Is This the "Flexibility" ?

Daniel Henninger: Putin Carterizes Obama, Totally - WSJ.com:

We may quibble over the timeline. Some might say it began when Mr. Obama whispered to then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he'd have "more flexibility" after the 2012 election; others that it set in when the U.S. president took Mr. Putin's offer to let Bashar Assad escape the bombing of his airfields for using WMD against his own people.

As BO bumbles Carteresquely around Putin, I for one have wondered whatever happened to that off-mike comment. 

The US MSM remains completely incurious of course, I doubt a Republican could even have been re-elected after obviously indicating intent to fraudulently mislead the American people to be re-elected and to then allow a rival nation "more flexibility". Let alone having the comment "forgotten". ("misunderestimated?)


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Crimea River (Ann)

Crimea River - Ann Coulter - Page 1:



The title just makes me jealous. When she is right, she is right -- one may as well just relax and let what happens happen when there is Democrat behind the foreign policy wheel.



I did notice that the JFK, Bobby, Marilyn "three way"  will not be adding to the Kennedy legacy for at least a while.



Man, I'm jealous about her title! As Ann almost always is, a "guilty pleasure" entertaining read.



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I'll Take the Camera Vehicle!

The Factory’s “Camera RZR” » UTVUNDERGROUND:





The video at the end is pretty cool ... amazing what it takes to shoot some of these promo kinds of material.



The degree of constant innovation and advancement in the outdoor power-sport industry is incredible.



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Ghostbusters Caused Reagan

Baby boomer humor’s big lie: “Ghostbusters” and “Caddyshack” really liberated Reagan and Wall Street - Salon.com:



I'm not going to quote you a lot out of this, you need to read it. Thomas Frank is very well respected in liberal circles, and this is not on Salon's humor page.



Certainly a conservative or libertarian is going to read this and be very tempted to just laugh completely out loud. Go ahead and do this, but then realize for a moment that this guy is SERIOUS! He is pretty pissed that someone is willing and ABLE to make movies that he sees as espousing "the common man" standing up and most of all SNEERING at his BETTERS! Frank strongly believes he is one of those betters! He sees himself as "Dean Wermer", "The EPA Guy",  Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore) as the judge in Caddyshack.



OK, so I pretty much agree with him on that ... short laugh break here.



BUT. Consider Orwell's pigs; "some are more equal than others". Frank is absolutely certain that HE is "more equal".



Frank utterly forgets the hundreds (thousands?) of movies, rock songs, books, TV shows, plays, etc, etc that provide a myriad of extremely negative portrayals of business, wall street, the rich that earned their money, etc. He also forgets that this small bevy of movies was very clearly HUMOR, and it is HIGHLY unlikely that they had any sort of effect even REMOTELY strong enough to counteract the 12-20 years of hard left wing education forced indoctrination, the MSM, the entire media culture, and the effects of constant left wing economic disincentives ... why not just stay on your parents healthcare until 26 and maybe live off the government dime for a while like the "kids" (formerly adults) in Europe?



No, Frank's lefty thought utopia is very safe until it crashes into the evil abutment of reality -- which even BO can't decree to cease and desist. But why is he so pissed?



Because Frank's universe must be PURE! His world doesn't allow for someone "flipping him the bird" ... especially if that someone might be armed! Frank wants them on the ground, cuffed, and thrown into the Gulag where he can  INSURE that they "get their mind right". Fealty is INSUFFICIENT! It has to be GENUINE you swine!!



Naturally the idea of Frank walking over and accosting any red blooded American over flipping him the bird  in reality an extremely funny thought. One doesn't need a weapon to have guys like Frank wetting themselves in the real world, but there is the rub.



Frank has no intent or predilection to a "fair fight". He HATES real merit, he hates real strength, he obviously even hates real humor. His anger at those things forces him to show his true colors -- just a bit, and just to his friends at Salon, but due to the internet, perhaps a glimpse can get out??



There is NO DOUBT that his goal ... and the unstated goal of MANY on the left is CONTROL at a level that would stamp out the kind of "subversion" of the Ramis movies evening HINTING at targets like "government". Subversion would still be very much encouraged in that world -- against business, family, church, wealth, etc, but NEVER against government.



So Mr Frank, even when you walk by me in my cell, you are right! There ARE those of us willing to flip you the bird (even though only an extreme paranoid thinks it has anything to do with Harold Ramis movies)! Even WORSE, it is just fine that we live in a country that is free enough so that others can flip me off (although I may walk over and have a nice chat with them).  That is their RIGHT, and I CELEBRATE IT!



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Ocean Rise Threatens Lady Liberty

Sea-level rise threatens to drown Statue of Liberty | Science Recorder:

Sea-level rise threatens UNESCO World Heritage sites, including such internationally famous sites as the Statue of Liberty in New York City, 

according to a report from the Institute of Physics. The Statue of Liberty is just one of many sites that could be compromised if current global warming trends are maintained over the next two millennia. MILLENNIA! Got that? This is a "science news" item for TWO THOUSAND years from now!

Plus, it is from the "Institute of Physics" ... noted climatologists that they are!

It showed up under "science" under my Google News, so it is popular enough to make that cut.

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Endless War

Paul Ryan wages war on the War on Poverty - CNN.com:



The Democrats have been at war with poverty for 50 years, and by every measure, it seems that poverty is winning.  Right now there are 44M people (men women and children) living in poverty and we are spending $800B a year on them, or about $18K each. If one assumes that MOST of these are "families" of some sort ... mother with one or more kids in most cases, if we just mailed them a check they would have $36K for a family of two and up from there.



Of course the $800B has to support a vast "poverty infrastructure". Lots of departments, programs, bureaucrats, secretaries and undersecretaries of this and that. All good solid Democrat voters though, as are at least 90% of the 44M that they can get to go out to vote (or count as having voted by some means). Why would a Democrat NOT want to keep $800B flowing into their constituency? It's close to 1/4 of the budget for goodness sakes ... and the % of people in poverty in '09 was basically the same as the day that LBJ declared war!



Ah yes, $800B in graft that has not moved the ball in 50 years!



The old anti-W sticker back when Democrats cared about "war" was "Endless War". How many Trillions down the "War on Poverty" rat hole in that 50 years? No doubt more than enough to have moved the US GDP a NUMBER of TRILLIONS up had they not been squandered keeping a set of Democrats on the poverty plantation!



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The 58th? State

Putin's Cynical Choice | RealClearPolitics:



Back when BO claimed he had been in 57 states with one more to go (not including Alaska and Hawaii, which his staff didn't let him go to), the few of us aware of his statement pretty much assumed it was just a gaffe. You know, the kind of thing that would have been on every comedy show for 8 years if W had made it.



I think we were wrong. Apparently in the alternate universe of the left, Iraq became a US state after W's "war of aggression" ... because it is completely legitimate to compare the removal of Saddam Hussein with the US action in Iraq, Not only that, but Afghanistan, Panama and Grenada.



When I went through the Panama Canal a couple years back, I failed to see any US flags flying. They normally stand out, red white and blue being somewhat bright and contrasting colors, but I must have missed them since apparently we acquired Panama as a state.



I guess the acquisition of all those new states by the US pretty much makes it unreasonable for us to question Putin.



One really can't legitimately criticize a person unless one travels a few parsecs in their universe!









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End of Days Preview

Scale of suffering at Syrian refugee camp is revealed by photo of huge queue for food | World news | theguardian.com:

There has not been a lot of coverage of this picture in the US, but some pictures are worth many thousands of words.

Can you even imagine what our news would look like now if W had done a proud "reset" on Russian relations after Slick, Gore, Lieberman, Kerry or Edwards had mentioned that "Russia was a likely adversary" and been smugly derided by W. Remember, Putin "bailed out" BO and Kerry on the "red line" in Syria!

The surrealism just marches on and on ... and then at some point you find yourself in a queue like one pictured and your realize that while BO, socialism, "settled science", "you can keep your healthcare", "it is good that less people have to work", etc etc were all lies, but lies that have a very real effect on the lives of real people!

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Bill Clinton, Racist Extremist!

Kirsten Powers Demagogues on Religious Liberty, Again:



Another little marker on how far we have "progressed" as a nation. When Clinton signed a similar bill in '93, there was no outcry. Many states already have very similar laws on the books and nothing like the shrill howlers would indicate "might happen" has happened.



So if you are a Christian you MUST photographs at a gay "wedding" if you are in the photography business, or a baker must do the cake ... etc, etc. I think we all know that a Muslim, or likely any other person or church that refused their facilities or whatever will get a pass. We don't call things ANTI-Christian in the MSM **YET**!



The simplest idea would be "private businesses can serve whatever customers they decide to serve for whatever reason" ... you see these signs all the time "we reserve the right to refuse service for any reason".  Perhaps the potential customer is filthy stinking dirty, perhaps they are loud mouthed and obscene, perhaps they don't meet some standard of attire. The operative situation in a country that supported personal liberty would be that the business owner is forgoing a customer, and if he cuts out certain groups of customers that reduces his potential market, thus costing HIS bottom line!



There used to be a country called the United States of America that held this view.



I'd argue the situation is EXACTLY the same for smokers! I happen not to smoke, and I very much like the fact that I'm not bothered by smoke, however I firmly believe "today they came for the smokers, but I was quiet because I was not a smoker".  I believe that the cornerstone of the nation that was once America was that we respected the rights of others to hold views THAT WE DIDN'T AGREE WITH!



We clearly are no longer that nation. So much so that in '93, Slick Willie himself would have been a "racist extremist"!

Now I'm sure that the Slickster has fully "evolved" to whatever way "progress" is blowing today, so the only thing he would stand up for is whatever is in the best interest of he or his "wife" (political partner) getting the most money and power. For the rest of us though, the very few remaining that want to believe that our lives have more value than the excrement that the flies seem to be buzzing to today, we need to at least give the facts as to how fast we are sliding a look!



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Keeping the Communist Faith

Hearken to Harkin | Power Line:



One of the things I loved about NPR in the '80s was their breathless reporting of the joys of life in Cuba or the USSR. From their descriptions, it is hard to imagine how any USSR residents would ever think of taking down the wall.



In the linked articles we have a US Senator espousing the results of healthcare in Cuba as stated by THEIR figures! Why, what could go wrong? When a Socialist tells you "If you like your healthcare, you can keep it", why would one not believe them??



Here is an pictoral example with N Korea in the Tyrannical role:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-shrouded-in-darkness-in-stunning-new-photo-from-space-station/



Does a visual do it?



I find China to be the most chilling modern state -- sort of totalitarianism with a curtsey to Communism, taking the competitive parts of Capitalism, and leaving out most of the Nanny State aspects of Socialism and Communism. It remains to be seen if they have arrived at the economic and political stew that works in the 21st century. Right now it would appear so!



There is a broad set of the electorate and the elected that will pine away for the great dream of Socialism and Communism no matter how the disastrous results pile up. True leftist faith is never swayed by the deaths of 100's of millions of people or anything else.



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5 Ways Socialism Destroys Societies - John Hawkins

5 Ways Socialism Destroys Societies - John Hawkins - Page full:



Short, sweet, excellent and correct!



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Weimar Amerika

Articles: Our Weimar Republic:

 "As Weimar Germany slid to Nazi Germany, another disturbing trend was the reduction of the national legislature to irrelevance.  In the last years of Weimar Germany, President Hindenburg began ruling Germany by emergency decree.  On the pretext that the Reichstag could not operate, the executive branch of Weimar Germany simply began acting without legislative consent."

Excellent article. Just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean everyone ISN'T out to get you!



Just because comparisons with Nazi Germany are often wrong doesn't mean they are ALWAYS wrong!





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Mammograms Not Settled Science

Charles Krauthammer: The myth of ‘settled science’ - The Washington Post:

"Now we learn from a massive randomized study — 90,000 women followed for 25 years — that mammograms may have no effect on breast cancer deaths. Indeed, one out of five of those diagnosed by mammogram receives unnecessary radiation, chemo or surgery."

The news that mammograms may not really help isn't all that shocking for anyone that has been around for a few turns of the earth. We have seen coffee, wine, various fats, grains and a host of other food items shift back and forth from being identified as near certain causes of early demise to being proverbial fountains of youth. If your product is on the outs, just wait around, it may be an elixir soon ... or vice versa.

The proud claim of science was once that it was not, nor could be "settled". The settled was the domain of religion, which held claims on that which is eternal, vs science which was confined to the physical, the temporal, that in which change is certain and "there is nothing new under the sun". (or at least REALLY new ... each generation and each new fad is SURE that what they have found is "new")

On mammograms, our haste to "do something" is entirely understandable -- we all have at least a mother who we love dearly, and breast cancer is a very real risk. We WANT to be able to do SOMETHING to feel more secure, and if cancer does come to call, we want to be able to say "we did all we could".

Is that motivation the same with climate? "Well, we HAVE to do SOMETHING!"??

I don't believe so, I believe it is more the case that having a religion is critical to man, and post 60's, a lot of younger folks have been looking for a "new one", so in Charles words, they have gone "whoring after new gods".

But whoring is whoring, and the gods must be appeased. So if California burns, you send your high priest (in carbon -belching Air Force One, but never mind) to the bone-dry land to offer up, on behalf of the repentant congregation, a $1 billion burnt offering called a “climate resilience fund.”

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Reality Wrong Again

The 'Fairness' Fraud - Thomas Sowell - Page 2:

"In other words, the fact that reality does not match the preconceptions of the intelligentsia shows that there is something wrong with reality, for which somebody must be blamed. Apparently their preconceptions cannot be wrong."

"First, do no harm" is a good  short conservative maxim.



"Who is to blame" may be similar for the "progressive".



Sowell covers "fairness" yet again in his inimitable style. "Progressives" assume that they know how things SHOULD be, so when reality doesn't meet their preconceptions it MUST be somebody elses fault.



"It's not my fault" is another classic liberal line. In fact, one pretty much just needs to listen to a pre-school playground to understand liberal thought:



-- "It's not fair"!



-- "I'm going to tell"!



-- "Gimme" !



-- "She/he is cheating"!



-- "I can't"!



Perhaps understanding "liberals" is much easier than it sometimes seems?



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How Leftists Fly

GOP Crocodile Tears Over Jobs | RealClearPolitics:

Since natural laws don't apply on the left, they simply grab their bootstraps and pull ... and then they fly! If you don't believe they fly, you are obviously a "denier" and should perhaps have your taxes audited!

See, the Republicans are complaining that the CBO says that raising the minimum wage will cost 500K jobs. They believe in the old time economics where each person employed has to bring in enough money to cover their wages, government mandated taxes, possible government mandated benefits or fines like BOcare, PLUS add enough profit to the bottom line to make it worthwhile to hire them.

In the modern Democrat universe however that is "foolish". Even though we have been following their policies since '09, and really '07 when they took over congress, we have 8 million LESS people employed than we did in '07!!!

But here is how they propose to "improve the economy" via the bootstraps from here:

The first thing to do is extend the long-term unemployment benefits that expired at the end of last year. According to the CBO -- whose word, apparently, is now holy writ among Republicans -- this simple measure would add 200,000 jobs, perhaps as many as 300,000. 

Then ... 

The CBO has estimated that canceling the across-the-board reductions in federal spending known as "sequestration" would preserve 900,000 jobs a year. 

and top it all off ...

That gives us more than 1 million jobs to replace the 500,000 lost from hiking the minimum wage. But Republicans wouldn't want to stop there. To maximize employment, putting as many people to work as possible, the GOP should obviously begin designing a new economic stimulus package, much like the stimulus Obama convinced Congress to approve five years ago. 

According to the CBO, the $800 billion stimulus -- much maligned by Republicans as a waste of money -- created or saved an average of 1.6 million jobs per year from 2009 through 2012. Now that most of the money is spent and the impact of the stimulus is waning, clearly it's time to give job-creation another boost.

Got that??? We have EIGHT MILLION LESS people employed than we did at the top of the last cycle, with millions more americans in the workforce, at least partially due to the policies that Democrats think are "helpful", and the way to get more jobs is to just spend more and more government money! You CAN fly by pulling on your bootstraps!! 

If only Democrats would become so convinced of their wisdom that they would jump off a cliff tugging on their bootstraps one by one until somebody had a "learning moment"!

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