Romania
I see I had 23 page views from Romania in the past week. Welcome, but I have a question. Where is Vlad now that we need him?
Old Jarhead Blog Removed?
For the third Saturday in a row, when readers logged on to my blog at www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com, they got a "blog removed" message with no explanation. Each time I logged on to Blogspot and posted a query and the blog returned in a few hours. They say they have a system for auto removing Spam blogs, but mine has zero advertising, except my books, I kill Spam posts, and it has been up since 2008. I don't know if it is a blogspot glitch, like the way they sometimes change scheduled posts to drafts, or an attack. It is costing me readers--weekly page views dropped in that time from over 4k to about 3k. If you get that message, please try again later. I have filed an appeal—didn’t realize it was necessary, as it had come back. We shall see.
Resources
For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.
Important: America's True Debt -- The Fiscal Gap
I wish I’d had this report when I wrote The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. Fixing it is not politically possible. But if you can’t fix the dyke, you get the flood. ~Bob. Excerpt: Our country is in far worse fiscal shape than its $14 trillion -- and rapidly growing -- official debt suggests. Indeed, that figure measures just a small portion of the government's total liabilities. Why is that? The answer is there is no answer, and because there is no answer, the deficit is not well defined, says Laurence Kotlikoff, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Generational accounting is a well-established methodology to measure the burden of government on specific generations. A generational account for any given generation measures the generation's remaining lifetime net tax bill as a present value -- what the generation will pay net of what it will receive, all valued as of today. This amount has to cover the government's official debt plus the present value of all future government purchases of goods and services (discretionary spending). If it doesn't, the difference that's not covered is called the fiscal gap. The U.S. fiscal gap, based on the Congressional Budget Office's long-term Alternative Fiscal Scenario, is nowhere close to the $14 trillion official debt. Indeed, the U.S. fiscal gap is $211 trillion -- 15 times larger than the official debt. This means that Congress and the president have been focusing on the molehill, not the mountain, in their recent contretemps over the debt ceiling. With the retirement of the baby boomer generation, millions will turn to Uncle Sam for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits -- roughly $40,000, on average, per beneficiary per year. This means the fiscal gap will increase exponentially in the coming years. The fiscal gap needs to be zero for the United States' fiscal policy to be sustainable, says Kotlikoff. Achieving this result via tax hikes alone would require an immediate and permanent increase in all federal tax rates (corporate, personal income, excise and estate and gift taxes) of 64 percent. Alternatively, the United States could immediately and permanently cut all non-interest spending by 40 percent.
I’m Tired—New Comment
Hmmm...2 1/2 years and nothing has changed about what you said! I salute you Mr. Hall because you are saying what I have felt. My mom was a single mom in the 50's and never even dreamed of asking for help. She worked 3 jobs to support me and even then there were times the only food we had was ketchup sandwiches. I'm 63 and I was hoping to be able to retire. Now, I'm not so sure. My dad was a Navy man, I never married. The only one taking care of me, is me. When I see people in stores using food stamps to buy meat I have to go without, I get angry. I have no problem helping people who truly need something. I have a problem with young, healthy people getting food stamps. No jobs?? Many restaurants in my town need waiters/waitresses. Why do they go unfilled? Because the work is too hard and no one wants to do it!!! It is hard work, I worked 40 hours in an office and 30 waiting tables - in one week. That's 70 hours a week. But I put food on my table and paid my bills. The sad part - I may have to go back to that at a time in my life when I should be able to start enjoying retirement. I didn't read all 829 posts but I read enough to know that there are many people who have no concept of what our Welfare system was originally designed for - and that includes our Senators, Congressmen and Presidents. Doesn't anyone see what is happening in Spain, Italy, Greece? We have become another nanny state. It is so sad, because it is not what you, my dad, my uncles all fought for. God Bless the United States of America - even in our stupidity. PLEASE!
9/11
Don’t forget to fly your flag.
Worth Reading: Two Different Worlds: Part II by Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: This is the logical consequence of a vision of the world that prevails all too widely among the intelligentsia, and not just as regards medical care. In that vision, people can draw on the available resources only to the extent that the government considers appropriate, in the light of other claims on those resources. This treats what the people have produced as if it automatically belongs to the government -- and as if politicians and bureaucrats have both the right and the wisdom to override the personal decisions that the people want to make for themselves. This issue involves a difference between a world in which people can make their own decisions with their own money and a world in which decisions -- including life and death medical decisions -- are taken out of the hands of millions of people across the country and put into the hands of politicians and bureaucrats in Washington.
Excellent column by a black writer. ~Bob. Excerpt: Now, the word “Negro” (publications used a lower case “n”) has almost become a pejorative, so I was a little surprised when my pastor, the Rev. Willie Reid, used it during Thursday’s revival. “Back when we were Negroes,” he said, and listed several things that were different about black life in America back then. That got me to thinking. Back when we were Negroes in the 1950s, “only 9 percent of black families with children were headed by a single parent,” according to “The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies” by Kay Hymowitz. “Black children had a 52 percent chance of living with both their biological parents until age 17. In 1959, “only 2 percent of black children were reared in households in which the mother never married.” But now that we’re African-Americans, according to Hymowitz, those odds of living with both parents had “dwindled to a mere 6 percent” by the mid-1980s. And check this, in Bibb County, more than 70 percent of the births in the African-American community are to single mothers. Back when we were Negroes and still fighting in many parts of the country for the right to vote, we couldn’t wait for the polls to open. We knew our friends, family and acquaintances had died getting us the ballot. Dogs and fire hoses were used to keep us away and still we came. But now that we’re African-Americans, in a city of 47,000 registered -- predominately black voters -- more than 30,000 didn’t show up at the polls July 19. Back when we were Negroes, we had names like Joshua, Aaron, Paul, Esther, Melba, Cynthia and Ida. Now that we are African Americans, our names are bastardized versions of alcohol from Chivas to Tequila to C(S)hardonney. And chances the names have an unusual spelling.
Ken Blackwell: Growing Proof of Obama’s Imperial Presidency
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is on a job-killing rampage. It’s claiming unprecedented powers far beyond what federal law allows. Taken with Obama’s other agencies, these executive actions paint a picture of what has become an imperial presidency. A federal appeal is certain once NLRB’s shocking attack on Boeing Co. goes through the administrative process. In a free-market society, government bureaucrats cannot dictate to a private company where they can and cannot open factories or create jobs. Boeing—whose general counsel was formerly one of the most brilliant federal judges in America, Michael Luttig—should win this court battle. NLRB’s power grab is not limited to Boeing. It’s also claiming jurisdiction over St. Xavier University, saying that the school doesn’t qualify for the religious exemption to NLRB’s authority because St. Xavier is not Catholic enough.
Gallup: Uninsured Have Increased Under Obama and Since Obamacare Was Enacted
Excerpt: The percentage of American adults who lack health insurance coverage has not only increased during the presidency of Barack Obama, but it has continued to increase since Obama signed his signature piece of legislation last year mandating that by 2014 every American carry health insurance, according to a Gallup survey released today. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, according to Gallup, 14.9 percent of adult residents of the United States lacked health insurance coverage. That increased to 16.2 percent in 2009, the year that Obama was inaugurated, and to 16.4 percent in 2010, the year that Obama signed his law requiring that all Americans have health insurance. (This will probably be the only time you read this poll result; mere facts are so easy to ignore. Ron P. only in the fact-free media, Ron—not in real life. ~Bob.)
Perry: Obama’s Worst Nightmare
Excerpt: If the historic 2010 midterms demonstrated anything, it was a massive pushback against Obama’s big government policies—the stimulus and health care reform in particular. Obama saw his 2008 election as a mandate for a more activist government, and his policies created a resistance that is still churning today. Grassroots insurgencies don’t happen in a vacuum. But Democrats are still grasping at polls that show that the tea party is unpopular, even though the antigovernment sentiment that fueled the movement is as powerful as ever. The White House misread the tea party movement from the start, and it seems to be misreading it to this day. Just look at the president’s decision last Friday to suspend antismog standards, something that goes against the environmental record his administration has proudly stood for. This was a profound concession: Obama is either conceding that excessive regulation can hamper economic growth, or he’s acknowledging the political pitfalls of an activist government. And if the political pendulum has swung so much to the right that even Obama is cutting back environmental protection for the hope of economic growth, it suggests that Perry’s antigovernment views aren’t limited to cranky conservatives. (At this point, I’d vote for Rocky and Bullwinkle before I’d vote to reelect O and Joe—and why do I feel as if “Curly” belongs in there with O and Joe?—next fall. My main requirement is that our candidate must be able to win; we can worry about his/her purity after we save the Republic. Ron P.)
Apologetic Mumbai Killers: "We Didn't Get the Memo About Obama"
Just reread this old and funny classic. It has aged well. ~Bob
New Scandal at DoJ as Illegal Guitars End Up In Hands of Mexican Drug Lords
And a current satire piece. ~Bob. Excerpt: Today's uncovering of secret multi-agency program for shipping illegal Gibson guitars to Mexican drug cartels left red-faced officials of the U.S. Department of Justice scrambling for an explanation amid angry calls for a Congressional investigation. "I have ordered all agency personnel to fully cooperate in any Congressional inquiries, including all reasonable document request, as soon as we can redact them with Sharpie pens and lighter fluid," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The secret program came to light early this morning in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, after what was described as a wild battle of the bands between members of the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas, two of Mexico's most notorious violent drug gangs. "Usually these guys are armed with Mexican Strats and Squires, Epiphones, small caliber stuff like that," said Pedro Ochoa, 36, an eye witness to the sonic melee. "This time they were packing the heavy firepower." The steady barrage of power chords and piercing solo attacks attracted the attention of nearby U.S. Border Patrol agents, who arrived at the scene just as Los Zetas broke into Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song.' By the time the dust had cleared, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Oscar Jimenez was found in a catatonic state of headbanging. He was later flown to University of Arizona Hospitals, where his condition is listed as seriously rawked.
Excerpt: There are not very many good things you can say about a deep recession. But from a researcher’s point of view, there is one silver lining. This recession has given us a natural experiment in health economics — and the results are stunning. … As it turns out, the conventional wisdom is completely wrong. Here is the alternative vision, loyal readers have consistently found at this blog: The major barrier to care for low-income families is the same in the U.S. as it is throughout the developed world: the time price of care and other non-price rationing mechanisms are far more important than the money price of care. The U.S. system is actually more egalitarian than the systems of many other developed countries, with the uninsured in the U.S., for example, getting more preventive care than the insured in Canada. The burdens of non-price rationing rise as income falls, with the lowest-income families facing the longest waiting times and the largest bureaucratic obstacles to care. ObamaCare, by lowering the money price of care for almost everybody while doing nothing to change supply, will intensify non-price rationing and may actually make access to care more difficult for those with the least financial resources.
Obama’s Peculiar Obsession with Infrastructure Banks Will Not Aid Economic Revivalhttp://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/08/Using-Infrastructure-Banks-to-Spur-Economic-Recovery
Excerpt: The President’s proposal for an infrastructure bank is one idea that he and other progressives have been flogging for the past few years.[1] Although several infrastructure bank proposals have been introduced in Congress,[2] all involve the creation of a new federal bureaucracy that would provide federally funded loans and grants to approved infrastructure proposals submitted to the bank by eligible entities. Funds to provide these loans would either be borrowed by the bank or provided by appropriations, depending on the proposal. But an infrastructure bank would do little to spur the economic recovery—and nothing to create new jobs. … In reviewing these infrastructure plans it is apparent that, as a proposal to jump-start the economy, these banks possess all the liabilities of (but are even more ineffective than) the failed American Revitalization and Investment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which committed $800 billion to stimulus spending, including $48.1 billion for transportation infrastructure. As the President has recently acknowledged, and The Heritage Foundation predicted,[3] the funded projects have been very slow to get underway and have had a limited impact on economic activity.
Democrats fear it’s too late
So the Democrats plan is to make proposals that, if enacted, would destroy the country’s shreds of fiscal responsibility, then blame the Republicans for not passing them. ~Bob. Excerpt: President Obama’s new effort to revive the ailing economy may be too little, too late, according to Democrats and liberal policy experts. They contend that Obama missed his chance to turn the economy around by November 2012, but still want him to call on Congress to move an aggressive new jobs plan — even if it has little chance of passing. Obama should swing for the fences during his speech on Thursday, they say, claiming there is no need to be politically pragmatic with the House in GOP hands.
John Kerry: No Blind Trusts, Tax Avoidance, and Conflicts of Interest
Excerpt: Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the richest member of the United States Senate and one of the most senior members of the debt super committee, is seen as an advocate for raising taxes on the rich, echoing the Obama administration. But with a net worth over $230 million, Kerry and his wife — whose $1B net worth dwarfs her husband’s — over the years have avoided millions of dollars in taxes through a complex web of inherited trust funds. Last year alone they earned about $4.8 million for which they paid no taxes. Moreover, the Kerrys haven’t placed any investments into a blind trust, as recommended for avoiding conflicts of interest. They also have numerous stock investments in companies standing to benefit from Kerry’s voting for bailouts and ObamaCare.
Senate Moves Forward on Patent Reform
Excerpt: The Senate voted 93-5 on Tuesday evening to move ahead with final consideration of expansive patent-reform legislation that has already passed both chambers in Congress. Ahead of the key vote, Senate leaders urged members to fall in line and quickly approve the America Invents Act (HR 1249), which has been trumpeted by supporters as a way to help businesses create more jobs. The Senate is considering changes made to the bill by the House of Representatives. Tuesday’s vote invoked cloture on a motion to proceed and a final vote could come as early as Thursday. (Some form of this is almost certain to pass and be signed into law. Unfortunately, it will do little to stop “patent trolls.” Patent applications are supposed to be approved only for “new and unique inventions.” The problem is that those charged with the approval or disapproval aren’t—and can’t be—experts in the field of endeavor the device would be used in. And, the applications arrive by the thousands, daily. The biggest problems are in computer applications. There are literally thousands of overlapping—meaning they cover the exact same ideas and methods—patents applying to almost every computer program. The “trolls” find one of these overlaps and threaten to sue. The troll doesn’t necessarily expect to win in court; he hopes for an out-of-court settlement that would cost the defendant less than the cost of going to court to defend itself. This hidden cost may add as much as 10% to 15% to the price of every computer program. Ron P.)
Turkey ups naval presence amid tension with Israel
Excerpt: Turkey said on Tuesday it was freezing defense trade with Israel and stepping up naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean, a sign of growing tension between the two major U.S. allies in the Middle East. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's threat to send warships into waters where Israel's navy operates raises the risk of a naval confrontation between the two powers. "The eastern Mediterranean is not a strange place to us. Aksaz and Iskenderun -- these places have the power and opportunity to provide escorts," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara, referring to two Turkish naval bases. "Of course our ships will be seen much more frequently in those waters." Relations with Israel began to unravel after Erdogan voiced outrage at an Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group, in late 2008 and early 2009. They worsened sharply last year after nine Turks were killed during an Israeli commando raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza.
Four Ways Obama Has Blocked Job Growth
Excerpt: Wonder who's to blame for today's stagnant economy? Look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to see where the buck ought to stop. Though President Barack Obama constantly points fingers at others for America's economic woes, his policies are to blame for preventing the U.S. economy from getting back on track. Before you watch President Obama present his latest jobs plan in his speech on Thursday, be sure you know the four major measures he has taken to prevent job growth in America:
Biden equates Tea Party, GOP with 'Barbarians'
Excerpt: Apparently, though, for many Democrats, the Tea Party and GOP really are barbarians: Biden, whose mouth has long been a liability for Obama, was at an AFL-CIO rally when he told union members: "You are the only folks keeping the barbarians from the gates...the other side has declared war on labour's house." Let loose the hounds! Biden made this rather incendiary remark at the same venue where that paragon of moderation Jimmy Hoffa called on union members to "Take these sons of bitches out." Maybe its a good thing we're barbarians if we're going to have to go to war and prevent an attack that would "take us out."
Lost Great Escape tunnel is pinpointed
Excerpt: BRITISH archaeologists have discovered a missing tunnel at one of the most infamous German prison camp of the Second World War and unearthed a wealth of escapers' tools and equipment sealed underground. The tunnel, named George, was shut down in 1945, when the Prisoners of War of Stalag Luft III were led off at gunpoint by their Nazi guards as the advancing Red Army closed in.
Important: How GE Is Arming China to Compete With Boeing -- and America
Excerpt: General Electric (GE) plans to sell its aircraft electronics to Chinese companies, and if you don't have a problem with that, maybe you should. After all, China just flight-tested a prototype stealth fighter (pictured), it continues to build up its military -- and we can only hope it's not planning to expand its territory in ways that threaten the U.S. But if China does decide to get aggressive with the U.S., GE will have provided it with the aircraft technology it will be using. According to The New York Times, GE is signing a deal to sell avionics technology -- electronics that control an aircraft's basic in-flight operations -- to Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (CACC), which aspires to build commercial and military aircraft. GE will do this through a joint venture with a Chinese company, Aviation Industry Corp. of China (Avic). Avic makes avionics for CACC and for China's military -- including its stealth fighter.
UPDATE--AK-47 wacko kills soldiers Bizarre Nev. IHOP attack
Excerpt: A lunatic with an AK-47 opened fire on five uniformed National Guard members eating at a Nevada IHOP yesterday — killing three of them and injuring the other two, before blowing himself away, authorities said. Crazed killer Eduardo Sencion, 32, of Carson City, targeted the soldiers, but his wild gunfire also killed one civilian customer and injured five others. One of the dead soldiers was a woman. The horrific attack on active-duty troops and civilians in Carson City came less than a week before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with nerves on edge across the country. … Authorities said the shooter was born in Mexico and had a valid US passport. (How’d he get an AK-47? I thought the ATF had sold them all to Mexican drug gangs? ~Bob.)
Evangelicals Left Off National Cathedral 9/11 Program
Excerpt: A weekend of religious-themed observances at Washington National Cathedral marking the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks will include a Buddhist nun and an Imam, but not an evangelical Christian, leading the head of the Southern Baptist Convention to ask President Obama to reconsider attending the event. “A Call to Compassion” will include an interfaith prayer vigil on Sept. 11. It will feature the dean of the Cathedral, the Bishop of Washington, a rabbi, Buddhist nun and incarnate lama, a Hindu priest, the president of the Islamic Society of North America and a Muslim musician. However, Southern Baptists, representing the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, were not invited to participate – and neither were leaders from any evangelical Christian organization. “It’s not surprising,” said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. “There is a tragic intolerance toward Protestants and particularly toward evangelicals and I wish the president would refuse to speak unless it was more representative.”
Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future
Excerpt: The movement seeking to turn “Islamophobia” into a thought crime and to silence all critics of radical Islam is gaining momentum. Just recently, Think Progress — an organization created by billionaire George Soros, puppet master of the left wing of the Democratic Party, and John Podesta, former chief of staff in the Clinton White House, put out a report written by Faiz Shakir and others called Fear Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America. Because of his speeches to students warning against the pro-jihadis spreading their message of hate in our universities — in particular the Muslim Students Association — David Horowitz was one of the targets of this smear. Another was Robert Spencer, author of several courageous books about radical Islam and director of the early warning website jihadwatch.org. Ironically, Horowitz and Spencer are the authors of a new pamphlet, Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future, which unmasks the sinister agenda behind the anti-Islamophobia movement, which Frontpage takes pride in publishing today. Horowitz and Spencer show why “Islamophobia” is the new, favorite attack term of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Hamas-spinoff CAIR and assorted Marxist groups, to silence critics of Islamic terror, misogyny, and religious bigotry. The Brotherhood and its front groups allege that it is the pathological hatred of Muslims — despite the fact that Horowitz, Spencer and the other targets of this smear have said in so many words and on many, many occasions that individual Muslims are not their targets.
A Muslim for Liberty
Excerpt: In his recent speech in Scotland, Imam Rauf claimed that no Muslim wants stoning or amputation in America. But if that is true, why have Muslims already brought female genital mutilation, “Islamic” finance and the “disciplining” of wives to America? If they have brought these aspects of Sharia, why would they not bring stoning or amputation as well? Have these laws suddenly somehow lost the approval of Allah? Many of us Western Muslims are alarmed by this kind of deception by some of our leaders. We know well that Sharia law legitimizes violence in the name of divinity. We are sad to see countless open and secret Sharia courts across the West — now they are trying to do it in America. TAM (The American Muslims) created the first blueprint of a USA-Sharia court system back in 1993 in the model of Native American courts. Sharia law is more than stoning and amputation. It sanctions other unjust laws even more devastating. Sharia law destroys family peace by setting brothers against sisters with its codification of half-inheritance. It does the same by setting husbands against wives by establishing the husband’s absolute control over his wife’s person and sexuality. That is why there is no such thing as the rape of a wife in Sharia law. Sharia law allows child-marriage without caring what the husbands do to the unfortunate little “brides.” Sharia law is a threat to world peace because it thrives on hating others.
Enough
Excerpt: For the past year, Palin fans have become an online fixture with more venom and insanity than the most rabid Ron Paul fan. They have not evangelized on behalf of Sarah Palin trying to lead people to Sarah Palin, they have freaked a lot of us out. I am at the point of fearing that should Palin not get in the race we’re going to have a Hale Bopp moment with many of her most ardent supporters. These people have become too emotionally invested in one person to discuss that person rationally or even to address serious policy concerns. For the longest time I wanted Sarah Palin to run. At some point, I decided Sarah Palin could not defeat Barack Obama, but I’d rather go down fighting on Team Sarah than side with any of the guys who will just take us down the “big government conservative” path of creeping socialism. Finally, I decided Sarah Palin was not going to run and I moved on. Ultimately, 2012 really is about beating Barack Obama, not what Sarah Palin will or will not do. Unfortunately, as I found out and as others are starting to find out, moving on from Sarah Palin is like leaving Scientology.
The Great Betrayal
Now, even the Huffington Post is running articles on Obama as a narcissist! –M.E. Excerpt: Barack Obama's betrayal will resonate in history long after he has become just another name on the over-priced celebrity speaker circuit. It is a betrayal of far more than the youthful idealists and loyal progressives who put him in the White House. Obama has unmoored the Democratic Party from its foundations -- philosophical and electoral. No longer is it an expression of the persons, programs and ideas that crystallized with the New Deal and which dominated the country's politics for sixty years. Its future is that of ad hoc assemblage of hustlers and special interests whose sole claim to govern will be that it is not the amalgamated Tea/Republican Party. Obama, by this Oedipus-like act of patricide, has also betrayed the country that voted for an enlightened leader with a social conscience -- a country in desperate need of the opposite to the fate he has laid on us. Barack Obama was the active factor that has precipitated this tragedy. Who and what he is, therefore, is of the utmost importance. It deserves close scrutiny since his unbecoming traits of personality are not his alone, although he does represent their distilled essence -- and he alone managed to become President of the United States. There are more Obamas, or Obama look-alikes, in our future. What are the most salient ingredients in his private-public persona? Most striking is a behavior pattern that resembles closely the narcissistic syndrome -- even if he is not a clinical narcissist. A narcissist has no convictions other than a total dedication to his own gratification.
7 Business Screw-Ups From America's Super CEO-And-Chief Barack Obama
Excerpt: I have developed the 7-11 challenge: I will quit making fun of, for example, Dennis Kucinich, if he can prove he can run a 7-11 properly for 8 hours. We'll even let him have an hour or so of preparation before we open up. Within 8 hours, the money will be gone, the store will be empty, and he'll be explaining how three 11-year olds came in and asked for the money and he gave it to them. -- Ann CoulterOne of the biggest problems with many of the politicians in D.C. is that they have come to believe that because they've had a little success in their lives, they're smarter than everyone else and can run people's businesses better than they can do it themselves. In actuality, even if they were smarter than most other people, which isn't true just because their sycophantic aides tell them it is, experience usually trumps brilliance. In other words, a politician like Barack Obama who has never run a business, is making and breaking companies from Washington with bail-outs, laws, and regulations, despite the fact that he has very little idea of what the real world impact of his actions will be. Meanwhile, people are wondering why corporations are hunkering down, hoarding cash, and refusing to hire people right now. The biggest reason for it is sitting in the Oval Office. At any moment, Obamacare may have some unknown complication, a government agency may implement some incredibly costly new regulation, the White House may go after them to help a connected Democrat donor, or Obama may impose a new tax in the name of "fairness." Here are just a few examples that show you how little Barack Obama really knows about business.
Pow. Wham. Read it. Never Trust Anyone Who Hasn't Been Punched in the Face
http://takimag.com/article/never_trust_anyone_who_hasnt_been_punched_in_the_face/print#axzz1XIEFnlqT
Excerpt: History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it. Every great civilization reaches a point of prosperity where it is possible to live your entire life as a pacifist without any serious consequences. Many civilizations have come to the state of devolution represented by modern Berkeley folkways, from wife-swapping to vegetarianism. These ideas don’t come from a hardscrabble existence in contact with nature’s elemental forces; they are the inevitable consequence of being an effete urban twit removed from meaningful contact with reality. The over-civilized will try to portray their decadence as something “highly evolved” and worthy of emulation because it can only exist in the hothouse of highly civilized urban centers, much like influenza epidemics. … When good men who will fight are all extinct, there is no more civilization. No lantern-jawed viragos are going to save you from the barbarian hordes. No mincing nancy boys with Harvard diplomas will stand up for the common decencies: They’re a social construct, dontcha know. The conservative movement won’t save you: They’re chicken-hearted careerists petrified of offending a victim group.
Grenades Case Hits Justice--- Blunders After U.S. Arrest of Suspected Supplier Had a Part in High-Level Ousters
Excerpt: Federal authorities are probing why the U.S. in 2010 let go an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel, a case that played a role in the ouster last week of the nation's top firearms regulator and the U.S. attorney in Phoenix. Then-U.S. attorney Dennis Burke speaks in January about recovered weapons. U.S. officials said missteps in the case, which hasn't been previously disclosed, are being investigated by the Justice Department and Congress. Federal agents in 2009-10 at the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the case against the suspect, who they believed was dealing grenades to cartels in Mexico. The case was overseen by prosecutors in the Arizona U.S. attorney's office, the U.S. officials said.
200 Gun Murders Earn 4 ATF Transfers to Washington D.C.
Excerpt: In the tradition of the Weaver family murders and the Waco inferno, ATF has now brought us “Fast and Furious” with the highest body count to date: approximately 200. At the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), that merits transfers for the four managers involved. Fast and Furious was a project spawned at a multi-agency meeting in October of 2009 consisting of ATF, FBI, Border Patrol and Immigration, the IRS, Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department. It began as an outgrowth of Operation Gunrunner, a typical sting operation begun in 2005 that targeted straw gun purchases. A legal buyer typically buys a gun after passing the Instant Background Check. But under Gunrunner, if something about the transaction was suspicious, ATF would surveil the purchaser until he sold the gun to a buyer who was not legally able to own a gun. At that point they would make an arrest. But under Operation Fast and Furious, guns were, in fact, allowed to “walk” -- with no arrests being made. Most of the guns went to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, but some also turned up at Arizona crime scenes. One straw buyer bought over 700 guns. Another was an FBI informant and a felon the ATF knew nothing about. He did not pop up in the background check because the FBI was fiddling with the system.
Jay Leno
The football game will be on Thursday night, right after the season finale of President Obama. (if only. ~Bob.)
Worth Reading: Jim Lacey: The Moral High Ground
Excerpt: Soon after I published an article questioning the global-warming orthodoxy, the world’s foremost hypocrite, Al Gore, informed anyone who still listens to him that my position is akin to racism. The wise course of action would be to ignore the rants of a man who desperately needs the world to remain fearful of carbon, the element on which all life on earth is based. If that fear were to vanish, how would he continue to rake in the millions needed for the purchase of his next beach house? But enough is enough. Why should I sit quietly and let myself be branded a racist? In fact, will someone please explain how the Left is always assumed to have the moral high ground in these kinds of debates? I am particularly curious about this, as leftist policies continue to destroy the lives of tens of millions in this country and billions worldwide. Let's go through just a small part of the evidence.
Obama t-shirt helps Corpus Christi police catch suspected robber
Excerpt: A man accused of stealing a cellphone from a teen at a bus stop was found thanks in part to his President Barack Obama T-shirt, Corpus Christi police said.
Blacks and Politics
Excerpt: At one of last month's Congressional Black Caucus-sponsored "job fairs," Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told the audience: "This is the effort that we're seeing of Jim Crow. Some of these folks in Congress right now would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now with this tea party movement would love to see you and me -- I'm sorry, Tamron -- hanging on a tree." Carson's reference to Tamron was acknowledgment of the presence of MSNBC's black reporter Tamron Hall, who didn't deem it fit to report the congressman's statement. Another black attacker of the tea party movement is Rep. Maxine Waters, who told her constituents: "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the tea party can go straight to hell." "Let us all remember who the real enemy is. And the real enemy is the tea party," reminded Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said the tea party should be called the "Fort Sumter tea party that sought to maintain states' rights and slavery." Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., in telling a job fair audience to register to vote, said, "Turn the tea party upside down!" What about Hastings' call for blacks to register to vote? What has it meant? For several decades, blacks have held significant political power, in the form of being mayors and dominant forces on city councils in our major cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Oakland, Newark, Cincinnati and many others. In most of these cities, blacks have served as school superintendents, school principals and chiefs of police. Plus, there's precedent setting black political power at the national level, with 39 black congressmen and a black president. Here's my question: What would you think of someone who claimed that black political power has yielded great results? In these cities where blacks dominate the political machinery, black academic proficiency is on a par with the rest of the nation. Black families are more stable and illegitimacy and welfare dependency are much lower than they were when whites dominated the political machinery of these cities. Also, since blacks have replaced white mayors and city councils, black citizens are murdered less and are far safer on the streets and in their homes. Even more noticeable is the fall in unemployment, particularly since the nation elected a black president. You say, "Williams, anyone making such statements suffers from a special kind of lunacy and ought to be put into an insane asylum!"
Excerpt: The financial crisis in Europe has become so severe that it has put the future of the euro, and indeed the future of the EU itself, in doubt. If the financial system in Europe collapses, it is going to plunge the entire globe into chaos. The EU has a larger economy and a larger population than the United States does. The EU also has more Fortune 500 companies that the United States does. If the financial system in Europe breaks down, we are all doomed. An economic collapse in Europe would unleash a financial tsunami that would sweep across the globe. As I wrote about yesterday, the nightmarish sovereign debt crisis in Europe could potentially bring about the end of the euro. The future of the monetary union in Europe is being questioned all over the continent. Without massive bailouts, there are at least 5 or 6 nations in Europe that will likely soon default. The political will for continued bailouts is rapidly failing in northern Europe, so something needs to be done quickly to avert disaster. Unfortunately, as anyone that has ever lived in Europe knows, things tend to move very, very slowly in Europe. If the bailouts end and Europe is not able to come up with another plan before then, mass chaos is going to unleashed. Most major European banks are massively exposed to European sovereign debt, and most of them are also very, very highly leveraged. If we see nations such as Greece, Portugal and Italy start to default, we could have quite a few major European banks go down in rapid succession. That could be the “tipping point” that sets off mass financial panic around the globe.
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Robert A. Hall
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