Hillary Clinton and Benazir Bhutto

In Iowa yesterday, when asked about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, Hillary Clinton apparantly "turned away without answering."
I suspect that she needs some time for her speechwriters to prepare a statement that will best exploit Bhutto's murder and the chaos that followed. Eventually, Hillary will claim to have been a close personal friend of Bhutto and to have been inspired by Bhutto. Hillary will feed off of Bhutto's corpse like a worm.





But it takes time to create a story like that. Hillary's minions will have to make sure that the story is plausible. They cannot let her say anything that can be disproven easily. They will have to create a plausible timeline of how and when the two women supposedly met and maintained a friendship without anyone else finding out about it (except for the reliably dishonest Clinton sycophants who will verify whatever Hillary says). Hillary's handlers have the relatively easy task of creating a story that the New York Times will swallow (or at least defend when the story is questioned by the new media). At the very least, I imagine that Hillary's speechwriters are at this moment coordinating with the New York Times to make sure that everyone is on the same page before Hillary makes her Bhutto comments.

It might be wise to find a discarded copy of Hillary Clinton's biography, "Living History" and search it for any reference to Bhutto. In that book, Hillary said very little about anything, except for her boasts about meeting world leaders like Violetta Chamorro. If she didn't mention Bhutto, we can deflate her exploitation relatively quickly. I did not read Hillary's book, but a quick review of the index might reveal either (1) what Hillary's speechwriters will say about Bhutto or (2) a strategy for exposing Hillary's lies about Bhutto.

Benazir Bhutto - a corpse for Hillary to consume












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update
Sweetness & Light has more.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter [Mike Huckabee]

Huckabee opposes school choice, earning him the coveted endorsement of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, which is like the sheriff being endorsed by the local whorehouse.

Ann Coulter

The Boomsday/banking double-whammy

Sorry to be gloomy on Christmas, but the following articles caught my attention:

The first of the vast US baby boom generation goes into retirement in January, setting off a demographic tidal wave with wide-ranging economic, political and social implications.

H/T Breitbart

Here comes Boomsday - just in time for the mortgage/banking crisis.








Does anyone still think they have "too much equity?"

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell [tooth fairy]

You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians elected than any economist's analysis.

Thomas Sowell

tooth fairy

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

The free use of private property has lost its status as an important human right. In the Soviet Union it was abolished wholesale; in the Western democracies it has been nibbled away by taxes, regulation, and the alleged “rights” of people who make claims on others’ wealth and possessions.

Quote - Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

There's a big demographic out there (and certainly not confined to evangelical Protestants, or even believing Christians) that's sick of the insipid generalities of the liberal establishment's offensively inoffensive pseudo-religion. By declining to defer to it and suffering no ill effects, Huck demonstrated how weedy and insubstantial it is.

Mark Steyn - 12-21-07

Quote of the day - Dick Morris

Hillary’s experience has been limited to the insider back biting of Washington where she is an expert at using her secret police — a small army of private detectives — to unearth negatives about her or Bill’s opponents.

Dick Morris - 12-15-07

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

What's the "pro-choice" line? "Every child should be wanted"? Not anymore. The progressive position has subtly evolved: Every child should be unwanted.

By the way, if you're looking for some last-minute stocking stuffers, Oxford University Press has published a book by professor David Benatar of the University of Cape Town called "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence." The author "argues for the 'anti-natal' view – that it is always wrong to have children … . Anti-natalism also implies that it would be better if humanity became extinct." As does Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us" – which Publishers Weekly hails as "an enthralling tour of the world … anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like." It's a good thing it "anticipates" it poetically, because, once it happens, there will be no more poetry.

Mark Steyn - 12-14-07

Quote of the day - USA Today

Iraq remains a violent place, but the trends are encouraging.

U.S. and Iraqi casualties are down sharply. Fewer of the most lethal Iranian-made explosive devices are being used as roadside bombs. In community after community, Sunni groups who were once in league with al-Qaeda have switched sides and are working with the U.S. forces.

On the Shiite side of Iraq's sectarian chasm, something similar is happening. About 70,000 local, pro-government groups, a bit like neighborhood watch groups, have formed to expose extremist militias, according to Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations.


USA Today - December 13, 2007

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

But liberals are still fighting the 2000 presidential election -- if only to take a break from fighting the 1973 Chilean coup by Augusto Pinochet. They never rest, they never give up, they never stop lying. Liberals lie and lie and lie and then, the moment conservatives respond, they shout: OLD NEWS!

Ann Coulter - December 12, 2007

Quote of the day - Rush Limbaugh

"It's clear. The Democrats have taken sides. And it's not our side they've chosen."

Rush Limbaugh - 12-12-07

(commenting on Democrat opposition to interrogation of terrorists and Democrat attempts to dismantle America's intelligence apparati.)

Jeanne Assam; New Life Church shooting; Colorado Springs;

Jeanne Assam





We have all heard the story of how Jeanne Assam saved the lives of possibly 100 people in Colorado Springs over the weekend. She saved these lives by shooting the gunman intent on massacre. Most importantly, Assam's heroics would have been impossible had the gun control advocates been successful in banning guns in church. The madman intent on murder was not deterred by any laws. Gun control laws would only have prevented Jeanne Assam from repelling the attack.

Some questions are in order:

Is it only a coincidence that the same people who want to remove all mention of "Christmas" from public life want to disarm Christians in the face of demented attackers?

How many of the 30+ Virginia Tech victims would still be alive if a Jeanne Assam had been permitted to carry a gun on that campus last April?

How many Columbine victims would still be alive if a Jeanne Assam had been present with a gun at that High School in April 1999?

How few leftists will learn the lessons of the New Life shooting and stop trying to disarm innocent Americans?

Jeanne Assam





Apparently not content with the death toll at the New Life Church (and elsewhere around the country), Pennsylvania politicians are proposing new gun control laws. My prediction is that we will never have enough gun control laws to satisfy anti-gun leftists. But we can get enough guns to stop the next shooting.









------------------------------------------------------------
update - Michelle Malkin has more.

You can bet that leftists everywhere are right now trying to dig up dirt on Jeanne Assam. They are hoping to find a criminal record or a history of "homophobia." Failing that, they may accuse her of being gay.

By the time they are through, she will feel like a potential rival to Hillary Clinton for some elected office. They will never forgive her for using a gun to save lives.

Quote of the day - Melanie Morgan

Liberals think that if they make Ann Coulter radioactive, they can silence people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and myself.

They want conservatives to give up Ann’s long blonde lock’s with her scalp attached. But if we allow Ann Coulter to be taken down for having done nothing wrong other than exposing their foolishness, then we will have allowed one of our conservative icons to fall for no other reason than a misguided notion that by dumping Ann somehow the liberal media will treat conservatives more kindly.

Melanie Morgan

Quote of the day - General Sanchez

“It seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the ‘collateral damage’ you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.”

General Sanchez [commenting on MSM/DNC coverage of the war in Iraq.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Democrats bemoan the lack of "affordable housing" while simultaneously demanding government rescue home "owners" with unsustainable mortgages. But saving the latter obstructs the former: the principal benefit of a property-bubble correction is, after all, much more "affordable housing."

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

The last time I saw a Republican express outrage was 1991, when Clarence Thomas told the Senators what he thought of the smear tactics used against him. Before that, it was Ronald Reagan saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Before that, it was probably Teddy Roosevelt.

Thomas Sowell

Pearl Harbor - 66th anniversary

As you may recall, today is the 66th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Click here for previous anniversary posts.

Below are photos of the U.S.S. California that I poached from navsource.org. The California suffered less damage than the more famous U.S.S. Arizona, but it eventually sank also. After burning for a portion of the day on December 7th, the California took on water. Rescue workers tried to keep it afloat and pumped out the water for three days. Finally, workers abandoned the effort on December 10.

U.S.S. California - 66 years ago today





The California was later raised from the bottom of the harbor and put back into service during the war.



Wearing special camouflage more than two years after Pearl Harbor

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter [Joe McCarthy]

By exposing the Democrats' absolute blindness to Soviet totalitarianism, McCarthy shattered forever the nation's confidence in the Democrats' capacity to govern. For that, the Stalinist hate machine attacked him viciously and has never let up.

Ann Coulter

Joe McCarthy




Ann Coulter

Wayne DuMond; Mike Huckabee; Bill Clinton; Sheriff Coolidge Conlee; Walter E. "Stevie" Stevens; "Those were my testicles!"

Ringkasan ini tidak tersedia. Harap klik di sini untuk melihat postingan.

Mitt Romney's Mormon speech; The Coming of the Mormons

I did not hear Mitt Romney's speech today about his religion. But the speech has received national attention, as MSM/DNC commentators strive to apply their usual victim-group script to every situation. In this case, the MSM/DNC plays the religion card by asking whether America is "ready" for a Mormon president. While the MSM/DNC hates Republicans, its real target is America itself. The MSM/DNC doesn't mind letting a Republican play the coveted "victim" role once in a while, so long as MSM/DNC gets to portray America as a bigoted, ignorant country that fears and "hates" diverse religions.

I am also stricken by the modern tendency to view issues in terms of the superficial headlines of the moment instead of the deeper facts that might truly educate us all. In this case, we hear a constant discussion on the MSM/DNC news, in which various commentors speculate as to what Mormons really believe and what they practice. But the MSM/DNC provides few tools for us to make up our own minds about this religion (or any other issue). We hear a constant din of white noise, consisting of superficial sound bites, but we learn little of any use.

Here is my contribution to the issue. I am not a Mormon, nor do I support Mitt Romney (for reasons other than his religion. My reasons for preferring a different Republican nominee include Romney's flip-flopping on major issues (and see Debbie Schlussel's discussions)). But I do think a further study of Mormonism is in order. Decades ago, American students used to learn a little history in addition to the usual leftist indoctrination. One history book was entitled, "The Coming of the Mormons." This book detailed not only the Mormon migration to Utah, but provided good background into the whole pioneer era.



Regardless of how I feel about Mormonism, I would have a lot more confidence in what I see on television if the television mouthpieces knew even a fraction of the material featured in books like this before assembling stories that impact Presidential races. This is true not only for the Mormon "issue", but for every issue that receives the usual MSM/DNC white noise, race-politics, PC, superficial treatment.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran [Peter Benchley, Great White Sharks]

A contrite Peter Benchley now says: "I couldn't
write JAWS today." He's learned a lot about sharks
lately, and he feels they're misunderstood: "Except in
the rarest of instances, great white shark attacks are
mistakes." Spoken like a true liberal, Benchley. Soon
Steven Spielberg will reach the sorrowful conclusion that
tyrannosaurus rex was more sinned against than sinning.
How do some people manage to get more naive with age?

Joe Sobran

Garet Garrett; Blue Wound;

In August, I commented that I was beginning a discussion of Garet Garrett's "Blue Wound" at my other blog. I finished most of that discussion in September and completed my last post last week.

The discussion now includes everything from (1) how I found my copy of that rare book to (2) where it can be found online to (3) a chapter-by-chapter journey through the book's contents (without revealing plot spoilers) to (4) the strange predictions Garrett made in 1921 for the remainder of the 20th century (including which ones are only now coming true).


1921

Quote of the day - Will Durant

Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.

Will Durant

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

If you're looking for someone to get tough with Elizabeth Edwards or RINO senators or White House travel-office flunkies, Hillary's your gal.

But tough on America's enemies? Thatcher-tough? Not a chance.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Half the English language is becoming the "N-word" as far as liberals are concerned. Words are always bad for liberals. Words allow people to understand what liberals are saying.

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

France has lurched from Second Empires to Fifth Republics struggling to devise a lasting constitutional settlement for the same smallish chunk of real estate, but the principles that united a baker's dozen of East Coast colonies were resilient enough to expand across a continent and halfway around the globe to Hawaii.
Americans should, as always, be thankful this Thanksgiving, but they should also understand just how rare in human history their blessings are.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Cammile Paglia [Hillary's campaigns]

Hillary's stonewalling evasions and mercurial, soulless self-positionings have been going on since her first run for the U.S. Senate from New York, a state she had never lived in and knew virtually nothing about. The liberal Northeastern media were criminally complicit in enabling her queenlike, content-free "listening tour," where she took no hard questions and where her staff and security people (including her government-supplied Secret Service detail) staged events stocked with vetted sympathizers, and where they ensured that no protesters would ever come within camera range.

Camille Paglia

USA: la crise des prêts immobiliers n'en est qu'à ses débuts

M3 in USA : +17% ... Fly, fly away!

Shadowstats.com

Quote of the day - Melanie Morgan

Not long ago it was fashionable to say that Ronald Reagan was nostalgic for a past that never was. Today it’s become apparent that American liberals are stuck in a pre-9/11 world that never really existed.

Melanie Morgan

The FED policy: let the dollar sink

Election day 2007 - Pennsylvania Judicial Races

Today is election day in Pennsylvania and the biggest races are the statewide judicial races. The TV commercials do not identify the candidates by party.

The Republicans are as follows:

Maureen Lally-Green and Mike Krancer are running for Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Cheryl Allen, Judge Bruce Bratton, and Jackie Shogan are running for Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Up for retention are Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor, Superior Court Judges Joan Orie-Melvin and Correale F. Stevens.

All of the above candidates are endorsed by the PA Pro-life Federation.

There are others running for retention or on the Democrat side, but the above candidates are the ones I endorse.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

The unraveling Duke "rape" case should be a wake-up call, both for blacks and for liberals, on how easy it is for their emotions to be manipulated by even a third-rate demagogue with a flimsy fraud. The time is long overdue for some of those who consider themselves "thinking people" to start doing some thinking.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

A classical education considers society as a kind of iceberg, and teaches you the seven-eighths below the surface. Today, we live on the top eighth bobbing around in the flotsam and jetsam of the here and now. And, without the seven-eighths under the water, what’s left on the surface gets thinner and thinner.

Mark Steyn - November 2007

GOLD in Euros: almost a new record high ...

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

In the paramount threat of our time, the Democratic Party is AWOL. And those are the patriotic Democrats. The rest are actively aiding the enemy.

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Dick Morris

Hillary realizes, as Bill once told me, that any government entitlement for poor people can be easily repealed since they lack political power and practical voting strength. But middle class entitlements, once granted, last forever - see Social Security and Medicare and rent control in New York City.

So Hillary will pioneer entitlements and grants for middle class families, making them at once dependent on government aid, winning their political gratitude, and giving them a stake in benefit programs that also help the poor.

She will bring us much closer to the Swedish, French, and German model where everybody gets a check from the government, regardless of their wealth or income, making it impossible to criticize the program.

Dick Morris

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

One of the marks of sound constitutional law is that it doesn’t always give you what you want. A justice whose “interpretations” regularly coincide with his policy preferences is cheating.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Ricardo Sanchez

“As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed.”

General Ricardo Sanchez

General Sanchez

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn [Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Stark]

"Congressman Stark hit all the buzz words – "children," "illegal war," "$200 billion," "lies," etc. – and these days they're pretty much like modular furniture: You can say 'em in any order, and you'll still get a cheer from the crowd."


"Last Thursday, Nancy Pelosi, as is the fashion, used the phrase "the children" like some twitchy verbal tic, a kind of Democrat Tourette's syndrome."

Mark Steyn - 10-20-07

Quote of the day - General Ricardo Sanchez

“Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you [MSM] seek for self aggrandizement or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories.”

General Sanchez

General Sanchez with Albanian troops

Quote of the day - General Sanchez

“Unfortunately, I have issued ultimatums to some of you for unscrupulous reporting that was solely focused on supporting your agenda and preconceived notions of what our military had done.”

General Ricardo Sanchez

General Sanchez

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - multiculturalism

Why can't we do that [develop a consistent strategy for the war on terror similar to the U.S. cold war strategy] today?

Well, one reason is we're not really comfortable with ideology, either ours or anybody else's. Insofar as we have an ideology it's a belief in the virtues of "multiculturalism," "tolerance," "celebrate diversity" – a bumper-sticker ideology that is, in effect, an anti-ideology which explicitly rejects the very idea of drawing distinctions between your beliefs and anybody else's.

Mark Steyn - 10-12-07

multiculturalism

SSEC: Shanghai, new all time high

Classics of Conservatism - part XXI - Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Click here for a previous "Classic of Conservatism."

According to the New York Times, today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Atlas Shrugged.

Written by Ayn Rand, the novel explores the philosophies of objectivism and liberty. It has been twenty years since I read my copy, but I remember what attracted me to it. Rand did not defend capitalism on the same grounds as modern day conservatives. She did not claim that capitalism was better for the poor or less evil than its critics claimed or acceptable only if properly regulated. Instead, Rand advocated man's happiness and success as values and virtues in and of themselves. Rand was among the first to say that profit is a virtue, while altruism is harmful and wrong. She correctly identified the totalitarian movements of the 20th century, at home and abroad, with the altruistic side of the philosophical ledger. Altruism is the philosophy that one's life is at the disposal and service of others. She draws the logical conclusion between altruism, theft and slavery.

The attack on altruism may shock and offend the average reader at first, but it stands to reason that there must be more to the story about this word [altruism] that we have taken for granted for so long and have repeated without comprehension so many times. Those who want to think will enjoy Rand's books, including Atlas Shrugged, for this reason alone.








Atlas Shrugged is the climax of the Randian novels. In previous years, she had written several novels, plays, short stories, etc. Atlas Shrugged was her masterpiece. The book contains the story of a railroad executive who struggles against the philosophy of not only altruism, but government enforced altruism. But the plot is about more than politics or business. The plot is also a great mystery story, as the reader gradually learns who is responsible for turning out the lights of world.

Paperback (Signet) edition from the 1980's





The story is broad in scope, as it takes the reader from one end of the country to other over the course of three years (with numerous flashbacks to the previous decade and beyond).

Ayn Rand always believed that "plot" was the most important element in any story. The plot of Atlas Shrugged was relatively complex and undoubtedly took much editing [and many years] to make it complete, consistent and integrated. The basic story involved a conflict between the main characters, all of whom are the "good guys." This theme of "good vs. good" was a recurring feature of Randian fiction, as she believed that evil was impotent to do harm in this world unless aided by the good. So she focused on the good and the way that good unknowingly helps evil. Another benefit of this plot style is that the end is much less predictable.

The basic story in this novel can be traced back through numerous novels of Ayn Rand, all the way to a short story named "Red Pawn" in the early 1930's. In the previous works, the plot may be almost unrecognizable as a precursor to Atlas Shrugged, but the similarity exists once the reader understands the "good vs. good" technique and how to match the characters in the early works with those in Atlas Shrugged.







The Times article focuses on the long term influence of Atlas Shrugged:

One of the most influential business books ever written is a 1,200-page novel published 50 years ago, on Oct. 12, 1957. It is still drawing readers; it ranks 388th on Amazon.com’s best-seller list.

. . . . .

But the book attracted a coterie of fans, some of them top corporate executives, who dared not speak of its impact except in private. When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit.

“I know from talking to a lot of Fortune 500 C.E.O.’s that ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has had a significant effect on their business decisions, even if they don’t agree with all of Ayn Rand’s ideas,” said John A. Allison, the chief executive of BB&T, one of the largest banks in the United States.

“It offers something other books don’t: the principles that apply to business and to life in general. I would call it complete,” he said.

The following that the book has attracted is often watered down with such references as "public benefit" etc.

I have often lamented that Rand did not write more books. But my reading has lead me to an author whose writings in the 1920's often foreshadowed the Randian works in haunting ways. Garet Garrett's novels have sufficient similarity with some of the storylines in Atlas Shrugged to make those novels almost equally enjoyable. Rand not only has left a great impression on future generations, but enjoys deep roots in prior literature.



Previous - Philosophy: Who Needs It

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Decent people shun Clinton, but elected Republicans keep trying to rehabilitate him.

Ann Coulter

GLD: Streettracks Gold ETF

Made by Dan Norcini for JSmineset.com

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

The Pope's [John Paul II] condemnation of stem-cell research on
human embryos was greeted by the usual derision,
sophisticated and otherwise. While the prestige news
media cited polls showing that even most Catholics favor
such research (see?), callers to C-SPAN emitted a
ceaseless flow of ignorantly anti-Catholic sentiment. You
had to hear it to believe it: the Pope has no moral
authority because other popes have had girlfriends and
taught that the earth was flat and failed to condemn the
Holocaust, so there. As Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty
says, after a similar exercise in ratiocination, "That's
logic." It's also a reflection of American education,
state-run and, alas, Catholic.

Joe Sobran (2001)

Oil Pick

Article sur le pic pétrolier

U.S. hospitality to Ahmadinejad demoralizes Iranian opposition

All of the arguments about whether to allow Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University last month boil down to one factor - internal opposition within Iran. Ahmadinejad faces at least some opposition within his own country, as today's Breitbart article indicates:

An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator" and scuffling with hardline students at Tehran University.
Ahmadinejad, who was giving a speech to a select group at the university to mark the beginning of the academic year, ignored the chants of "death to the dictator" and continued with his speech on the merits of science and the pitfalls of Western-style democracy, witnesses said.

The protesters scuffled with hardline students who were chanting "thank you president" while police looked on from outside the university gates. The protesters dispersed after the car carrying Ahmadinejad left the campus.

That opposition has now been shown film of Ahmadinejad being welcomed in the United States and at Columbia University. Iran's internal opposition knows only what the government wants them to know. The internal opposition now has the impression that they will receive no help from the U.S., that Ahmadinejad has bought respectability around the world and that they (the opposition) are isolated and without allies. No matter how much the crowd laughed at Ahmadinejad, his very presence in the U.S. among elite professionals and officials sent the worst possible message to his opponents.

Today's news provides all of the justification we need to keep Ahmadinejad out of this country and away from our crowds and institutions. We learned no new information from Ahmadinejad's visit to Columbia. Ahmadinejad moderated none of his views upon listening to our students and academic officials.

There have been other protestors, such as rioters protesting gas prices or shortages. All such opposition will be demoralized by the American hospitality shown to Ahmadinejad.

Iranian gas riots - June 2007 - AP











Previous - B. Hussein Obama wants to meet with foreign dictators

Quote of the day - Peg Noonan

. . . . Hillary Clinton and President Bush, both of whom often seem to be trying to remember the answer they'd agreed upon with staff. What's the phrase we use about education? Hit Search Function. Hit Open. Right-click. "Equity in education is essential, Tim . . ."

Peg Noonan 10-5-07

GM - UAW settlement

Liberal Quicksand speculates on the possibility that the recent GM-Union settlement will end up being paid for directly by the taxpayers:

GM gets a ‘going broke’ retirement plan off its responsibility list. They will pay the UAW now. It is the UAW’s ‘problem’ – not that they need to fear that at all.

The Democrat sheepeople ‘the very rank and defiled’ will whine like the spoiled brats – not if, but when the money is gone. I can see the MSPAM stories now of the ‘hard-working’ union man who can’t even afford his beer or lottery tickets anymore. They will be championed as victims. But they are victims of their own liberalism.

Think about all that money just sitting in a union trust fund. I know the union big bosses and the DNC are thinking about it.

Regardless of whether the taxpayers pay directly for this particular settlement, years of union activitiy have already cost us our industrial base.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn [Bill Clinton as Benny Hill]

It's hard not to feel a sneaking sympathy for President Clinton as he tries to shake off Mrs Jones - the kind of sympathy one feels for Benny Hill in those speeded-up musical finales, when Benny, the leering predator-turned-prey, finds himself pursued by irate dolly birds and their menfolk. Substitute a high-speed Hail To The Chief on the soundtrack and a posse of ambitious lawyers, and that's the Clinton second term in a nutshell.

Mark Steyn - 10-19-97 [3 months prior to the beginning of the Lewinsky scandal].

WTIC: Oil price inflation ajusted

WTIC: Oil up or down?

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Democrats should run Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president. He's more coherent than Dennis Kucinich, he dresses like their base, he's more macho than John Edwards, and he's willing to show up at a forum where he might get one hostile question -- unlike the current Democratic candidates for president who won't debate on Fox News Channel. He's not married to an impeached president, and the name "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" is surely no more frightening than "B. Hussein Obama."

Ann Coulter

Fiat moneys are trash !

Source: Hans Eisenkolb

Barrack Hussein Obama floats a social security tax hike; Boomsday approaches

The very fact the Barrack Hussein Obama is floating the idea of a social security tax hike, no matter how dangerous or absurd the idea, is more proof that the social security system is in much greater danger than the MSM/DNC has been willing to admit. As soon as President Bush proposed his modest reforms, we began hearing the chorus of MSM/DNC voices assuring us that no problem existed with SS and that Bush was trying to whip up hysteria at the expense of seniors. In fact, the Democrats know that the system cannot survive. That is the only reason they dare to propose any SS changes, especially a tax hike.

Cox and Forkum 2004










The Democrats refused to acknowledge in 2005 what we all know - Boomsday is closer than we think.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

The story of the Western world since 1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government ‘security,’ large numbers of people vote to dump freedom – the freedom to make your own decisions about health care, education, property rights, seat belts and a ton of other stuff.

Mark Steyn

Platinum: breakout soon !

Weimar Stock Index (1925-1935)

From: Jsmineset.com

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

We should beware anyone who seeks to explain 9/11 by using the words "each other."

Mark Steyn

Sunshine for Gold

Very Long Term Graphic - Video

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

Ann Coulter - 9-14-01

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

According to the [New York] Times, many of the bereaved are angry and determined that their loved one's death should have meaning. Yet the meaning they're after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they'll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen.

Mark Steyn 9-9-07

Rathergate three year anniversary

Today is the three year anniversary of Rathergate.

Click here for last year's anniversary post and here for the one year anniversary in 2005.

This post contains numerous links to posts from Powerline and Little Green Footballs that explain the history of the scandal and how it unfolded.

Without recounting the history of the scandal, remember only that CBS broadcast the report based on the forged memos on September 8, 2004. Free Republic picked up the forgery almost immediately:

After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

Within a few months, Rather would retire, the blogosphere would force out Eason Jordan from CNN, Newsweek would be exposed as having published lies about Korans in the toilet at Gitmo and the MSM/DNC would continue its long, slow tailspin. The final chapter on the whole MSM/DNC media monopoly has yet to be concluded. But the opening paragraph of that final chapter was written on September 8, 2004.

2005 anniversary post

My own observations from the first days of the scandal provide an example of how the world really changed at that time. I first began reading about the possibility that the memos were forged on Thursday, September 9, 2004 (the day after the broadcast). That evening (while driving to a dinner appointment), I heard Sean Hannity on the radio. In discussing the broadcast, he appeared agitated and angry. He did not raise the issue of the memos being forged. He seemed unaware of the discussion from Powerline and LGF (as linked by Drudge). He seemed to be handicapped by his lack of knowledge of the blog discussions.

When I arrived at my dinner, my leftist dinner companions seemed overjoyed by the previous night's CBS report. When I pointed out that the memos were forgeries, they merely laughed. They had not heard this accusation in the few hours since the story first aired. The idea of a "60 Minutes" document being forged was beyond their experience.



Within two days, the situation had changed completely. On Saturday, September 11, 2004, I attended a large outdoor picnic at which one of my dinner companions (from Thursday) was also present. By this time, the accusations of forgery had forced themselves into the mainstream. The dinner companion from two days earlier approached me and apologized for having snickered at my accusation. When I asked what had changed her attitude, she reported having seen the forgery story on some mainstream news program. I had read the initial reports regarding the forgery, but I was unaware that those reports had gotten to the point where mainstream viewers would see them. But apparently the two days between the 9th and the 11th had made a tremendous difference. Judging from my friend's change in awareness, it appears to me that those two days were the crucial days in the scandal. When average leftists become aware of a MSM/DNC outlet's perfidy, the result becomes almost inevitable.

One never knows when a few posts on one's blog can impact the opinions of those who pay little attention to blogs or media bias issues.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

An agenda of power underlies -- and belies -- most rhetorical appeals for variety. If we really want "diversity," centralizing power and outlawing local differences are the worst ways to achieve it. But the same people who most loudly insist on diversity usually want forced busing, race and sex quotas, compulsory integration and bureaucratic supervision to ensure hair-splitting "equality" in every facet of life. They are suspicious of -- no, downright hostile to -- private property, state and local government, popular traditions and, above all, religion.

Joe Sobran

WTIC: Oil, up or down?

Recession = demande destruction

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Wise people created civilization over the centuries and clever people are dismantling it today. You can see it happening just by channel surfing on TV or hear it in rap music or read it in the pompous nonsense of academics and judges.

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell - circa 1980 h/t crainium . net

Robert Fulton steamboat anniversary; Clermont

While the MSM/DNC spent the past few weeks memorializing the Katrina tragedy, another, more important, anniversary went almost unnoticed.

200 years ago last month [August 17, 1807], Robert Fulton began the maiden voyage of the Clermont up the Hudson river. This voyage has been recognized as the first successful test run of a steamship. [Others, including Fulton, had tested steamships before, but those tests were not entirely successful.] [The unreliable Wikipedia contends that the Clermont was not the actual name of Fulton's steamship, but that name stuck through the years.]

Clermont - H/T Gutenburg. org

On September 4, 1807, Fulton began the first commercial voyage of any steamship in history. Charging $7.00 per passenger, Fulton made a profit on that first journey. It was that voyage that proved that steamships could be a commercial success. Fulton's work revolutionized transportation. Before long, Fulton was operating ships on the Hudson as well as the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Fulton's activities produced a few ironies:

• The first Fulton steamship to sail the Mississippi was named the New Orleans.
• Fulton's attempts to build and operate steamships on the Ohio and Mississippi met with interference from floods and earthquakes - yet no one claimed that global warming was about to destroy the planet.
• Fulton also attempted to invent a submarine. He believed that the introduction of the submarine would make naval warfare difficult and would be an instrument of peace. Apparantly, Fulton did not get the MSM/DNC memo that disarmament is the only way to achieve peace. While Fulton's submarine was not successful and while later submarines did not have the effect of ending war, the submarine did vastly reduce the old method of fighting wars on the surface of the water.
• More progress in steam transportation had been made in the 20 years prior to Clermont's maiden voyage than in the multiple centuries since steam power was first discovered in the ancient world - thus demonstrating the value of the capitalist system.
  

Fulton's invention came only after much trial and error and many failures (Fulton's failures and those of his predecessors). Fulton learned the difficulty in conquering the water with man made steam power. But apparently today's political establishment has not learned the difficulty or foolishness of trying to construct and preserve an underwater city.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Recent events in Genoa remind us, once again, that
the "international community" comprises more
organizations than you can shake a stick at: the United
Nations, NATO, the G-8 nations, the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Union, et
cetera. Can anyone keep track of them all, or follow
their workings? Clearly we are inching toward world
government of some sort; and just as clearly, we aren't
meant to understand it. We won't know just who our rulers
are, or who (if anyone) elected them; in most cases they
will be, for all practical purposes, unelected. Under
"globalization," it appears that self-government,
democracy, national sovereignty, and constitutional law
will all become tenuous, problematic, and eventually
meaningless. The old story will be recapitulated: what
begins as loose federation will end in centralized,
anonymous rule, which it would be rude and benighted to
call tyranny.

How eerie, to covet power without glory! The Roman
emperors expected deification; it was part of the job
description. Today's rulers don't want us to know who
they are. What terrifying pusillanimity!

Joe Sobran - September 2001

Random Thoughts on Larry Craig (R - ID); hypocrisy; gay marriage; television programming; restroom gay sex;

• This past weekend's resignation by Senator Craig (Idaho) will not stop the MSM/DNC from talking about the scandal for quite some time.
• More people have died in Senator Kennedy's car than in Senator Craig's restroom stall, yet Kennedy remains a hero to the left and to his party.
• The Republican party is not the place to be if you are a pervert looking for somewhere to hide.
• It is not "hypocrisy" to oppose homosexual marriage (civil unions, etc.) while practicing homosexuality. Opposition to gay marriage is not the same as opposition to homosexuality or opposition to gays themselves. Opposition to homosexual marriage is based on the desire to preserve the insurance industry, creditor rights, property rights and as much of the legal system as has become intertwined with marriage over the millenia. (That is the subject of a much longer post in the future.)
• In future MSM/DNC references to this scandal, the word "Idaho" and the name "Larry Craig" will be scarce. The MSM/DNC will begin referring vaguely to a Republican Senator and the Minneapolis airport. The words "Republican Senator" and "Minneapolis airport" will be much more common than "Idaho" or "Larry Craig." The MSM/DNC hopes that marginal voters in Minnesota will mistakenly associate this scandal with Republican Norm Coleman, who faces a reelection battle for U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 2008 (and whose record is thus far spotless).
• One day last week, I heard Sean Hannity speculate on the nature of these bathroom homosexual encounters that led to the sting operation that ensnared Senator Craig. Hannity wondered if these encounters are common and if, in fact, there is an entire subculture centered on restroom gay sex. Whoever the undercover police are waiting for when they sit on toilets all day anticipating homosexual solicitation are the same people who decide what our families see on television.

-----------
update
Michelle Malkin covers Craig's resignation and the immediate fallout.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Reno's military attack on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, led to the greatest number of citizens ever killed by the government in the history of the United States. More Americans were killed at Waco than were killed at any of the various markers on the left's via dolorosa -- more than Kent State (4 killed), more than the Haymarket Square rebellion (4 killed), more than Three Mile Island (0 killed).

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Any day now, the senator (Larry Craig - Idaho) will announce OJ-like that he's redoubling his efforts to track down the real homosexual.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

A man with Aids said he would have been dead two years ago had Diana not touched him; a three-year-old visited by Diana while in a coma had a miraculous recovery and has now left his best teddy outside Kensington Palace; a nine-year-old treated for heart disease said that Diana had visited her ten times and had offered to do the family’s washing if they’d just drop it round at the Palace. For some, a world without the Saint was too much to bear: there were reports of at least two “Diana-related” suicides.

No one could doubt the sincerity of the people’s reaction. But their sincerity did not make it any less repellent. The supposedly reserved, bloodless Brits had, like the Princess, swallowed wholesale the vocabulary of American Oprahfied psychobabble, a depressing enough prospect. But they had fused it with the brutish vulgarity of modern British mass culture to create a truly horrible mutant: aggressive empathy. Their message to their Sovereign was in essence: If you can’t come out and feel our pain, we’ll come in and give you some of your own to feel.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Melanie Morgan

Strange as it may seem, some of the best things about this country have been our enemies.

Melanie Morgan

Quote of the day - Atlanta Journal-Constitution [Michael Vick]

"As much as he loves football, [Michael] Vick loves dogs."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution [from a 2002 puff piece] [h/t ESPN]

Gold and Gold Mines : the Little Big Pictures

StockCharts.com"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" W. Churchill (November 10, 1942 after the victory of El Alamein)

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

At least in Indochina, those who got it so horribly wrong – the Kerrys and Fondas and all the rest – could claim they had no idea of what would follow.

To do it all over again in the full knowledge of what followed would turn an aberration into a pattern of behavior. And as the Sirik Mataks of Baghdad face the choice between staying and dying or exile and embittered evenings in the new Iraqi émigré restaurants of London and Los Angeles, who will be America's allies in the years ahead?

Marl Steyn - August 25, 2007

Copper ... slowly down

Quote of the day - Michelle Malkin

Repeat after me: Sovereign Nation or Sanctuary Nation–It’s your choice.

Michelle Malkin

Quote of the day - Pam Geller

The world is turned on its ear and nothing means what its supposed to mean anymore. Islam has destroyed the words -- peace, charity, justice .....even "freedom" in the Koran "hurriyya" translates into "freedom as perfect slavery"... Forget everything you think you know and learn everything.

Pamela Geller

New York City ties record for August temperature.

Today New York City tied a record for the coldest August day since records were kept:

Don't forget to bundle up if you're headed out in New York City today. After all, it is August 21.

The city along with the rest of the tri-state region is feeling the chilly effect of a cold front sweeping through the region, accompanied by cool rain showers.

Tuesday's high temperature in Central Park was just 59 degrees. The normal high for today is 82 degrees. The normal low is 67.

"This unusual blast of cold air smashed our previous record for the coldest high temperature on August 21, which is 64 degrees, set back in 1999," CBS 2 meteorologist Jason Cali told wcbstv.com.

In fact, the 59-degree high tied the record for the coldest high temperature ever for the month of August in New York City, when it reached just 59 degrees in 1911.

Today's highs are more common in the city for the final days of October, when the average high ranges from 59 degrees to 61 degrees.

WCBSTV

While I normally don't like anecdotal evidence, much of the MSM/DNC global warming theory is based on the argument that it is hot in certain parts of the country right now.

Previous - Winter of 2007.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

It is not just in Iraq that the political left has an investment in failure. Domestically as well as internationally, the left has long had a vested interest in poverty and social malaise.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Violent crime committed by fine upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community is now a routine feature of American life. But who cares? In 2002, as the "Washington Sniper" piled up his body count, "experts" lined up to tell the media that he was most likely an "angry white male," a "macho hunter" or an "icy loner." When the icy loner turned out to be a black Muslim named Muhammad accompanied by an illegal immigrant from Jamaica, the only angry white males around were the lads in America's newsrooms who were noticeably reluctant to abandon their thesis: Early editions of the New York Times speculated that Muhammad and John Lee Malvo were being sought for "possible ties to 'skinhead militia' groups," which seemed a somewhat improbable alliance given the size of Mr. Muhammad's hair in the only available mug shot. As for his illegal sidekick, Malvo was detained and released by the INS in breach of their own procedures.

Mark Steyn - 8-18-07

American Thinker; MSM/DNC scandals; itemized list

American Thinker has posted an itemized list of MSM/DNC scandals from the past few years. Great job [even though I like my list better.]

The author asks the right questions also:

These offenses have been going on for years, long before the internet. But there does seems to be a rise in the number of reported offenses in recent years. Did the number of offenses go up, or did the fraction of discovered offenses go up?

In a good number of these cases, the errors were caught by non-journalists, sometimes communicating over the internet.

If it is "too good to be true", or just too politically correct to be true, take it with a grain of salt - several grains, apparently, if from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, CNN or Reuters.

The Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize just ain't all they're cracked up to be.

If this is the visible part of the iceberg, just how big is the iceberg?

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

All the Democrats' most dearly beloved anti-war/anti-Bush heroes invariably end up in the Teresa Heinz Kerry wing of the nut-house.

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran [Katherine Graham]

Katherine Graham








The death of Katharine Graham, publisher of the
WASHINGTON POST, was bound to test the nation's capital's
capacity for fulsome praise. And to be sure, obsequies
have seldom been so obsequious. Kay Graham, a hostess
rather than a journalist, was the very personification of
the Establishment. Well, someone has to be, and we can't
hold that against her. But her eulogists insisted on
turning the grande dame into a rebel: she had "no sacred
cows," she "inspired" younger women by her example, she
"shook the establishment," she was even, according to the
ancient doyen of Washington courtiers, Arthur Schlesinger
Jr., "a quiet revolutionary." Yes, just like that old
Bastille-stormer Queen Victoria. Meaning no disrespect,
the surest proof of Mrs. Graham's mediocrity is that
nobody hated her.

Joe Sobran - 2001

Quote of the day - Will Durant

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Will Durant

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but, when it comes to global warming, the experts prefer to stick the thermometer where the sun don't shine.

Mark Steyn - 8-12-07

Quote of the day - Cicero

Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

KOSPI: indice de Seoul, reflet de l'économie mondiale

La tendance à la hausse est toujours là.MAIS, mais, mais ... le MCAD indique un sommet et le RSI une surchauffe.Il faut s'attendre à un renversement de tendance à CT/MT. C'est le début de la chute !?

Garet Garrett - Blue Wound

After months of idleness, I have begun contributing again to my other blog - The Garet Garrett Blog. I am reviewing Garrett's first novel - The Blue Wound.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

In their latest demonstration of how much they love the troops, liberals have produced yet another anti-war hoax.

Ann Coulter - August 8, 2007 - commenting on the New Republic's Baghdad Diarist hoax.

Quote of the day - Garet Garrett - Blue Wound

A city is like a giant hanging by the umbilical cord. Its belly is outside of itself, at a distance, in the keeping of others. Cut it off from its belly and it surrenders or dies. As the first city was so the last one is. No city endures.

Garet Garrett - The Blue Wound.

Quote of the day - Daily Herald (Illinois)

"The Democrats, however, mostly ducked the hypothetical question of what they'd do as president if they pulled the U.S. out of Iraq and al-Qaida took over. . . "

Daily Herald - reporting on Democrat "debate" at Soldier Field in Chicago - 8-8-07

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Spring is here, and baseball has come back
to Washington, D.C., in more ways than one: The city
again has a major-league baseball team and Congress has
held hearings on steroid abuse. It's clear that all the
slugging records of recent years are highly dubious, and
the sport will never be the same.

Joe Sobran - Spring 2005

Quote of the day - Milton Friedman

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

Milton Friedman

Ratio Dow/Gold, tendance intacte ?

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn [Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz]

How will we lose the war against "radical Islam"?

Well, it won't be in a tank battle. Or in the Sunni Triangle or the caves of Bora Bora. It won't be because terrorists fly three jets into the Oval Office, Buckingham Palace and the Basilica of St Peter's on the same Tuesday morning.

The war will be lost incrementally because we are unable to reverse the ongoing radicalization of Muslim populations in South Asia, Indonesia, the Balkans, Western Europe and, yes, North America. And who's behind that radicalization? Who funds the mosques and Islamic centers that in the past 30 years have set up shop on just about every Main Street around the planet?

. . . . . .

Sheikh Mahfouz has become very adept at using foreign courts to silence American authors – in effect, using distant jurisdictions to nullify the First Amendment.

Mark Steyn - August 5, 2007

Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz H/T Answers.com