a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.
Which seems a good introduction to this:
States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. The grant-receiving states would be required to mandate that all health care providers in the state determine the Body Mass Index of all their patients in the 2-to-18 age bracket and then report that information to the state government. The state government, in turn, would be required to report the information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for analysis.
The Healthy Choices Act–introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee….amends the Public Health Services Act by stating that health care providers must record the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. “The provision relates to all children in states that accept grants under the bill,” a spokesperson for Rep. Kind told CNSNews.com. “….BMI will be taken at times when the child makes an otherwise scheduled doctor’s visit.”
So the President's wife is declaring your kids weight a 'national security issue', and the socialists- 'Never let a crisis go to waste'- are using it as a lever to reach further into your lives.
Various objections to this BMI stupidity here, including
1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.
2. It is scientifically nonsensical. (why square the height? And ignore waist circumference?)
3. It is physiologically wrong. (bodybuilders and athletes are screwed)
4. It gets the logic wrong. (if you are obese, your BMI is high. If you have a high BMI, you may not be obese at all!)
and ending with
10. It embarrasses the U.S. ("It is embarrassing for one of the most scientifically, technologically and medicinally advanced nations in the world to base advice on how to prevent one of the leading causes of poor health and premature death (obesity) on a 200-year-old numerical hack developed by a mathematician who was not even an expert in what little was known about the human body back then." - yup!)
Not that any of that matters to the National Socialist Democrats: it's a way to take more control over people, and that's what really matters.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Another view on some of the idiocy being taught in schools
Viruses of the human mind: More dangerous than all pathogens combined.
...
I began with a rather trivial truth or so I thought. I asked her whether it was a universal truth that within the human species it is only women who bear children. Surely this is an absolute fact no? After rolling her eyes in utter disgust and taking a few huffs and puffs, she replied that she was amazed at how sexist my example had been. At this point, my doctoral student, my wife, and I were truly baffled. The feminist explained that in the spiritual narrative of a particular group of Japanese people, it is the men who bear the children! Hence, by purposely restricting childbearing to the physical/biological realm, I was being sexist. Sure, in the biological realm, it is the women who give birth but in the spiritual arena, it is wholly conceivable for men to be the child bearers. Whereas I was well aware of the nonsensical babble of postmodernists, I must admit that this was a new height of delusional thinking. I composed myself and decided to provide one additional and final example.
...
I began with a rather trivial truth or so I thought. I asked her whether it was a universal truth that within the human species it is only women who bear children. Surely this is an absolute fact no? After rolling her eyes in utter disgust and taking a few huffs and puffs, she replied that she was amazed at how sexist my example had been. At this point, my doctoral student, my wife, and I were truly baffled. The feminist explained that in the spiritual narrative of a particular group of Japanese people, it is the men who bear the children! Hence, by purposely restricting childbearing to the physical/biological realm, I was being sexist. Sure, in the biological realm, it is the women who give birth but in the spiritual arena, it is wholly conceivable for men to be the child bearers. Whereas I was well aware of the nonsensical babble of postmodernists, I must admit that this was a new height of delusional thinking. I composed myself and decided to provide one additional and final example.
If these school weenies are so worried about the kids.,
I wonder just how they explain this crap:
The school official who nixed a girls’ high school basketball team’s planned trip to Arizona once supported a controversial program that required ninth-graders to attend a “freshman advisory” class at which gay upperclassmen shared stories of their high school experiences.
Parents who were unhappy with the class were even more outraged to learn that students who attended were asked to sign a statement promising not to tell others — including their parents — about what was said in class.
Suzan Hebson, assistant superintendent of Highland Park, Ill., School District 113, killed the hoop dreams of the Highland Park High School girls’ basketball team this week when she canceled their plans to participate in a tournament in Arizona in December. The decision has some parents and residents of the district crying foul over what they say was a politically motivated protest over the Grand Canyon State’s recently passed immigration law.
So Hebson is SO worried about protecting- well bullshit, she used the kids to push her political point. And it seems her politics extend into pushing kids into GLSEN bullshit and trying to hide it from the parents.
Wonderful people running some of these schools, what?
The school official who nixed a girls’ high school basketball team’s planned trip to Arizona once supported a controversial program that required ninth-graders to attend a “freshman advisory” class at which gay upperclassmen shared stories of their high school experiences.
Parents who were unhappy with the class were even more outraged to learn that students who attended were asked to sign a statement promising not to tell others — including their parents — about what was said in class.
Suzan Hebson, assistant superintendent of Highland Park, Ill., School District 113, killed the hoop dreams of the Highland Park High School girls’ basketball team this week when she canceled their plans to participate in a tournament in Arizona in December. The decision has some parents and residents of the district crying foul over what they say was a politically motivated protest over the Grand Canyon State’s recently passed immigration law.
So Hebson is SO worried about protecting- well bullshit, she used the kids to push her political point. And it seems her politics extend into pushing kids into GLSEN bullshit and trying to hide it from the parents.
Wonderful people running some of these schools, what?
There is some seriously nasty stuff happening in China in these school attacks
Seven children and one teacher have been stabbed to death and at least 11 others wounded in an attack at a kindergarten in China's northern Shaanxi province.
Wednesday's assault in the city of Hanzhong was the latest in a string of similar attacks, despite a push to boost security in and around schools across the country.
...
Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said news of the attack had been taken off Chinese language media websites.
Timeline: China School Attacks
"It looks like the government is trying to contain information about this, perhaps to prevent a nationwide hysteria," she said.
She said there had been no attempts by authorities to explain the recent string of attacks, but that a lot of discussions were taking place among Chinese citizens over the internet.
"A lot of people online have been talking about the possibility that there is very little recourse in China if someone has a grievance," Chan said.
"Perhaps this has become a way for somebody with a grievance to attract attention to their particular issue.
"The rule of law is a big problem in China. Going to court does not necessarily help a person in need so you might have situations where someone is making a last desperate attempt."
...
Two weeks ago a farmer injured five children with a hammer in the eastern province of Shandong before fatally setting himself on fire.
The day before, a jobless man injured 29 children and three adults with a knife used to slaughter pigs in an attack at a kindergarten in neighboring Jiangsu province.
Police said the man carried out the attack out of anger over a "series of business and personal humiliations", according to Xinhua.
Authorities across China have begun to strengthen security at schools, increasing police patrols near school grounds, and boosting the monitoring of people known to be mentally ill.
Police in a western district of Beijing have distributed 200 pitchfork-like implements to schools, for use by campus security and teachers to keep any attackers at bay.
Wednesday's assault in the city of Hanzhong was the latest in a string of similar attacks, despite a push to boost security in and around schools across the country.
...
Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said news of the attack had been taken off Chinese language media websites.
Timeline: China School Attacks
"It looks like the government is trying to contain information about this, perhaps to prevent a nationwide hysteria," she said.
She said there had been no attempts by authorities to explain the recent string of attacks, but that a lot of discussions were taking place among Chinese citizens over the internet.
"A lot of people online have been talking about the possibility that there is very little recourse in China if someone has a grievance," Chan said.
"Perhaps this has become a way for somebody with a grievance to attract attention to their particular issue.
"The rule of law is a big problem in China. Going to court does not necessarily help a person in need so you might have situations where someone is making a last desperate attempt."
...
Two weeks ago a farmer injured five children with a hammer in the eastern province of Shandong before fatally setting himself on fire.
The day before, a jobless man injured 29 children and three adults with a knife used to slaughter pigs in an attack at a kindergarten in neighboring Jiangsu province.
Police said the man carried out the attack out of anger over a "series of business and personal humiliations", according to Xinhua.
Authorities across China have begun to strengthen security at schools, increasing police patrols near school grounds, and boosting the monitoring of people known to be mentally ill.
Police in a western district of Beijing have distributed 200 pitchfork-like implements to schools, for use by campus security and teachers to keep any attackers at bay.
This is a key phrase among all the PC bullshit
about building a mosque at the Trade Center site:
Joan Brown Campbell, director of the Department of Religion at the Chautauqua
Institution in upstate New York and former general secretary of the National Council of Churches, admitted that a mosque at Ground Zero could anger infidels. But it was worth it, she said: “Building so close is owning the tragedy.”
Miserable little bastards want to 'own the tragedy'... do they mean the tragedy that more unbelievers didn't die? The tragedy that the US overall didn't blame the JOOOOOS for it?
If New York allows this to happen, the it really is and always will be NYEffing City, the place where they'd rather be PC than deal with clowns like this as they deserve.
Joan Brown Campbell, director of the Department of Religion at the Chautauqua
Institution in upstate New York and former general secretary of the National Council of Churches, admitted that a mosque at Ground Zero could anger infidels. But it was worth it, she said: “Building so close is owning the tragedy.”
Miserable little bastards want to 'own the tragedy'... do they mean the tragedy that more unbelievers didn't die? The tragedy that the US overall didn't blame the JOOOOOS for it?
If New York allows this to happen, the it really is and always will be NYEffing City, the place where they'd rather be PC than deal with clowns like this as they deserve.
Two things about these two disgusting actions by law enforcement:
First, that they actually prosecuted these two... apparently actual crime is so under control that they have men,time and money to waste; so their budgets need to be trimmed.
Second, want to bet that if they'd been girls and a boy made the same complaint, the girls would NOT have faced the same bullshit?
And let us not forget idiocy like this from teachers and school officials; these people need to be either counseled to the fact that they do not live in the Soviet Union, or be fired. Maybe both.
Second, want to bet that if they'd been girls and a boy made the same complaint, the girls would NOT have faced the same bullshit?
And let us not forget idiocy like this from teachers and school officials; these people need to be either counseled to the fact that they do not live in the Soviet Union, or be fired. Maybe both.
On the gun bigot and BS 'statistics' front we once again wind up at Momlogic
for this claim, and Kevin taking it apart:
Gun Accidents Kill 500 Kids Each Year
Advice every parent needs to hear about firearm safety.
This week, an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in California.
"It's a tragic case of a sibling who picked up a firearm, thinking it was a toy, pointed it at his sister and discharged one round from the firearm, striking her in the head," said Vacaville Police Sgt. Charlie Spruill.
But these aren't freak accidents. More than 500 children die annually from accidental gunshots. Some shoot themselves, while others kill friends or siblings after discovering a gun.
Here are more scary stats: Americans own 200 million firearms, and 35 percent of homes contain at least one gun. Last year, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 1.7 million children live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns.
There's more, but this is enough.
The part I've emphasized in bold? It's a lie.
It's a blatant, bold-faced lie.
It's also not an isolated incident. It's not even uncommon.
Someone you know points to Momlogic and the other hysteria-mongers, point them to Kevin's place. If nothing else, it'll annoy the crap out of them.
Gun Accidents Kill 500 Kids Each Year
Advice every parent needs to hear about firearm safety.
This week, an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister in California.
"It's a tragic case of a sibling who picked up a firearm, thinking it was a toy, pointed it at his sister and discharged one round from the firearm, striking her in the head," said Vacaville Police Sgt. Charlie Spruill.
But these aren't freak accidents. More than 500 children die annually from accidental gunshots. Some shoot themselves, while others kill friends or siblings after discovering a gun.
Here are more scary stats: Americans own 200 million firearms, and 35 percent of homes contain at least one gun. Last year, a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 1.7 million children live in homes with loaded and unlocked guns.
There's more, but this is enough.
The part I've emphasized in bold? It's a lie.
It's a blatant, bold-faced lie.
It's also not an isolated incident. It's not even uncommon.
Someone you know points to Momlogic and the other hysteria-mongers, point them to Kevin's place. If nothing else, it'll annoy the crap out of them.
Think of an alternate universe where the Soviet Union was defeated in war,
the Nazi state fell apart after decades of cold war and, years later, a bunch of politicians and academics are- often openly- either sympathetic to or pledge themselves to part or all of the Nazi Party beliefs and actions. Pretty much unthinkable, but turn it around and it's common: an awful lot of people apologize for, cling to or openly push the most murderous political philosophy in history.
And most people either don't think anything of it or just won't talk about it.
For evidence of this indifference, consider the unread Soviet archives. Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, has on his computer 50,000 unpublished, untranslated, top-secret Kremlin documents, mostly dating from the close of the Cold War. He stole them in 2003 and fled Russia. Within living memory, they would have been worth millions to the CIA; they surely tell a story about Communism and its collapse that the world needs to know. Yet he can’t get anyone to house them in a reputable library, publish them, or fund their translation. In fact, he can’t get anyone to take much interest in them at all.
...
The Russian state cannot sue Stroilov or Bukovsky for breach of copyright, since the material was created by the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, neither of which now exists. Had he remained in Russia, however, Stroilov believes that he could have been prosecuted for disclosure of state secrets or treason. The military historian Igor Sutyagin is now serving 15 years in a hard-labor camp for the crime of collecting newspaper clippings and other open-source materials and sending them to a British consulting firm. The danger that Stroilov and Bukovsky faced was real and grave; they both assumed, one imagines, that the world would take notice of what they had risked so much to acquire.
...
Stroilov’s documents also contain transcripts of Gorbachev’s discussions with many Middle Eastern leaders. These suggest interesting connections between Soviet policy and contemporary trends in Russian foreign policy. Here is a fragment from a conversation reported to have taken place with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad on April 28, 1990:
Kinnock was vice president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004, and his wife, Glenys, is now Britain’s minister for Europe. Gerard Batten, a member of the UK Independence Party, has noted the significance of the episode. “If the report given to Mr. Gorbachev is true, it means that Lord Kinnock approached one of Britain’s enemies in order to seek approval regarding his party’s defense policy and, had he been elected, Britain’s defense policy,” Batten said to the European Parliament in 2009. “If this report is true, then Lord Kinnock would be guilty of treason.”
And back over here,
And what of Zagladin’s description of his dealings with our own current vice president in 1979?
And most people either don't think anything of it or just won't talk about it.
For evidence of this indifference, consider the unread Soviet archives. Pavel Stroilov, a Russian exile in London, has on his computer 50,000 unpublished, untranslated, top-secret Kremlin documents, mostly dating from the close of the Cold War. He stole them in 2003 and fled Russia. Within living memory, they would have been worth millions to the CIA; they surely tell a story about Communism and its collapse that the world needs to know. Yet he can’t get anyone to house them in a reputable library, publish them, or fund their translation. In fact, he can’t get anyone to take much interest in them at all.
...
The Russian state cannot sue Stroilov or Bukovsky for breach of copyright, since the material was created by the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, neither of which now exists. Had he remained in Russia, however, Stroilov believes that he could have been prosecuted for disclosure of state secrets or treason. The military historian Igor Sutyagin is now serving 15 years in a hard-labor camp for the crime of collecting newspaper clippings and other open-source materials and sending them to a British consulting firm. The danger that Stroilov and Bukovsky faced was real and grave; they both assumed, one imagines, that the world would take notice of what they had risked so much to acquire.
...
Stroilov’s documents also contain transcripts of Gorbachev’s discussions with many Middle Eastern leaders. These suggest interesting connections between Soviet policy and contemporary trends in Russian foreign policy. Here is a fragment from a conversation reported to have taken place with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad on April 28, 1990:
H. ASSAD. To put pressure on Israel, Baghdad would need to get closer to Damascus, because Iraq has no common borders with Israel. . . .
M. S. GORBACHEV. I think so, too. . . .
H. ASSAD. Israel’s approach is different, because the Judaic religion itself states: the land of Israel spreads from Nile to Euphrates and its return is a divine predestination.
M. S. GORBACHEV. But this is racism, combined with Messianism!
H. ASSAD. This is the most dangerous form of racism.
One doesn’t need to be a fantasist to wonder whether these discussions might be relevant to our understanding of contemporary Russian policy in a region of some enduring strategic significance.
Remember it coming out that Sen. Ted Kennedy committed what amounted to treason, wanting to work with the Soviets to undermine President Reagan? Well, on the British side,
Zagladin’s records also note that the former leader of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, approached Gorbachev—unauthorized, while Kinnock was leader of the opposition—through a secret envoy to discuss the possibility of halting the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear-missile program. The minutes of the meeting between Gorbachev and the envoy, MP Stuart Holland, read as follows:
In [Holland’s] opinion, Soviet Union should be very interested in liquidation of “Tridents” because, apart from other things, the West—meaning the US, Britain and France—would have a serious advantage over the Soviet Union after the completion of START treaty. That advantage will need to be eliminated. . . . At the same time Holland noted that, of course, we can seriously think about realisation of that idea only if the Labour comes to power. He said Thatcher . . . would never agree to any reduction of nuclear armaments.
Kinnock was vice president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004, and his wife, Glenys, is now Britain’s minister for Europe. Gerard Batten, a member of the UK Independence Party, has noted the significance of the episode. “If the report given to Mr. Gorbachev is true, it means that Lord Kinnock approached one of Britain’s enemies in order to seek approval regarding his party’s defense policy and, had he been elected, Britain’s defense policy,” Batten said to the European Parliament in 2009. “If this report is true, then Lord Kinnock would be guilty of treason.”
And back over here,
And what of Zagladin’s description of his dealings with our own current vice president in 1979?
Unofficially, [Senator Joseph] Biden and [Senator Richard] Lugar said that, in the end of the day, they were not so much concerned with having a problem of this or that citizen solved as with showing to the American public that they do care for “human rights.” . . . In other words, the collocutors directly admitted that what is happening is a kind of a show, that they absolutely do not care for the fate of most so-called dissidents.
Remarkably, the world has shown little interest in the unread Soviet archives. That paragraph about Biden is a good example. Stroilov and Bukovsky coauthored a piece about it for the online magazine FrontPage on October 10, 2008; it passed without remark. Americans considered the episode so uninteresting that even Biden’s political opponents didn’t try to turn it into political capital. Imagine, if you can, what it must feel like to have spent the prime of your life in a Soviet psychiatric hospital, to know that Joe Biden is now vice president of the United States, and to know that no one gives a damn.
A lot of interesting and very discouraging information; the discouraging because so few seem to care about it.Well, if there was any doubt this would make it official: AG Eric Holder
is nothing more than a politically-motivated dirtbag.
“I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is,” Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.
This weekend Mr. Holder told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the Arizona law “has the possibility of leading to racial profiling.” He had earlier called the law’s passage “unfortunate,” and questioned whether the law was unconstitutional because it tried to assume powers that may be reserved for the federal government.
Rep. Ted Poe, who had questioned Mr. Holder about the law, wondered how he could have those opinions if he hadn’t yet read the legislation.
“It’s hard for me to understand how you would have concerns about something being unconstitutional if you haven’t even read the law,” the Texas Republican told the attorney general.
He's the friggin' AG of the United States, and can't even be bothered to read the effing law that he's criticizing! And why the HELL can't he interact with people doing the review'? The question from PJM: "Are they deliberately not reading it so that they have an excuse to walk back their criticisms later if this gets too hot politically?"
This is what we get with Obama's buttmonkeys. Or is it his controllers? Deity knows.
“I’ve just expressed concerns on the basis of what I’ve heard about the law. But I’m not in a position to say at this point, not having read the law, not having had the chance to interact with people are doing the review, exactly what my position is,” Mr. Holder told the House Judiciary Committee.
This weekend Mr. Holder told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that the Arizona law “has the possibility of leading to racial profiling.” He had earlier called the law’s passage “unfortunate,” and questioned whether the law was unconstitutional because it tried to assume powers that may be reserved for the federal government.
Rep. Ted Poe, who had questioned Mr. Holder about the law, wondered how he could have those opinions if he hadn’t yet read the legislation.
“It’s hard for me to understand how you would have concerns about something being unconstitutional if you haven’t even read the law,” the Texas Republican told the attorney general.
He's the friggin' AG of the United States, and can't even be bothered to read the effing law that he's criticizing! And why the HELL can't he interact with people doing the review'? The question from PJM: "Are they deliberately not reading it so that they have an excuse to walk back their criticisms later if this gets too hot politically?"
This is what we get with Obama's buttmonkeys. Or is it his controllers? Deity knows.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
From the Real King of France, a reminder of why I think Barney Frank
and a bunch of the other National Socialists in Congress are such corrupt bastards:
Renewed scrutiny of the two institutions would remind the public that senior Democrats were in bed, sometimes literally, with Fannie and Freddie. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts spent a number of years blocking various attempts to regulate government-sponsored enterprises, famously saying that that he did not see any "safety and soundness" problems worthy of note. There was good reason for Mr. Frank to look the other way, given his history of close association with Herb Moses, Fannie's assistant director for product initiatives from 1991 to 1998.
* Democrats were friends with financial benefits from Fannie and Freddie. Franklin Raines, a former Carter- and Clinton-administration official, pocketed $90 million as Fannie Mae's CEO - a figure bolstered by the agency's overstated earnings.
* Former Clinton appointee Jamie Gorelick was paid $26 million as Fannie's vice chairman
* Democratic honcho Jim Johnson, who led Sen. John Kerry's vice presidential search committee and temporarily led Mr. Obama's veep search, enjoyed $21 million.
* Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of the outrageously risky mortgages that proved to be Countrywide's undoing.
* Barack Obama was the second-largest recipient of contributions from Fannie and Freddie sources during his brief Senate tenure.
* Given below-market loans directly by Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo were Mr. Raines, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
Also on Frank, just because I like it,
Renewed scrutiny of the two institutions would remind the public that senior Democrats were in bed, sometimes literally, with Fannie and Freddie. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts spent a number of years blocking various attempts to regulate government-sponsored enterprises, famously saying that that he did not see any "safety and soundness" problems worthy of note. There was good reason for Mr. Frank to look the other way, given his history of close association with Herb Moses, Fannie's assistant director for product initiatives from 1991 to 1998.
* Democrats were friends with financial benefits from Fannie and Freddie. Franklin Raines, a former Carter- and Clinton-administration official, pocketed $90 million as Fannie Mae's CEO - a figure bolstered by the agency's overstated earnings.
* Former Clinton appointee Jamie Gorelick was paid $26 million as Fannie's vice chairman
* Democratic honcho Jim Johnson, who led Sen. John Kerry's vice presidential search committee and temporarily led Mr. Obama's veep search, enjoyed $21 million.
* Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Fannie Mae was the biggest buyer of the outrageously risky mortgages that proved to be Countrywide's undoing.
* Barack Obama was the second-largest recipient of contributions from Fannie and Freddie sources during his brief Senate tenure.
* Given below-market loans directly by Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo were Mr. Raines, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.
Also on Frank, just because I like it,
Ok, let's start with Obama's "If you make less than" tax promise
that his mouthpiece is now saying was 'just a preference':
Remember President Obama’s supposedly inviolable pledge—repeatedly uttered during the 2008 campaign and at countless town meetings since the inauguration—that he would never raise taxes on middle-class citizens who earn $250,000 a year or less?
This morning at a Manhattan breakfast sponsored by Thomson Reuters, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag threw that pledge out the window. Instead, he described Obama’s “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge as a “stance” and a “preference” that is subject to study by the president’s newly-formed bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility.
“The president has been very clear about what he prefers,” Orszag said under questioning from Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland.
Yes, he has, and that's the damned problem, you miserable little squint.
Ah, isn't the thought process of the Obama group wonderful...
The Department of Homeland Security decided Wednesday to go through with cuts to New York anti-terrorism funding, just 11 days after the Times Square car bombing attempt.
Rep. Pete King's office said the final DHS budget decision for the year gives the New York City area $111 million for transit security - a 27% cut from last year's funding of $153 million.
Also, the port security program for the metro-area is area is getting chopped from $45 million to $33.8 million - a cut of 25%.
which is followed by
Obama is expected to be in New York City Thursday for a Democratic fundraiser and to shake hands with many of the first responders of the attempted Times Square bombing. And he can expect an earful.
Coming barely two weeks after the bombing attempt, Democrats and Republicans call the cuts an indefensible slap in the face.
...
The President is slated to headline a superswank, $50,000-per-couple fund-raiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at Manhattan's gilded St. Regis hotel on Fifth Ave.
The high-dollar affair will feature fine French food, a bevy of Wall Street titans and 23 Congress members - including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Even that sorry little camera-chaser Schumer is shocked. Usually that'd be a place for a picture of Capt. Renault, but I think Schumer probably really is this time; maybe he's starting to understand that Obama really doesn't give a rats ass what happens to NYEffin'C as long as he can move his plans along.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi(Lying Bitch Socialist-CA): “We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It”. And what's in it includes
ObamaCare sweeps away a host of state regulations and permanently alters our state’s insurance market. From now on, the federal government will manage the health care of all Washingtonians. The 2,700-page law contains a complex web of mandates, directives, price controls, tax increases and subsidies.
Tax on tanning. Imposes a 10 percent tax on services at tanning salons. Business owners will collect the tax from customers and send it to the federal government. This appears to be the first federal sales tax in the United States.
The new law falls well short of universal coverage. ObamaCare will leave about 6 percent of Washington residents without coverage. The measure is conservatively expected to cost $2.4 trillion in its first full decade. Thousands of older Washingtonians will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage, and the state’s 120,000 Health Savings Account holders may need to buy new policies or face stiff penalties.
Washington residents will begin paying ObamaCare taxes this year, while most benefits don’t start until 2014. The law includes some 19 new taxes. Here’s a rundown of what Washingtonians can expect in the coming years.
And one of those things?
Tax on Home Sales. Imposes a 3.8 percent tax on home sales and other real estate transactions. Middle-income people must pay the full tax even if they are “rich” for only one day – the day they sell their house and buy a new one.
You know, I'm getting dangerously close to wishing disease and disaster on some people.
You've heard all the crap about Arizona 'banning ethnic studies classes'? Guess what's actually banned:
The law prohibits the teaching of any classes that promote “the overthrow of the United States government,” “resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
If banning those things bans 'ethnic studies', then so be it.
Mamby-pamby, mealy-mouthed drivel about how they're "homegrown" completely misses the point. Timothy McVeigh, homegrown. Bill Ayers, homegrown. Faisal Shahzad, radical Muslim from Pakistan.
See the difference?
Well, you sorry excuse for a lawman, what happens if the 'proper emergency services' don't show up? You just stand there and watch her drown?
Speaking of the enemy we're dealing with,
University of California at San Diego Student Tells David Horowitz She's Up For Another Holocaust
Shockingly, she's a member of the Muslim Student Association.
You have to stick with it to the end for the real (but not very surprising) gut punch but it's worth it.
Video follows, then
I love how she starts it off with the traditional liberal pablum about dialogue and exchanging ideas. She isn't interested in exchanging ideas, she's interested in seeing Jews die a the hands of her coreligionists.
There are always going to be cranks and nasty pieces of works in the world but right now, we are in the business of creating them through what our schools do and do not teach.
And now, life other than bloggage calls.
Remember President Obama’s supposedly inviolable pledge—repeatedly uttered during the 2008 campaign and at countless town meetings since the inauguration—that he would never raise taxes on middle-class citizens who earn $250,000 a year or less?
This morning at a Manhattan breakfast sponsored by Thomson Reuters, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag threw that pledge out the window. Instead, he described Obama’s “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge as a “stance” and a “preference” that is subject to study by the president’s newly-formed bipartisan Commission on Fiscal Responsibility.
“The president has been very clear about what he prefers,” Orszag said under questioning from Thomson Reuters’ Chrystia Freeland.
Yes, he has, and that's the damned problem, you miserable little squint.
Ah, isn't the thought process of the Obama group wonderful...
The Department of Homeland Security decided Wednesday to go through with cuts to New York anti-terrorism funding, just 11 days after the Times Square car bombing attempt.
Rep. Pete King's office said the final DHS budget decision for the year gives the New York City area $111 million for transit security - a 27% cut from last year's funding of $153 million.
Also, the port security program for the metro-area is area is getting chopped from $45 million to $33.8 million - a cut of 25%.
which is followed by
Obama is expected to be in New York City Thursday for a Democratic fundraiser and to shake hands with many of the first responders of the attempted Times Square bombing. And he can expect an earful.
Coming barely two weeks after the bombing attempt, Democrats and Republicans call the cuts an indefensible slap in the face.
...
The President is slated to headline a superswank, $50,000-per-couple fund-raiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at Manhattan's gilded St. Regis hotel on Fifth Ave.
The high-dollar affair will feature fine French food, a bevy of Wall Street titans and 23 Congress members - including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Even that sorry little camera-chaser Schumer is shocked. Usually that'd be a place for a picture of Capt. Renault, but I think Schumer probably really is this time; maybe he's starting to understand that Obama really doesn't give a rats ass what happens to NYEffin'C as long as he can move his plans along.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi(Lying Bitch Socialist-CA): “We Have to Pass the Bill So That You Can Find Out What Is In It”. And what's in it includes
ObamaCare sweeps away a host of state regulations and permanently alters our state’s insurance market. From now on, the federal government will manage the health care of all Washingtonians. The 2,700-page law contains a complex web of mandates, directives, price controls, tax increases and subsidies.
Tax on tanning. Imposes a 10 percent tax on services at tanning salons. Business owners will collect the tax from customers and send it to the federal government. This appears to be the first federal sales tax in the United States.
The new law falls well short of universal coverage. ObamaCare will leave about 6 percent of Washington residents without coverage. The measure is conservatively expected to cost $2.4 trillion in its first full decade. Thousands of older Washingtonians will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage, and the state’s 120,000 Health Savings Account holders may need to buy new policies or face stiff penalties.
Washington residents will begin paying ObamaCare taxes this year, while most benefits don’t start until 2014. The law includes some 19 new taxes. Here’s a rundown of what Washingtonians can expect in the coming years.
And one of those things?
Tax on Home Sales. Imposes a 3.8 percent tax on home sales and other real estate transactions. Middle-income people must pay the full tax even if they are “rich” for only one day – the day they sell their house and buy a new one.
You know, I'm getting dangerously close to wishing disease and disaster on some people.
You've heard all the crap about Arizona 'banning ethnic studies classes'? Guess what's actually banned:
The law prohibits the teaching of any classes that promote “the overthrow of the United States government,” “resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
If banning those things bans 'ethnic studies', then so be it.
Mamby-pamby, mealy-mouthed drivel about how they're "homegrown" completely misses the point. Timothy McVeigh, homegrown. Bill Ayers, homegrown. Faisal Shahzad, radical Muslim from Pakistan.
See the difference?
Well, you sorry excuse for a lawman, what happens if the 'proper emergency services' don't show up? You just stand there and watch her drown?
Speaking of the enemy we're dealing with,
University of California at San Diego Student Tells David Horowitz She's Up For Another Holocaust
Shockingly, she's a member of the Muslim Student Association.
You have to stick with it to the end for the real (but not very surprising) gut punch but it's worth it.
Video follows, then
I love how she starts it off with the traditional liberal pablum about dialogue and exchanging ideas. She isn't interested in exchanging ideas, she's interested in seeing Jews die a the hands of her coreligionists.
There are always going to be cranks and nasty pieces of works in the world but right now, we are in the business of creating them through what our schools do and do not teach.
And now, life other than bloggage calls.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Why the hell hasn't EVERYBODY heard about the Warrior Olympics?
Army Sgt. 1st Class Jacque Keeslar had both legs blown off when the Stryker vehicle in which he was manning a .50-caliber machine gun hit a roadside bomb in Rawah, Iraq, in June 2006.
Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Cheramie lost his left leg below the knee when he stepped on a bomb while on patrol in Now Zad, Afghanistan, in December 2008.
... Keeslar, 40, will compete in swimming events, shotput and wheelchair basketball. Cheramie, 21, is set to swim the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter breast stroke.
Cheramie has been a patient at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Keeslar is a platoon sergeant at the barracks for wounded and injured personnel receiving therapy at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, which is sending 10 athletes (one sailor, seven soldiers, two Marines) to the games.
Both centers specialize in the use of prosthetics and in guiding personnel back to active lifestyles through sports. In San Diego, the center has classes in archery, scuba diving, rock-climbing, volleyball, kayaking, surfing and more.
"It's that competitive thing," Keeslar said. "It's very healing."
Cheramie said he hopes to serve as a role model for other military personnel.
"I want to show them it's not over just because you've been injured," Cheramie said in a telephone interview. "Everybody goes through that 'I'm ugly, nobody will love me, I'm stuck in a wheelchair' depression. You have to move on."
Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Cheramie lost his left leg below the knee when he stepped on a bomb while on patrol in Now Zad, Afghanistan, in December 2008.
... Keeslar, 40, will compete in swimming events, shotput and wheelchair basketball. Cheramie, 21, is set to swim the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter breast stroke.
Cheramie has been a patient at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Keeslar is a platoon sergeant at the barracks for wounded and injured personnel receiving therapy at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, which is sending 10 athletes (one sailor, seven soldiers, two Marines) to the games.
Both centers specialize in the use of prosthetics and in guiding personnel back to active lifestyles through sports. In San Diego, the center has classes in archery, scuba diving, rock-climbing, volleyball, kayaking, surfing and more.
"It's that competitive thing," Keeslar said. "It's very healing."
Cheramie said he hopes to serve as a role model for other military personnel.
"I want to show them it's not over just because you've been injured," Cheramie said in a telephone interview. "Everybody goes through that 'I'm ugly, nobody will love me, I'm stuck in a wheelchair' depression. You have to move on."
Ref that story on Bellesiles new book and the claim that the NRA
'swiftboated' him, Jim Lindgren takes that bullshit apart. Including this:
Just what is it that the NRA is supposed to have done when it wouldn’t fund — even modestly – Clayton Cramer’s researching sources in the book?
And what is the process by which the NRA influenced the History Chair at Emory and Emory’s Provost to institute a formal investigation, or influenced Bellesiles’s colleagues at Emory to find against him, or influenced the outside panel to find against him, including Laurel Ulrich and Stanley Katz (a signatory to Bellesiles’ anti-NRA letter), or influenced the Provost at Columbia to instigate a review of the Bancroft Prize, or influenced me, or influenced Robert Churchill, or influenced Eric Monkkonen, or influenced the Wm & Mary Q. reviewers, including Randy Roth and Gloria Main?
...
Spreading patently ridiculous NRA conspiracy stories, as the New Press editor is doing, is irresponsible and frankly ahistorical. If the editor is honest, he or she will look into the basis for her claim and correct her misstatement.
It is ironic that a historian whose book spread unsupported and untrue stories about early America is now defended by an editor at the New Press who is spreading unsupported and untrue stories about the dispute over that book.
As we discovered in 2000, some people are incredibly gullible when they really, really want to believe.
Just what is it that the NRA is supposed to have done when it wouldn’t fund — even modestly – Clayton Cramer’s researching sources in the book?
And what is the process by which the NRA influenced the History Chair at Emory and Emory’s Provost to institute a formal investigation, or influenced Bellesiles’s colleagues at Emory to find against him, or influenced the outside panel to find against him, including Laurel Ulrich and Stanley Katz (a signatory to Bellesiles’ anti-NRA letter), or influenced the Provost at Columbia to instigate a review of the Bancroft Prize, or influenced me, or influenced Robert Churchill, or influenced Eric Monkkonen, or influenced the Wm & Mary Q. reviewers, including Randy Roth and Gloria Main?
...
Spreading patently ridiculous NRA conspiracy stories, as the New Press editor is doing, is irresponsible and frankly ahistorical. If the editor is honest, he or she will look into the basis for her claim and correct her misstatement.
It is ironic that a historian whose book spread unsupported and untrue stories about early America is now defended by an editor at the New Press who is spreading unsupported and untrue stories about the dispute over that book.
As we discovered in 2000, some people are incredibly gullible when they really, really want to believe.
The Columbia Police Department is catching a full ration of crap
over this raid, as they should; maybe, just maybe, having that many of the citizens pissed at them and their methods will cause some change. The problem?
But despite all the anger the raid has inspired, the only thing unusual thing here is that the raid was captured on video, and that the video was subsequently released to the press. Everything else was routine. Save for the outrage coming from Columbia residents themselves, therefore, the mass anger directed at the Columbia Police Department over the last week is misdirected. Raids just like the one captured in the video happen 100-150 times every day in America. Those angered by that video should probably look to their own communities. Odds are pretty good that your local police department is doing the same thing.
And if they are, they deserve the same level of crap Columbia PD is getting.
I like Insty's idea:
"I’d be happy withstripping official immunity in no-knock raids, so that police — and, more significantly, supervising officials — would become liable for anything that goes wrong. No-knock raids should be extraordinary measures, only used when there is imminent threat of death or great bodily harm. That’s not the case in the vast, vast majority of no-knock raids. And illegal breakins are . . . illegal. They don’t become less so, somehow, when engaged in by those sworn to uphold the law."
But despite all the anger the raid has inspired, the only thing unusual thing here is that the raid was captured on video, and that the video was subsequently released to the press. Everything else was routine. Save for the outrage coming from Columbia residents themselves, therefore, the mass anger directed at the Columbia Police Department over the last week is misdirected. Raids just like the one captured in the video happen 100-150 times every day in America. Those angered by that video should probably look to their own communities. Odds are pretty good that your local police department is doing the same thing.
And if they are, they deserve the same level of crap Columbia PD is getting.
I like Insty's idea:
"I’d be happy withstripping official immunity in no-knock raids, so that police — and, more significantly, supervising officials — would become liable for anything that goes wrong. No-knock raids should be extraordinary measures, only used when there is imminent threat of death or great bodily harm. That’s not the case in the vast, vast majority of no-knock raids. And illegal breakins are . . . illegal. They don’t become less so, somehow, when engaged in by those sworn to uphold the law."
Well, we've got more chance of nasty storms later today
And tonight. And more high chances of rain through Saturday.
Yeesh. This would indicate that Kagan is NOT somebody I'd want as one of the Supremes:
Defending a 1999 federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty, Kagan boldly asked the Supreme Court to recognize a new category of speech that, along with such historical exceptions as defamation, incitement, and obscenity, is entirely outside the scope of the First Amendment. "Whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection," she wrote, "depends upon a categorical balancing of the value of the speech against its societal costs."
...
Defending federal restrictions on political speech by corporations, Kagan tried to paper over an equally startling claim by Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart, who had told the Court that the Federal Election Commission could ban books in the name of preventing the appearance of corruption. "The government's answer has changed," she said during a second round of oral arguments in September. But it later became clear that she agreed with Stewart, athough she tried to reassure the Court by emphasizing that so far the FEC had not tried to ban any books.
Don't know about you, but both of those examples show a serious lack of respect for the 1st Amendment that would be scary as hell in a Justice; it's scary as hell from a solicitor general. Read the rest.
Corrupt 'historian' Bellesiles is back, and get this from the publishers letter on the new book:
1877 is also notable as the comeback book for a celebrated U.S. historian. Michael Bellesiles is perhaps most famous as the target of an infamous “swiftboating” campaign by the National Rifle Association, following the publication of his Bancroft Prize-winning book Arming America (Knopf, 2000) — “the best kind of non-fiction,” according to the Chicago Tribune — which made daring claims about gun ownership in early America. In what became the history profession’s most talked-about and notorious case of the past generation, Arming America was eventually discredited after an unprecedented and controversial review called into question its sources, charges which Bellesiles and his many prominent supporters have always rejected.”
Note the 'swiftboating' accusation; I guess that's the substitute for "He really messed up." Yeah, his supporters 'rejected' it because he'd said what they wanted said and to hell with facts and accuracy. From the report on his 'scholarly' work:
We have interviewed Professor Bellesiles and found him both cooperative and respectful of this process. Yet the best that can be said of his work with the probate and militia records is that he is guilty of unprofessional and misleading work. Every aspect of his work in the probate records is deeply flawed. Even allowing for the loss of some of his research materials, he appears not to have been systematic in selecting repositories or collections of probate records for examination and his recording methods were at best primitive and altogether unsystematic. Bellesiles seems to have been utterly unaware of the importance of the possibility of the replication of his research. Subsequent to the allegations of research misconduct, his responses have been prolix, confusing, evasive and occasionally contradictory. We are surprised and troubled that Bellesiles has not availed himself of the opportunities he has had since the notice of this investigation to examine, identify and share his remaining research materials. Even at this point, it is not clear that he fully understands the magnitude of his own probate research shortcomings.
In an academic climate very friendly toward his conclusions, he got his ass handed to him because the evidence of everything from sloppy methods, misquoting and flat lying was undeniable. But the GFWs and academics(serious overlap there) still reject the findings. Gives you all kinds of confidence in them, doesn't it?
There's more, but I'm out of time; more stuff later.
Yeesh. This would indicate that Kagan is NOT somebody I'd want as one of the Supremes:
Defending a 1999 federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty, Kagan boldly asked the Supreme Court to recognize a new category of speech that, along with such historical exceptions as defamation, incitement, and obscenity, is entirely outside the scope of the First Amendment. "Whether a given category of speech enjoys First Amendment protection," she wrote, "depends upon a categorical balancing of the value of the speech against its societal costs."
...
Defending federal restrictions on political speech by corporations, Kagan tried to paper over an equally startling claim by Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart, who had told the Court that the Federal Election Commission could ban books in the name of preventing the appearance of corruption. "The government's answer has changed," she said during a second round of oral arguments in September. But it later became clear that she agreed with Stewart, athough she tried to reassure the Court by emphasizing that so far the FEC had not tried to ban any books.
Don't know about you, but both of those examples show a serious lack of respect for the 1st Amendment that would be scary as hell in a Justice; it's scary as hell from a solicitor general. Read the rest.
Corrupt 'historian' Bellesiles is back, and get this from the publishers letter on the new book:
1877 is also notable as the comeback book for a celebrated U.S. historian. Michael Bellesiles is perhaps most famous as the target of an infamous “swiftboating” campaign by the National Rifle Association, following the publication of his Bancroft Prize-winning book Arming America (Knopf, 2000) — “the best kind of non-fiction,” according to the Chicago Tribune — which made daring claims about gun ownership in early America. In what became the history profession’s most talked-about and notorious case of the past generation, Arming America was eventually discredited after an unprecedented and controversial review called into question its sources, charges which Bellesiles and his many prominent supporters have always rejected.”
Note the 'swiftboating' accusation; I guess that's the substitute for "He really messed up." Yeah, his supporters 'rejected' it because he'd said what they wanted said and to hell with facts and accuracy. From the report on his 'scholarly' work:
We have interviewed Professor Bellesiles and found him both cooperative and respectful of this process. Yet the best that can be said of his work with the probate and militia records is that he is guilty of unprofessional and misleading work. Every aspect of his work in the probate records is deeply flawed. Even allowing for the loss of some of his research materials, he appears not to have been systematic in selecting repositories or collections of probate records for examination and his recording methods were at best primitive and altogether unsystematic. Bellesiles seems to have been utterly unaware of the importance of the possibility of the replication of his research. Subsequent to the allegations of research misconduct, his responses have been prolix, confusing, evasive and occasionally contradictory. We are surprised and troubled that Bellesiles has not availed himself of the opportunities he has had since the notice of this investigation to examine, identify and share his remaining research materials. Even at this point, it is not clear that he fully understands the magnitude of his own probate research shortcomings.
In an academic climate very friendly toward his conclusions, he got his ass handed to him because the evidence of everything from sloppy methods, misquoting and flat lying was undeniable. But the GFWs and academics(serious overlap there) still reject the findings. Gives you all kinds of confidence in them, doesn't it?
There's more, but I'm out of time; more stuff later.
The enemy we're dealing with
Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist, sketched some caricatures of Mohammed as a dog back in 2007, and for his efforts earned himself a fatwa — a death sentence issued by the good clerics of Al Qaeda in Iraq for the capital crime of depicting Islam’s prophet. Today that death sentence was nearly carried out as Vilks was assaulted (by a Muslim screaming “Allahu Ackbar!”) while giving a lecture in Uppsala, Sweden about his experiences with censorship. Luckily, Vilks survived; unluckily, he was headbutted directly in his face by the attacker; Vilks’ glasses were smashed, but police were on hand to prevent the follow-up beheading which the
...
But the video is remarkable in a different way: It shows dozens of Muslims repeatedly screaming “Allahu Ackbar” in what looks like religious ecstasy over violence committed in their name, and joy over witnessing an attempted murder as punishment for blasphemy.
This happened today in Sweden, mind you, not during the Middle Ages nor even in 2001 in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Right now, in what is supposed to be the most liberal and progressive nation in the world.
...
But the video is remarkable in a different way: It shows dozens of Muslims repeatedly screaming “Allahu Ackbar” in what looks like religious ecstasy over violence committed in their name, and joy over witnessing an attempted murder as punishment for blasphemy.
This happened today in Sweden, mind you, not during the Middle Ages nor even in 2001 in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Right now, in what is supposed to be the most liberal and progressive nation in the world.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
There are people who really SHOULD get lost in the desert
The 7-foot-tall metal cross that has stood in California's Mojave Desert for 75 years and withstood a hard-fought battle in the Supreme Court was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to state officials.
A very interesting interview (link fixed)
of Paul Berman by Michael Totten. One excerpt:
Paul Berman: He has different kinds of defenders. Some of those people are his own fans or followers. But he also has defenders in the Western liberal press who are not themselves Muslims and certainly have no relation to the Islamist political movement.
MJT: You provided some examples in your book
, and I've some experience with this myself. I was in Beirut when the Syrian military was finally thrown out by a million citizens taking to the streets, and the whole thing was dismissed by some people in the West as a right-wing Christian Gucci revolution.
Paul Berman: He has different kinds of defenders. Some of those people are his own fans or followers. But he also has defenders in the Western liberal press who are not themselves Muslims and certainly have no relation to the Islamist political movement.
The Western liberals, some of them, defend Ramadan for two reasons. If you listen to Ramadan for fifteen minutes, you will learn that he says all the right things, whatever a liberal-minded person would want such a man to say.
MJT: He does.
Paul Berman: He's against bigotry, he's against anti-Semitism, he's against terrorism, he's for the rights of women, he's in favor of democratic liberties, he's for a tolerant and multi-religious society ruled ultimately by secular values. He's for science, learning, and enlightenment. He's in favor of every possible good thing. There isn't a single objectionable point in the first fifteen minutes of his presentation.
MJT: Yes.
Paul Berman: Unfortunately, the sixteenth minute arrives, and, if you are still paying attention, you learn that he wants us to revere the most vicious and reactionary of Islamist sheikhs -- the people who promote violence, bigotry, totalitarianism, and terror. The sixteenth minute is not good. The liberal quality of his thinking falls apart entirely.
However, his liberal admirers in the Western press stop paying attention in the fifteenth minute, and they rush to acclaim him. They do it by mistake. That's one reason.
And one more:MJT: You provided some examples in your book
, and I've some experience with this myself. I was in Beirut when the Syrian military was finally thrown out by a million citizens taking to the streets, and the whole thing was dismissed by some people in the West as a right-wing Christian Gucci revolution. Paul Berman: Yes.
MJT: It was absolutely appalling, and I will never forget it. To this day I get hate mail from these kinds of people when I write about Lebanon.
Paul Berman: It really is something remarkable. I can understand it intellectually, but not emotionally. It comes from some old and very unattractive currents in Western thought that we can see over the course of the 20th century.
Remember, a lot of people despised the Soviet dissidents, too.
MJT: Right. What do you think causes this? I think I have it mostly figured out, but I still feel like I'm missing something.
Paul Berman: Well, I don't have it entirely figured out either. [Laughs.] But I note it. In regard to the Soviet dissidents of the past, at least nowadays there is a consensus of opinion that, yes, the dissidents were correct and we should have listened to them. So why didn't we? When I say "we," I mean the intellectual community as a whole in the Western countries. And it's for a whole set of reasons.
Well worth readingStarting off with the weather
According to the NWS, the official count is ten tornadoes yesterday afternoon/evening. Five confirmed dead statewide. Our weather weenies are no better than any others at the "This will be the weather in fifty years" crap, but when it comes to 'later today, right now' they're pretty good, so people got warning.
Used to have a neighbor, originally from New York, who was scared bleepless of the very thought of a tornado, and it drove her nuts that when the media started talking about 'circulation in the 'X' area', instead of hiding people would go out to look. But that's Oklahoma.
Moving on, Michelle Malkin has more on Kagan, and also this on one of Obama's people:
Daniel J. Meltzer, a top White House lawyer who has played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the administration legal team, is resigning next month and will return to his tenured position as a Harvard law school professor, the White House said on Friday.
Mr. Meltzer’s last day as the principal deputy counsel to President Obama will be June 1. Since the administration took office, he has worked on nearly every major legal issue the White House has handled, a sprawling portfolio that ranged from domestic policies to national security matters.
…Among other things, Mr. Meltzer played a leading role in the administration’s efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and related policies affecting terrorism detainees.
…In addition, Mr. Meltzer, who teaches courses on the federal courts at Harvard, helped prepare Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor for her confirmation hearings – a role he may reprise in his final weeks by working with Mr. Obama’s forthcoming Supreme Court nominee, which the president is expected to announce as soon as Monday.
I've reached the conclusion that 'Harvard law professor' ought to disqualify someone of damn near ANY position in the government.
If I'm not mistaken, Rep. Barney Frank's(Socialist Lying Dirtbag-MA) boyfriend is still on the board at Fannie May, which is now coming with its hand out for more money. Naw, no conflict of interest there, and somehow this is more evidence of the Evil Party fixing the problem. Yeah.
Obama aides getting chauffeurs; wonder if the media will do any of the same stuff they'd have done if Bush had ordered this?
Tracy Hathaway, of Salinas, CA, told FOX News Radio her 13-year-old daughter was ordered to stop drawing the American flag and start another project at Gavilan View Middle School.
“She had drawn the flag and was sketching the letters, ‘God bless America,’ when the teacher confronted her,” Hathaway told FOX. “She said, ‘You can’t draw that – that’s offensive.’”
Even more striking, another student in the same art class drew a picture of President Obama and was praised by the teacher.
A bunch of teachers and their unions wonder why they don't get the respect they think they deserve; in part it's because of teachers like this.
Further reason to tell the UN to get its corrupt self out of this country:
The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations' public health arm, is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray.
AND tell the organization to go directly to hell.
An encounter with Cindy Sheehan; she does not come off well.
Ok, so these clowns need their Mexican flag slapped to the ground. If they actually believe this crap, they need to leave this oh-so-offensive country and go to live in Mexico.
Pro-open borders protesters in Morgan Hill, California slap the US flag to the ground and then march and hold a rally chanting: “This is occupied Mexico”…”This is all our country…we are all Mexicans”…”We want respect”….”Si Se Puede”
To conclude the morning, from Ace,
Okay it was an internet poll of 9000 women rather than a random sample, but there are still all kinds of statistical goodness here. According to the survey most women make less than $30K a year, 31% have had plastic surgery, 84% claim to be able to parallel park, and a plurality would want to sleep with Zooey Deschanel if they were lesbians and/or had a few cocktails.
Well, hell, can't really blame them for that...
Used to have a neighbor, originally from New York, who was scared bleepless of the very thought of a tornado, and it drove her nuts that when the media started talking about 'circulation in the 'X' area', instead of hiding people would go out to look. But that's Oklahoma.
Moving on, Michelle Malkin has more on Kagan, and also this on one of Obama's people:
Daniel J. Meltzer, a top White House lawyer who has played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the administration legal team, is resigning next month and will return to his tenured position as a Harvard law school professor, the White House said on Friday.
Mr. Meltzer’s last day as the principal deputy counsel to President Obama will be June 1. Since the administration took office, he has worked on nearly every major legal issue the White House has handled, a sprawling portfolio that ranged from domestic policies to national security matters.
…Among other things, Mr. Meltzer played a leading role in the administration’s efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and related policies affecting terrorism detainees.
…In addition, Mr. Meltzer, who teaches courses on the federal courts at Harvard, helped prepare Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor for her confirmation hearings – a role he may reprise in his final weeks by working with Mr. Obama’s forthcoming Supreme Court nominee, which the president is expected to announce as soon as Monday.
I've reached the conclusion that 'Harvard law professor' ought to disqualify someone of damn near ANY position in the government.
If I'm not mistaken, Rep. Barney Frank's(Socialist Lying Dirtbag-MA) boyfriend is still on the board at Fannie May, which is now coming with its hand out for more money. Naw, no conflict of interest there, and somehow this is more evidence of the Evil Party fixing the problem. Yeah.
Obama aides getting chauffeurs; wonder if the media will do any of the same stuff they'd have done if Bush had ordered this?
Tracy Hathaway, of Salinas, CA, told FOX News Radio her 13-year-old daughter was ordered to stop drawing the American flag and start another project at Gavilan View Middle School.
“She had drawn the flag and was sketching the letters, ‘God bless America,’ when the teacher confronted her,” Hathaway told FOX. “She said, ‘You can’t draw that – that’s offensive.’”
Even more striking, another student in the same art class drew a picture of President Obama and was praised by the teacher.
A bunch of teachers and their unions wonder why they don't get the respect they think they deserve; in part it's because of teachers like this.
Further reason to tell the UN to get its corrupt self out of this country:
The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations' public health arm, is moving full speed ahead with a controversial plan to impose global consumer taxes on such things as Internet activity and everyday financial transactions like paying bills online — while its spending soars and its own financial house is in disarray.
AND tell the organization to go directly to hell.
An encounter with Cindy Sheehan; she does not come off well.
Ok, so these clowns need their Mexican flag slapped to the ground. If they actually believe this crap, they need to leave this oh-so-offensive country and go to live in Mexico.
Pro-open borders protesters in Morgan Hill, California slap the US flag to the ground and then march and hold a rally chanting: “This is occupied Mexico”…”This is all our country…we are all Mexicans”…”We want respect”….”Si Se Puede”
To conclude the morning, from Ace,
Okay it was an internet poll of 9000 women rather than a random sample, but there are still all kinds of statistical goodness here. According to the survey most women make less than $30K a year, 31% have had plastic surgery, 84% claim to be able to parallel park, and a plurality would want to sleep with Zooey Deschanel if they were lesbians and/or had a few cocktails.
Well, hell, can't really blame them for that...
Monday, May 10, 2010
The storms all moved east
and it's quiet over all but the southeast part of the state; still a tornado watch there and multiple warnings.
The supercell that came through the OKC metro area? The damn thing reached Arkansas about an hour ago and was causing severe storm warnings there; that's one very long-track storm.
Remember, in Oklahoma sometimes the wind doesn't just sweep down the plain: sometimes it sucks!
The supercell that came through the OKC metro area? The damn thing reached Arkansas about an hour ago and was causing severe storm warnings there; that's one very long-track storm.
Remember, in Oklahoma sometimes the wind doesn't just sweep down the plain: sometimes it sucks!
If this is correct, then Mullah Omar is in custody,
and there's a serious clusterfuck going on in DC. Which the latter isn't any big surprise, but at this level... Not to mention Clinton not being informed.
These Cuban “roqueros’ ” crime?
Why growing long hair, wearing blue jeans and listening to “yankee-imperialist rock music.” The testimony of one such Castroite-victim might be considered particularly noteworthy: “In Cuba freedom is nonexistent,” the rock guitarist told Mexico’s Proceso magazine. “The regime demands submission. It persecutes all hippies, homosexuals, poets and free thinkers. It employs total repression against them.”
This “roquero” divulged the truth only because he’d managed to escape the nation-prison Bonnie Raitt, Chrissie Hynde, Jimmy Buffet, Andy Summers, etc. all herald. That escapees name is Canek Sanchez Guevara– Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s very grandson! The regime co-founded by his grandfather jailed and tortured Canek for the crime of trying to play Rock music!
A crowd of 5,000 Cubans huddled before Bonnie, Jimmy and friends that day in March ‘99, swaying and clapping. Most were Cuban Communist Party members and their families. Let’s step back and contemplate the scene: here are these troubadours for human rights. Here’s the same smarmy gang who boycotted South Africa (”I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City!” thunders Bonnie Raitt herself alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Darryl Hall and scores of similar political imbeciles on the 1985 recording titled, “Artists United Against Apartheid.”)
But she’ll GLADLY play in Havana’s Karl Marx Theater and bask in the applause of an audience pledging proud fealty to the most murderous ideology in human history. Indeed she’ll happily compose a song in their honor–and all on the house!
This “roquero” divulged the truth only because he’d managed to escape the nation-prison Bonnie Raitt, Chrissie Hynde, Jimmy Buffet, Andy Summers, etc. all herald. That escapees name is Canek Sanchez Guevara– Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s very grandson! The regime co-founded by his grandfather jailed and tortured Canek for the crime of trying to play Rock music!
A crowd of 5,000 Cubans huddled before Bonnie, Jimmy and friends that day in March ‘99, swaying and clapping. Most were Cuban Communist Party members and their families. Let’s step back and contemplate the scene: here are these troubadours for human rights. Here’s the same smarmy gang who boycotted South Africa (”I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City!” thunders Bonnie Raitt herself alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Darryl Hall and scores of similar political imbeciles on the 1985 recording titled, “Artists United Against Apartheid.”)
But she’ll GLADLY play in Havana’s Karl Marx Theater and bask in the applause of an audience pledging proud fealty to the most murderous ideology in human history. Indeed she’ll happily compose a song in their honor–and all on the house!
The problem with pepper spray for bears
is when the bear is A: attacking for real and B: doesn't give you time to spray it.
The grizzly took Jerry Ruth by surprise, bursting from thick brush and biting his jaw almost completely off.
On the ground and barely able to see, Ruth grabbed his .41 Magnum-caliber revolver and started shooting. The third bullet pierced the bear's heart and spinal cord, killing it from 25 feet.
...
"Experience shows that putting firearms and grizzly bears in the same place ends up with dead grizzly bears," said Steve Cain, senior biologist for Grand Teton National Park.
If the sucker is trying to crunch me, damn right it will.
The grizzly took Jerry Ruth by surprise, bursting from thick brush and biting his jaw almost completely off.
On the ground and barely able to see, Ruth grabbed his .41 Magnum-caliber revolver and started shooting. The third bullet pierced the bear's heart and spinal cord, killing it from 25 feet.
...
"Experience shows that putting firearms and grizzly bears in the same place ends up with dead grizzly bears," said Steve Cain, senior biologist for Grand Teton National Park.
If the sucker is trying to crunch me, damn right it will.
The kind of crap that's made unions very unpopular
with lots of people:
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has called Radzinsky’s program into question. The union filed appeals to reverse the CAC decision, citing the legislation that authorized the apprenticeship program, AB 921.
Enacted by Gray Davis in 1999, AB 921 by former Assemblyman Fred Keeley of Santa Cruz, allows unions to veto apprenticeship programs if they can show the service is already being provided.
Because Deity forbid anybody do anything without some union making money off it. And controlling it.
While IBEW believes that it provides sufficient solar training for its apprentices, Radzinsky would disagree. Since his program went on hold, Radzinsky has to go to IBEW for apprentices and he contends that what he gets is woefully inadequate. “They only know one skill, like electrical. I end up needing multiple people to finish a job one of my apprentices could do.”
Which is probably what the union wanted: instead of one guy, forcing people to hire multiples.
Now the electrical union challenging Radzinsky has itself been challenged by roofers, laborers, sheet metal workers, and plumbers’ unions for the rights to teach solar apprenticeships, which they contain falls within their jurisdiction. AB 921 gives them the legal authority to challenge each other -- and Radzinsky.
So Davis, the miserable bastard, actually gave unions the power to screw each other over, as well as people needing work done. Wonderful little craphead politician, wasn't he?
In 2005 a U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge ruled to allow OATELS to “derecognize” CDIR and CAC authority to approve apprenticeship projects.
The decision noted that the “needs test” in the California Labor Code used by unions to prevent new or expanded apprenticeship programs “does not promote competition among programs, does not consider the needs of individuals seeking apprenticeship training, and limits training opportunities for apprentices.”
Which is exactly what the unions want: "You can't do ANYTHING without our approval, which means joining up and paying us money and giving us control over your work."
As for Radzinsky, within the next month the CAC will be hearing the appeal of the unions and make a decision to allow or dissolve his solar apprenticeship program.
Which is a wonderful demonstration of why I call the place Californicated.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has called Radzinsky’s program into question. The union filed appeals to reverse the CAC decision, citing the legislation that authorized the apprenticeship program, AB 921.
Enacted by Gray Davis in 1999, AB 921 by former Assemblyman Fred Keeley of Santa Cruz, allows unions to veto apprenticeship programs if they can show the service is already being provided.
Because Deity forbid anybody do anything without some union making money off it. And controlling it.
While IBEW believes that it provides sufficient solar training for its apprentices, Radzinsky would disagree. Since his program went on hold, Radzinsky has to go to IBEW for apprentices and he contends that what he gets is woefully inadequate. “They only know one skill, like electrical. I end up needing multiple people to finish a job one of my apprentices could do.”
Which is probably what the union wanted: instead of one guy, forcing people to hire multiples.
Now the electrical union challenging Radzinsky has itself been challenged by roofers, laborers, sheet metal workers, and plumbers’ unions for the rights to teach solar apprenticeships, which they contain falls within their jurisdiction. AB 921 gives them the legal authority to challenge each other -- and Radzinsky.
So Davis, the miserable bastard, actually gave unions the power to screw each other over, as well as people needing work done. Wonderful little craphead politician, wasn't he?
In 2005 a U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Law Judge ruled to allow OATELS to “derecognize” CDIR and CAC authority to approve apprenticeship projects.
The decision noted that the “needs test” in the California Labor Code used by unions to prevent new or expanded apprenticeship programs “does not promote competition among programs, does not consider the needs of individuals seeking apprenticeship training, and limits training opportunities for apprentices.”
Which is exactly what the unions want: "You can't do ANYTHING without our approval, which means joining up and paying us money and giving us control over your work."
As for Radzinsky, within the next month the CAC will be hearing the appeal of the unions and make a decision to allow or dissolve his solar apprenticeship program.
Which is a wonderful demonstration of why I call the place Californicated.
HAHAHAHAHA! Suck it, commies!
U.S. troops marched through Red Square for the first time in a Victory Day parade on Sunday as Russia celebrated the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.
It was a scene cut from Russia's Cold War nightmares: 71 Americans in dark blue dress uniforms carried the U.S. flag over the cobblestones, past the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin and the towers of the Kremlin wall to salute Russian leaders.
...
Author Alexander Prokhanov, editor in chief of the nationalist Zavtra daily, called the appearance of U.S. servicemen in Red Square a national humiliation.
"The fact that American troops are trampling underfoot the cobblestones of Red Square is a huge shame and humiliation for Russia," Prokhanov said. "Thus they are celebrating their final victory not in World War II but in the Cold War."
Hehehehehe...
While this might be seen as annoying to the Russians, after reading this I don't really care:
Russia invited Gordon Brown and other heads of state to attend the Kremlin's celebrations on Sunday – the biggest ever. But with the prime minister unable to attend because of the general election, the Foreign Office suggested Prince Charles instead.
Last week, however, the prince was quietly stood down after Putin made it clear that he did not want him there – apparently in a sign of his continuing annoyance with the UK over its failure to extradite Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin critic and former oligarch, to Russia.
Putin, Russia's prime minister, also snubbed Biden, who had planned to go to Moscow and has been left kicking his heels in Brussels. Biden is close to Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president. During the 2008 Russian-Georgia war Putin famously threatened Saakashvili, pledging to "hang him by the balls".
The White House is privately furious at the snub. Barack Obama told Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, he was unable to attend but had confidently offered Biden as his replacement. Moscow's diplomatic corps has been abuzz all week with news of Putin's unexpected veto.
Well, Barack, Putin is telling you exactly what he thinks of you. And it isn't much. I guess that 'smart diplomacy' isn't working all that well after all, is it?
And speaking of Russia,
The tragedy happened in the court security facility. At 6pm the officer’s supervisor tried to connect with him over the phone to check on him. The sergeant did not answer his phone and the supervisor had to go see him with other officers.
The police found a locked door they had to break and the body of their colleague behind the door. The policeman’s body with a wound in the head was found under the desk.
The investigation ruled out a murder. There was no note that would indicate suicide.
The victim had been serving in police since 2007. He was single and was not registered with the staff psychologist. He was reported to be in good spirits on the day of the accident.
The sergeant allegedly scratched his nose with his gun and accidentally pulled the trigger.
It was a scene cut from Russia's Cold War nightmares: 71 Americans in dark blue dress uniforms carried the U.S. flag over the cobblestones, past the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin and the towers of the Kremlin wall to salute Russian leaders.
...
Author Alexander Prokhanov, editor in chief of the nationalist Zavtra daily, called the appearance of U.S. servicemen in Red Square a national humiliation.
"The fact that American troops are trampling underfoot the cobblestones of Red Square is a huge shame and humiliation for Russia," Prokhanov said. "Thus they are celebrating their final victory not in World War II but in the Cold War."
Hehehehehe...
While this might be seen as annoying to the Russians, after reading this I don't really care:
Russia invited Gordon Brown and other heads of state to attend the Kremlin's celebrations on Sunday – the biggest ever. But with the prime minister unable to attend because of the general election, the Foreign Office suggested Prince Charles instead.
Last week, however, the prince was quietly stood down after Putin made it clear that he did not want him there – apparently in a sign of his continuing annoyance with the UK over its failure to extradite Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin critic and former oligarch, to Russia.
Putin, Russia's prime minister, also snubbed Biden, who had planned to go to Moscow and has been left kicking his heels in Brussels. Biden is close to Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president. During the 2008 Russian-Georgia war Putin famously threatened Saakashvili, pledging to "hang him by the balls".
The White House is privately furious at the snub. Barack Obama told Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, he was unable to attend but had confidently offered Biden as his replacement. Moscow's diplomatic corps has been abuzz all week with news of Putin's unexpected veto.
Well, Barack, Putin is telling you exactly what he thinks of you. And it isn't much. I guess that 'smart diplomacy' isn't working all that well after all, is it?
And speaking of Russia,
The tragedy happened in the court security facility. At 6pm the officer’s supervisor tried to connect with him over the phone to check on him. The sergeant did not answer his phone and the supervisor had to go see him with other officers.
The police found a locked door they had to break and the body of their colleague behind the door. The policeman’s body with a wound in the head was found under the desk.
The investigation ruled out a murder. There was no note that would indicate suicide.
The victim had been serving in police since 2007. He was single and was not registered with the staff psychologist. He was reported to be in good spirits on the day of the accident.
The sergeant allegedly scratched his nose with his gun and accidentally pulled the trigger.
I don't know about the patrol officers, but at least some of the brass and supervisors in the Omaha Police Dept.
suck.
This is a wonderful example of why registration- national, state or local- is a BAD idea. Again, it's not about public safety, it's about control.
This is a wonderful example of why registration- national, state or local- is a BAD idea. Again, it's not about public safety, it's about control.
Proving that even in the middle of severe storms
people can still sit at a keyboard going "Wow!"
Various tornados reported west, south and north of here. Right now the line is moving through this area; if you went to the Nat. Weather Service site and click on central OK, you'd get a graphic showing a string of severe storms and tornado warnings running slightly west of south from the northern border to the southern. Few minutes back they reported baseball-size hail southwest of the metro area, lots of other reports of smaller stuff, golf-ball size, in areas surrounding the big stuff and south toward Moore and Norman.
If you'll remember, it was May 3, 1999, that Moore got the attention of that F5; just heard a report of a BIG hook moving into Moore, dammit.
Added 1720: they just added a tornado warning for northern Lincoln county, that'd be the big storm that moved just north of me.
Added 1730: earlier they had a report of a burst of 100mph straight-line wind a ways south of Mustang, which is west of OKC.
And I think the rain has eased off considerably outside. This area of the city only got some small- nickel or so- hail, the worst of that passed through southern areas of the Metro. Yep, it's just a few sprinkles right now. There's currently 11 counties with tornado warnings. And I just heard the southern tornado sirens start up. KTOK radio is on the north side, but they dropped off a few minutes ago.
Added 1734: looks like Moore got through without a twister; if it formed it stayed up in the cloud. They did get some big hail.
1736: KTOK came back on.
They just reported a possible funnel about I40 & I240 on the east side.
1739: I was wrong about Moore, they're reporting tornado damage there.
1743: the sun just came out here as the clouds move east. AND they just reported a tornado on the ground by one of the casinos near Norman. Just looked at the tv, WOW: BIG hook over the Lake Thunderbird/Little Axe area just east of Norman, and they have damage east of OKC in the Newalla area heading northeast toward McCloud; they chaser on this one says I40 is closed right there, lots of overturned vehicles and downed trees and power lines on the road and in the area.
Right now it's 1747 and getting too busy to try and keep track of here. If you're in eastern OK, keep an eye on this stuff; the storms are fast-moving, lots of instability and lots of tornado reports. Everything seems to be mostly east of I35 at this point- correction, one reported west of Davis/Ardmore area down south.
Channel 4 just had video of a funnel moving across Lake Thunderbird. Small one, only thing visible was the effect on the surface of the water. Small one, problem is in conditions like this a small one can turn big really damned fast.
Just saw some video from I40 in the Choctaw area, eastern OKC: lots of overturned vehicles, lines down.
Just checked the NWS map,
the dryline is still west of here, with some development occurring along it in the southwest. So it could still cause some nasty stuff over the next couple of hours through central OK.
Dogs to feed and such, more later.
Various tornados reported west, south and north of here. Right now the line is moving through this area; if you went to the Nat. Weather Service site and click on central OK, you'd get a graphic showing a string of severe storms and tornado warnings running slightly west of south from the northern border to the southern. Few minutes back they reported baseball-size hail southwest of the metro area, lots of other reports of smaller stuff, golf-ball size, in areas surrounding the big stuff and south toward Moore and Norman.
If you'll remember, it was May 3, 1999, that Moore got the attention of that F5; just heard a report of a BIG hook moving into Moore, dammit.
Added 1720: they just added a tornado warning for northern Lincoln county, that'd be the big storm that moved just north of me.
Added 1730: earlier they had a report of a burst of 100mph straight-line wind a ways south of Mustang, which is west of OKC.
And I think the rain has eased off considerably outside. This area of the city only got some small- nickel or so- hail, the worst of that passed through southern areas of the Metro. Yep, it's just a few sprinkles right now. There's currently 11 counties with tornado warnings. And I just heard the southern tornado sirens start up. KTOK radio is on the north side, but they dropped off a few minutes ago.
Added 1734: looks like Moore got through without a twister; if it formed it stayed up in the cloud. They did get some big hail.
1736: KTOK came back on.
They just reported a possible funnel about I40 & I240 on the east side.
1739: I was wrong about Moore, they're reporting tornado damage there.
1743: the sun just came out here as the clouds move east. AND they just reported a tornado on the ground by one of the casinos near Norman. Just looked at the tv, WOW: BIG hook over the Lake Thunderbird/Little Axe area just east of Norman, and they have damage east of OKC in the Newalla area heading northeast toward McCloud; they chaser on this one says I40 is closed right there, lots of overturned vehicles and downed trees and power lines on the road and in the area.
Right now it's 1747 and getting too busy to try and keep track of here. If you're in eastern OK, keep an eye on this stuff; the storms are fast-moving, lots of instability and lots of tornado reports. Everything seems to be mostly east of I35 at this point- correction, one reported west of Davis/Ardmore area down south.
Channel 4 just had video of a funnel moving across Lake Thunderbird. Small one, only thing visible was the effect on the surface of the water. Small one, problem is in conditions like this a small one can turn big really damned fast.
Just saw some video from I40 in the Choctaw area, eastern OKC: lots of overturned vehicles, lines down.
Just checked the NWS map,
the dryline is still west of here, with some development occurring along it in the southwest. So it could still cause some nasty stuff over the next couple of hours through central OK.
Dogs to feed and such, more later.
Yeah, it's spring
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT...
THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK...
THERE IS A HIGH RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY EAST OF A LINE
FROM MANCHESTER...TO ENID...TO YUKON...TO NORMAN...TO SEMINOLE.
THERE IS A MODERATE RISK TO THE WEST OF THE HIGH RISK AND EAST OF A
LINE FROM CHEROKEE... SOUTH TO EL RENO... CHICKASHA...ARDMORE AND
ATOKA. THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK WEST OF THE MODERATE RISK AND EAST OF
A LINE FROM BUFFALO... TALOGA... MOUNTAIN VIEW... GRANDFIELD...
DUNDEE AND SEYMOUR TEXAS.
TIMING...
MOST LIKELY TIME FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT WILL BE FROM 3
PM THROUGH MIDNIGHT.
IMPACTS...
THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL FOR STRONG TORNADOES IN THE HIGH
RISK AREA...PARTICULARLY FROM THE OKLAHOMA CITY METRO AREA NORTH
ALONG AND EAST OF INTERSTATE 35. THE POTENTIAL FOR STORMS IN THESE
AREAS DURING RUSH HOUR WILL HEIGHTEN POTENTIAL IMPACTS.
THESE STORMS WILL ALSO HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE DAMAGING HAIL
TO THE SIZE OF BASEBALLS AND DAMAGING WIND GUSTS.
And yes, OKC is right in the middle of the watch area
THUNDERSTORM OUTLOOK...
THERE IS A HIGH RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS TODAY EAST OF A LINE
FROM MANCHESTER...TO ENID...TO YUKON...TO NORMAN...TO SEMINOLE.
THERE IS A MODERATE RISK TO THE WEST OF THE HIGH RISK AND EAST OF A
LINE FROM CHEROKEE... SOUTH TO EL RENO... CHICKASHA...ARDMORE AND
ATOKA. THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK WEST OF THE MODERATE RISK AND EAST OF
A LINE FROM BUFFALO... TALOGA... MOUNTAIN VIEW... GRANDFIELD...
DUNDEE AND SEYMOUR TEXAS.
TIMING...
MOST LIKELY TIME FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT WILL BE FROM 3
PM THROUGH MIDNIGHT.
IMPACTS...
THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL FOR STRONG TORNADOES IN THE HIGH
RISK AREA...PARTICULARLY FROM THE OKLAHOMA CITY METRO AREA NORTH
ALONG AND EAST OF INTERSTATE 35. THE POTENTIAL FOR STORMS IN THESE
AREAS DURING RUSH HOUR WILL HEIGHTEN POTENTIAL IMPACTS.
THESE STORMS WILL ALSO HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE DAMAGING HAIL
TO THE SIZE OF BASEBALLS AND DAMAGING WIND GUSTS.
And yes, OKC is right in the middle of the watch area
Having covered the current Supremes drama,
I can now move on to things like dirtbag politicians and Freddie Mac:
Freddie — already propped up with $52 billion in taxpayer funds used to rescue the company from its own mistakes — recorded a loss of $6.7 billion and said it would require an additional $10.6 billion from taxpayers to shore up its financial position.
The news caused nary a ripple in the placid Washington scene. Perhaps that’s because many lawmakers, especially those who once assured us that Fannie and Freddie would never cost taxpayers a dime, hope that their constituents don’t notice the burgeoning money pit these mortgage monsters represent. Some $130 billion in federal money had already been larded on both companies before Freddie’s latest request.
While various corrupt politicians like the loathsome Barney Frank insist that all is well; just like they did while it was going down the toilet in the first place and they were the ones pushing the flush lever.
Ah, the wonders of having Obama and Holder in charge of things:
Put George W. Bush in blackface and what do you get? Evidently, Barack H. Obama:
Attorney General Eric Holder is endorsing the idea of modifying Miranda rights in terrorism investigations--a curious stance in light of the fervor with which Holder and other administration officials have been arguing recently that administering Miranda rights is no obstacle to such cases.
In fact, Holder has gone even further, asserting recently that reading suspects their rights may actually them to cooperate.
"If we are going to have a system that is capable of dealing, in a public safety context, with this new threat...I think we have to give serious consideration to at least modifying that public safety exception” to the Miranda warnings, Holder said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Why not? Obama and his team have sold out on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Gitmo, military tribunals, health care reform, financial reform, DADT and offshore drilling, so what's the big deal about throwing Miranda into the pile?
Ref the 'screaming of racial insults that never happened, it seems that McClatchy News investigative editor James Asher is trying hard to prove every accusation that the major media is in the Democrat/Progressive tank. And doing a fine job of it.
Guy comes downstairs and finds a man stabbing his mother; fights with and kills the guy. Over here, reason for congratulations for defending his family; in (formerly Great)Britain, he's arrested on suspicion of murder.
Senior citizens are no longer allowed to pray before meals at the Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah, Georgia. Local officials say the meals are now provided with federal money and therefore the seniors are not allowed to pray before meals.
US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.
Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.
As long as you only learn the 'right' things, I guess...
That's it for now.
Freddie — already propped up with $52 billion in taxpayer funds used to rescue the company from its own mistakes — recorded a loss of $6.7 billion and said it would require an additional $10.6 billion from taxpayers to shore up its financial position.
The news caused nary a ripple in the placid Washington scene. Perhaps that’s because many lawmakers, especially those who once assured us that Fannie and Freddie would never cost taxpayers a dime, hope that their constituents don’t notice the burgeoning money pit these mortgage monsters represent. Some $130 billion in federal money had already been larded on both companies before Freddie’s latest request.
While various corrupt politicians like the loathsome Barney Frank insist that all is well; just like they did while it was going down the toilet in the first place and they were the ones pushing the flush lever.
Ah, the wonders of having Obama and Holder in charge of things:
Put George W. Bush in blackface and what do you get? Evidently, Barack H. Obama:
Attorney General Eric Holder is endorsing the idea of modifying Miranda rights in terrorism investigations--a curious stance in light of the fervor with which Holder and other administration officials have been arguing recently that administering Miranda rights is no obstacle to such cases.
In fact, Holder has gone even further, asserting recently that reading suspects their rights may actually them to cooperate.
"If we are going to have a system that is capable of dealing, in a public safety context, with this new threat...I think we have to give serious consideration to at least modifying that public safety exception” to the Miranda warnings, Holder said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Why not? Obama and his team have sold out on Iraq, Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Gitmo, military tribunals, health care reform, financial reform, DADT and offshore drilling, so what's the big deal about throwing Miranda into the pile?
Ref the 'screaming of racial insults that never happened, it seems that McClatchy News investigative editor James Asher is trying hard to prove every accusation that the major media is in the Democrat/Progressive tank. And doing a fine job of it.
Guy comes downstairs and finds a man stabbing his mother; fights with and kills the guy. Over here, reason for congratulations for defending his family; in (formerly Great)Britain, he's arrested on suspicion of murder.
Senior citizens are no longer allowed to pray before meals at the Port Wentworth’s Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah, Georgia. Local officials say the meals are now provided with federal money and therefore the seniors are not allowed to pray before meals.
US President Barack Obama lamented Sunday that in the iPad and Xbox era, information had become a diversion that was imposing new strains on democracy, in his latest critique of modern media.
Obama, who often chides journalists and cable news outlets for obsessing with political horse race coverage rather than serious issues, told a class of graduating university students that education was the key to progress.
As long as you only learn the 'right' things, I guess...
That's it for now.
The other day I linked to a piece on Elena Kagan;
here's another that's much less complimentary:
When Kagan was Dean of Law at Harvard University, she expelled military recruiters from campus in defiance of The Solomon Act, which she has argued against in writing and speeches. She, along with 40 other law professors, argued to the Supreme Court against the Soloman Act, but her arguments were rejected by even the most liberal justices.
Gee, that sounds just wonderful, doesn't it?
Ah, just found this at Legal Insurrection; looks like Obama's homosexual supporters are getting another kick in the whoozis:
In response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn (at page 28 of her Senate Judiciary Questionnaire), Kagan stated flat out that there was no constitutional right for same sex couples to marry (emphasis mine):
I wonder how a lot of the Hopey!Changey!! people are feeling right now?
When Kagan was Dean of Law at Harvard University, she expelled military recruiters from campus in defiance of The Solomon Act, which she has argued against in writing and speeches. She, along with 40 other law professors, argued to the Supreme Court against the Soloman Act, but her arguments were rejected by even the most liberal justices.
Gee, that sounds just wonderful, doesn't it?
Ah, just found this at Legal Insurrection; looks like Obama's homosexual supporters are getting another kick in the whoozis:
In response to a question from Sen. John Cornyn (at page 28 of her Senate Judiciary Questionnaire), Kagan stated flat out that there was no constitutional right for same sex couples to marry (emphasis mine):
This doesn't mean that Kagan opposes gay marriage. But she clearly believes it is a matter for the political process, not a constitutional right.1. As Solicitor General, you would be charged with defending the Defense of Marriage Act. That law, as you may know, was enacted by overwhelming majorities of both houses of Congress (85-14 in the Senate and 342-67 in the House) in 1996 and signed into law by President Clinton.
Answer: There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
a. Given your rhetoric about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy—you called it “a profound wrong—a moral injustice of the first order”—let me ask this basic question: Do you believe that there is a federal constitutional right to samesex marriage?
b. Have you ever expressed your opinion whether the federal Constitution should be read to confer a right to same-sex marriage? If so, please provide details.
Answer: I do not recall ever expressing an opinion on this question.
I wonder how a lot of the Hopey!Changey!! people are feeling right now?
Sunday, May 09, 2010
James found a very good question on the latest video example
of SWAT overuse/misuse/idiocy:
Since the very basis of modern policing is based on Sir Robert Peel’s basic principles, in how many ways does this raid violate those simple rules?
Since the very basis of modern policing is based on Sir Robert Peel’s basic principles, in how many ways does this raid violate those simple rules?
The high school with the "Your US flag shirts are incendiary" principals?
Interesting what they DON'T think is incendiary...
Mr. Boden and Mr. Rodriguez preside over a high school with various clubs and organizations. As administrators, they must sanction these activities. There is the Anime Club, the Asian Student Union, the Black Student Union, the Drama Guild, the Chess Club, MEChA, the Patriot Club, and a raft of other extracurricular activities from which student can chose to participate. Shockingly, one of these groups is a borderline hate group that proclaims racial supremacy. While it may come as a shock to some of our more “progressive” readers, the oppressors are not the Patriot Club, but the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, or MEChA.
...
Critics of MEChA claim that the organization is little more than a racial supremacist group seeking to carve out a country of their own, to be inhabited by their own race.
Mr. Boden and Mr. Rodriguez preside over a high school with various clubs and organizations. As administrators, they must sanction these activities. There is the Anime Club, the Asian Student Union, the Black Student Union, the Drama Guild, the Chess Club, MEChA, the Patriot Club, and a raft of other extracurricular activities from which student can chose to participate. Shockingly, one of these groups is a borderline hate group that proclaims racial supremacy. While it may come as a shock to some of our more “progressive” readers, the oppressors are not the Patriot Club, but the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, or MEChA.
...
Critics of MEChA claim that the organization is little more than a racial supremacist group seeking to carve out a country of their own, to be inhabited by their own race.
Wait a minute — that wasn’t from critics; it was a direct quote from the official MEChA website:
As Chicanas and Chicanos of Aztlán, we are a nationalist movement of Indigenous Gente that lay claim to the land that is ours by birthright. As a nationalist movement we seek to free our people from the exploitation of an oppressive society that occupies our land. Thus, the principle of nationalism serves to preserve the cultural traditions of La Familia de La Raza and promotes our identity as a Chicana/Chicano Gente.
MEChA is a paranoid, racist, nationalist group that seeks to claim northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a nation called Aztlán. Principal Borden and Assistant Principal Rodriguez have allowed their school to be infiltrated by a seditious supremacist group.
Wouldn't need it for this,
but I need to find a small lathe dog, so I can turn some small barrels.
And the focaccia just came out of the oven. And I have oil and vinegar waiting.
If that doesn't play right, can find it here
I've got some foccacia rising in the oven,
so this'll be a short roundup:
First, seems it's expected that Obama will nominate Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court; thoughts on her and why some lefties are having fits here.
What Detroit has become. And what liberal journalists do, and then apologize for when caught.
Well hell, no wonder Greece is screwed!
Here a sample of policies that led to the crash. After fifteen years of contribution, a person could retire at 110% of his salary. Retirement was possible at the youthful age of fifty. The unmarried or divorced daughters of deceased public servants received a pension. Salaries were paid for a fourteen-month year. Civil servants had protected jobs and at least one person out of four had such coveted status. These people received significant bonuses. Such as for the ability to use a computer, or for the command of a foreign language. The writer’s favorite is a bonus for appearing at work on time. Bloated bureaucracy shows ingenuity to keep people on the payroll. The best job was on a commission that administered a lake that dried out in the 1930s.
Thanks to Ace for the pointer.
The Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector, something I'd not heard of.
So that volcano in Iceland is spewing more ash, and they think it may- as happened before- have triggered nearby Katla and it may erupt.
Rep. Carson, you're a bigoted, racist jackass.
Winning hearts and minds is good; I still think if you turn the troops loose to kill every Taliban they can find, it'll help. And prevent a lot of this kind of crap.
(the above few links thanks to Theo)
Dammit, I didn't write about this yesterday: Victory in Europe Day.
And now the timer is beeping, so bread into the oven, then into me. See you later.
First, seems it's expected that Obama will nominate Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court; thoughts on her and why some lefties are having fits here.
What Detroit has become. And what liberal journalists do, and then apologize for when caught.
Well hell, no wonder Greece is screwed!
Here a sample of policies that led to the crash. After fifteen years of contribution, a person could retire at 110% of his salary. Retirement was possible at the youthful age of fifty. The unmarried or divorced daughters of deceased public servants received a pension. Salaries were paid for a fourteen-month year. Civil servants had protected jobs and at least one person out of four had such coveted status. These people received significant bonuses. Such as for the ability to use a computer, or for the command of a foreign language. The writer’s favorite is a bonus for appearing at work on time. Bloated bureaucracy shows ingenuity to keep people on the payroll. The best job was on a commission that administered a lake that dried out in the 1930s.
Thanks to Ace for the pointer.
The Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector, something I'd not heard of.
So that volcano in Iceland is spewing more ash, and they think it may- as happened before- have triggered nearby Katla and it may erupt.
Rep. Carson, you're a bigoted, racist jackass.
Winning hearts and minds is good; I still think if you turn the troops loose to kill every Taliban they can find, it'll help. And prevent a lot of this kind of crap.
(the above few links thanks to Theo)
Dammit, I didn't write about this yesterday: Victory in Europe Day.
And now the timer is beeping, so bread into the oven, then into me. See you later.
On what's supposed to be a day of contemplation,
let us contemplate why they Dept. of Justice, headed by 'race coward' Holder, is telling the intelligence community to break the law:
It appears that the Department of Justice is playing politics with the Times Square bombing plot by refusing to brief Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During a classified briefing on Thursday members of the intelligence community refused to answer one of Senator Bond's questions, according to Bond "We called the agency of the intelligence community that should have that information, and they advised us that the Department of Justice is running it and they told us they should not share it with the Intelligence Committee." Bond further noted that the stonewalling was directed at him personally, "The Intelligence Community has been told they should not speak to the Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee — that's me." Bond suspects politics is behind it, which isn't a stretch given his criticism of the administration's handling of the Christmas Day Bomber, and his comments on Wednesday that Shazad is not entitled to Miranda rights (a bit of a misstatement as, barring some exception, Miranda would be required if prosecutors want to use the fruits of a custodial interrogation against Shazad).
In any case, someone may want to tell AG Holder that absent some reason to believe that Vice Chairman Bond will disclose intelligence without authorization, the intelligence community is legally obligated to keep Congress "fully" and "currently" informed.
There follows a bit of legal stuff on that subject; at the end,
...So why is the Department of Justice instructing the intelligence community to not brief Senator Bond? More importantly, why is the Director of National Intelligence complying with such instructions, despite his legal obligation to keep Congress informed? It wasn't that long ago that the main stream media and Congressional Democrats were apoplectic over the fact that President Bush only briefed select members of Congress (the "gang of eight") over our most secretive terrorism surveillance programs. Where is the outrage here when a President and his Justice Department are stonewalling over a plot that seems far less sensitive than a covert surveillance program?
First thought, with this administration, is that they're petty, thin-skinned and vindictive, and they're mad at Bond; and what's the law to them when it gets in their way? Second is, there's some kind of real screwup involved- possibly petty but embarrassing- and they'd rather break the law than let it get out.
To borrow the phrase, We're in the very best of hands...
It appears that the Department of Justice is playing politics with the Times Square bombing plot by refusing to brief Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. During a classified briefing on Thursday members of the intelligence community refused to answer one of Senator Bond's questions, according to Bond "We called the agency of the intelligence community that should have that information, and they advised us that the Department of Justice is running it and they told us they should not share it with the Intelligence Committee." Bond further noted that the stonewalling was directed at him personally, "The Intelligence Community has been told they should not speak to the Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee — that's me." Bond suspects politics is behind it, which isn't a stretch given his criticism of the administration's handling of the Christmas Day Bomber, and his comments on Wednesday that Shazad is not entitled to Miranda rights (a bit of a misstatement as, barring some exception, Miranda would be required if prosecutors want to use the fruits of a custodial interrogation against Shazad).
In any case, someone may want to tell AG Holder that absent some reason to believe that Vice Chairman Bond will disclose intelligence without authorization, the intelligence community is legally obligated to keep Congress "fully" and "currently" informed.
There follows a bit of legal stuff on that subject; at the end,
...So why is the Department of Justice instructing the intelligence community to not brief Senator Bond? More importantly, why is the Director of National Intelligence complying with such instructions, despite his legal obligation to keep Congress informed? It wasn't that long ago that the main stream media and Congressional Democrats were apoplectic over the fact that President Bush only briefed select members of Congress (the "gang of eight") over our most secretive terrorism surveillance programs. Where is the outrage here when a President and his Justice Department are stonewalling over a plot that seems far less sensitive than a covert surveillance program?
First thought, with this administration, is that they're petty, thin-skinned and vindictive, and they're mad at Bond; and what's the law to them when it gets in their way? Second is, there's some kind of real screwup involved- possibly petty but embarrassing- and they'd rather break the law than let it get out.
To borrow the phrase, We're in the very best of hands...
FCC moves to further 'regulate' Internet:
Politicians and Google thrilled.
Much like 'gun control' laws, this has nothing to do with safety or security or fairness, and everything to do with control.
For the past decade, broadband has been classified as an "information service" and thus more lightly regulated than traditional telephone services. This has led to an explosion of new investment and Web innovation, but it hasn't sat well with Democrats who want more control over the telecom business, as well as with some Web companies (Google) that want more leverage over Internet service providers like Time Warner or Verizon.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski did their dirty work this week by announcing that he plans to reclassify broadband lines so his agency can regulate them under rules that were written for Ma Bell in the 1930s. This means subjecting the Internet to new political supervision—from the federal government and 50 state public utility commissions. The goal is to put one more industry under Washington's political thumb.
Even Bill Clinton's FCC, under Chairman Bill Kennard, had refused to go this far. "Classifying Internet access as telecommunication services could have significant consequences for the global development of the Internet," said Mr. Kennard in a 1998 speech. "We recognized the unique qualities of the Internet, and do not presume that legacy regulatory frameworks are appropriately applied to it."
You ever have occasion to speak with anyone from Google, tell them they ARE Evil and they suck. First they sold out Chinese bloggers, then various other bullcrap, then walked that back a bit(I don't doubt because of all the crap they caught because of those things), and now this. The Democrats? Doing what Evil Party politicians and some jerks masquerading as Stupid Party members do: grabbing at more control over our lives.
Much like 'gun control' laws, this has nothing to do with safety or security or fairness, and everything to do with control.
For the past decade, broadband has been classified as an "information service" and thus more lightly regulated than traditional telephone services. This has led to an explosion of new investment and Web innovation, but it hasn't sat well with Democrats who want more control over the telecom business, as well as with some Web companies (Google) that want more leverage over Internet service providers like Time Warner or Verizon.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski did their dirty work this week by announcing that he plans to reclassify broadband lines so his agency can regulate them under rules that were written for Ma Bell in the 1930s. This means subjecting the Internet to new political supervision—from the federal government and 50 state public utility commissions. The goal is to put one more industry under Washington's political thumb.
Even Bill Clinton's FCC, under Chairman Bill Kennard, had refused to go this far. "Classifying Internet access as telecommunication services could have significant consequences for the global development of the Internet," said Mr. Kennard in a 1998 speech. "We recognized the unique qualities of the Internet, and do not presume that legacy regulatory frameworks are appropriately applied to it."
You ever have occasion to speak with anyone from Google, tell them they ARE Evil and they suck. First they sold out Chinese bloggers, then various other bullcrap, then walked that back a bit(I don't doubt because of all the crap they caught because of those things), and now this. The Democrats? Doing what Evil Party politicians and some jerks masquerading as Stupid Party members do: grabbing at more control over our lives.
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