Monday, November 30, 2009

Huckabee in His Own (Weaselly) Words

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Bill Clinton would be proud! Here's Mike Huckabee with his full "meaning of 'is' is" momen:

A tragedy in Lakewood Washington yesterday when four police officers were murdered in an execution style ambush by a gunman who was being sought as we prepared today’s report. Authorities are looking for a man with a long history of criminal and psychotic behavior in both Washington State and in Arkansas .

I was governor during some of the time of his incarceration here.


Notice the passive voice here? By some strange coincidence I just happened to be governor during...some of the time. So, if you were governor and commuted his sentence, you should step up to the plate and admit it, right?


The senseless and savage execution of police officers in Washington State has saddened the nation. The murder of any individual is a profound tragedy. But the murder of a police officer is the worst of all, in that it’s an assault on every citizen as well as the laws we live within. Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State.
Have I talked enough that you forgot all about that "governor" thing? Well, here goes:

He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence from 1990, making him parole eligible and then was paroled by the parole board, once they determined that he met conditions at that time.


"He was recommended for and received a commutation of his original sentence..." Received from whom, Mr. Huckabee? Funny how politicians are always claiming credit for stuff whether they actually did it or not, here, again the passive voice...he received his commutation...as if it floated gently down from heaven! How about a simple declarative sentence, Mr. Huckabee: "I commuted his sentence." Or weasel a little bit and say, "Following someone else's recommendation yada yada yada, I commuted his sentence."

“He was arrested later for parole violation, taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him It appears that he has continued to have a string of criminal and psychotic behavior, but was not kept incarcerated by either states.”

Our thoughts and prayers should be with the families of those honorable, brave and heroic police officers.


Hindsight is always 20/20. If it was the right thing to do at the time, he should man up, say "I did it, and here's the reason why". The way that Huckabee tries to disassociate himself for any responsibility in the commutation of this alleged murderer's sentence is positively Clintonian. What little respect I had for him lessened after hearing his tepid, passive and weaselly acknowledgment of what he had done.

Cross posted at Say Anything

See also "Huckabee in His Own Weaselly Words Redux"

Quote du jour

My favorite moment in the Climategate/Climaquiddick scandal currently roiling the “climate change” racket was Stuart Varney’s interview on Fox News with the actor Ed Begley Jr. — star of the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere but latterly better known, as is the fashion with members of the thespian community, as an “activist.” He’s currently in a competition with Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) to see who can have the lowest “carbon footprint.” Pistols at dawn would seem the quickest way of resolving that one, but presumably you couldn’t get a reality series out of it.

-Mark Steyn

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Suspect in Police Slayings Pardoned by Huckabee?

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By now you've heard of the cowardly assassination of four police officers in Washington.

Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.

Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.-Seattle Times

Although no one wants to make these killings political, if this guy is guilty and this is true, this is likely to do for Huckabee what Willie Horton did for Michael Dukakis.

Update: From the same Seattle Times story:
When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.

Clemmons served 11 years before being released.
Let me see...48 plus 60 plus 95 is...203. This guy should have been released around 2193 AD. Maybe with time off for good behavior...or death from old age!

H/T Ace of Spades
Cross posted at Say Anything

Presidential Jobs Summit in Six Words

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President Obama can cancel his jobs summit for later this week. I can sum up what he needs to do in six words:

Lower taxes.

Drill here,

Drill now.


Any questions?

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Not "Death" Panels, Carbon Footprint Panels!

The inimitable Mark Steyn has been noting a "convergence" between health care and the environment. And he joked earlier that Ed Begley Jr. and Bill Nye, vying to lower their "carbon footprints" could more easily accomplish that with pistols at dawn. I don't think he carried the analogy far enough. What better way to accomplish both goals of providing health care for everyone (who meets government guidelines) and preserving the environment by lowering humanity's carbon footprint than with "carbon footprint" panels? The government could evaluate not only the quality of life the elderly and infirm might enjoy, but also the impact of their carbon footprint upon the environment! Save the health care costs, save the planet! A two-fer! Maybe if there were just fewer Marxists, Socialists and Global Warmists in this administration, I wouldn't have this recurrent feeling that Soylent Green was a documentary! Cross posted at Say Anything

On Gate Crashing the White House

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Kirsten Powers made the point on Fox News Sunday today, that had the White House merely employed a bouncer from one of the "hot clubs" in New York City, they would have had more success in keeping out gate crashers.

Makes sense, but didn't more than a few of us think we had something better in place already?? Just saying!

Quote du jour

No one loves Barack Obama. Half the American people say they support him, and Democrats are still with him. But there were Bill Clinton supporters who really loved him. George W. Bush had people who loved him. A lot of people loved Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. But no one seems to love Mr. Obama now; they're not dazzled and head over heels. That's gone away. He himself seems a fairly chilly customer; perhaps in turn he inspires chilly support.

-Peggy Noonan

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanks to The Other McCain

I noticed a big spike in traffic today, traced it to a shout out from The Other McCain.
Welcome if you're visiting from Robert Stacy McCain's fine site!

A Little Saturday Night Music

Chad and Jeremy: Yesterday's Gone

Global Warming: A Tale of Two Charts

I'm not a climatologist. Don't pretend to be. Don't even play one on TV. But, even to a lay person, something doesn't seem to pass the smell test on the following two temperature charts. From New Zealand's primary climate advisory unit NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research) the official adjusted chart:

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And the raw data
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And the government's explanation for the adjustment.

Seems to me, that if you're sampling temperatures from two different locations at two different altitudes and/or climate zones, there ought to at least be an asterisk somewhere on the chart to indicate what may be a legitimate adjustment or what might be monkey business.

Keep in mind too, the chart shows anomalies from average temperature, worst case scenario of a swing of scarcely more than two degrees over one hundred years. Add to that, my hunch that, perhaps with more crude instruments a hundred years ago,and a tendency to sample the weather at airports, or on top of buildings, those fractions of a degree might not be all that accurate. I'm just saying! I don't think that the matter of MMGW is settled science by any means.

H/T Gina Cobb
Watts Up With That

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"America is not what's wrong with the world. And a strong America, assertive in foreign policy, showing its strength, is good for the world, and it has a lot better effect on allies and enemies alike than what we're seeing now, this policy of almost determined weakness on the part of President Obama. Now, look. That decision you mentioned with the missile defense in Europe is militarily defensible. But it looked to all the world, and must have looked in the Kremlin, as if this was a capitulation. And these kinds of things add up over time."
-Brit Hume

Friday, November 27, 2009

Tiger Woods Injured in Car Crash

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Tiger Woods was injured Friday morning when he hit a fire hydrant and a tree in his sport-utility vehicle — a crash heard by his wife, who came to the rescue with a golf club, officials said.


Proof positive that Tiger putts better than he drives!

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB* is Liv Tyler

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Update: Welcome to those here due to the shout out from The Other McCain
(*aka Rule Five Friday)

Krauthammer: Kill the Bills. Do Health Reform Right

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I posted this under the "hot links", but this is some really good stuff!

WASHINGTON -- The United States has the best health care in the world -- but because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health-care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions.


Over two thousand pages of bureaucratic intervention between you and your health care, and that doesn't even include all the purposefully ambiguous portions that give more bureaucrats license to create even more regulations!

Worse, they are packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes -- such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs -- is political expediency. Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There is not even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony.

The result is an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency.


Think the DMV, Post Office and Bureau of Indian Affairs all rolled into one!

The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool.

Then do health care the right way -- one reform at a time, each simple and simplifying, aimed at reducing complexity, arbitrariness and inefficiency.


Well, Charles...what's your plan?

First, tort reform. This is money -- the low-end estimate is about half a trillion per decade -- wasted in two ways. Part is simply hemorrhaged into the legal system to benefit a few jackpot lawsuit winners and an army of extravagantly rich malpractice lawyers such as John Edwards.

The rest is wasted within the medical system in the millions of unnecessary tests, procedures and referrals undertaken solely to fend off lawsuits -- resources wasted on patients who don't need them and which could be redirected to the uninsured who really do.

In the 4,000-plus pages of the two bills, there is no tort reform. Indeed, the House bill actually penalizes states that dare "limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages." Why? Because, as Howard Dean has openly admitted, Democrats don't want "to take on the trial lawyers." What he didn't say -- he didn't need to -- is that they give millions to the Democrats for precisely this kind of protection.


That makes sense! Money paid to lawyers doesn't cure a soul. And defensive medicine sucks up resources and wastes money that could be used elsewhere- a double whammy!

Second, even more simple and simplifying, abolish the prohibition against buying health insurance across state lines.

Some states have very few health insurers. Rates are high. So why not allow interstate competition? After all, you can buy oranges across state lines. If you couldn’t, oranges would be extremely expensive in Wisconsin, especially in winter.

And the answer to the resulting high Wisconsin orange prices wouldn’t be the establishment of a public option -- a federally run orange-growing company in Wisconsin -- to introduce "competition." It would be to allow Wisconsin residents to buy Florida oranges.


He has a third point as well, but I want you to read his essay in full. It is one of the best, most concise I've seen on health care so far.

"This is a Harmful Bill to the Nation" -Howard Dean


Yep! Screamin' Howard Dean comes out against the reformless "Health care reform" bill.

H/T Gateway Pundit

Cheney in 2012?

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CNN has a "Don't throw me in the briar patch, Brer Fox" story on a group that wants Dick Cheney to run for President in 2012.

Washington – A new group wants former Vice President Dick Cheney back in the White House.

The organization - "Draft Dick Cheney 2012" - launched on Friday, and unveiled their new Web site. Their aim: To convince the former vice president to seek the Republican presidential nomination in the next race for the White House. But there may be a major roadblock to the group's pitch - Cheney himself.

"The 2012 race for the Republican nomination for President will be about much more then who will be the party's standard bearer against Barack Obama, the race is about the heart and soul of the GOP," said Christopher Barron, one of the organizers of the Draft Cheney movement.


Now, personally, I wouldn't mind having someone like Dick Cheney in the White House...someone a bit younger, without the baggage. But, if push came to shove, I'd vote for him over President Zero in a heartbeat.

Having said that, Cheney won't run. He has said he doesn't want to, and for a change, I believe a politician!

Does Cheney want to run for the White House? He was quite blunt earlier this month about whether he had any desire make a bid for the presidency in the next election. At an event in Houston for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who's running for Texas governor, Hutchison was joined by Cheney, who endorsed her bid against fellow Republican incumbent Rick Perry. During the rally, Hutchison yelled out to the crowd "Cheney 2012!" and some one in the audience quickly responded "We need you, Dick!"

Cheney's response: "Not a chance."


I think he's smart enough to know that, though his ideals may be those of the party's future, his candidacy would not accomplish that. But, as the Jawa Report points out: You could sure "Hear The Heads Of Liberals Exploding Like Popped Balloons"

Cross posted at Say Anything

Deranged Sarah Hater Throws Eggs at Book Signing

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Call it "Sarah Derangement Syndrome", a deranged Palin hater threw eggs at one of Sarah's book signings after the Sarah had left the building! A first person account of what happened is here:

So as Adrienne, Ron, "Vidsweet", Katelyn and I were about to leave Borders, a man walked straight through the main doors and said, "Sorry, I missed you, Sarah!" and threw an egg at the display of the Governor's books and left.
Sarah's supporters were in line before two in the morning, but this hapless loser couldn't show up on time for an afternoon signing?? Maybe he could be Obama's Timeliness Czar?

Collateral damage:
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The egg thrower was caught and arrested. He came to realize that his form of "political protest" did not exactly serve him well. Borders chose not to prosecute him, because he opted to pay for all the destroyed copies of Going Rogue. In essence, this brilliant Obama Kool Aid drinker now bought the largest number of copies of Going Rogue for a single customer in the entire day!


And another "freedom loving" leftie who cannot stand for anyone else's point of view to be heard, ends up supporting Sarah through buying her book? Fantastic! But, just how deranged do you have to be, to show up someplace to throw eggs at someone, find out they are no longer there and throw the eggs anyway??? Another competent child of the Left!

But, with people throwing pies at Ann Coulter and throwing eggs at (figuratively) Sarah Palin...what's with the Left and foodfights???

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

They call themselves progressives, but we call them progressieves, since their arguments don't hold water.

-Proof

Thursday, November 26, 2009

A Little Thanksgiving Evening Music


"We Gather Together"

Over the River and Through the Woods...

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Fresh from the oven, my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner! One is traditional pumpkin, the other is a pumpkin/apple pie. (I'll have to let you know how that one turned out!)

Off to Thanksgiving at my sister's...Have a good one, everybody!

Update: The pumpkin/apple was okay, but not great. I think my kids liked it better than I did.

Health Nazis Get Serious

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"I'm sorry! Which part of 'No smoking' didn't you understand?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

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May your aim be to be thankful with a heart loaded for blessing .

Quote du jour

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.

-Henry David Thoreau

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Policy Wonkiest Administration in History

One last political morsel to chew on before we go into holiday mode:

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Obama surrounds himself with policy wonks, academics and political office holders. People with real world experience apparently need not apply.

H/T Rob Port

The Medal of Honor

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Lieutenant Colonel Joe M. Jackson


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Lt. Col. Jackson distinguished himself as pilot of a C-123 aircraft. Lt. Col. Jackson volunteered to attempt the rescue of a 3-man USAF Combat Control Team from the special forces camp at Kham Duc. Hostile forces had overrun the forward outpost and established gun positions on the airstrip. They were raking the camp with small arms, mortars, light and heavy automatic weapons, and recoilless rifle fire. The camp was engulfed in flames and ammunition dumps were continuously exploding and littering the runway with debris. In addition, 8 aircraft had been destroyed by the intense enemy fire and 1 aircraft remained on the runway reducing its usable length to only 2,200 feet. To further complicate the landing, the weather was deteriorating rapidly, thereby permitting only 1 air strike prior to his landing. Although fully aware of the extreme danger and likely failure of such an attempt. Lt. Col. Jackson elected to land his aircraft and attempt to rescue. Displaying superb airmanship and extraordinary heroism, he landed his aircraft near the point where the combat control team was reported to be hiding. While on the ground, his aircraft was the target of intense hostile fire. A rocket landed in front of the nose of the aircraft but failed to explode. Once the combat control team was aboard, Lt. Col. Jackson succeeded in getting airborne despite the hostile fire directed across the runway in front of his aircraft. Lt. Col. Jackson's profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself, and the Armed Forces of his country.


Lieutenant Colonel Jackson: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes





There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

Environmentalist Whacko Ed Begley Jr. on Fox News

There are only three things that the Global Warming whackos have failed to prove to my satisfaction:

1) That the globe is actually warming
2) That man is causing the warming and not solar cycles, and
3) That global warming would be a bad thing!

However, if spittle flecked invective is more persuasive to you than fact or logic, here's Ed Begley Jr.



Ed Begley, Sr., the great character actor, was apparently a Reagan supporter. In this case, the apple has fallen quite far from the tree!

Cross posted at Say Anything

ClimateGate: Hide the Decline



A catchy tune to hoist environmentalist whackos on their own petard!
Update: For those of you under 40, the song being parodied is "Draggin' the Line" by Tommy James & The Shondells.



H/T The Whistler

Angelina Jolie Bares All...

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...about her feelings towards Barack Obama. What did you expect? This blog is PG-13!!!
In shameless pandering to Internet traffic, we will note in passing that the beautiful Angelina Jolie doesn't care much for President Zero.

Barack Obama does not have Angelina Jolie's seal of approval.

"She hates him," a source close to the U.N. goodwill ambassador, 34, tells the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now).

"She's into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise," adds the source.


The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, it appears!

But don't expect to see the Salt actress rally against Democrats on Fox News like her staunch Republican father, Jon Voight.

"Angie isn't Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors," the source says.

Obama Jokes About Unemployment at Turkey Pardon


They may have pardoned the wrong turkey!


At about 2:21 in the video, Obama jokes that he has "saved or created" more turkeys, an obvious reference to the administration's efforts to curtail rampaging unemployment. Glad you think other people's misfortune is such a great source of humor, Mr. President! Maybe you could go on Letterman and tell Dave!

Then, around 3:05, he wanted to wish a happy Thanksgiving to
"every service member at home or in harm's way..."

Some might say, after the Fort Hood shooting, that that is a distinction without a difference.

Cross Posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation – indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever face: whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent health care for all.

-Sen. Harry Reid

"For my next act, I will walk on water..."

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Kentucky Census Worker A Suicide

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If it weren't for jumping to conclusions, some people would get no exercise at all!


FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky Census worker found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" written on his chest killed himself and staged his death to look like a murder, authorities said Tuesday.


...A man who found the body in the Daniel Boone National Forest said the 51-year-old was bound with duct tape, gagged and had an identification badge taped to his neck.

Investigators say Sparkman acted alone in manipulating the scene to conceal the suicide.


Remember the reaction of some last September? (Nuke the South- Sept 23) Railing against conservatives in general and the South in particular as being responsible for this and even greater violence to come? If it weren't for jumping to conclusions, some of us would get no exercise at all!

Cross posted at Say Anything

Headline du jour

Over at Support Your Local Gunfighter:

The Unbearable Whiteness Of Being MSNBC


along with this picture:

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I'd seen this story before, but Wyatt takes the prize for the best headline! Kudos, Wyatt!

Your Thanksgiving Schadenfreude

compliments of Rasmussen:

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In case you haven't noticed, this is an all time low for Mr. Obama.

H/T Rob Port

Quote du jour

It's not a "death" panel, it's an "Eeny, Meeny, Miney" panel. After they decide your fate, there ain't no "Moe"!

-Proof

Monday, November 23, 2009

Captain Kirk and The Will of Landrieu

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All this talk about Mary Landrieu reminded me of an episode of Star Trek, The Return of the Archons

The Enterprise discovers a planet where the population act like zombies and obey the will of their unseen ruler, Landru.

Sure sounds like Democrats in Louisiana!

Democrats Squirm When Questioned about the "Louisiana Purchase"



That's the Louisiana Purchase of Mary Landrieu's vote.

"I have no way of really knowing if it did." -Sen. Sherrod Brown. Oh, really? Well, you could try actually reading the bill for starters! As the spaghetti sauce makers say: "It's in there!". The rest is just a fantastic coincidence that Ms. Landrieu was sitting on the fence until a $300 million provision for Louisiana was inserted into the bill. /sarcasm

In a related story: Unicorn farmers decry shortage of leprechaun fencing!

Update: Here's another bit of video on the "Louisiana Purchase":



H/T The blog prof
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote(s) du jour

“The Democratic Party has moderates, liberals and conservative Democrats.”

-Joe Biden

“And communists.”

-Jon Stewart

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Obama Vs. The Chinese on SNL



Keeping an eye on the culture wars to free up your Saturday nights!

H/T Jammie Wearing Fool

November 22, 1963 - A Remembrance

This was first posted Nov. 22 2008

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Today marks the anniversary of the passing of a great man. One who left his mark on his country and his culture. One who is still quoted to this day. On November 22, 1963, the world little noted his passing in the shock and outpouring of grief over the assassination of JFK. That man was Clive Staple Lewis…oddly enough, like JFK, ”Jack” to his friends.

C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia, was a contemporary and friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. He was also an atheist who came to Christianity, in his own words, “kicking and screaming”, who became one of its strongest apologists.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.
-Surprised by Joy

His books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold millions of copies over the years. Anthony Hopkins portrayed him in the movie Shadowlands (1993), the story of his romance with American poet Joy Gresham, who died of cancer a mere handful of years after they met.

His life was rich and varied. His sorrows deep and vast. His legacy is enduring.

In our remembrance of those who passed this day, one might do well to remember what can be accomplished with just a pair of Jacks!

Quote du jour

People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ‘cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees (sic), and the crust of the earth is hot …

-Al Gore, to Conan O'Brien

Gee! And to think there's only six degrees from Kevin Bacon!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

Sarah Mclachlan : In the Arms of the Angel

Buy a Soldier a Cup of Coffee?

I never ask my readers to contribute to anything I'm not willing to do myself, so I got my wallet out earlier to buy a cup of coffee for some young men far from home for the holidays. The Green Beans Coffee company has a program "Cup of Joe For A Joe":
In our travels to see the Troops, many share with us their sense of loneliness, isolation and feelings of being forgotten. Their commanders tell us that some Soldiers never receive mail from home. In response, Green Beans Coffee has launched Cup of Joe For A Joe to let anyone, anywhere in the world, say thanks to our troops through the simple act of buying a cup of coffee and having it delivered along with their own personal note of encouragement into the hands of a deployed Soldier.
It's hardly an adequate way to express our gratitude for the sacrifice that they are making, but it beats sitting on your butt doing nothing. You can contribute here. Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote(s) du jour

Barack Obama cast himself as a "citizen of the world" when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely, his country's addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health-care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats.

-Christian Schwägerl

"It's not easy being green."

-Kermit the Frog

Friday, November 20, 2009

University of California Raises Tuition 32%...

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...students protest, occupying buildings.
Just a couple of months ago, we noted that Barack Obama compared his health care proposals to the current relationship between public and private colleges.

They argue that these private companies can't fairly compete with the government. And they'd be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option. But they won't be. I've insisted that like any private insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects. But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits and excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers, and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities.


Now, University of California Regents have raised tuition costs 32% while at the same time admitting few students each year to the UC system. Can you say "rationing"?

Despite raucous student protests at UCLA that poured onto the streets of Westwood, the University of California Board of Regents Thursday approved a 32 percent fee increase that will push UC annual tuition above $10,000 for the first time.

Tuition at the 10 UC campuses will increase by $585 in the spring, then another $1,344 next fall. Along with a $900 registration fee, the hikes will bring annual in-state UC tuition to $10,302, not including campus fees, housing and books.


Can anyone imagine that if the UC Regents were to assume responsibility for every private college in the state as well, that somehow they could somehow both reduce costs and provide a better education to the state's college students? Or would prices go up and enrollment be restricted at those schools, too?

Welcome to Obamacare, Education Division!

Update: Kevin over at Say Anything had this graphic of the rapid increase of college tuition:
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Cross posted at Say Anything

Bombproof Wallpaper

No, not for your computer!

Best Of What's New 2009: Bombproof Wallpaper Test from PopSci.com on Vimeo.



No word on how it reacts to real bombs like Jim Carrey's Christmas Carol! Or Obama's reelection chances...

Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Hits New All Time Low...

...again!
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H/T Randy-G

Have it Your Way, Mr. Obama!

I was channel surfing through Leno when I saw this last night:
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Jammie Wearing Fool had a copy.

Friday Night Babe

Tonight's FNB is ESPN's Erin Andrews!

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Quote du jour

I believe that liberals are wrong about black people. Liberals are also wrong about white people, brown people, yellow people and red people. If NASA announced tomorrow that it had discovered a distant planet inhabited by purple people, anything that liberals believed about purple people would be wrong, too. Liberals are not only wrong about race, but they are also wrong about economics, crime, poverty, religion, science, war, marriage and foreign policy. In fact, as evidenced by their global-warming hysteria, liberals are wrong about the weather. Insofar as there is a "liberal consensus" on any particular subject -- including movies and sports -- then the truth is likely to be the exact opposite of whatever liberals say.

-Robert Stacy McCain

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Quote du jour

All in all, Obama’s impassioned speeches are reserved for fund-raisers and for healthcare addresses, for which he has no shortage of energy. Line up a pile of dead Americans, and he can barely muster an inflection or an exclamation point. Fill the room with wealthy donors, and the man comes alive. For a mercenary, that may be an admirable thing, but for a president, the vacancy is disturbing.

-John Ray

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Medal of Honor

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Petty Officer Robert R. Ingram


Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Corpsman with Company C, First Battalion, Seventh Marines against elements of a North Vietnam Aggressor (NVA) battalion in Quang Ngai Province Republic of Vietnam on 28 March 1966. Petty Officer Ingram accompanied the point platoon as it aggressively dispatched an outpost of an NVA battalion. The momentum of the attack rolled off a ridge line down a tree covered slope to a small paddy and a village beyond. Suddenly, the village tree line exploded with an intense hail of automatic rifle fire from approximately 100 North Vietnamese regulars. In mere moments, the platoon ranks were decimated. Oblivious to the danger, Petty Officer Ingram crawled across the bullet spattered terrain to reach a downed Marine. As he administered aid, a bullet went through the palm of his hand. Calls for "CORPSMAN" echoed across the ridge. Bleeding, he edged across the fire swept landscape, collecting ammunition from the dead and administering aid to the wounded. Receiving two more wounds before realizing the third wound was life-threatening, he looked for a way off the race of the ridge, but again he heard the call for corpsman and again, he resolutely answered. Though severely wounded three times, he rendered aid to those incapable until he finally reached the right flank of the platoon. While dressing the head wound of another corpsman, he sustained his fourth bullet wound. From sixteen hundred hours until just prior to sunset, Petty Officer Ingram pushed, pulled, cajoled, and doctored his Marines. Enduring the pain from his many wounds and disregarding the probability of his demise, Petty Officer Ingram's intrepid actions saved many lives that day. By his indomitable fighting spirit, daring initiative, and unfaltering dedications to duty, Petty Officer Ingram reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.


Petty Officer Ingram: We humbly salute you and thank you for your service.

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Hat tip Home of Heroes





There are fewer than a hundred living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice.

The Taliban Wing of the Democratic Party

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You know how those on the left like to compare religious conservatives to the Taliban? Oh, yes! With much glee, so called "progressives" cluck their tongues at how anyone could be so gauche! Well, it turns out that the party in bed with the Taliban is...the Democrats!

Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.


The fact that Jodie Evans is a Code Pink whackadoo, who stormed the stage at a Sarah Palin rally completes her credentials as a genuine, Left Wing progressive. The fact that she raised oodles of cash for clunker Obama, makes her a proud Democrat. Go figure!

H/T Gateway Pundit

Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America-- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc.-- at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?

-Thomas Sowell

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Oppression in Cuba Largely Ignored by MSM



The lady's name he mentions is Martha Beatriz Roque.

H/T The Corner

$45 Million to Create One Job in San Diego

Could this be why Barbara "Bouncer" had so much trouble balancing her checkbook when she was in the House? As a different Barbie used to say: "Math is hard!"





H/T theblogprof

Steven Crowder on Guantanamo Bay



Nothing really new here, but a nice review of the politics being played over Guantanamo Bay and the detainees.

H/T Jawa Report

Quote du jour

The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.

-Robert J. Samuelson

Monday, November 16, 2009

Lewis L. Millett, R.I.P.

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Last March 25, Lewis Millett was honored here as a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. His citation is here.

Medal of Honor recipient Lewis Millett of Idyllwild died Saturday morning at Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center in Loma Linda. He was 88.

"He had a brief hospitalization. He came in the day before Veterans Day," said hospital spokeswoman Annie Tuttle.


Rest in peace, Capt. Millett!

Obama's Flip Flop on Terror Prosecutions



Here's Barack Obama telling us in 2006, that justice will be carried out in a military trial for the terrorists. What changed in the last few years? (Other than the huge *ss mistake the voters made last November!)

Added bonus: Listen to his stumbling lack of eloquence without his teleprompter!

H/T Gateway Pundit
Cross posted at Say Anything

Quote du jour

"It's not appropriate for an American President to bow to a foreign monarch."

-Bill Kristol

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Rachel Maddow's Ignorance on Parade



How many of you got through high school without memorizing the preamble to the Constitution?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


Condescension is one thing. Being condescending when you are glaringly wrong is quite hilarious. Worse yet, this was a pre-recorded segment, so there was even time to edit it. I hope this video follows her for the rest of her short, but unimaginative career.

Update: On another forum, I was asked:
John Boehner was still quoting the Declaration of Independence and calling it the preamble to the Constitution. Where is your criticism of him?

Fair enough. Both misspoke. Mr. Boehner, was speaking live, and appeared to be looking at what might have been either notes or a prepared speech... hard to say. Ms. Maddow was taping a performance aided by a producer, director, cameraman and editor. If I had to give either the benefit of the doubt, it would be Mr. Boehner.

H/T The blog prof
Cross posted at Say Anything

Health Care Rationing for Seniors

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The Washington Post on the Obama Administration's next step in leaving grandma on the ice floe:

A plan to slash more than $500 billion from future Medicare spending -- one of the biggest sources of funding for President Obama's proposed overhaul of the nation's health-care system -- would sharply reduce benefits for some senior citizens and could jeopardize access to care for millions of others, according to a government evaluation released Saturday.

The report, requested by House Republicans, found that Medicare cuts contained in the health package approved by the House on Nov. 7 are likely to prove so costly to hospitals and nursing homes that they could stop taking Medicare altogether.


If you are over fifty, and certainly if you are over sixty, you need to wonder about the quality and length of life that will be available for you if this un-Constitutional monstrosity passes.

H/T John Lott

Symbols of Health Care

I saw this cartoon on health care reform this AM, and maybe it was the angle of the image...

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...but doesn't the health care symbol remind you of something else???

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We are so health cared!

Quote du jour

Whatever his faults, President Bush got to say one thing that the American people always appreciated: After 9/11, he kept us safe from a terrorist attack on the homeland. If Hasan acted as a Jihadist terrorist and not a disgruntled psychiatrist, Obama can't even make the same claim about his first year in office.

-Jonah Goldberg

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A Little Saturday Night Music

Christopher Cross - All right

Obama: President In Search of a Spine

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It's a lot easier to bow all the time when you haven't got a spine!

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This would be less embarrassing if this guy were just some star struck American tourist. Could someone please inform him that he is the President of the United States?

Update: Now with video!

Thanks, Randy-G and Ace

Update two: CNN had some more late breaking footage:


Cross posted at Say Anything

H/T Weasel Zippers

Congress Amputates Health Care Competition

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One of the bogus claims of the Obama administration, is that a public option will somehow provide more "competition". I don't know that I've heard anyone comment on the fact that the Federal Government would be, in essence, selling their brand of insurance across state lines.

Aside from the fact that the government regulates the rest of the competition and is not encumbered by the need to make a profit and can print and lend itself as much money as it needs to cover its expenses, there is the additional unfair advantage of not being prohibited from offering its product across state lines.

But then, fairness was never the objective, was it?

Quote du jour

"Showing a bit of respect for cultural values with which you disagree is not a bad thing. Don’t call people bigots and fools just because you disagree with them."

-Barney Frank

Friday, November 13, 2009