refresher to remind you of ALL the pertinent facts:

Armed with strong veto powers to rewrite state budgets, and with a substantial enough minority in the Legislature to withstand override attempts, between 2003 and 2007 the Governor and legislative Democrats found it as easy to raid the transportation fund as, say, to shoot fish in a barrel.

For one thing, while Decker's assertion that "over $1 billion was transferred out of the transportation fund while the Republicans were in complete control of the Legislature" is technically true, it is irrelevant because being in control of the Legislature does not necessarily translate into being in control of the budget.

The remark was meant to assign Republicans responsibility for the transfers during those years, but that's simply not true. It was Gov. Jim Doyle who proposed the transfers, and Republicans publicly criticized the proposals from day one.

As years went by, GOP resistance became more pronounced. It especially became marked after Doyle used his veto pen in 2005 to excavate $427 million out of the highway account.

As researchers at the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance have stated, the governor used the so-called Frankenstein veto - in which he could cross out words and numbers to create a new sentence from two or more sentences - to pare a 752-word section to 20 words sanctioning the transfer of the $427 million to the general fund to be used education
.


The Transportation Fund was demolished by James Doyle, a corruptocrat.  He should repay it--along with his (D) legislative cabal.

Screw the bastards.  

Friday, April 26, 2013

A Moral Question

From Sipsey's Smuggler:

LESSON NO. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you someplace you do not want to go because of who you are or what you think -- kill him. If you can, kill the politician who sent him. You will likely die anyway, and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant's executioners.

This does not seem to comport with your standard Christian moral code.

Or does it?

It IS the Christian moral code that one can--and perhaps should--allow himself to be martyred for Christ--that is, for the Faith.

But what if it's not about The Faith?

Napolitano's Troops Burning Ammo---Fast

Frau General Napolitano's domestic army is burning ammo rapidly.

...the department currently has more than 260 million rounds in stock. He said the department bought more than 103 million rounds in 2012 and used 116 million that same year — among roughly 70,000 agents.

Comparing that with the small-arms purchases procured by the U.S. Army, he said the DHS is churning through between 1,300 and 1,600 rounds per officer, while the U.S. Army goes through roughly 350 rounds per soldier.  --Fox News quoted at Bob Owens


That's a LOT of "training"

But there are other possibilities.

Either DHS is over-training and wasting taxpayer money on ammunition if they are shooting this much per agent, or they are lying about how much they are stockpiling, which would beg the question, why are they stockpiling so much ammunition.

An interesting question, indeed!

BUY.  MORE.  AMMO!!

How Many Rounds Is "Too Many"? Not Enough!

7-round magazines for you suckers in NY State.  That's about one-fifth what this cop needed.

...At the core of his desperate firefight was a murderous attacker who simply would not go down, even though he was shot 14 times with .45-cal. ammunition — six of those hits in supposedly fatal locations.

...In this free-for-all, the assailant had, in fact, been struck 14 times. Any one of six of these wounds — in the heart, right lung, left lung, liver, diaphragm, and right kidney — could have produced fatal consequences…“in time,” Gramins emphasizes....

Finally,

...When the suspect bent down to peer under the car, Gramins carefully established a sight picture, and squeezed off three controlled bursts in rapid succession.

Each round slammed into the suspect’s head — one through each side of his mouth and one through the top of his skull into his brain. At long last the would-be cop killer crumpled to the pavement....

But the guy was NOT dead--yet.

HT:  Arms/Law

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Confirmed: Congress Is Slime, Says Politico

Politico reports, RedState carries the news:

According to the Politico, in super secret “high-level, confidential talks”, Harry Reid, John Boehner, the Obama administration, and other lawmakers are working to exempt themselves and their staffs from Obamacare.

They want to rush it through, probably sneaking it through...

Should make those "Town Hall" meetings very interesting, I'd say.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

"Why, Yes, We're Illegally Snooping on You. So What?"

If you're surprised, you're a damn fool.

The documents concern a collaboration between the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and private companies to allow government monitoring of private Internet networks. Though the program initially only applied to defense contractors, an Executive Order issued by the Obama administration earlier this year expanded it to include other "critical infrastructure" industries. The documents obtained by EPIC also cited NSPD 54 as one source of authority for the program. NSPD 54 is a presidential directive issued under President Bush that EPIC is pursuing in separate FOIA litigation.  --EPIC quoted at Hit and Run

Obozo & Co. secretly promised AT&T (and others) that the Gummint would provide "2511 letters" for any illegal snooping, thus making it "legal."  It's not, but the pResident SAID it is, you see.

IOW, CYA.  Since AT&T (and others) are completely and entirely dependent on Gummint to operate (see FCC, among others), they had a reason--stark raving fear--to "cooperate."


The Value of Wiggy

In days of yore, I took out 6 dozen of these hole-boring garden-eaters. 

Wiggy now (belatedly) provides a use for them.

Well.  Better late than never.  There are plenty more where the first 70++ came from

The WallyWorld Relief Act of 2013

That would be the proposed 'internet sales tax' law.

Jacoby mentions this little Constitutional difficulty with the Senate (that's "Democrat") bill:

...There is a crucial reason why merchants have been required to collect taxes only for states with which they have a “substantial nexus.” Anything else would be taxation without representation. States cannot be allowed to reach beyond their borders, imposing tax obligations on retailers who had no vote in the matter, no political recourse, no opportunity to be heard. Against such antidemocratic unfairness, Americans once fought a revolution....

Not that the Democrat Party gives a s*%^ about the Constitution or the rule of law, or any of that old-fashioned stuff....

How It Works in Chicago and California

Brief article, right to the point.

The winner in the high-speed rail taxpayer-screwing happens to be the husband of a Senatrix.

And, by the way, when a $Billion's at stake, CHANGE THE RULES!!

Immigration "Reform"? Puhleeeezz...

Just a couple of points here, relayed by Malkin.

This concerns the Senate proposal, not whatever-it-is that Ryan and the terrorist-lover from Chicago spew onto the table. 

...The background check provisions of the bill in Section 2101(b)(8) contain no requirement that amnesty applicants actually provide government-issued documentation proving who they say they are. That means that any illegal alien can invent a new name with a totally clean record and present that name when applying for the amnesty. Immigration officials will have absolutely no way to force the alien to disclose his real identity....

... Unlike the amnesty of 1986, and unlike the various smaller amnesties that have been enacted since then (such as the “Section 245i” amnesty), this bill actually allows illegal aliens who have already been deported from the United States to return and gain the amnesty.....

...Sections 2101(b)(13 and 2103(b)(2)(C) permits beneficiaries of Secretary Napolitano’s unlawful DACA directive of June 2012 to become eligible for the amnesty and for lawful permanent resident status. The DACA Directive was issued by Secretary Napolitano in direct violation of federal law, specifically 8 U.S.C. § 1225, which requires that immigration officials place certain aliens into removal proceedings....

The Administration of Lawlessness (Obozo & Co.) rolls on, aided and abetted by Congress.

Dancing With the Devil (For Wales?)

A hint-hint article from Politico describing Paul Ryan's smooch-fest with Gutierrez.

Gutierrez has an inordinate affection for terrorists who attack US targets.

There's little question that Ryan has career aspirations.  It will be unfortunate, indeed, if he marches even further leftward to attain that goal.

Voting to fund ObozoCare is Lefty enough, ain'a?

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Hillary Lied, People Died

Yah, well.  She's always been a liar; the stakes changed, that's all.

CBS: Five House Committees (Armed Svcs, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Intel, Oversight) released interim report on Benghazi. 

Congressional Report: Secy Clinton's testimony to Congress was incorrect when claiming she was unaware of certain Benghazi security requests

Cong Report: Secy Clinton signed an 4/12 State Dept cable acknowledging then-Amb Cretz's formal request for additional security assets

Cong Report: but Clinton ordered the withdrawal of elements to proceed as planned.
Secy Clinton testified in Jan. 2013 "I didn't see those requests. They didn't come to me. I didn't approve them. I didn't deny them."

Cong Report:White House/SState Dept. Officials Altered Talking Points to protect State Dept. from criticism for inadequate security levels.  CBS News quoted at AOSHQ

IIRC, "testimony....was incorrect..." translates to perjury.

Wannabet there's no prosecution?

Obozo's Air Traffic Scam

Obozo (who has NO air travel problems) has decided to give the traveling public another pain in the ass.

So he ordered the FAA to pull air-traffic controllers off duty and blame the Republicans!! 

(Let's not talk about the fact that the sequester was Obozo's idea....)

Since the 9/11 attacks, air traffic is DOWN 25%.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the FAA's budget is UP 41%.

One of these things is not like the other. 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Recovery in Housing? Not So Fast...

Interesting bit of info here.

...Tom Lawler has sent me some rough data that suggests much of the increase in conventional sales in California has been due to investor buying (mostly large institutional investors buying single family homes to rent).   As an example, reports are Blackstone has purchased 20,000 homes nationally and Colony Capital has purchased 7,000 homes. And there a number of other large players. There groups have continued to buy even as the number of foreclosures has declined.






Even MORE interesting:

Note: some of the smaller investor groups I've mentioned on this blog have stopped buying (they started buying at the low end in late 2008).  They say the numbers no longer make sense.

That will leave a mark, particularly with first-time homebuyers.

Self-Defense? Why Would One Need That?

We're told that the pResident will shortly toss a few more regulations on gun ownership and sales.

After all, with the remarkable capability of the FBI to find and detain heavily (and illegally) armed terrorist radical Muslims, why would you need 15 or 30 rounds to defend your family or your country?

Don't worry.  Be happy.  Gummint's here to help.

Birds of a Feather in the Obozo Zoo

It's possible that for the next 2-3 years, we'll have a leading Leftist Radical at the top of DOL.

Fits right in to the Obozo pattern, of course.  Radicals everywhere!

During his Senate confirmation hearing last Thursday, Perez affirmed what many already knew–but the Obama Administration has been loathe to admit–that the real unemployment rate is actually double what the Administration touts.

To make matters even more embarrassing for the Obama Administration, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon, Perez may have illegally been leaking information to outside groups via his personal e-mail.

That would be about 3 dozen violations of the law, by the way.  It's a pattern within this Administration.

One more thing:  radicals don't have to throw bombs at children to destroy the country.



Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Salvatorians' Dissembling Problem

When Bill Clinton was President, I learned the term "parse."  It proved useful.

Evidently, it's quite useful to--of all entities--the Salvatorian order, too.

..."...Rodrigues [the local chief Salvatorian] told the Journal Sentinel he did not know of any other allegations against Marsicek. On Tuesday, he defended that statement, noting that he had been careful to say the order did not have any other allegations 'from a victim.' In the Sacramento case, the allegations came to the order through the diocese."  --JS Online quoted at Provincial Emails

If you've paid attention, you'll know that one of the three most vicious child-rapists in Milwaukee was a Salvatorian priest operating from Mother of Good Counsel's rectory.

This "boundary issues" thing is a bit problematic.  A "hug" can be interpreted differently.

That said, there's a maxim worth knowing:  "pattern of practice."  Just so Fr. Rodrigues knows, that's a very specific legal term with which he should get acquainted, soon.






Friday, April 19, 2013

Justice Kennedy's Rousseau-ism

You all recall Kennedy's flapdaddle in the Lawrence opinion, right?

"...to define one's own concept of existence, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life...."

Umnnhh, yah, sure.

That's straight out of Rousseau.

...Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) turned Aristotle’s notion of Nature on its head. Aristotle said Nature defined not only what man is but what he should be. Rousseau countered that Nature is not an end—a telos—but a beginning: Man’s end is his beginning. He has no immutable nature. “We do not know what our nature permits us to be”, wrote Rousseau in his Emile. A 20th century version of this view was offered by John Dewey, who said: “human nature is not to have a nature”. There is nothing man “ought” to become, no moral imperative. There is no purpose in man or nature; existence is therefore bereft of any rational principle. This means there is no entelechy, no such thing as ‘having one’s end within,’ as Aristotle put it. In fact, reason itself is not natural to man, according to Rousseau – whereas Aristotle said it is man’s very essence. For Rousseau, the roots of reason are in the irrational. Reason is the servant of the passions, not of the truth....

It is also a path to anarchy.

It should come as no surprise that Dewey was a Rousseauian critter, too; one look at his public schooling of today will confirm that.

Obama-Approved Serial Killers

There's simply no other way to say it:  Gosnell is a serial killer.

...The Philadelphia grand jury report, now amplified by trial testimony, outlined the systematic execution of hundreds of healthy, living, breathing, squirming viable babies. The panel concluded that the "vast majority of the babies he aborted" were more than 24 weeks old....

Obama, famous for voting "present" on most issues (just like today), was not so reticent on the matter of post-birth babykilling in Illinois.

And the son of a bitch "celebrates life" in Boston?

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Little Chicanery at Fisker, With Taxpayer Dollars

Well, several million here, several billion there, who gives a damn?

Fisker Automotive Inc., a maker of luxury plug-in cars, was allowed to keep using money from a U.S. Energy Department loan after violating its terms multiple times, according to a research report.The Energy Department, which gave Fisker a $529 million line of credit in 2009, knew by December 2010 that the carmaker wasn't meeting milestones required to keep drawing taxpayer funds, according to a report by PrivCo,...

...While the Energy Department cut off Fisker's funding in June 2011, after the company drew down about $193 million, the delay allowed additional taxpayer money to be lost, the report said...

Too bad, so sad.  Evil Republicans and Tea Party types, I suppose.

Ded We Mention It's oBOZOcare?

When one undertakes to run the Gummint, one should have big-boy pants.

Obama?  Not even close.

...Klein’s [Time Magarag's Lefty essayist] post focuses primarily on the implosion of Obamacare’s exchanges. Pointing out that the President’s apparatchiks squandered three full years during which they should have been hard at work preparing for the advent of these insurance “marketplaces,” Klein laments their failure to do so with the following piece of Solomonic wisdom: “This is a really bad sign.” Indeed it is. And Klein isn’t the only advocate of Obamacare to finally notice that this hopelessly Byzantine health care “reform” law is an implementation nightmare....

...Not only has the go-live date for the insurance exchanges been pushed back a year, a wide variety of the law’s other key provisions have either been delayed or simply abandoned. The most conspicuous of the latter category was the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. This program was so badly designed that Kathleen Sebelius admitted HHS couldn’t pay for it and one of its own administrators speculated that it might collapse. It was repealed in January....

...Senator Cantwell was also among the thirty-three Democrats who voted with all of the Senate Republicans last month to repeal Obamacare’s job-killing 2.3 percent excise tax on manufacturers and importers of medical devices....

...Even the much-touted Obamacare provision that we were told would eliminate the “pre-existing condition” scourge is proving to be a bust. According the Heritage Foundation, the Obama Administration estimated that 375,000 people would enroll in the pre-existing conditions insurance plan (PCIP). “But as of January 2013, over two-and-a-half years since the plan began, only 107,139 were enrolled—less than 29 percent of original projections.” And yet the program is running out of money...

...“In a 2012 report, the Administration conceded that claims’ costs had been 2.5 times greater than they had anticipated.” This is of a piece with the “Affordable Care Act” in general. When Obamacare was first shoved down our throats, we were told that it would cost $898 billion. Now the projected cost is $1.6 trillion....

Obama makes a great Pouter-in-Chief, stamping his widdle feets and ranting about "Republican" "obstructors."  IOW, he's just another community organizer of mediocre talent.

He ain't no President.

Scalia Slams Sensenbrenner

You recall that "conservative" Jim Sensenbrenner is a passionate defender of certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

Those provisions happen to be "embedded preferment," according to Scalia.

About time for "Conservative" Jim--who also voted to fund ObozoCare--to retire and take his sinecure, no?

Sudden Deportation Raises Questions

Suddenly, the Boston-living "Saudi Arabian national" "student" was kicked the hell out of the USA.

Secret meetings with the Saudi ambassador.

Al-Quaeda connections running in the family.

Curious, no?

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Copper Straw-in-the-Wind

See the chart at this link.

Copper has always been a reliable econometric canary.

Ticker adduces a bunch of other straws in the post, none particularly encouraging.

At the same time, ECRI's predictor does not signal recession; it's been regularly wobbly--really, non-directional--for several months.

Hmmmmm.

Philadelphia BK?

Mish thinks Philly is the next Stockton.

You know a city is in deep trouble when its mayor invites Wall Street but not the press and not private citizens to a closed meeting to discuss the future, including a sell-off of city assets.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose municipality has the lowest credit rating of the five most-populous U.S. cities, did just that.

My translation: Philadelphia is bankrupt. However, that easily discernible fact will of course be denied until it officially happens
.

This is NOT a good time to buy Philly munis.

Tax "The Rich"? Congrats! YOU Are "The Rich!!"

Another steaming pile from the pen of Obozo.

President Obama’s long-delayed budget proposal cops to $580 billion in new taxes over the next ten years, which he naturally portrays as tax increases on the rich.  But in truth, a review conducted by the McClatchy news service found the actual value of Obama’s tax hikes is well over $1 trillion...

Chained CPI, a $1.00/pack tax on cigarettes, fees levied on banks, brokers, and utilities (which YOU will pay), another hike in capgains taxes and estate taxes, and the raids on IRA retirement funds make up the balance of the confiscations.

So now we have the two "icons"--Rubio* and Obozo--lying like Hell about their plans.

What a country!!

*See below post

The Empty Rubio

Looks like we've found another hack politician.

"If, in fact, this bill does not have real triggers in there, if there is not language in this bill that guarantees that nothing else will happen unless these enforcement mechanisms are in place, I won't support it."--Rubio on the Limbaugh show.

That was then.

[Interviewer]...is this bill enforcement first or is it legalization first? And the bottom line is, with legalization being in just six months, the answer is, this is legalization first, isn't it?

RUBIO: Well, first - yeah, but it's, well, but it's important to understand that. If you do just -- that was my original position. The problem is what do we do in the meantime? While you're doing all these enforcement mechanisms, what do you do with the millions of people that are undocumented? 
--ABC News


(Source:  Numbers USA)

The back-and-forthright Senator.  Just like our "conservative" preener Sensenbrenner--who mutters imprecations about ObozoCare and then votes to fund it.

 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Sequester, the Evil of All Evils

It's one thing for Obozo to yammer about The Evil Sequester.  We expect completely un-informed drivel from him.

It's another thing entirely for supposedly well-informed economic commentators to barf up this stuff.

...but I think this slowdown is mostly related to fiscal tightening (mostly the payroll tax hike and the sequestration budget cuts)....

The GDP of the US in 2012 was fifteen-point-eight TRILLION dollars.

The sequester:  $44 billion.

Really?  The Evil Sequester killed the economy?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

What's Tammy Been Doing?

Wisconsin's junior Senatrix--another State Socialist--doesn't mention this vote.

In a 53-46 vote, the senate narrowly passed a measure that will stop the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. The Statement of Purpose from the bill read:

To uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty
.

IOW, the 46 voted to dump the 2A into the dustbin of history.  Remember, folks:  ratified treaties become the law of the land, superceding any other laws and the Constitution itself.


Tammy. 

Think she'd brag about this, ain'a?

Bonus question:  would she shitcan the 1A just as easily?  How about the 5A?  8A?  14th?

HT:  Bob Owens

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Ruling Class' Visit to Middle America

Well-done vignette which deserves a lot of attention.

Remember, this is from the Ruling Class--meaning the BushBoyzzz AND the children of FDR.

Another Law, Another Waste of Paper (With Implications) UPDATED!!

Passing laws is 'what they do.'  That's why--no matter how stupid the law--politicans pass laws.

After months of hysteria (look up the etymology) the on-paper "solution":

...It appears that private gun sales will require background checks – if the gun for sale is advertised online or in a publication....

Really?

There's also a "family member" exemption.

So as the Examiner's reporter reports:

....it appears that a mother could buy a rifle for her son for his birthday – and although she would receive a background check to purchase the gun, her son would not be expected to get a background check to receive it as a gift.

Can you say "Sandy Hook"?

Unlike "lawmakers," I have no delusions.  This is useless legislation, but it will be abused by the Statist-in-Chief and his cabal (whether now or later) to expand the definition of 'prohibited persons.'

Recall that very few anti-Communists were sent to prison in Russia because they were actually criminals.  They were, instead, found to be 'in need of psychiatric treatment.'

UPDATE:  (It's worse than you could imagine)

 ...it says that the Attorney General may not consolidate or centralize records of firearms acquisition and disposition maintained by licensed importers, manufacturers, and dealers, and by buyers and sellers at gun shows (and makes it a crime for him to do so).

But then, the STM bill takes those protections away by using the all-powerful word “notwithstanding”—”notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Attorney General may implement this subsection with regulations.” The courts may construe the “notwithstanding” to allow Attorney General Eric Holder to issue regulations that could begin to create a federal registry of firearms, because the law says he can implement the subsection without regard to the protections against a registry elsewhere in the legislation....

--The Captain quoting Heritage analysis...

OK, RoJo.  Time for the filibuster to begin!!

Grade-School Agitprop

We've all heard the maxims from Marx/Lenin & Co. which are assiduously followed by Big Education:  "Stupidify 'em while they're young, and they'll vote Obama every time" (or variants thereof.)

Sure enough, the Union Grove School District is today's Shining Example of Marxism-in-School!!

A mother at a Wisconsin public school said her daughter’s eighth grade class was assigned a worksheet with some eyebrow-raising definitions for “conservatism” and “liberalism.”

Conservatism, it stated in part, believes in “preserving traditional moral values by restricting personal freedoms” while liberalism is for “equality and personal freedom for everyone.”

....The worksheet was a product of Sunburst Visual Media [a subsidiary of "Cerebellum Corporation".]

For those of you who are unconvinced of the effect of propaganda, consider the combox at this post.  Therein you will find the scrawlings of a semi-literate who has swallowed this....stuff....by the gallon.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Two Statists


Didja notice that they're both nancy-pants, too?

HT:  MoonBattery

"Improvement" in Mortgage Delinquencies

While it is true that 9 is less than 10, you have to see the chart at the link to understand that "improvement" is a relative term, indeed.

See it?

From 1995 through 2005, the mortgage delinquency/foreclosure rate hung around 5.5%.

Then it climbed to just under 15%.

Now it has "improved" to around 10%.

It's the Obozo Improvement!! 

Look a little harder at that chart to see the unicorns.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"Take Gummint Out of Marriage"? Fuggedaboudit

Quite a few folks--including Governor Scott Walker--have mused that perhaps 'getting government out of marriage' is the better way to resolve the bogus claim by homosexuals that they have a "right" to marriage.

This essay should push that idea off the table.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Nutbag "Gun Registration" Senate Proposal

Read the fine print, folks.  John McCain is (apparently) unable to do so--which is why he cannot comprehend the opposition.

But then, John McCain's a loser.

...While President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg talk about “gun sales,” the actual legislation moving through Congress aims to regulate far more than sales. It would turn almost every gun owner into a felon. The trick is that the language under consideration applies not only to sales but also to “transfers,” which are defined to include innocent activities such as letting your spouse borrow your gun for a few hours....

See how that works?  Just a flip of a word!  

Anyhow, the essay describes 50 ways to be a gun-criminal. 

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Irony Personified

Seems like "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" has lost another member--to the County Jail.

The mayor of Marcus Hook was charged [March 21] with holding an acquaintance hostage during a drunken encounter at his home last month that allegedly ended with the mayor’s firing a gun into the floor.

During the encounter, Mayor James D. Schiliro repeatedly offered to perform a sex act with the 20-year-old male, according to police


...According to the man, Schiliro, who was intoxicated, asked repeatedly whether he could perform oral sex on him. . . .

According to court records, Schiliro waved three handguns during the encounter. At one point, he put a gun to his head and said “he didn’t want to live anymore,” 
--McCain quoted at Grim's Place

This particular MAIG is a Republican.

It is also noted that MAIG's website has scrubbed the cretin.

Now you know why MAIGs don't want people having guns.  They'll run around demanding BJ's and shooting up floors if they don't get 'em.

Or something.

Friday, April 05, 2013

No Israeli Women in Combat Roles

Another Left-O-Wacky myth, busted.

Women serve in support and combat support roles in the IDF, recently they have been allowed additional options but they still do not serve in active combat. 

Around the world there has been some discussion about whether or not women should serve in active front-line combat. In Israel it is clear that despite the vast contribution of women in the military, active combat is not an option. This decision is based on the physical and biological differences between men and women but also for moral reasons. As Michal, a combat fitness instructor in the IDF, says, "No one wants to even think of the possibility of an Israeli girl falling into the hands of the enemy." Our history is already filled with too many such stories of atrocities.

Oh, well.

Maybe they should move on to Global Cooling.  Or Keynesian Economics.

HT:  Vox

Thursday, April 04, 2013

The USCC: Lacking Anything to Do

Evidently the USCC doesn't have anything important to do.

The injustice of taking innocent life lies at the heart of the church’s pro-life position. There is no question about the innocence of pre-born children. And Americans are becoming more and more uneasy as we learn of people on death row eventually found innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. And surely, after the gunning down of primary grade children in Newtown, Connecticut, it is clear assault weapons stand out dramatically as a threat to innocent life.

The U.S. bishops now call on people to support federal legislation to require background checks for all gun purchases, to limit civilian access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines and to make gun trafficking a federal crime. The bishops also want a ban on assault weapons.
...
A pro-life stance is a noble one. Sadly it must confront the ignoble reality of abortion, the death penalty, and another threat to peace and human life, the preponderance of assault weapons
.  --quoted at CMR

(The usual morons will shortly hit my combox with priest-perpetrator snark, which is not entirely unjustified.)

As CMR observes, this bunch equates 2A rights with abortion, easily one of the most moronic comparos in recent USCC history. 

Let's instead talk about wasting resources on bureaucracies, Bishops.  At least there is a cogent argument to be made on that issue.

Straws in the Wind

Neumayr, via Belvedere:

During last year’s campaign, Obama said that religions will remain free to determine their own “sacraments.” Shouldn’t that go without saying? The very fact that Obama made such a declaration should scare people. Whenever a pol says “I won’t do [fill in the blank],” it usually means that very activity is on his mind.

The sacrament of marriage comes to mind.

Surprise! Wisconsin Tax Burden is Burdensome

Remember that the proposed budget INCREASES Wisconsin state spending.  Got that?

...While April 18 is the national Tax Freedom Day, individual states have their own Tax Freedom Days due to their own tax structures. For Wisconsin this year, Tax Freedom Day comes on April 20, later than the national average because of Wisconsin’s current tax and spending climate. Last year Wisconsin’s Tax Freedom Day was April 21.

The relative lateness of Wisconsin’s Tax Freedom Day means it takes the state longer that most states to earn enough money to pay for the burden of state, local and federal government. In 2012, 40 states had Tax Freedom Days earlier than Wisconsin. Similarly, this year Wisconsin is tied for the 9th latest Tax Freedom Day, meaning again that 40 states get done paying their tax burden sooner than Wisconsin....

By the way, Krispy Kreme Christie's state is #3 in tax burden.  Remember that when that anti-2A twit starts hauling himself around looking for a presidential nomination.

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

World-Class Ignoramus: (D) CongressCritter

Un-frickin'-believable ignorance.

Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette drew national criticism Wednesday for remarks made at a public forum in which she said banning high-capacity in ammunition magazines would be effective in reducing gun violence because "the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available." 

...DeGette, who for years in Congress has been the prime sponsor on a federal ban on high-capacity magazines....
...
"These are ammunition, they're bullets, so the people who have those now, they're going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available"

Oh, it gets even better!
 
DeGette spokeswoman Juliet Johnson on Wednesday said the senior congresswoman from Denver "misspoke" and then issued another erroneous statement about guns.

"The congresswoman has been working on a high-capacity assault magazine ban for years and has been deeply involved in the issue; she simply misspoke in referring to 'magazines' when she should have referred to 'clips,' which cannot be reused because they don't have a feeding mechanism," Johnson said.  --(both) quoted at AOSHQ

If both these people were in the same room, the total IQ would not equal that of a chipmunk.

Recovery Underway? Maybe, Maybe Not

Two items which are noteworthy.

Earnings for very large crude carriers, the industry’s biggest ships, plunged 75 percent from a year earlier to $11,624 a day, according to figures from Clarkson Plc (CKN), the world’s largest shipbroker. A surplus of the supertankers seeking charters in the Persian Gulf averaged 21 percent during the first quarter, the largest glut since 2009, according to market surveys by Bloomberg.

“Crude rates remain in the doldrums,” RS Platou Markets AS, an Oslo-based investment bank, said by e-mail today. VLCCs earned $17,000 a day on average in the first quarter, down 32 percent from a year earlier, it said...
.--quoted at Bayou RenMan


Is that entirely the result of US fracking success?  Not likely.

Here's the second:

Copper futures are headed down.  Copper is 'the Old Farts' econometric'; it is a component of practically every manufactured item in the world; when its price is going down, so is economic activity.

Straws in the wind......... 

EPA Rolls Over: Industry Takes It on the Chops

If you've been paying attention, you know how the ObozoEPA operates.  Left-O-Wacky "green" bunch sues, EPA rolls over and plays dead, industry loses.

Here's the latest one, with an extra-special ObozoEPA twist:

...Under the old policy, manufacturers did not have to suffer Clean Air Act penalties if the excess emissions came about during periods of “start up, shutdown, or malfunction” (SSM).  The Sierra Club opposed this long-standing exemption.

“Oddly, it appears that, instead of defending EPA’s own regulations and the SSM provisions in the EPA-approved air programs of 39 states, EPA simply agreed to include an obligation to respond to the petition in the settlement of an entirely separate lawsuit,” wrote Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., in a letter yesterday to Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s nominee to lead the EPA. “In other words, EPA went out of its way to resolve the SSM petition in a coordinated settlement with Sierra Club.” The agency now says that 36 of those states are not implementing federal law appropriately....

Neat, eh?

The ObozoCare Box of Chocolates

One of the fillings is Obozo's Excremental Surprise!

...President Barack Obama’s new health care law will offer subsidies to help people buy private health insurance on state-based exchanges, if they don’t already get coverage through their employers. The subsidies are based on income. The lower your income, the bigger the subsidy.

But the government doesn’t know how much money you’re going to make next year. And when you apply for the subsidy, this fall, it won’t even know how much you’re making this year. So, unless you tell the government otherwise, it will rely on the best information it has: your 2012 tax return, filed this spring....AP, quoted at RedState

Of course, there's a little catch:

...What happens if you or your spouse gets a raise and your family income goes up in 2014? You could end up with a bigger subsidy than you are entitled to. If that happens, the law says you have to pay back at least part of the money when you file your tax return in the spring of 2015...

Umnnhhhhhh....

This has serious implications for people who work on commission or whose spouse goes back to work or gets a better job. 

It also works the other way:  if you lose your job, or if your earnings go south, you'll be paying a higher rate than you have to--all year long.


Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Big Gummint Sensenbrenner

Congressman Sensenbrenner found a Shiny Object so as to draw attention away from his vote for ObamaCare.

He finds that Obozo has taken away airport tower personnel from Republican districts.

OMG!!

Fortunately, we have moved from the Blast Zone near Crites Field in Waukesha, which will be denuded of controllers soon.  Wiggy, on the other hand.....

This will probably be the end of Waukesha County commerce.  GE and FiServ's corporate jets will undoubtedly stop flying immediately, because their pilots are incapable of using standard English to communicate with other pilots...........

.....oh, well, maybe not.

For a fellow who represents himself as a "conservative," Sensenbrenner certainly likes Big Gummint.

For another perspective on Sensenbrenner's Shiny Object, see this item.

Monday, April 01, 2013

How To Defeat ObozoCare

When Jim Sensenbrenner, Paul Ryan, and Cryin' John Boehner voted to continue funding ObozoCare, (breaking all sorts of campaign promises), it fell to another entity to rid the land of this fungal pestilence.

Turns out that ObozoCare may eliminate itself.

The law calls for a new insurance marketplace specifically for small businesses, starting next year. But in most states, employers will not be able to get what Congress intended: the option to provide workers with a choice of health plans. They will instead be limited to a single plan.  --NYT quoted at HotAir

Since nobody knew what was in the Magic Box until it was opened, it now appears that nobody knows how to assemble the pieces, either.

HotAir opines:

This was one of the reassuring promises the president and the Democrats made when they were touting the law’s benefits, and you’d think they’d want to get mitigating provisions like this one up and running as soon as possible, i.e., before the 2014 midterms, to give the Republicans as little fodder as possible for their continuing criticisms — and who knows how much else will go wrong between now and then...

The Tower of Babel redux, mutatis mutandis.