Saturday, March 28, 2015

Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty, and backwardness - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog

Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty, and backwardness - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas: "I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity.

"


'via Blog this'

Don’t get your hopes up. Chuck Schumer is no improvement over Harry Reid

I agree.  This was my first thought.

Don’t get your hopes up. Chuck Schumer is no improvement over Harry Reid « Hot Air: "There isn’t anything resembling a centrist bone in Chuck Schumer’s body. If he’s the one calling the shots for the Democrats in the Senate you can forget about any sort of bipartisan work being done. It’s going to be all obstruction all the time, and should the Democrats somehow regain control of the Senate in 2016 I can assure you that you’ll almost find yourself missing Harry Reid.

"
'via Blog this'

Destructive Effects of Multiculturalism

Destructive Effects of Multiculturalism | Conservative Daily News: "Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University has said, “What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.”

Roger Kimball of the New Criterion has written, “Wherever the imperatives of multiculturalism have touched the curriculum, they have left broad swaths of anti-Western attitudinizing competing for attention with quite astonishing historical blindness.” Multiculturalism has led to the historical revisionism that paints Christopher Columbus as a nefarious European who initiated the transformation of a supposed paradisiacal Western hemisphere into the evil, corrupt America of today.

"


'via Blog this'

Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Campus Left Begins to Implode

The Campus Left Begins to Implode | The Weekly Standard: "If you pay any attention to the ways in which radicalism dominates the culture of the university these days, you're likely to feel as though you've gone through the looking glass. "White privilege." "Trigger warnings." "Rape culture." All of this (and much else) has turned academia into a bizarre, Orwellian simulacrum of itself. And not only that, but the radicalism has migrated outward into the broader culture, too. It's the kind of insanity we haven't seen in America since the bad old days of the early 1970s.

The good news is that these sorts of perversions always burn themselves out-they're too untethered to reality. Eventually people realize that the radicalism is really about just one thing: power.  And once people begin to challenge the dogmas, they collapse in a cascade. Because as they lose their power to exact a price for criticism, they attract more of it.

The bad news is that these radical revolutions can deal out a great amount of harm before they are discredited.

But in any case, we may be witnessing the first dawning realization on the left about the problems inherent in their movement. Allow me to present three pieces, each from a liberal looking at contemporary campus politics."


'via Blog this'

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A GMO Success Story - Norman Borlaug. He saved a billion lives

Don Surber: Norman Borlaug. He saved a billion lives:

And that was the key. The way to fight diseases that attack wheat and other cereals was not through pesticides and the like, but rather through breeding.. Spoiled, rich liberals today pooh-pooh and demonize GMO food, but mankind has been modifying plants since the dawn of civilization. Indeed, it is what led to civilization. We call it farming.
'via Blog this'

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Not Quite the Same Outrage When It’s Christian Culture Being Destroyed as it is a Quran Being Flushed

Not Quite the Same Outrage When It’s Christian Culture Being Destroyed as it is a Quran Being Flushed - Freedom Outpost: "I guess it's okay to blow up a Christian monastery, but don't publish a cartoon (however tasteless) of the prophet Mohammed.

Muslims are rampaging through Iraq, erasing any signs of Christianity in the region and I hear little to no outcry – no mass protests - no nothing! Thousands upon thousands of Christians have been murdered, displaced or sold into slavery and I guess that's bad – but "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Right, Barack?"


'via Blog this'

Feds Attack American Businesses in “Operation Choke Point”

Feds Attack American Businesses in “Operation Choke Point” | Gingrich Productions: "In an administration that has pioneered the use of regulatory power to bully businesses into doing “voluntarily” what the bureaucrats can’t require by law, a secretive federal program that has become public in the last few months stands out as an especially disturbing abuse of power.
The program’s name, “Operation Choke Point,” is a pretty strong indication of trouble–an eerie way for bureaucrats to describe their conduct toward private citizens.
It’s a reference to the banking system as the “choke point” of businesses, a critical piece of the economic infrastructure which government can co-opt to strangle legal activities it doesn’t favor. In fact, I first learned about the program through my work as an advisor to the U.S. Consumer Coalition, which is fighting attacks like these on legal American businesses.
The revelation is alarming in part because it suggests federal officials have realized that they can leverage their strong regulatory authority over one industry, financial services, to exert broad control over many others.
"


'via Blog this'

If Iran’s ‘Hard-Liners' Are Happy, Americans Should Be Worried

If Iran’s ‘Hard-Liners' Are Happy, Americans Should Be Worried - Commentary Magazine Commentary Magazine: "This reflects, he writes, “a general satisfaction with the direction of the talks and the successes Iran is enjoying, extending and deepening its influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.” "


'via Blog this'

You Ought to Have a Look: Intimidation in Science

You Ought to Have a Look: Intimidation in Science | Cato @ Liberty: "Talk of interference, intimidation, and abridgement of scientific freedom continues to make the news this week—and increasingly is taking the form of pushback against recently announced congressional investigations into sources of scientific research funding.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial offering a “round of applause for those pushing back, providing the bullies a public lesson in the First Amendment.” Highlighted in their coverage were efforts by the Cato Institute, Heartland Institute and Koch Industries condemning attempts to “silence public debate” on climate change. From the WSJ:

Democrats and their allies have failed to persuade Americans that climate change is so serious that it warrants sweeping new political controls on American energy and industry. So liberals are trying to silence those who are winning the argument. We’re glad to see the dissenters aren’t intimidated.
"


'via Blog this'

The Orwellian Obama Presidency

Bret Stephens: The Orwellian Obama Presidency - WSJ: "To adapt George Orwell’s motto for Oceania: Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory.

"


'via Blog this'

Monday, March 23, 2015

MSM reporters: Cultural Marxist race mongers

MSM reporters: Cultural Marxist race mongers: "With few exceptions, the reporters for the mainstream media are reprobate and void of any semblance of truth and/or integrity. They are cultural Marxists doing their very best to promote racial acrimony.

"


'via Blog this'

V.S. NAIPAUL says ISIS is now the Fourth Reich

V.S. NAIPAUL says ISIS is now the Fourth Reich | Daily Mail Online: "The Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul has warned that Islamic State are the most potent threat to the world since the Nazis.

In a hard-hitting article in today’s Mail on Sunday, the revered novelist brands the extremist Muslim organisation as the Fourth Reich, saying it is comparable to Adolf Hitler’s regime in its fanaticism and barbarity.

Calling for its ‘military annihilation,’ the Trinidadian-born British writer says IS is ‘dedicated to a contemporary holocaust’, has a belief in its own ‘racial superiority,’ and produces propaganda that Goebbels would be proud of. 

A long-term critic of Islam as a global threat, he also challenges those who say the extremists have nothing to do with the real religion of Islam, suggesting that the simplicity of some interpretations of the faith have a strong appeal to a minority.

The author of A House For Mr Biswas, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001, is known for his sharp views.

"


'via Blog this'

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Israel: BEWARE of OBAMA

RR: Israel: BEWARE of OBAMA: "First he comes for the banks and health care, uses the IRS to go after critics, politicizes the Justice Department, spies on journalists, tries to curb religious freedom, slashes the military, throws open the borders, doubles the debt and nationalizes the Internet.
He lies to the public, ignores the Constitution, inflames race relations and urges Latinos to punish Republican “enemies.” He abandons our ­allies, appeases tyrants, coddles ­adversaries and uses the Crusades as an excuse for inaction as Islamist terrorists slaughter their way across the Mideast.
Now he’s coming for Israel."


'via Blog this'

Blacks, Elderly to Government: Stop Helping Us

Blacks, Elderly to Government: Stop Helping Us - The American Interest: "Blacks are still far more supportive of governmental redistribution than the population as a whole. The elderly used to be as supportive, but now they are more likely to be opposed. What’s more, opposition is growing among these groups to the kinds of redistributive policies that benefit them in particular. Blacks have become more opposed to the idea that the government should help members of racial minorities. The elderly are increasingly adamant that the government should not provide health insurance — despite their fondness for Medicare, a federal program […]

"


'via Blog this'

Rasmussen Finds Majority Don’t Buy Governmedia’s Racist Police Hogwash

Moonbattery » Rasmussen Finds Majority Don’t Buy Governmedia’s Racist Police Hogwash: "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but even in a culture lobotomized by television, the spectacle staged by the establishment media and the Obama Regime in Ferguson is not fooling most."


'via Blog this'

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Petraeus Sides With Netanyahu Against Obama: Iran, Not ISIS, Is The Real Enemy

Petraeus Sides With Netanyahu Against Obama: Iran, Not ISIS, Is The Real Enemy | Weasel Zippers: "Don’t just rely on Benjamin Netanyahu’s passionate advice to Congress on his way to reelection that Iran is our arch enemy. Now we have the counsel of retired general David Petraeus, who gave a remarkable interview this week to the Washington Post. Petraeus agrees with Netanyahu: Iran, not ISIS, is the real enemy.

"


'via Blog this'

The Conservatarian Moment

The Conservatarian Moment | Washington Free Beacon: "The hands-off federalism of the Founders was premised on a deep attachment to certain conceptions of virtue by both individuals and civil society that have fundamentally changed—many would argue, declined. Thus, for a “conservatarian” return to a healthy society where the state and society exist within their proper limits, more than political reform would be required. There also must be a pre-political, cultural revival within civil society—a revival that would have to happen, on Cooke’s terms, without government interference.

One hopes that this is possible. Otherwise, Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon might end up being right about America after all.

"


'via Blog this'

FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE: Why I am a Climate Change Skeptic

Doug Ross @ Journal: FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE: Why I am a Climate Change Skeptic: "I am skeptical humans are the main cause of climate change and that it will be catastrophic in the near future. There is no scientific proof of this hypothesis, yet we are told “the debate is over” and “the science is settled.”


My skepticism begins with the believers’ certainty they can predict the global climate with a computer model. The entire basis for the doomsday climate change scenario is the hypothesis increased atmospheric carbon dioxide due to fossil fuel emissions will heat the Earth to unlivable temperatures.
In fact, the Earth has been warming very gradually for 300 years, since the Little Ice Age ended, long before heavy use of fossil fuels. Prior to the Little Ice Age, during the Medieval Warm Period, Vikings colonized Greenland and Newfoundland, when it was warmer there than today. And during Roman times, it was warmer, long before fossil fuels revolutionized civilization.

The idea it would be catastrophic if carbon dioxide were to increase and average global temperature were to rise a few degrees is preposterous.

Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced for the umpteenth time we are doomed unless we reduce carbon-dioxide emissions to zero. Effectively this means either reducing the population to zero, or going back 10,000 years before humans began clearing forests for agriculture. This proposed cure is far worse than adapting to a warmer world, if it actually comes about."


'via Blog this'

Bolton: Obama worse appeaser than French

Bolton: Obama worse appeaser than French: "At the end of a historic week in which President Obama distanced himself from Israel and drew closer to Iran, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton accused the commander in chief of the “worst act of appeasement by an American president in history, bar none.”

But perhaps Bolton’s worst insult toward Obama’s persistence in trying to negotiate a deal, ostensibly to keep Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, was when he called the president less skeptical than a certain U.S. ally.

“It’s a fine irony that a French socialist government is the only thing between us and this debacle,” quipped the former ambassador.

Invited to speak at the U.S. Capitol on Friday by the Endowment for Middle East Truth, or EMET, Bolton called negotiating with the Islamic Republic useless, because Iran “knows it will begin violating the deal as soon as it signs it.”"


'via Blog this'

The Holocaust of Left-Wing Anti-Semitism on America's Campuses

American Power: The Holocaust of Left-Wing Anti-Semitism on America's Campuses: "These are indeed dangerous times, and the spread of leftist hatred has the imprimatur of the Democrat Party and the Obama administration. It's not just shocking. It's truly frightening. It's already like France for American Jews. A matter of life and death.
"


'via Blog this'

I Am Woman …

Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » I Am Woman …: "So, strong, capable and equal … or frail, sensitive and desperate for that fainting couch; pick one or the other and stick to it consistently. At the very least, don’t talk like one, and act like the other. It only confuses the guys and embarrasses the heck out of women like me.

"


'via Blog this'

BLUE STATE UTOPIA: Chicago Public Schools Circle the Drain

Doug Ross @ Journal: BLUE STATE UTOPIA: Chicago Public Schools Circle the Drain: "The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Public School system is facing a catastrophic penalty as a result of decades of borderline criminal Democrat fiscal mismanagement.
"


'via Blog this'

'If you're anti-Israel then you're anti-America...'

American Power: 'If you're anti-Israel then you're anti-America...': "A message to leftists reading this blog, from Howard Stern"


'via Blog this'

Ashcroft: Obama Plays Ethnic Politics

Ashcroft: Obama Plays Ethnic Politics | The Daily Caller: "Former Attorney General John Aschcroft said that President Obama appeals to ethnic politics while ignoring the law.

“The president believes that the democracy speaks to him not through Congress but through opinion polls” and advisers, Ashcroft said Friday in a speech before a group of Republican lawyers at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Ashcroft weighed in on the controversies surrounding Obama’s immigration executive order and the racial powder keg in Ferguson, Missouri. The Bush Department of Justice chief spoke about the police officers shot in his home state and the two officers tragically executed in New York City since the beginning of the Michael Brown-Eric Garner protests.

Without specifically naming current Attorney General Eric Holder, Ashcroft took aim at the Obama administration’s actions.

“I do not believe that prosecutorial discretion includes ignoring wholesale sections of the law,” Ashcroft said, noting that the administration will pursue certain initiatives to appease “some ethnic portions of the country” to help assemble a governing majority.

“I find this to be very threatening,” Ashcroft said. “I find this to be very disconcerting.”

“The rule of law is not only threatened. But when it is perverted [for politics] I find it to be repugnant.”"


'via Blog this'

Friday, March 20, 2015

CBO: Obamacare to Hit Only 65 Percent of 2015 Coverage Target

CBO: Obamacare to Hit Only 65 Percent of 2015 Coverage Target | The Weekly Standard: "Given that Obamacare’s supporters like to take the Congressional Budget Office’s overly optimistic scoring of the president’s signature legislation as gospel, it’s fun to look at how poorly Obamacare is actually doing in relation to earlier CBO projections.  When the Democrats rammed Obamacare through Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote, the CBO said that the unpopular overhaul would lead to a net increase of 26 million people with health insurance by 2015 (15 million through Medicaid plus 13 million through the Obamacare exchanges minus 2 million who would otherwise have had private insurance but wouldn’t because of Obamacare).

Fast-forwarding five years, the CBO now says that Obamacare’s tally for 2015 will actually be a net increase of just 17 million people (10 million through Medicaid plus 11 million through the Obamacare exchanges minus 4 million who would otherwise have had private insurance but won’t, or don’t, because of Obamacare). 

In other words, Obamacare is now slated to hit only 65 percent of the CBO’s original coverage projection for 2015.

Obamacare’s under-publicized failure on this key point is attributable to a variety of factors, including but not limited to the following:  People aren’t thrilled with Obamacare-compliant insurance’s high cost and limited doctor networks, and some would even rather pay a fine for refusing to buy such insurance than pay its premiums; the Supreme Court ruled that part of Obamacare was unconstitutional, thereby giving states more freedom not to help expand it; and HealthCare.gov has been more reminiscent of DMV.org than of Expedia.com.

"


'via Blog this'

Hillary & Other Ignoramuses

BurtPrelutsky.com: Hillary & Other Ignoramuses: "BELIEVE I understand why Hillary hates the media. It’s because they keep writing the truth about her. Even the NY Times, as left-wing as it is and always has been (let us never forget that Walter Duranty won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for filing news stories about Joseph Stalin that read like love poems), couldn’t refrain from breaking the news that during the four years she was Secretary of State, she used her personal email and owned her own server.

What she did was illegal, immoral, unethical and probably fattening, but probably no more so than the Clinton Foundation sucking in millions of dollars in foreign bribes while Hillary busied herself sightseeing on the taxpayers’ dime, lying about Benghazi and pushing the reset button with Russia.
"


'via Blog this'

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Nothing To See Here

Nothing To See Here - Monty Pelerin's World : Monty Pelerin's World: "As the  country sinks ever deeper into its moral, ethical and intellectual abyss, one’s respect for the prescience of George Orwell’s commentaries on truth in politics, or should I say untruth in politics, expands. Sadly, Orwell, H. L. Mencken and others of their ilk, viewed as cynics and curmudgeons during their time, now seem understated in their prior assessments of the political future of this country.

"


'via Blog this'

Articles: Political Correctness: The Progressive Political Strategy

Articles: Political Correctness: The Progressive Political Strategy: "Under this standard, anyone who says much of anything can be disciplined if he authorities don’t like him. Rather than rules of behavior, the standard of bad behavior is whatever the person who complains says it is.

"


'via Blog this'

Sports Stadiums Are Bad Public Investments. So Why Are Cities Still Paying for Them?

Sports Stadiums Are Bad Public Investments. So Why Are Cities Still Paying for Them? | Blazing Cat Fur: "Pacific Standard magazine has reported that in the last 20 years, the U.S. has opened 101 new sports facilities and stadium finance experts say that almost all of them have received public funding totaling billions of dollars. Politicians generally rationalize this expense by stating that stadiums will generate economic revenue and job opportunities for the city, but Kotkin says those promises are rarely realized.

“I think this is sort of a fanciful approach towards economic development instead of building really good jobs. And except for the construction, the jobs created by stadia are generally low wage occasional work.”

“The important thing that we’ve forgotten is ‘What is the purpose of a government?'” asks Kotkin. “Cities instead of fixing their schools, fixing their roads or fixing their sewers or fixing their water are putting money into ephemera like stadia. And in the end, what’s more important?”

"



'via Blog this'

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

The Export-Import Bank's Hidden Tax on America's Companies

The Export-Import Bank's Hidden Tax on America's Companies | Cato Institute: "Ex-Im supporters — mostly corporate beneficiaries and politicians — work hard to sculpt the Bank’s image as an institution of costless necessity. But closer examinations have revealed corruption, corporate welfare, and hidden taxation on thousands of U.S. businesses. Victims abound across the country.


For all the praise Ex-Im heaps upon itself for its role as a costless pillar of the economy, it is difficult to make sense of the collateral damage left in its wake.”
"


'via Blog this'

Feds shelled out $125B in bogus payments last year

Feds shelled out $125B in bogus payments last year - Washington Times: "The government paid out $124.7 billion in potentially bogus payments last year, the government’s chief watchdog said Monday, blaming a controversial tax credit for the poor as well as increased bad payments in Medicare and Medicaid.

"


'via Blog this'

Monday, March 16, 2015

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Anti-War’?

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Anti-War’? | PJ Lifestyle: "It’s important to note that the choice of one nation to embrace reason and thus act peacefully will not cause other nations to follow suit. This dynamic plays out whether between nations or individuals. If you meet a mugger in a dark alley who draws a gun and demands your wallet, your choice to live by reason does not change his choice to live by force. You cannot reason your way to peace when faced with aggression. You can only submit or fight back."


'via Blog this'

Who Will Regulate the Bank Regulators?

Who Will Regulate the Bank Regulators? - Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada: "A fascinating report by Finn Poschmann from the C.D. Howe Institute discusses the history of bank regulation in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. It explains the movement away from shareholder liability in banks, towards the current system where taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for a bank’s solvency. This leads to a situation of “moral hazard” where bank managers do not have the correct incentives for prudence, and where bank depositors and shareholders do not have the correct incentives to monitor them."


'via Blog this'

No, the official unemployment rate doesn't tell the whole story of the US job market

No, the official unemployment rate doesn't tell the whole story of the US job market - AEI | Pethokoukis Blog » AEIdeas: "But other job-market measures suggest the labor market isn’t that tight. Wage growth remains tepid, a reflection of relatively weak demand for labor. A historically small share of Americans are working or looking for jobs. And a broader unemployment measure from the Labor Department, including people who have given up looking for work and those stuck in part-time jobs, remains elevated compared to the official measure. …

The disconnect is shown in the broader U-6 reading, which is 5.5 percentage points higher than the most common gauge of unemployment. In the decade before the recession began in late 2007, the average spread was 3.6 percentage points.The gap has narrowed by 0.4 percentage point over the past year, but remains stubbornly wide. The gap suggests that despite steady job creation, an unusually large number of Americans are underemployed or on the fringes of the job market.

"


'via Blog this'

Obama's Treason is the New Patriotism

Sultan Knish: Obama's Treason is the New Patriotism: "The first rule of treason is to call the other guy a traitor. Having aligned with everyone from Castro to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Obama has to make it seem as if it’s the Republicans who are the traitors.

An administration of political hacks who spent the Bush years undermining the White House in every way possible short of officially defecting to the enemy now claim that dissent from their policy is treason. And they top that by reversing the motives of Iran and ISIS so that instead of wanting to destroy America, they really want to be criticized by Republicans and prevented from getting nuclear weapons.

This gibberish shouldn’t be able to fool any thinking person, but the idea that Kim Jong-Il wanted food, not nuclear weapons, when his entire policy had been the exact opposite, shouldn’t have gotten by anyone with an elementary knowledge of history and at least a single living brain cell.

But it did.

No one wants to be a member of a party of traitors or of a government of traitors. Clinton and Obama didn’t accidentally stumble into their policies. They were guided by a deep rotten belief that the United States was always wrong and that the enemy, no matter how evil, had a legitimate grievance.

They can’t admit to this treasonous idea, even though they repeat it constantly in various forms, so their only defense is to claim that their treason is patriotism and that anyone who disagrees is a traitor."


'via Blog this'

Orwellian doublethink and controlled insanity

Orwellian doublethink and controlled insanity: "Totalitarian government can only exist through a clever or blatant use of lies which must be accepted through the controlled insanity of Orwellian Doublethink or the controlled sanity of Crimestop stupidity. Orwell's 1984 character, Julia, an enemy of Big Brother's totalitarian government, "did not feel the abyss opening beneath her feet at the thought of lies becoming truth;" where "the heresy of heresies was common sense." One way free people can remain free is to think – to recognize and accept self-evident truth – to reject the labyrinthine world of Orwellian Doublespeak and Doublethink – to reject the depraved world of Orwellian Crimestop stupidity – to exercise the sanity and intelligence of common sense. Common sense means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously (the truth and the lie), and accepting only the truth... with the truth always one leap ahead of the lie.

"


'via Blog this'

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Creeping Progressivism

Creeping Progressivism | The Rio Norte Line: "Progressivism is a creeping disease.

Unlike Revolutionary Marxism, it will never start a fight. It is too smart for that kind of bourgeois violence. Progressivism is about behavior modification over an extended period of time – something I have referred to as “the long game”.

Progressivism is about controlling the words you can and cannot say and who is allowed to say them. It is about controlling the thoughts you can and cannot think and who is allowed to think those as well."


'via Blog this'

Maureen Dowd Smacks Down Hillary

Maureen Dowd Smacks Down Hillary | Wizbang: "“None of what you said made any sense. . . You seem like an annoyed queen, radiating irritation at anyone who tries to hold you accountable.” – Maureen Dowd in her open letter to Hillary Clinton . . ."


'via Blog this'

The Party of the Furrowed Brow

The Party of the Furrowed Brow | The Weekly Standard: "If brow-furrowing were thinking, the Republican establishment would be geniuses. If hand-wringing were prudence, GOP politicians would be exemplars of Aristotelian virtue. If tongue-clucking were eloquence, conservative elites would be orators for the ages.

But of course Trey Gowdy, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Tom Cotton have done more for conservative principles and Republican prospects in the last few weeks than the brow-furrowers, hand-wringers, and tongue-cluckers have done in years. "


'via Blog this'

A Monster of Our Own

National Review: "Those addicted to political power do not usually wind up living in the streets, but they suffer a parallel dehumanizing abasement: There is nothing left in them, in their minds or their souls, that transcends the pursuit of political power itself. As with de Sade’s protagonists or the defeated drug addict, the relentless process of subtraction from the human sum has left only a single exotic appetite.

"


'via Blog this'

Why our prep-school diplomats fail against Putin and ISIS

Why our prep-school diplomats fail against Putin and ISIS | New York Post: "Social insularity: Our leaders know fellow insiders around the world; our enemies know everyone else.
The mandarin’s distaste for physicality: We are led through blood-smeared times by those who’ve never suffered a bloody nose.
And last but not least, bad educations in our very best schools: Our leadership has been educated in chaste political theory, while our enemies know, firsthand, the stuff of life.
Above all, there is arrogance based upon privilege. For revolving-door leaders in the U.S. and Europe, if you didn’t go to the right prep school and elite university, you couldn’t possibly be capable of comprehending, let alone changing, the world. It’s the old social “Not our kind, dahhhling…” attitude transferred to government.
That educational insularity is corrosive and potentially catastrophic: Our “best” universities prepare students to sustain the current system, instilling vague hopes of managing petty reforms."


'via Blog this'

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Legendary Gay Designers Oppose Gay Marriage, Gay Parenting, Surrogacy

Legendary Gay Designers Oppose Gay Marriage, Gay Parenting, Surrogacy - Breitbart: "The billionaire pair, who used to be romantically linked, gave an interview with the Italian magazine Panorama, in which they said, “The only family is the traditional one. No chemical offspring and rented uterus. Life has a natural flow; there are things that cannot be changed.”

They also said, “Procreation must be an act of love.”

“I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Uteri for rent, semen chosen from a catalogue,” Dolce stated.

Gabanna said, “The family is not a fad. In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.”

"


'via Blog this'

The Prescience of Daniel Patrick Moynihan Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415389/prescience-daniel-patrick-moynihan-george-will

National Review: "The broken correlation of improvements in unemployment and decreased welfare dependency shattered confidence in social salvation through economic growth and reduced barriers to individual striving. Perhaps the decisive factors in combating poverty and enabling upward mobility were not economic but cultural — the habits, mores, and dispositions that equip individuals to take advantage of opportunities.

"


'via Blog this'

The Cultural Gulag of Islam & Liberal Progressivism

The Cultural Gulag of Islam & Liberal Progressivism | PJ Media: "There are many threats to the continuity of the modern world, of which Islam in its manifold guises — international terrorism, the razia of unfettered immigration, Iranian nuclear ambitions — is the most prominent. But the Islamic agenda would not be what it is without the “progressivist” mentality and attendant policy making that are handing the barbarians the keys to the city. Islam and progressivism, to cite Jamie Glazov, are United in Hate. Indeed, as Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism Stephen Schwartz remarks in First Things, the deep complicity between Islam and the left goes a long way back, to the writings of the chief Communist impresarios, Marx and Lenin, as well as to lesser lights like Bolshevik intellectual Karl Radek. America’s far-left, pro-Muslim president has merely continued the dismal tradition.

"


'via Blog this'

Orwellian Doublethink and Controlled Insanity

Orwellian Doublethink and Controlled Insanity | Intellectual Conservative: "In order to control millions of people totalitarian or proto-totalitarian governments find it necessary to somehow prod their subjects into accepting that which is not true. Intelligent people will naturally see the truth and thereby comprehend when government lies to them – and so that’s the rub – how does totalitarian government deal with intelligent people when they must be lied to? George Orwell provides the answer – intelligent people must be conditioned to reject self-evident truth – to reject the sanity of common sense – to accept the insanity of Orwellian Doublethink – to accept the lie and the truth in their minds simultaneously – “with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.”

How do Dictatorships lie to intelligent people and get away with it? In the early stages of totalitarianism the use of Orwellian Newspeak is preferred to blatant in-your-face lies because Newspeak (otherwise known as Doublespeak) is the clever manipulation of words which mean one thing to the speaker and something very different or it’s opposite to the listener, thus one may plant a false idea into another’s head by lying to them directly, or by using the tricky technique of Doublespeak. "


'via Blog this'

Friday, March 13, 2015

Time for the Court to Address the Growth of the Administrative State

Time for the Court to Address the Growth of the Administrative State | FreedomWorks: "We have too long abrogated our duty to enforce the separation of powers required by our Constitution. We have overseen and sanctioned the growth of an administrative system that concentrates the power to make laws and the power to enforce them in the hands of a vast and unaccountable administrative apparatus that finds no comfortable home in our constitutional structure. The end result may be trains that run on time (although I doubt it), but the cost is to our Constitution and the individual liberty it protects. – Justice Clarence Thomas from his concurring opinion in Dep’t of Transportation v. Ass’n of American Railroads"


'via Blog this'

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Biofuel Boondoggle Fleeces American Drivers

Biofuel Boondoggle Fleeces American Drivers - The American Interest: "Gas prices may have dropped in recent months—and we all have the plunge in the global price of oil to thank for that—but America’s misguided biofuel mandates are costing consumers billions every year at the pump. "


'via Blog this'

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Using “safety” to break a nation

Using “safety” to break a nation: "Lulling Americans into believing that government can provide a safety net for everything from stocking a pantry and providing healthcare, to preventing administrative offices from “shutting-down,” boosting the stock market and de-stressing the environment through regulating virtually every activity, results in an opposite effect… It destabilizes the economy"


'via Blog this'

A Hollow Victory in Tikrit

A Hollow Victory in Tikrit - Commentary Magazine Commentary Magazine: "The U.S. desperately needs a plan not to just to roll back ISIS influence but also to roll back Iranian influence. The kind of plan implemented in 2007-2008 by Gen. David Petraues in Iraq, when U.S. forces targeted Iranian operatives for exposure and arrest. There is, alas, no sign of such a plan today–if anything, the U.S. seems to be tacitly conceding Iran the right to a dominant role in Iraq, Syria, etc., as part of a broader rapprochement that, Obama hopes, will include a nuclear deal.

This is a monstrous mistake. A victory over the terrorists of ISIS in Iraq, even if it is forthcoming, will be hollow indeed if it becomes a victory for the terrorists of Iran.

"


'via Blog this'

Clinton Conduct Puts National Security at Risk | Gingrich Productions

Clinton Conduct Puts National Security at Risk | Gingrich Productions: "However serious the political consequences of this week’s revelations about Hillary Clinton, the potential implications for the national security of the United States are far greater. We may never discover the extent of the damage. But the misjudgment should be disqualifying for any would-be commander-in-chief.
"


'via Blog this'

Why Capitalist Virtue Beats Cronyist Sin

Why Capitalist Virtue Beats Cronyist Sin | Competitive Enterprise Institute: "American free enterprise is the greatest job, wealth and happiness engine ever known, but these days, there’s a sense it has gone off the rails. There’s something to that. Special privileges destroy the idea of voluntary exchange as mutually beneficial, erode the trust on which a vibrant free enterprise system relies, undermines property rights, increases the transactional costs of doing business, and creates barriers to entering the market.

The best antidote to backroom deals are sunlight and diffuse power. But in the U.S. today, cronyism is a complex phenomenon and difficult to address. The challenge is to contrast the virtues of the market with the injustice of rent-seeking. That requires legitimizing real capitalism—the competitive, entrepreneurial kind—from the perverse imitation based on favoritism and connections.

"


'via Blog this'

Monday, March 9, 2015

Hillary Clinton's Trained Seals and Their Tiresome Act

Hillary Clinton's Trained Seals and Their Tiresome Act - Commentary Magazine Commentary Magazine: "Watching these men react like trained seals is pathetic, causing a wave of Clinton Fatigue to once again wash over America. But it’s also poignant, at least to this degree: The Clintons have a long history of pulling people, including some undoubtedly decent people, into their orbit–and once having done so, sending them out to defend the Clintons’ various and sundry corruptions. And that, in turn, has a corrupting effect on the Clintons’ defenders. By that I don’t mean they become personal corrupt. But they often do become intellectually corrupt. If you think that judgment is too harsh, I’d urge you to watch Mr. Davis, an intelligent man, get all tripped up in his effort to defend what Mrs. Clinton did. (His inability to explain why setting up a personal email account would be preferable to having a government email account is almost painful.)

"


'via Blog this'

Clinton email scandal a symptom of greater cultural rot

Clinton email scandal a symptom of greater cultural rot - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com: "How will we move our country ahead when the simple standard of character and integrity is allowed to be dismissed for those in positions of power?"


'via Blog this'

ISIS is the Syndrome, Sharia the Real Malignancy

Articles: ISIS is the Syndrome, Sharia the Real Malignancy: "What is beyond doubt is sharia’s absolute incompatibility with basic human rights, democratic norms and the law of nations and its highly seditious nature in calling for violence against non-Muslims and non-conforming Muslims both. Until the community of nations and the Muslims themselves come to terms with this malignant doctrine and act to delegitimize it, its poisonous offshoots like ISIS will continue to thrive.

"


'via Blog this'

Obama's Unscrupulous Selma Speech

Articles: Obama's Unscrupulous Selma Speech: "underneath all the flowery rhetoric, this president promotes inequity, personifies hypocrisy, funds and supports silencing the voice of the voiceless and, even if his life depended on it, is completely incapable of telling the truth."


'via Blog this'

Sunday, March 8, 2015

I don’t trust Google. Nor should you

I don’t trust Google. Nor should you: "I don’t trust Google. Nor should you. The time is coming when active measures are going to have to be taken to ensure that anyone – however wealthy or powerful – who abuses a dominant market position to peddle uncorrected falsehoods as though they were truth should be prosecuted for it. If there is a choice between the formal process of examining and cross-examining evidence and the frankly Marxist beliefs in the Google execs’ playpen, give me the courts any day."


'via Blog this'

Immigration is now on the verge of destroying UK

Op-ed: Immigration is now on the verge of destroying UK | Blazing Cat Fur: "Fixated by the ideology of multi-culturalism, our rulers are unwilling to uphold either our borders or our British way of life…

"


'via Blog this'

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The Clintons: The Same Old Tricks

The DiploMad 2.0: The Clintons: The Same Old Tricks: "Folks, this is a big deal. Any Foreign Service or Civil Service Officer who did anything similar would have run afoul immediately of the Department of State Security guys. Career termination and even criminal charges would have been very real possibilities. That Hillary Clinton was able to get away with this for the duration of her tenure is an outrage. Heads need to roll at State over this, and Hillary should give up her White House ambitions--yeah, right . . .

Hillary Clinton is a crook. There, I've said it. She is a crook. She relies on being able to conduct her crookedness on the compliance of a tight circle of sycophants, low information supporters, and the cowardly and complicit media.
"


'via Blog this'

Obama and the Jihadis: Blind Hatred Meets Self-Hatred Meets Alienation

Articles: Obama and the Jihadis: Blind Hatred Meets Self-Hatred Meets Alienation: "That is, Obama is alienated from the founding ideals and ethos to which, alas, a diminishing number of Americans cling. Therefore ripping it apart comes natural to him. And that is how he could easily make those awful remarks with a clear conscience.

"


'via Blog this'

Please GOP, Remind Us Again Why We Gave You Control of Congress

Please GOP, Remind Us Again Why We Gave You Control of Congress - Michael Hausam - Townhall Finance Conservative Columnists and Financial Commentary - Page 1: "Remember how some thought a GOP majority in Congress would lead to a meaningful change in direction? Remember the promises from John Boehner that on a crucial issue he would whip a minority GOP votes to join 100% of House Democrats to oppose a strong majority of House Republicans?

I remember the former but have no recollection of the latter. Given this week's approval to fund the Department of Homeland Security, it turns out that the latter happened and the former is an extraordinarily distant memory. Less than 1/3rd of Republicans joined every single Democrat in voting for the bill. In other words, the results were almost identical to those that would be expected if the clock were rolled back to 2009, Pelosi was the Speaker, the GOP was in the minority.

"


'via Blog this'

Friday, March 6, 2015

Eating Three Meals a Day Is Racist

Mother Jones: Eating Three Meals a Day Is Racist | John Hawkins' Right Wing News: "When liberals say something is “racist,” what they mean is that it is associated with traditional America and is therefore marked for demonization and obliteration. This applies to every aspect of traditional American life, even those shared with other societies."


'via Blog this'

The reminder that she [Hillary] is The Congenital Liar

Don Surber: The reminder that she is The Congenital Liar: "Hillary also lies because she gets away with lying. Anyone who defends her is an accomplice, which makes them liars too. The comfort by which liberals defend her raises questions about their veracity on all other matters.

This email nonsense and her acceptance of bribes through her tax-exempt foundation are reminders that she is a liar by birth. We shall see if Democrats continue to accept that and nominate her in 2016.
"


'via Blog this'

A new round of political correctness for the Air Force

A new round of political correctness for the Air Force: "I have no qualms with initiatives that seek to enhance opportunity for men and women of all stripes in the military, as long as they don’t start from the wrong premise – that there is a huge problem to begin with when really, there isn’t. And this entire effort by Lee smacks of “fixing” a problem that doesn’t exist, i.e., it is overtly political in nature.
Lee laments that there aren’t women and minorities in positions she seeks to enhance, but she is conveniently ignoring a perfectly logical explanation for that phenomenon, and it is this: There obviously aren’t more women and minorities who want to do those jobs.
So my fear is that standards will be altered and norms cast aside to achieve a certain political end, and that will actually harm, not improve, readiness. After all, the military is the liberal’s favorite social change instrument, and that’s primarily because it’s dominated by conservative Republicans.
Lee’s motives may be much more pure than I am giving her credit for, but everything about this initiative – from the language she is using to the timing of the announcement – reeks of political opportunism. And in Barack Obama’s administration, advancing the Left’s agenda is the only thing that matters."


'via Blog this'

Coburn: Convention of States Needed Because Washington Will Never Fix Itself

Coburn: Convention of States Needed Because Washington Will Never Fix Itself | CNS News: "“Most people know Washington is broken,” he told CNSNews.com. “Politicians there care about the next election, not the next generation. The career politicians make promises knowing they will be out of office when the bills come due. And I don’t see that there’s any way Congress is going to fix this in the next 10 or 15 years."


'via Blog this'

The E.U. Experiment Has Failed

The E.U. Experiment Has Failed | Hoover Institution: "National pride and amour propre were not eliminated by the E.U. and the ideology of its bureaucratic elites, only driven underground for a while. With Christianity moribund, and patriotism stigmatized as neo-fascist, it is unsurprising that Europe has failed to find a unifying principle beyond mere material comfort, resulting in the continent-wide malaise that manifests itself in the various failed policies threatening the E.U. project today, what Pope Francis last November called “a general impression of weariness and aging, of a Europe which is now a ‘grandmother,’ no longer fertile and vibrant”—a culture “weary with disorientation.”

We American should not indulge the schadenfreude aroused by watching our sometimes-condescending older cousins slip farther and farther behind us in global importance and power. Europe is still collectively the world’s largest economy, and its travails will impact the whole globe. More importantly, many of the trends weakening Europe today are active in our own country. The scorning of national pride and American exceptionalism, the decline of Christianity in the public square, multiculturalism and its ethnic separatism and divisive identity politics, and the preference of many Americans for greater social welfare spending, redistribution of wealth, and dirigiste economic policies all point us to a fate like Europe’s. 

Self-doubt about the goodness of one’s way of life and living just for today’s pleasures are luxuries a great power cannot afford. In a world of violent ideologies and aggressive autocrats, a free people must have something beyond this world that they believe is worth killing and dying for. Europe seemingly has lost those ideals and beliefs that made it the nurse of freedom, democracy, and human rights. America has taken on that global role, but if we go the way of Europe, if we too no longer know what we believe, who will take our place? 

"


'via Blog this'

Thursday, March 5, 2015

“Hands Up Don’t Shoot” Was A Lie. Data Shows Latest DOJ Report Is, Too.

“Hands Up Don’t Shoot” Was A Lie. Data Shows Latest DOJ Report Is, Too. | VDARE.COM: "“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” was always a lie–so is the alleged racism of the Ferguson PD."


'via Blog this'

Progressives, Its Time to Start Panicking about Hillary

Progressives, Its Time to Start Panicking about Hillary: "I’ll say it, happily: Democrats should be worried about Hillary Clinton, and moderately panicked about the immediate future of both their party and their cause."


'via Blog this'

Immigration Is Now on the Verge of Destroying UK

Immigration Is Now on the Verge of Destroying UK | American Renaissance: "Until recently, Britain was one of the most homogenous nations in the world.

In 1940 there were just 238,000 foreign nationals in Britains, little more than a third of the current annual influx.

How we have changed.

Cultural diversity is code for national suicide.

Tragically, as last week’s figures show, that process of disintegration can only accelerate under our current supine, dishonest rulers.

"


'via Blog this'

Cojones: Egypt President el-Sisi closes 27,000 mosques to fight terrorism

Cojones: Egypt President el-Sisi closes 27,000 mosques to fight terrorism - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com:



'via Blog this'

Despite ATF and White House Claims, AR-15 Ammo Doesn't Pose a Special Risk to Law Enforcement

Despite ATF and White House Claims, AR-15 Ammo Doesn't Pose a Special Risk to Law Enforcement - Katie Pavlich: ""Any ammunition is of concern to police in the wrong hands, but this specific round has historically not posed a law enforcement problem," "


'via Blog this'

American Millennials: Too Proud to Compete

Had Enough Therapy?: American Millennials: Too Proud to Compete: "It means that the American educational establishment and the American psychological establishment, the people who dictate how we bring up children, have failed miserably."


'via Blog this'

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Newt Gingrich Remarks CPAC 2015

Newt Gingrich Remarks CPAC 2015 | Video | C-SPAN.org:

Don't be fooled by the millions of dollars in "gifts" foreign regimes are giving to American think tanks and universities. It's Islamist-Influence buying, and it has the potential to undermine American society and government if we don't take action now
'via Blog this'

How Netanyahu's Iran speech undermines Obama's deceitful deal by Andrew Malcolm

How Netanyahu's Iran speech undermines Obama's deceitful deal by Andrew Malcolm - Investors.com: "In his idiomatic English and speaking as a friend, Israel's superior spokesman firmly delivered an eloquent, detailed and damning 3,900-word indictment of both Iran and the sell-out nuclear deal that the Obama administration is in the closing stages of drafting in Geneva. Netanyahu's delivery was Churchillian. Indeed, the 65-year-old former special forces captain just became only the second foreign leader after Sir Winston to address Congress three times.

"


'via Blog this'

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Norway Deports Radical Muslims… What Happened Next is a Lesson for Us All

Norway Deports Radical Muslims… What Happened Next is a Lesson for Us All | John Hawkins' Right Wing News: "The Muslim population of Europe is growing at a rapid clip, and the criminal and radical elements within that population are stealthily “conquering” land, one neighborhood, town, and city at a time.

But the people of Europe have begun to push back against this cultural encroachment, with some countries taking steps to control and downsize their Muslim populations.

Norway is one of those countries, and they began deporting radical and criminal Muslims back from whence they came last year.

Amazingly, they have seen their violent crime rate drop by nearly 1/3rd since they began deportations in earnest last fall.

"


'via Blog this'

Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts

Sense of Events: Why Our Children Don't Think There Are Moral Facts: "The most important training we can give our children is moral training. And school curricula deliberately teach them instead that there is no morality, there is only opinion.

The curricula teach that only that which can be proven is true. But truth is not at all wholly dependent on proof.
"


'via Blog this'

Monday, March 2, 2015

This is going great: First moderate Syrian group to get US arms dissolves after defeat « Hot Air

This is going great: First moderate Syrian group to get US arms dissolves after defeat « Hot Air: "The first band of anti-ISIS rebels in Syria to receive American weaponry recently suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. After losing control of their headquarters and the weaponry provided to them by Western powers, this Syrian moderate rebel group simply dissolved.

"


'via Blog this'

The biggest obstacles to new jobs are taxes and regulations

The biggest obstacles to new jobs are taxes and regulations: "Many states defend their strict tax-and-regulatory policies as being in workers’ best interests, but when all of the red tape and expenses mean fewer workers in these states, it becomes necessary to rethink just how much “protection” is too much.
Nobody wants workers unnecessarily subjected to harsh and dangerous conditions, but make no mistake the states that are most creative in finding ways to both protect workers and lower the costs of doing business will attract the most reshoring jobs – and the revenues associated with greater economic activity.
"


'via Blog this'