Learning From Steve Jobs

What I learned from Steve Jobs | Apple - CNET News:

Some very good insights would go a lot farther than marching on Wall Street to enrich all our lives at a lot of levels!

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BO 103K, Reagan 1100K

Review & Outlook: 103,000 vs. 1.1 Million - WSJ.com

Policies have consequences.

82-83 was a worse recession by every statistic, and it came on top the sick 70's, a decade where the US looked like dogmeat. September of '83 is the greatest month of job creation in US history, 1.1 Million -- Because of government being put on a leash and the private sector driving.

Government doesn't create jobs, BUSINESS creates jobs. If we can't get that right, nothing works.

We know how, JUST DO IT!!!

A Pyromaniac In a Field Of Straw Men

How George Will Misunderstands Both Elizabeth Warren And Liberalism | The New Republic:

The title is a very nice turn of phrase -- one applied by William F Buckley to John Kenneth Galbraith. It reminds me of how much I miss the Godfather of "WFB"s everywhere.

In this context it shows how the left tends to raise "not getting the point" to high pedantic art.

Nobody that I know is talking of NO TAXES on the wealthy, millionaires, private jet owners, or any other group. The Democrats current approach is to willy nilly tack $50K of new taxes on an income of a million, out of the blue.

Why all the long lectures on "nobody gets rich on their own"?? Nobody said they did -- the upper incomes are ALREADY paying around 70% of the income taxes!

As is often the case, Galston creates yet more straw men to do battle with rather than Will. The problem at hand is LIMITED government. Higher income people are already paying over 50% of their income when FICA, state, and local taxes are added in. When the government is already taking over half of your income and still wants more it seems very reasonable to talk about "limits", it is completely UNreasonable to discuss the straw man of "everybody ought to pay some taxes".

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Faster Than Climate Change

Gone in 60 nanoseconds - The Washington Post

I'm not sure I agree with Charles on the extreme import this may have. If true, much like the discovery of quantum effects, it will put Einstein's model in a "bounded domain" much as Einstein put Newton's model in a similar bounded domain. Newtonian physics still works just fine for well over 90% of physics work, because we humans live in the speed and weight range where Newton's model is explanatory. So it will likely be with Einstein's Relativity. Again, **IF** this is proven to be true.

What I DO really like about this article is:

1). Way short of all that is newsworthy is political. Out current world is WAY to heavily tilted to the overblown focus on things political. This is real hard science happening that COULD make fundamental changes in the way we compute and communicate, and who knows? Faster than light??

2). How complete an absurdity it is that "Climate Change" could be "settled science" by ANYONE, when E=MC**2 is not, and SHOULD not be!!!

North Dakota Arabia

The Weekend Interview with Harold Hamm: How North Dakota Became Saudi Arabia - WSJ.com:

Great article, just read it! If we can just get B0 and Democrat cronies out of DC, we are more than poised to have an economic burst bigger than the 80's + pay off the national debt.

Oh wait, that is an OPTIMISTIC assessment, and these days we are back into the Carter era gloom and woe.

Mr. Hamm's rags to riches success is the quintessential "only in America" story. He was the last of 13 kids, growing up in rural Oklahoma "the son of sharecroppers who never owned land." He didn't have money to go to college, so as a teenager he went to work in the oil fields and developed a passion. "I always wanted to find oil. It was always an irresistible calling."

He now is the 33rd richest guy in America.

Mr. Hamm calculates that if Washington would allow more drilling permits for oil and natural gas on federal lands and federal waters, "I truly believe the federal government could over time raise $18 trillion in royalties." That's more than the U.S. national debt, I say. He smiles.

Oh wait, it might be only half that ... this guy is an optimist, and this is the age of fools -- we invest $500 million in bankrupt "green energy" companies, and stick it to guys like Hamm. 

Now why is it again that US corporations are sitting with trillions of dollars on the sideline talking about "uncertainty"??? 

Washington keeps "sticking a regulatory boot at our necks and then turns around and asks: 'Why aren't you creating more jobs,'" he says. He roils at the Interior Department delays of months and sometimes years to get permits for drilling. "These delays kill projects," he says. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is now tightening the screws on the oil industry, requiring companies like Continental to report their production and federal royalties on thousands of individual leases under the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules. "I could go to jail because a local operator misreported the production in the field," he says.

It is so reminiscent of "Atlas Shrugged"

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BO Assassination of Americans "Troubling"

Killings Pose Legal and Moral Quandary - WSJ.com:

The "far right news outlet" WSJ seems to be "troubled" by BO killing a US citizen in a foreign land with no judicial review at all. Golly.

I'm old enough to remember a time long ago and far away in the evil W administration where even tapping a phone WITH FISA court review was a TERRIBLE destruction of our Constitutional rights!! 

Back then the MSM/left were some mighty strict Constitutionalists.

Now BO can KILL a US citizen with no attempt at capture and trial. Just go ahead and blast them??? Presidential power as judge, jury and executioner of US citizens. These are the same people that are against the death penalty even after a full scale trial and years of appeals, because "there is never 100% proof someone is guilty", but they are completely UNtroubled by BO whacking this guy?

Yes, I know, my own maxim of understanding the liberal mind "Consistency is NOT an issue!!!" ... but each new proof of that frankly unbelievable maxim gives me a little shiver. Our elites suddenly discover that  no law and no limits on power is nothing that they have concern over!

All hail BO! 

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Revenue to GDP

W. Kurt Hauser: There's No Escaping Hauser's Law - WSJ.com:

The history of taxation in the US shows that one has a maximum revenue choice unless we drastically change taxation with something like a VAT.

Since the '50s we have been running between 15 and 19% of GDP through good and bad. So the max is 19% of a growing GDP pie.

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The Most Persistent Economic Fallacy of All Time!

This ought to be required viewing for every American. It is PRODUCTION that matters, not SPENDING!

B0, A Value, Not a Scent

Return of the real Obama - The Washington Post:

As Charles quotes Goldwater at the end "A choice, not an echo".

The real B0 is back -- with the stench of complete re-distributive "spread the wealth around" at all costs, even a LOSS of revenue to the federal government.

Why? Because to liberals like BO "fairness" in some cosmic abstract sense that none of them can truly define, is of infinite value. "Fair is good", even if it impoverishes us all.

And it does. It is DIVERSITY that gives us life, vigor, excitement, hope, success, wealth. Tic Tac Toe becomes boring quickly, far too easy for all to be "equally good". DIFFERENTIAL ABILITY is the essence of humanity -- it is what makes us special. It was no accident at all that the once-greatest nation on earth allowed vast differences in wealth. It allowed vast differences in speaking, math, sports, and acting ability as well -- and compensated people accordingly.

Aaron Rodgers makes much more than 100x the salary of the worst active QB in the country -- probably on a sandlot near you this weekend. Aaron Rodgers makes millions, the worst QB makes ZERO.

Zero is strange, and I am very afraid of our ability to escape the clutches of B-ZERO before he multiplies our nation completely by zero.

40% of those that reported a million dollars in '08 have already gone missing. How many more "millionaires" have to be done away with before we realize that we are hurting ourselves most of all.

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Intercontinental Railroad? BO Bridge?

New gaffe: Obama hails America's historic building of 'the Intercontinental Railroad' - latimes.com:

I bet he meant TRANScontinental . Hey, but at least they are starting to show up more and more now. Remember our how our nation used to reel with laughter at every "Bushism"? Why they even had funny calendars once.

Those were the good old days though. Now that we are mired in the grips of B-ZERO-nomics, the world just feels a lot less light and funny.

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Spot the Idiot??

More Math Jokes | Power Line:

This is unbelievable! If the MSM doesn't have some fun with this one, they are so in the tank that it completely defies description.

Some one said "They asked the group, Who wants Barack Obama to be re-elected??"

Certainly this COULD have happened to anyone, BUT the MSM enjoyed killing the career of a VP for misspelling "potato" (when it was misspelled on the card he was to check against).

If you want "fair", don't run for president!

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BO Lies, Jobs Die

Fact check: The wealthy already pay more taxes – USATODAY.com:

No surprise here to anyone that is awake and not making money off higher taxes.

Buffet is in the group making more money off higher taxes -- tax sheltered funds are one of the things he sells, and all his income is capital gains, thus, he is GREAT with people having pay more in taxes. It means they will have more of a tendency to buy his tax sheltered investment products.

BO and Buffet would seem to be strange bedfellows ... until one looks just a little below the surface it makes perfect sense.

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The Carbon Cult

The American Spectator : Welcome to the Carbon Cult:

It isn't how many people (scientists or otherwise) believe something, it is wether it is correct or not!!!

Friedman has gone just plain nutty on Climate Change.

The following from Dr. Ivar Giaever's resignation letter from American Physical Society based on their climate claims:

His letter to the APS gets right to the point of how science has been perverted by the Carbon Cult: "In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible? The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this 'warming' period." It's no wonder that Giaever realizes that "global warming has become a new religion," and that "We frequently hear about the number of scientists who support it. But the number is not important: only whether they are correct is important."

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"Right Now" BO Style

Obama's urgent jobs plan: Right now, 'right now' means sometime next month maybe - latimes.com

When the MSM is on your side, you can be completely 100% shameless!! Note, this is the LA Times, not Fox ... so it IS "0ut there", it is just so quiet that it is very hard to find.

So, given the president's professed urgency, the next day, Sept. 9, everyone asked where was his jobs legislation?

And, well, it seems the urgent jobs bill hadn't actually been written yet but should be ready in a week or two. When the laughter died, the White House said on second thought the legislation would be ready for a photo op the next Monday.

Well, here we are on the next Monday after that next Monday and we've just learned from the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, that actually it seems that body won't really be seriously getting into the legislation for a while yet. The Senate has some other more important business to handle. And then there's this month's congressional vacation, which in Washington is called "a recess," like elementary school.

Turns out all those claims about "The Republicans being slow on the "jobs bill"??? Complete hogwash ... it hasn't been SUBMITTED yet, and the SENATE, Controlled by Democrats is in NO HURRY to pick up this dogs breakfast of flim flam and already failed policies to jack up the deficit even more than it is now!

Worse Than Greece

America's debt woe is worse than Greece's - CNN.com:

I agree with his debt analysis:

The government's total indebtedness -- its fiscal gap -- now stands at $211 trillion, by my arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the difference, measured in present value, between all projected future spending obligations -- including our huge defense expenditures and massive entitlement programs, as well as making interest and principal payments on the official debt -- and all projected future taxes.

The data underlying this figure come straight from the horse's mouth -- the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO's June 22Alternative Fiscal Scenario presents nothing less than a Greek tragedy. It's actually worse than the Greek tragedy now playing in Athens. Our fiscal gap is 14 times our GDP. Greece's fiscal gap is 12 times its GDP, according to Professor Bernd Raffelhüschen of the University of Freiburg.

We are the brokest nation on earth and the brokest nation in history.

I might even buy into some version of his "purple tax" ... I can't see how much he is cutting entitlements and then going with something like a flat tax. Couple of interesting links that I hope to take a look at later.

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If It Feels Right - NYTimes.com

If It Feels Right - NYTimes.com

If you have kids, this article is likely to bring you close to tears as it did me. If you have been a good enough and lucky enough parent so your kids have largely escaped the hammer blows that have destroyed our culture,   congratulations and thank you. Your kids may have a chance to lead us from this wilderness at some time in the future.

In most times and in most places, the group was seen to be the essential moral unit. A shared religion defined rules and practices. Cultures structured people’s imaginations and imposed moral disciplines. But now more people are led to assume that the free-floating individual is the essential moral unit. Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it’s thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart.

The extended family, the church, the social organization (Chamber of Commerce, Elks, Kiwanis, etc), the local government, the state government, and far off and not much seen, the nation were all interlocking elements of where humans lived -- and thrived as the spiritual and moral beings we were intended to be. 


That is dead in the US and Europe now -- killed by moral relativism, public education transmitting the most vile and false "values" possible,  attacks on the family so numerous and extensive that much like the boiled frog, we have failed to even detect most of them, the destruction of our nation's Judaeo / Christian heritage, work and family ethic to now being only worthy of scorn and derision. 


It took us decades to get here -- William Buckley saw it coming in the 50's. We had a short slow-down and mild reprieve under Reagan, but the election of the Democrats in '06 and BO in '08 quickly dumped us over the edge. Our deficit of culture, moral fiber and religion is actually much more devastating and deadly than our many and horrible financial deficits. Those are "only money" -- the loss of the faith, optimism, the basic sense of American goodness, and our national moral compass is likely completely terminal. 


If some sort of a union survives in the space that was once America, it now looks certain that it will bear no resemblance to the spirit that was America. 

Climate and Weather

Is It Weird Enough Yet? - NYTimes.com:

Next winter when there is record cold and snow, we will hear how it is STUPID to mix up climate and weather. This summer while TX has a drought and high temps though, it is only intelligent to look at weather as indicative of climate. It is like "civility in politics" -- something critical for Republicans to follow, and requiring that they be chided for "war like metaphors" and such from time to time, but not an issue as they talk about "attacks on unions" and how their supporters will "take out the tea party".

Why are over 50% of people in this country followers of the climate alarmist view? I'd say that some of them just don't have the confidence to stand up against the elite and be willing to be called "stupid". Free men have always been called names (and much worse) in the face of the power elite justifying their position. The power elite screams so loudly and frequently today that they often drown out the sane and the wise.

We need to stand up and cheer for scientists willing to stand up against the elite and try to preserve the stature of science in the world http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46212

Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that "global warming is occurring."

Friedman takes the shibboleth of GW, and mixes it together with the noxious corruption of Chicago style politics and doubles down claiming that scams like Solyndra could work if we had some extra cap and trade corruption to manipulate the energy market even beyond what we do now. I suppose at SOME level of corruption ($10 gas??) even disasters like Solyndra MIGHT be able to make money, but there would also have to be enough US economy left for someone to buy their bloated subsidy product at that point -- something that looks increasingly unlikely.

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Attack Watch

Obama's Twitter Disaster - WSJ.com:

This one is so far out there that the left might start claiming it was a hoax set up by Karl Rove. Eventually, I'd think even the most dedicated BO Zombies would run out of excuses.

Number of very creative quotes presented to the site. I liked this one

There's a new Twitter account making President Obama look like a creepy, authoritarian nutjob: @AttackWatch."

Very true, there is a site that will get zero MSM coverage and isn't going to be around for long ...

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Broken and Brilliant

Egghead and Blockheads - NYTimes.com:

Being one of the party of the elite and writing for the Gray Lady makes one so confident in their capacities that mere reality must seem like an old western.

BO isn't just "bad with a gun" ... if the gun metaphor counts "leadership / executive capability" ... he had NO EXPERIENCE leading ANYTHING coming into what used to be the most powerful country in the world -- now a wholly owned subsidiary of China. Not even John Wayne could shoot from behind the barn to bail him out.

I'd much rather have Chuck Yeager in command of my aircraft than Einstein ... EXPERIENCE, and aptitude to a complex job is WAY more important than "grades". The relationship between organic chem and leadership is precisely zero -- you can hire a competent organic chemist anywhere. To not understand that is "stupid" at a level so much more important than mere grades it makes one feel sorry for Maureen.

Perry told the students, “God uses broken people to reach a broken world.” What does that even mean?

Uh, to over 50% of Americans who have some contact with religion yet, it means We all are broken in need of redemption, and God uses people redeemed through his son to reach the rest of the people that may not know they have a problem, nor that there is a solution". Knowing that would have once been of much greater import in America than ones grades in organic chem, or being a columnist at the NYT. To many of us it still is, and it is simply sad that someone bragging about their brilliance doesn't even understand it. I'm betting EVERYONE at Liberty understood it well, and the fact that Maureen doesn't shows just how wide the separation in America has become.

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Opposition Research

Articles: Even Republicans Rejected Info About Obama's Past

Good article. Listening to NPR the last week I've already heard multiple stories about the evils of Rick Perry -- "maybe" he gave favors in exchange for campaign donations, some of the things he supported in the legislature "might" have benefited him financially due to land holdings, "one time" he talked about TX seceding from the union.

There was certainly ample concern about how good a pilot W was or was not in the National Guard prior to his 2nd campaign.

BO? The lack of curiosity on all fronts is beyond amazing.

BO Jobs Speech—an Early Draft

Jenkins: Obama's Jobs Speech—an Early Draft - WSJ.com:

This might have worked!!

Elections have consequences. We mastered the use of slogans and imagery and won the presidency. Now the power is ours to choose our agenda, and we chose not to be distracted by matters that arise—say, the country's economic crisis. We chose instead to pursue the things that we know should be pursued.

Precisely!! BO has been driving while looking at the map of what what he wanted to do rather than looking at what was happening around him!!!

I am not anti-business. I get a supreme sense of satisfaction when business leaders approach me and, in a deferential manner, ask for subsidies and regulatory favors that will determine whether their companies succeed or fail. Like solar subsidies. This is the kind of job creation I'm interested in.

Well said!!

The article is short, WELL worth the read!

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Republicans Get Weiner Seat

Republican wins Democratic district in New York race to replace Weiner - CNN.com:

When Kathy Hochul won a special election in the 26th congressional district in north-west New York state in May after the Democrats spent heavily on scare ads of the Republicans pushing grandma off a cliff, the Democrats and the MSM were gleefully certain that the winning combination for 2012 had been found.

Yesterdays sweep by Republicans of two special elections in NYC and Nevada would seem to indicate a somewhat simpler message can be used?? Perhaps "One and Done", or "No BO!".

I suppose it is "dirty politics" to bring up BO's actual record though -- commercials pushing grandma off a cliff is so much more "civil and factual".

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BO To Double August Job Growth!

Late-night jokes: Obama vows to double August's job growth of zero - latimes.com

Some of these are pretty funny. Guess late night TV has decided it is OK to make fun of BO after all!!!

Saint's be praised -- if they could have figured that out when he was running, it is possible that we would have wised up enough to spare the disaster!

Wanna Bet??

RealClearPolitics - Perry Can't Beat Obama:

It reminds me of '79 ... Reagan was WAY too far out and the Republicans would HAVE to go for a moderate like HW Bush. They didn't, Carter WAS beatable, and the rest is history.

Perry-Rubio ... The end of BO!!! 

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Lincoln???

PBS Covers Up Obama Joint Session Gaffe? - President Obama - Fox Nation:

I only mention this because the left has been going nuts with ANY Michelle Bachman "mis-statement" possible. John Wayne being from IA rather than Waterloo, saying "USSR" rather than Russian, etc.

BO got mixed up between "First Republican President" and "Founder of the Party". So what?? Well, NOTHING, except this is EXACTLY how "Stupid Republicans" are made.

If BO was a Republican this would be pointed out as egregious "failure" ... but as it is, it is only mildly covered by the more moderate to RW press and the illusion of BO "intelligence" lives on.

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B ZERO POINT ZERO!

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/president-zero

B Zero.Zero ... The Blutarski President (Animal House).

ZERO jobs created in August!!!

Three years ago "The One" was being hailed around the world and speaking in front of faux Grecian pillars to his adoring zombies. Now our nation sits stagnant, bankrupt and waiting for yet another teleprompter read from the former "One" oops, off by 1! ... now ZERO!

A worthy though depressing read. The Government doesn't create jobs, it destroys them. Unions don't create jobs, they destroy them. Handing out money to the poor, the unemployed, even the middle class neither creates wealth or jobs, it destroys both ... along with the drive to succeed.

One doesn't have to be "hard hearted" to say that all forms of assistance need to stop at some point for all but the most gravely needy -- the bird must leave the nest, the child the home, the student eventually graduate, and thus the unemployed eventually work -- even if at a lower wage. 

Our nation must get to work making something that can be sold at a profit and investing part of that profit as well as part of our time in "delayed gratification" so that the future is brighter than the past. It makes not one whit of difference how low the wages at the competing nations are -- they are what they are. Playing the hand one is dealt is the only way to keep playing, and at the game of survival, the choice is keep playing or DIE! 

Policies that incent that happening -- the best approximation possible of

zero taxes on investment, zero taxes on employing people, low and flat taxes on income, minimal Federal government doing little more than defense and interstate commerce, minimal FEDERAL government regulation of all kinds. Government needs to be in the business of ENABLING  business, invention and GROWTH -- not burdening it!

It really is simple, and BO is simply a failure.

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Results

John Yoo: Ten Years Without an Attack - WSJ.com:

Remember when Reagan took office and was considered "dangerous and deluded" about the thought that the USSR could be defeated? A bit more than 10 years after he took office, the USSR was no more. Results.

Remember all the concerns of civil liberties, it was "impossible to win in Iraq", Bush was destroying the very fabric of the country he was supposedly trying to save? No terrorist attacks in 10 years + victory in Iraq. Those are results.

Remember BO saying that he was going to close Gitmo, try terrorists in Manhattan, and unemployment would stay below 8% if he got his stimulus? He got "results" too ... Gitmo is still open, no terrorist trials in NYC, and unemployment is at 9.1% with 0.0 job growth.

Those results are called failure!

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BO Punishes Gibson Chicago Style

I know, this breaks the maxim "Never assert malice when stupidity can account for it". I really can't believe that an administration that is already overstressed pursuing the likes of Boeing for trying to create non-union jobs would be so stupid to be prosecuting small but well known AMERICAN companies on the dubius grounds that they may have gotten a few scraps of some wood that China uses by the boat load.

OTOH, this is classic Chicago politics -- punish your enemies and reward your friends with pork and patronage. It is the old Democrat machine standard operation, one that is still rampant in Chicago, and I fear also in the WH.

Please tell me that at least a few Democrats are starting to understand "uncertainty" under BO??

The case is much like our cats playing with a mouse claiming "he appears to have died from uncertainty" as they watch for any sign of movement and then pounce when they see it.

"Regulation and taxes delayed" are in many ways worse than in place -- **IF** one could assume; "we took that hit, now we just need to deal with it" it would be more palatable,  but an administration sitting and waiting for any sign of improvement and all ready and waiting to pounce when they see, or imagine that they see it is simply too much!!

B Zero Get's One??

One and Done? - NYTimes.com:

When Down abandons "The One", is it is time to stick a fork in him?

Obama is still suffering from the Speech Illusion, the idea that he can come down from the mountain, read from a Teleprompter, cast a magic spell with his words and climb back up the mountain, while we scurry around and do what he proclaimed.

The days of spinning illusions in a Greek temple in a football stadium are done. The One is dancing on the edge of one term.

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Let Me Explain "BO Uncertainty"

Obama Asks EPA to Withdraw Proposed Ozone Rule - WSJ.com:

Many lefties seem mystified by business not rushing to invest billions of dollars in new capital expenditures and hiring under the thumb of the BO regime. This isn't rocket science.

BO has decided to "delay a Proposed Ozone Rule". He may stop raiding little manufacturers like Gibson that run afoul of obscure wood importation laws. He might give you an exemption to BOcare if you grease the proper palms -- he has given out thousands, I leave it up to you to figure out why anyone would want an exemption from such a great boon as BOcare. He might allow Boeing to use the $1B plant they thoughtlessly built in SC where there aren't as many BO supporting union folks as he likes ... but there is still "a reasonable chance" that he might allow Boeing to employ 5K non-union folks if the job picture keeps looking really bad (again, those lefties that think there ought be no "uncertainty" can decide what BO will consider "really bad"). Who knows, someday he may even allow more drilling for oil and maybe even more refineries.

But then again, he may not. In fact, if things were to start looking "better", than we can assume the ozone regs come back, more healthcare stuff gets enforced vs exempted, prosecutions on businesses that don't support BOs campaigns go up (and who knows, the required fees may even go up), shutting down non-union shops and higher taxes on business and individuals will come to pass -- oh, and no new drilling or refineries, our energy supply will continue to become more and more uncertain.

Business is ALWAYS about making investments that can result in losses with the best business plans you can create to try to insure profits. BO is out there INCREASING uncertainty, even when he "delays something" ... in fact, that is now "known uncertainty". We hang at the whim of BO, and he has made it clear he rewards his friends and punishes his enemies -- "the Chicago Way".

And how does anyone know when BO is going to decide that you are his enemy??? Heck, KaDaffy was just minding his own business, cross dressing and hanging out with his fembots and favorite camel while killing a few thousand rebels like he has done for 30 years at least, and all of a sudden BO goes all PMS on him. Wassup wid dat??? Heck, when KaDaffy blew up the jet over Lockerbie and some discos in the 80's and Ronnie bombed his compound, you would have thought that he was the UN and US Left's Nobel Prize Funny Farmer. Now all of a sudden he is personna non-grata, and nobody likes his party dresses anymore. The left is just so darned fickle.

Lefty's can't see any "uncertainty"??? Earth to MSM and left, BO has more problems than just not having control of his teleprompter reading schedule!!!

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"Green Jobs" Debacle

Solyndra, Solar-Panel Company Visited by Obama in 2010, Suspends Operation - Bloomberg

Another $500 Million of money from the productive pissed away by the arrogant incompetency of BO.

Darth Cheney Wins!

Dick Cheney Defends his Legacy in New Book 'In My Time' - The Daily Beast:

I've always liked the guy. I love anyone that can make liberals that totally insanely angry. If anyone in politics makes you as angry as he made the left, it is time to get a life!!

The cool thing about reality is that it has a remarkable tendency to reward the wise and bring down the foolishly proud.

Looking forward to reading the book.

Way to go Dick Cheney!

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US Debt to GDP

John Steele Gordon: A Short Primer on the National Debt - WSJ.com:

I just went in debt by $50K. Is that an important statement? Well if I make $10K a year, yes, very -- I borrowed 5x my yearly income. If I make $500K, it is nearly meaningless -- I make 10x that figure, assuming that it is my only debt, I can pay if off with a couple months income.

So too, the only way to understand the US debt is as a % or multiple of GDP. This article does a good job of giving a history of the US debt in that context and makes the problem understandable -- the problem is SPENDING, and the only way to deal with the problem is to cut spending and increase GROWTH.

Oh, and the Reagan or Bush tax cut myths are just that ... myths ... cut spending, create jobs, grow the economy (repeat) ... that is mantra we all need to get on !!!

"That decline ended in 2001 following the collapse of the dot-com bubble and rising unemployment in the resulting recession. By 2003 the debt-to-GDP ratio had risen to 61.7%. Many blame the Bush tax cuts for adversely impacting federal revenues, causing the debt to spiral upwards. But that is just not true. Federal revenues declined by almost 12% in the early years of the decade, but when the tax cuts fully kicked in in 2003, the economy began to grow strongly again and federal revenues increased 44% in the next four years, while unemployment fell to 4.2% from 6.2%. Federal outlays in those four years increased by only 26.4%, and while the debt-to-GDP ratio increased to 64.8% by 2007, that was still well below what it had been in 1994."

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Fear This! BO

Articles: The Ticket Obama Fears Most:

Perry-Rubio is my dream team for 2012. PLEASE Make it so!!

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BO: Miserable Failure

Answering Jonathan Alter’s Challenge « Commentary Magazine:

Not that any of this is surprising at all to anyone that reads this Blog -- BO is worse than Carter. But we knew that already ...

The Technocratic Saint

Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement address (2005)

In the pantheon of computer technology in the modern world, Gates is the Devil and Jobs is god. One might contrast the attached commencement address to the book "The Purpose Driven Life" as to how an aspiring Christian might view life as opposed to Jobs view.

George Thorogood pretty much has the question down; "Who do you love?" ... Jobs translates it as "find what you love and do it". A gigantic amount of faith that the universe of random selection has randomly endowed each human with an "inner love" of something to do that will "make us happy, fulfilled, etc"

Christ says "Love God with all your heart and with all your soul" ... and since that is impossible for a sinful human, he died to give us the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion to draw us to our eventual heavenly home.

I have a lot of respect for Jobs and I like his products. I hope he finds both health and Christ, but Christ is much more important. All of us live under a death sentence.

It is gratifying to see however that every Christian meets Seve's ultimate advice; "stay hungry, stay foolish". To the secularist, nothing is more foolish than Christian Faith, and every Christian is hungry for more of it.

Issues of Faith vs Science

RealClearPolitics - "Science" When It Suits Them:

Extremely well done article. I'm the sort of Christian that doesn't happen to find Creationism disconcerting -- I've decided that I'm magnanimous enough to allow an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God create the universe anyway he sees fit. That is just the kind of liberal minded guy that I am!!!

Everyone has a ton of faith -- it is just placed in different places. I've got more faith in God, liberals have a ton of faith in Government . In even the medium run, I'm very confident that their government faith isn't going to pan out. Even the less than observant and starting to see a couple signs of that!

As a voter, like me, you may find Perry's view on creationism disconcerting and a sign of an unsophisticated candidate. But the fact is that the progressives' faith-based devotion to government is far more consequential than Perry's faith-based position on evolution.

Despite the rare political dispute, in the real world, science -- real science -- is rarely controversial. It's politicized science that is prickly. And science is easy to politicize. Maybe if schools began teaching students that "life" begins at conception and that each zygote, embryo and fetus is a unique human being in some early stage of development just waiting to be born, liberals would see the point.

"Progressives" **DO** Want a Revolution

What's next for Wisconsin progressives? - Wisconsin - Salon.com:

In case any of you doubt what the REAL regressive ("progressive") agenda in this country, see "Arab Spring". Oh you say "Progressives are liberal" ... uh, no, progressives are STATISTS ... their highest good is state control. Sharia Law is WAY better in their minds that Capitalism!!! Just like the Muslims, it is individual freedom and the potential for differential outcomes that they really can't stand in any case.

"Even activists on the ground in Wisconsin don't yet know if that will happen. For the rest of us, their decision either to press on or pack it in will speak volumes about where progressive organizing stands in America, a nation where too many protesters believe it's enough to turn up for a few rallies and then go home, even though the foundations for real mass movements (like Egypt's democracy uprising) are laid years before lasting change occurs.

Americans need such a movement, built on economic populism and the dream of shared prosperity. The question is: Are Wisconsin's progressives the first spark in that movement? Or is theirs a flare that is already flickering out?

BO Business Uncertainty Defined

How Democrats Hurt Job Creation - NYTimes.com:

There really need be no questions at all why Democrats kill jobs -- this is just one reason of many, but it is a VERY good one!!!

That is what is so jarring about this case — and not just for Boeing. Without any warning, the rules have changed. Uncertainty has replaced certainty. Other companies have to start wondering what other rules could soon change. It becomes a reason to hold back on hiring.

Come On Media!!!

Review & Outlook: The Biggest Trade Barrier - WSJ.com

BO chides congress for not moving fast enough on trade legislation and it has been sitting on his desk since he took office!!

THIS is not a news story??? Come on, this is beyond funny -- it is sad, disgusting, incompetent, ridiculous, etc.

Since the MSM is letting BO get away with this, it is apparent that they will get him get away with ANYTHING!!!

The BOnomics "Silver Lining"

Review & Outlook: Millionaires Go Missing - WSJ.com

As I've often pointed out, income inequality is the bane of a growing economy -- zero stubbornly stays at zero, and the fact that people have different gifts that are valued differently by other people produces that liberal horror "income inequality" as surely as the sun rises.

The inverse is also true-- another mark of things that liberals hate, since it tends to indicate "reality basis". 40% of our millionaires are missing!! Super news -- BOnomics works!!! We are all poorer, but the "rich" are more poorer than the less rich.

Congratulations BO!

Defending TX Economy

Review & Outlook: The Texas Jobs Panic - WSJ.com

It's pretty much the same old statistical sleight of hand that the MSM uses to fluff up their own guys numbers and make a Republican look bad. If a Republican was President now we would be in a DEPRESSION not still mincing words about a "Double Dip" -- and the jobs situation would be a CRISIS for which the President was "out of touch, incompetent, etc" for not having a plan LONG before going on vacation ... but I digress.

Next time you hear somebody talking about the "false economy" in TX, just come back and look at this. There is no questions the Dems and the MSM MUST attack Perry on the TX economy any way they possibly can -- they SURE don't want to compare BO to his record!!!

Ending Capitalism

The U.K. Riots And The Coming Global Class War - Forbes:

Excellent article. The Judaeo-Christian work ethic, generally accepted social values including personal responsibility, and the rule of law allowed Capitalism to create a cornucopia of wealth in the west. But, it has also enabled world wide completion, at the time when the western attitudes of hard work, thrift, innovation and risk taking have largely turned to entitlement, redistribution, protectionism and consumption. The formerly "virtuous cycle" of the old characteristics has given way to a new "death spiral" that has riots and state power taking the ever smaller shrinking wealth from those that formerly drove the virtuous cycle.

"The hardening of class divisions has been building for a generation, first in the West but increasingly in fast-developing countries such as China. The growing chasm between the classes has its roots in globalization, which has taken jobs from blue-collar and now even white-collar employees; technology, which has allowed the fleetest and richest companies and individuals to shift operations at rapid speed to any locale; and the secularization of society, which has undermined the traditional values about work and family that have underpinned grassroots capitalism from its very origins."

CNN, Strong Praise for Perry

Why Rick Perry is headed to the White House - CNN

Ran into this the other day on the left side of the CNN page right with the NEWS! Perry has to be doing something right if he can raise this kind of MSM hatred before he even runs.

His Saturday speech in South Carolina will make clear that he is entering the race for the White House and will spawn the ugliest and most expensive presidential race in U.S. history, and he will win. A C and D student, who hates to govern, loves to campaign, and barely has a sixth grader's understanding of economics, will lead our nation into oblivion.

Expensive is bad? Uh, BO broke all records in '08 and it was GOOD then. How the hell would we know what kind of student BO was? He was never spotted at Columbia, but nobody cares. The interest in his grades are of completely ZERO interest to the MSM. Not really so bad -- it is just the CONTRAST that gives on pause. "Barely a six graders understanding of economics"?? One shudders to think what one would rate BO's level of economic understanding. To paraphrase a famous BO bowling comment -- I'll wager their isn't a single participant in the Special Olympics that isn't 10x the "economist" of BO!!!

Oblivion??? It is going to take a great president to get us back there from where we are now!!!

It is really hard to imagine the level of hatred that brings a screed like this to the online front page of a major media outlet before the guy even DECLARES his candidacy. But I guess one needs no imagination at all -- there it is!

You recall anyone on the left taking the Mormons side on anything prior to now? Me neither.

A BO Biparticle

The most powerful man on Earth? - The Washington Post

Yet Obama plods along, raising gobs of cash for his reelection bid — he was scheduled to speak at two DNC fundraisers Monday night — and varying little the words he reads from the teleprompter. He seemed detached even from those words Monday as he pivoted his head from side to side, proclaiming that “our problems is not confidence in our credit” and turning his bipartisan fiscal commission into a “biparticle.”

Journalists are writers, to whiich the spoken word often sounds "tentative" or "ill formed". When one is thinking critically, as a journalist is always supposed to do, the little gaffs that are part of common speech grate on them. Especially for "the most powerful man in the world". Shouldn't such a person be "special" in areas that are near and dear to "our" (the journalists) hearts?
Typically, because they have some understanding of the world around them, they avoid nit picking public figures. It seems "ticky-tack". But once they take a dislike to a poltiician ... Nixon, Reagan, Quayle, and both HW and especially W Bush, "the gloves are off". It appears that even the lefty press like Milbank is getting a distinct whiff of BO.

I really think it is hard to beat "biparticle" as a name for a "bipartisan fiscal commission" ... it is really even better than W's "misunderestimated".

WI Recall Fails

Report: GOP retains Wisconsin senate control in recall battle - CNN.com

WAY too close! With the teachers off work and going door to door, plus the deep national union pockets spending like there was no tomorrow, this one was huge. If they had won control this would have been the top story for the rest of the week in the MSM with all sorts of "harbingers for the future" and "stinging defeat for the Tea Party" rhetoric.It would have been a big energizer for the Democrats and Unions.

As it is, they spent millions and lots of door to door time and failed ... all be it narrowly. It OUGHT to further energize Tea Party and Republicans, but we will have to come up with our own media buzz to do that because this version of the WI story will be a non-story in the MSM after today.

 

 

 

Left Starts to See BO Reality

What Happened to Obama’s Passion? - NYTimes.com

There is a reasonable set of quotes here that indicate that a true whacked out rabid lefty is actually starting to see some of the reality if the BO story:

"This pattern of presenting inconsistent positions with no apparent recognition of their incoherence is another hallmark of this president’s storytelling."

Uh, this is a hallmark of ALL liberal storytelling ... it is known by reality oriented people as "consistency is NOT an issue" ... and like always, the view of the lefty writing the column is rife with such inconsistency. The role of Fannie and Freddie in creating the sub-prime / credit default swap crisis is completely ignored, as is the inconvenient truth that FDR's programs not only didn't end the depression (WWII did), they actually DID turn out to be unaffordable and destructive to the moral fiber of people to delay gratification and save for the future -- it just took longer than expected. Oh, and BTW, the same realities apply in Japan and in Europe and indeed everywhere. There STILL is no free lunch!

THE real conundrum is why the president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him, and hoping they won’t realize which hand is holding the rabbit.

and this is new to you? This is PRECISELY how he ran as a candidate and it was pointed out SOLIDLY by many of us who were labeled as "racists", or when they were kind in the name calling just "misinformed". One might say, "welcome to at least a partial whiff of reality".

Those of us who were bewitched by his eloquence on the campaign trail chose to ignore some disquieting aspects of his biography: that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted "present" (instead of "yea" or "nay") 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.

Bewitched? I guess -- all those facts and hundreds more equally and even more disquieting were well known and indeed often written by his own hand in two books. One really doesn't have to have much for common sense to be able to see a bit of a problem with a person that writes not one but two autobiographies prior to reaching the age of 50.

The president is fond of referring to “the arc of history,” paraphrasing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

King is very eloquent, but it is even more true that the arc of all history bends toward reality. Eloquence is super, but in changes many aspects of reality not one whit. Sure, "to the moon before the end of this decade" was motivational, but the late 50's and 60's were a different time. "The Great Society" was in it's infancy, and FICA had only been falsely promised a mere 30 years prior. The number of retirees relative to workers was still small, and the pernicious corruption of "may as well spend it today, the government will take care of me when I get older" was just beginning.

The multiple realities of longer lifetimes, a more competitive global business market, technologies that boost inefficiencies and further level the competitive field and the grinding inefficiencies of big government weigh on the US as a millstone around the drowning nations neck.

But, but, I'm ignoring his "facts" like "It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans.".

Ok, the origin of that "fact" is Michael Moore in Madison this past spring. The top 400 Americans control $1.5T in assets ... the vast majority in stocks of the businesses they control, and at which many Americans work. The total private wealth of the us is around $55T - $1.5T, so "$53T". Surprise, surprise, the bottom 50% of the population controls very little wealth. Why?
30% of them are under the age of 20. To not recognize this is simple incompetence or malfeasance. There are no other alternatives.

"Wealth" is acquired over a lifetime (or if you are a Kennedy or Dayton, inherited). FICA, government assistance, education, etc are NOT counted as "wealth" -- only personal assets that can be sold are. The very programs that the left pushes contribute mightily to wealth inequality. FICA transfers 15% of the earning power of the predominately young workers to the elderly. The group that controls 80%+ of the wealth in the country is the beneficiary of the largest government transfer payments, and it is THE LEFT that created the transfers!!

Downgrade Paternity

“Tea Party Downgrade”? They Can’t Possibly Sell That | Power Line

"Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan". Decent column by PL talking about the Democrats and blame for the downgrade. I'd never underestimate the power of the MSM to re-write history in a form that flatters Democrats though. I wonder if there would have been any question with a Republican President in office as to "where the buck stopped"?

I suppose you can't really be blamed though when you are "leading from behind".

Wishing for Winston

In economic turmoil, U.S. needs a leader like Churchill - CNN.com

Gergen is one of those guys they love to put in the media as a "moderate" -- like NPR and the NYT, he is pretty much floating out there between "the left" and "the far left", or in terms of the MSM, "moderate".

It is laughable to look at someone like that pining away for Winston Churchill ... he may as well pine away for Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan. They aren't coming back either -- nor would he really want them to. The problem is that the left doesn't really want a "leader" nearly so much as they want a Dictator. They want "someone that fixes all the problems" ... so they won't have to. Their idea of "a difficult decision" is just how much of someone else's income and wealth should be confiscated so that their economically disastrous programs can be continued.

Winston was indeed a leader. He led Brittan to win the war, and when he wanted them to pull up their socks and get back to the business of being a world power, they promptly threw him out of office. They also didn't much like what he had to say when other voices like Chamberlin were out there talking of "peace in our time".

Winston once said that the American people would do the right thing once al other options had been exhausted. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that is human nature and true of all of us and thus all democracies. As long as there is someone out there selling the snake oil of "hope and change", or "peace", or "strength through disarmament", or "improving the economy by borrowing", or "leading from behind", or countless other nostrums that may sound good for a season, many will be buying. Maxim's like "work and study hard, be responsible, be a maker not a taker, worry about doing good and you won't have to worry about who to blame ..." and thousands of others don't sound as slick. In fact, they sound "hard" ... the only minor difference is that they actually work, where wishful thinking is just as wishful as it ever was.

It's the principles stupid!! The great leaders are only great leaders because at the time they come along ... or maybe come along again, as in Winston's case, the people are ready to follow the principles they embody. We don't need Winston, we don't need Reagan -- we need to get back to the timeless principles that both of them embodied as leaders.

Bigotry Redefined

Stand up to Herman Cain’s bigotry - The Washington Post

The lefts hatred of any Black that leaves the thought plantation for diversity of thought is boundless. Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, JC Watts, Allen West ... the list goes on. If you are Black and you refuse to follow the Democrat party line, we will take you down.

Is Robinson even serious here? How many lefties are anti-Christian, and is that EVER called "bigotry"? There are many reasons not to support a Cordova Masque and Ground Zero -- Islam has had a very long tradition of installing a "Victory Mosque" and the scenes of their great victories.

Is this one REALLY a Cordoba Mosque? I don't see how any westerner could know. It would be like being certain of the Vatican's intent.

If the religion in question is Christian though, the left's knee jerk is "freedom FROM religion" ... everyone has a right to be free from anything to do with CHRISTIANITY in their book ... but Islam? Apparently Islam is a "protected thing" like abortting babies, spending other folks money, and letting illegals vote.