Thursday, March 15, 2012

Liberal intolerance, by the numbers

Thomas Lifson "At last we have statistical evidence that liberals are less tolerant of views that disagree with theirs than are conservatives.  Andrew Malcolm of Investor's Business Daily points us to the data, found in a Pew Center for the Internet and American Life Project study."
....
"The delightful title of the piece sums it all up: "Online, liberals far less tolerant than normal people" "
 ....

"There are a lot of people whose self-concept as a good person is validated by their advocacy of what they think of as enlightened and compassionate liberalism. If politics makes them a good person, it frees up their consciences when dealing with others in real life. Very convenient.
"But if an annoying conservative (me) challenges the morality of the very policies that make them moral persons, they suffer painful cognitive dissonance."
The Daily Princetonian: Liberals are more intolerant than conservatives "In closing, I can’t say for sure that conservatives are more tolerant on average than liberals. That certainly has been my experience. What is certain is that liberals hold themselves out as being more tolerant, while pharisaically denying a minority in their midst the ability to express dissenting viewpoints without fear of reprisal. This fact is deeply troubling. In the name of tolerance, I think we should look within and see if this is really the kind of liberal democracy we want". 


Three Ways To Cope with the Coming Plague of Obama Bumper Stickers

 Belladonna Rogers  "It’s only March and already the Obama 2012 bumper stickers are everywhere. The parking lots are filled with them.  They’re irksome, especially when combined on the same bumper, with the 2008 version. It appears that the driver has learned exactly nothing in the past four years.

"Is there anything I can do that will avoid direct confrontation, won’t get me in trouble with the law, but that will satisfy my urge to communicate my disagreement with the Obama-supporting owners of these cars?"

....I have three suggestions:

Here's the first one:  "You type two sentences and print out as many as you like. Keep them in your car at all times. Here’s a little inspiration:
Dear Friend:
Some unknown socialist put an Obama bumper sticker on your car. I’m letting you know so that you can remove it before it causes you any further embarrassment.
"That’s it.  Simple, friendly, concerned, considerate. What’s not to like?"
Or, you can buy an assortment of bumper stickers such as these below:
 And these.  And these. And these.



Finally, you can vent your spleen in a longer form such as this one:
Dear Fellow Citizen:
I note with stunned incredulity that the rear bumper of your vehicle is festooned with both an Obama 2008 and an Obama 2012 one.  This is troubling indeed.  It suggests to your fellow citizens that you’ve spent the last three years in the sort of place Vice President Cheney was said to have inhabited during the George W. Bush years: a secure, undisclosed location — but unlike Mr. Cheney, however, without access to news from the outside world.  
If, on the other hand, you’ve been living openly and freely, I must inquire whether you’ve noticed the lack of respect for the U.S. Constitution by the president and the Department of Justice, with “Attorney General” Eric Holder’s refusal to prosecute such blatant law-breakers as the New Black Panther Party and ACORN?  Does the phrase “Fast and Furious” mean nothing to you?
Have you noted without dismay the president’s hare-brained, anti-capitalist and un-American belief that those who work hard and have actually dared to earn a handsome income be penalized and have their hard-won wealth “re-distributed” to others?
Have you not watched in horror as the unemployment rate has soared perilously close to 9% among your fellow citizens?
Are you not outraged by every single element of ObamaCare and the fact that a growing number of physicians in fields such as cardiology are considering becoming “life coaches” to their patients because the tests they routinely order to monitor their health will be over-ridden by computerized regulations, and, indeed, forbidden entirely by green eye-shaded federal government employees who’ve never seen the inside of a medical school classroom? Or by social engineers or clueless politicians such as Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and “Human Services”?
Are you not horrified that your country is now more than $14 trillion in debt?  Does this not concern you if you have children or grandchildren, or even if you don’t?
Can you honestly say that none of these outrages causes you to reconsider your original, ill-founded enthusiasm for Barack Obama?
If you’re as pro-Obama in 2012 as you were in 2008, you can be only one of two things: (1) a Democratic loyalist who gives not a moment’s thought to the actual positions and hazardous consequences of voting like a lemming, or (2) a blinkered, clueless cave-dweller cut off from all news of the United States and the world for the past four years.  If that’s the case, I urge you to read news analysis on PJM.com during that period to see exactly what you’ve missed.
Just how much drek can you allow yourself to ignore?
Finally, I suggest you buy yourself a giant sized GOO GONE, a liquid that comes in a spray can.  Apply it to your bumper stickers. Scrape with all your might until you’ve succeeded in removing that embarrassing pair from your rear bumper.  Once they’re gone, you can drive with your head held high because, at long last, you’ll have come face to face with the harsh, cold breath of reality and will have understood the perilous error of your ways.
Sincerely,
A concerned fellow citizen



"There you have them: three distinct approaches, any one of which should help cope with some of the frustration you feel, and may even shed a little light of reality on your state’s Obama-besotted residents.
"When the unremitting uniformity of their political views gets you down, return to this webpage and feast your eyes on the artistic creations ... brought to you by our distinguished colleagues at MAD magazine, one of the most reliably great magazines of the 20th and 21st centuries, the obvious fountainhead of The Onion:"

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of.....Barack Obama

Katie Pavlich, Townhall  "Apparently these days it is okay to put the face of the president on the American flag instead of the 50 stars meant to represent 50 states, but don't you dare say under God during the Pledge of Allegience(sp). The Lake County Democratic Party in Florida has been flying two "American" flags over its headquarters building, one of them the stars and stripes, the other stripes and Barack. (RACIST!) Luckily, after complaints were launched against the Obama faced flag by local veterans groups, it was taken down.
....
"After a short time spent ‘researching’, Hurlbert relented and took down the flag while the veterans looked on.  She did not accept the POW/MIA flag offered as a replacement." 


""While we are pleased the flag in question has since been removed from public display, the reported fact that it had flown for months without protest is a clear indication that we have much work to do in educating the public of the importance of protecting our flag," Agg wrote in an email.
"The final insult to veterans? The flag is made in China."

Sick and Tired of the Middle East

Victor Davis Hanson "Americans -- left, right, Democrats and Republicans -- are all sick of thankless nation-building in the Middle East. Yet democratization was not our first choice, but rather a last resort after prior failures." 
...."Let us review the various American policy options for the Middle East over the last few decades. Military assistance or punitive intervention without follow-up mostly failed. The verdict on far more costly nation-building is still out. Trying to help popular insurgents topple unpopular dictators does not guarantee anything better. Propping up dictators with military aid is both odious and counterproductive. Keeping clear of maniacal regimes leads to either nuclear acquisition or genocide -- or 16 acres of rubble in Manhattan.
"What have we learned? Tribalism, oil and Islamic fundamentalism are a bad mix that leave Americans sick and tired of the Middle East -- both when they get in it and when they try to stay out of it."
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/03/13/97318 

Ann Coulter: The Vagina Diatribes; then on Palin and a brokered convention

Ann Coulter  " From Murphy Brown to the Jersey Girls, Cindy Sheehan, Joe Wilson and the New School's Jean Rohe, these fantasists inject themselves into a boiling-hot public debate and then claim victim status when anyone criticizes them."
...."Pursuing a typical path to liberal heroics, Fluke was an utter nobody whom the Democrats substituted in a last-minute witness-switch to testify about contraception -- as if her haircut isn't birth control enough -- at a hearing on "religious liberty."
"Despite her credentials as a heretofore unheard-of "birth control activist," the Oversight and Government Reform Committee declined to accept this 11th-hour witness on the grounds that Fluke did not have appropriate credentials for any congressional hearing, much less one on religious liberty.
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez/2012/03/07/97105 
"That was the Republicans' first foray into "silencing" Fluke's "voice.""
...."Thus, Fluke became a liberal hero even braver than an actress standing up for abortion rights in front of a Bill Maher audience.
"President Obama called Fluke and told her that her parents should be proud of her and to make sure she was OK. Hillary Clinton said conservatives were trying to control women. Bill Clinton called her to see if she had any plans for the weekend."
...".I don't care what liberals believe. Just please stop telling me they're courageous for saying exactly what every non-Fox media outlet in America is dying to hear, or I'll throw up harder than Rick Santorum did when he read John F. Kennedy's speech."

More Coulter: Beware of political celebrities in the GOP "We need to be wary, then, of people who might possibly be in it solely for themselves." 

A common-sense way to check Obama's regulation mania

Examiner Editorial "Take federal regulation. In his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed he's "approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his." Obama was literally telling the truth. Since being sworn into office, Obama and his Cabinet appointees have approved 10,215 new regulations. President George W. Bush had approved 10,674 at the same point in his tenure. But there is much more to the story than the numbers. What Obama neglected to mention is that his regulations cost much more to implement." 
 "...."during the first three years of the Obama Administration, 106 new major federal regulations added more than $46 billion per year in new costs for Americans. This is almost four times the number -- and more than five times the cost -- of the major regulations issued by George W. Bush during his first three years." Major new regulations are those having compliance costs of at least $100 million. Those with lower costs aren't included in the 106." 


Red Tape Rising: Obama-Era Regulation at the Three-Year Mark  "Hundreds more regulations are winding through the rulemaking pipeline as a consequence of the Dodd–Frank financial-regulation law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s global warming crusade, threatening to further weaken an anemic economy and job creation. Congress must increase scrutiny of regulations—existing and new. Reforms should include requiring congressional approval of major rules and mandatory sunset clauses for major regulations." 
Hat tip to the California Chronicle

An Obama 2008 video that is too good not to share

Hot Air  "As long as we’re partying like it’s November 2008, though, let’s once again take a nostalgic look at this Obama ad attacking George W. Bush on gas prices:"
"There are plenty more where that came from. Now that Obama can’t run on the economy or gas prices, what does he have left?  If it’s only Sarah Palin, Obama’s looking pretty desperate. "

Hat tip to Red State.com which posted:  "Via Hot Air comes this rather-embarrassing 2008 Obama campaign video that’s simply too good – and by ‘good’ I mean ‘humiliating to the Obama administration’ – not to share. Here you go:"....

"Hear that? When elected, Barack Obama promised to do something about those awful THREE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENT A GALLON gas prices! Because of all those awful OIL COMPANIES! Wasn’t that nice of him?" 

Morning Bell: Obama’s New Regulations Cost Billions

Heritage "If you fly across the country, it’s easy to see signs of America’s ingenuity and productivity — skyscrapers in New York City, steel mills in Pennsylvania, factories in Chicago, farmland in the Great Plains, and the glittering technology of Silicon Valley. But what you can’t see, though it’s very real, is the invisible web of red tape crawling forth from Washington, crisscrossing the landscape, strangling job creators, tying down entrepreneurs, and tangling America’s engine of innovation in a mess of regulations. Under the Obama Administration, those endless miles of government-imposed directives has kept getting longer, as The Heritage Foundation reveals in a new study released today."
....
 "On top of the thousands of regulations the Obama Administration has already implemented — costing America billions of dollars — more are on the way, promising to continue to drag down the economy and hamper job growth. Congress can and should take action to get this regulatory burden under control so that Americans can be free to get the country’s economic engine moving at full throttle once again."



Obama still drowning business in ocean of rules 


"This runs counter to what we’ve heard from the president’s apologists. Over the past several months, they’ve been bragging about his rule-making record. As the president himself said during his most recent State of the Union address: “I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.” 
"But a new report from the Heritage Foundation, “Red Tape Rising,” shows just the opposite is true. This administration has been on a rule-making tear."

Astute Bloggers: "A VOTE AGAINST MITT NOW IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA IN THE FALL."

ASTUTE BLOGGERS  "SANTORUM CANNOT WIN THE NOMINATION." 
HE ADMITS IT.HIS ONLY HOPE IS KEEPING MITT FROM WINNING IT ON THE FIRST BALLOT.THAT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE - IT MIGHT NOT BE.IF - AFTER PRIMARY SEASON IS OVER - AND IF NOBODY HAS ENOUGH DELEGATES TO WIN THE NOMINATION ON THE FIRST BALLOT, THEN NON-SUICIDAL SUPER-DELEGATES MIGHT ANNOUNCE THEY'LL BE VOTING FOR MITT AND HAND THE NOMINATION ON THE FIRST BALLOT.SO, WHY DRAG IT OUT TO THE CONVENTION? WHO DOES THAT HELP MOST?OBAMA! 
 Hope n' Change will be the first to admit that today's cartoon isn't exactly subtle... but then, neither is the message that the American people are sending to the president.
"The president has, however, one solid accomplishment under his belt (no hand lotion joke intended), which is...(drum roll, please)...the killing of Osama bin Laden.
"Or, more accurately, the fact that he didn't have a politically expedient way of stopping Seal Team Six from killing Osama bin Laden.
"Which is why the president's new bought-and-paid-for political mockumentary, 
"The Road We've Traveled," pays so much attention to Osama's death...showing Barack Obama furrowing his brow in heavy thought and courageously jutting his chin while violins play emotion-stirring music and Tom Hanks (no, really!) narrates the story of the bravest decision ever made by a human being: to sit in a room thousands of miles from any danger while wearing golf clothes and mentally planning his next vacation to Martha's Vineyard."

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Bozell Column: Who's Really Bashing Women?

Newsbusters "If the woman is a liberal – an apparently full-blooded authentic female – then NBC and MSNBC are more likely to bend. Liberals who wanted Hillary Clinton to beat Barack Obama in 2008 actually campaigned against Chris Matthews as in need of a Sexism Watch for suggesting she was “witchy” and had a voice like “fingernails on a blackboard.” David Shuster got suspended for suggesting Hillary was “pimping out” her daughter Chelsea on the campaign trail.    

""But women like Sarah Palin don’t get a fraction of that politeness, even from other women. Former ABC reporter Jami Floyd came on MSNBC in November 2010 and said, “The governor says she’s an extraordinary asset to her party. I say she’s an extraordinary ass, frankly.” "
Michelle Obama Will Appear On Letterman Next Week? REALLY? 

"Gee…Will there be any SLUT JOKES?
Will there be any jokes about her daughters getting knocked up by baseball players?
Remember, Obama made a personal call to Sandra Fluke because he was thinking of his daughters."


David Axelrod Cancels Appearance on Bill Maher's Show "Makes you wonder if pressure from Fox News's Greta Van Susteren last week helped the Administration's decision.
"Whatever it was, the next step is for Obama to instruct his Super PAC to return Maher's $1 million donation, and for all Democrats currently holding office to refuse Real Time invitations. "Maybe then Maher will get the message that not having sponsors doesn't entitle him to say these disgusting things about women on television."

SLUT-GATE HYPOCRISY: EXPLOSIVE AUDIO OF NBC'S AL SHARPTON TRASHING 'HOMOS,' 'CHINAMEN,' AND 'CRACKERS'

Breitbart "If offensive slurs are a problem for the left, why does Al Sharpton have a primetime slot on MSNBC?
"The left has started a war against Rush Limbaugh -- a war it cannot win. Limbaugh said something for which he later apologized, and rather than accept that apology, the left and its media allies decided to exploit the situation, turning it into a crusade to take an opposing voice off the air."

"Using MSNBC's own standards, should the man who once said the following be allowed to hold a primetime MSNBC slot?
David Dinkins, you wanna be the only nigger on television, only nigger in the newspaper, only nigger that can talk. Don't cover them, don't talk to them, 'cause you got the only nigger problem. 'Cause you know if a black man stood up next to you, they would see you for the whore that you really are.
"That's MSNBC's Al Sharpton--many years ago, but just as shocking today. I can already hear the excuse -- that it's okay for him to use the N-word because he's black."
....True, Sharpton said these things long before he was on MSNBC. But his history was well known, and the lack of outrage from the left when he was elevated to primetime highlights the hypocrisy of their anti-Rush censorship crusade. MSNBC President Phil Griffin knew that Sharpton said this sort of stuff regularly--that, in fact, such bigotry and radical rhetoric was an integral part of the Sharpton persona. He hired him nonetheless. One has to wonder if Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, and Tom Brokaw are proud.
"Over to you, MSNBC!"
Shocking audio tapes of MSNBC star Sharpton surface. "One could go on and on here. This is before you even get to MSNBC's Sharpton calling the prosecutor in the Tawana Brawley case, who is Jewish, "Mr. Hitler." This is before you get to the New York Post reporting Sharpton saying "I have no problem with Khalid Muhammad." Khalid Muhammad, of course, was the one-time number two to Louis Farrakhan, well on record as saying of Jews that they were "hooked-nose, bagel-eating, lox-eating, so-called Jews" with "hairy hands" that are "pimping the world." "

A dooming, foreboding piece in the Wall Street Journal on California -- and what the Once Golden's State's liberal-progressive slide into hell means for the rest of the country:

Left Coast Rebel 

"Long a harbinger of national trends and an incubator of innovation, cash-strapped California eagerly awaits a temporary revenue surge from Facebook IPO stock options and capital gains. Meanwhile, Stockton may soon become the state's largest city to go bust. Call it the agony and ecstasy of contemporary California. California's rising standards of living and outstanding public schools and universities once attracted millions seeking upward economic mobility. But then something went radically wrong as California legislatures and governors built a welfare state on high tax rates, liberal entitlement benefits, and excessive regulation.."