Friday, July 6, 2012

But I Love That Place: The 7 Most Overrated Fast Food Restaurants

PJ Media Lifestyle


"French fries sizzling in hot oil. Fresh (at least at some point) hamburger searing on the flat top grill. Squeaky-voiced teen messing up our order and saying he’ll have to ask his manager. This is the fast food experience Americans are all familiar with. When we walk into a fast food restaurant we all have a certain set of expectations about the food and service based on our previous experiences. That’s why we continue to go back — no matter where in the country we are, we expect the same McDonald’s or Taco Bell meal.
"However, it seems to be increasingly evident that fast food restaurants are trying new gimmicks marketing techniques to change both our expectations and perceptions of what they’re serving and how they’re serving it.  If my business was being endlessly attacked by nanny-staters that want to dictate what I can and can’t serve my customers, I’d probably try almost anything to keep them coming in the door. But when you try to create the perception of better food and better value instead of actually giving it to your customers, you become a prime candidate for today’s list."
Editor’s Note: Be sure and check out more of Brent’s food blogging at his site Random Dude Eats Random Food.
Companion Article: Burger Battle: In-N-Out Vs Five Guys
"An East Coast upstart challenges a West Coast classic and a Texan's taste buds act as judge, jury, and executioner. See Bridget Johnson's rebuttal here."
Those in the upper Midwest and in the DFW area may learn to love Culvers.  Not only do I find their burgers to be works of art (though not presented as nicely as In-N-Out's), I also love their chili supreme. The restaurants are attractive and I've always found the service to be gracious and friendly.

What Romney Needs to Say About RomneyCare

J. Robert Smith   "Romney doesn't need to devote much, if any, time to parsing RomneyCare.  The former Massachusetts governor needs to spend loads of time flailing President Obama for his ObamaCare fiasco.
"The lines of attack are many and rich for Romney, and he should exploit every last one of them.  After all, Romney has the wind at his back on ObamaCare.  About 55% of the electorate consistently oppose the president's takeover of health care. 
"Romney's not exactly being asked to make a courageous, uphill fight to persuade voters that ObamaCare's a big loser.  Most voters are, in fact, eager for Romney to take the gloves off and relentlessly pound away at Mr. Obama and his statist health care scheme." ....

Mr. Smith's article links to this article titled, "Romney's Tom Dewey Moment":  Obamacare tax confusion a warning sign: the peril of playing it safe.

...."Now the Message is Carrying Mitt.  
"No one but Obama underlings in Chicago give the proverbial rat's rear end what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts with Romneycare. As demonstrated in a blink by all those thousands who gave millions to the Romney campaign -- unasked."

A Vast New Taxing Power

Wall Street Journal; "The Chief Justice's ObamaCare ruling is far from the check on Congress of right-left myth."

"The commentary on John Roberts's solo walk into the Affordable Care Act wilderness is converging on a common theme: The Chief Justice is a genius. All of a sudden he is a chessmaster, a statesman, a Burkean minimalist, a battle-loser but war-winner, a Daniel Webster for our times.

"Now that we've had more time to take in Chief Justice Roberts's reasoning, we have a better summary: politician. In fact, his 5-4 ruling validating the constitutional arguments against purchase mandates and 5-4 ruling endorsing them as taxes is far more dangerous, and far more political, even than it first appeared last week." More...Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert

EQCA-Sponsored Bill to Curb Sexual Orientation Conversion "Therapy" Headed to Senate Floor

Wikipedia
YubaNet   "Senate Bill 1172, authored by Senator Ted Lieu, would ban all sexual orientation change efforts with respect to minors, regardless of a parent's willingness or desire to authorize such "treatments." Senate Bill 1172 would also prohibit therapists from engaging in these practices with adult patients without first disclosing the risks of harm and obtaining the patient's informed consent. Under the law, adult patients must be provided with the following statement prior to consenting to treatment:

" "Having a lesbian, gay, or bisexual sexual orientation is not a mental disorder. Sexual orientation change efforts have not been shown to be safe or effective and can, in fact, be harmful. The risks include, but are not limited to, depression, anxiety, self-destructive behavior and suicide.

"The American Psychological Association convened a Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation and it concluded:"

Hat tip to Harley Standlee, Placerville, CA

Betting on America

Barack Obama is on the road again, climbing aboard the Canadian-built pitch-black "Darth Bus" to take a tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania for the critical purpose of being unavailable to reporters when Friday's jobs report is released.

And because he's got no encouraging news for those states other than "I didn't raise your taxes! I raised your penalties!," the president is showcasing a shiny new slogan to replace all of the ones which have failed to get traction previously. And that slogan is: "Betting on America."

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Teaching and discussing Economics; if you understand at least some economics, you won't vote for a liberal

Thomas Sowell   "The Chronicle of Higher Education also reported on the students. The feckless behavior of today’s students in all three courses makes me glad that I left the classroom long ago, and do my teaching today solely through my writings."
Political Cartoons by Glenn Foden
Forbes; To Discredit The Anti-Capitalists, Pro-Capitalists Need To Learn How To Use Words  "It was supposed to be a parody of deep-sounding but vacuous pronouncements. But the joke turns out to be on him: since words *are* the tools of language, they are the tools of thought. That means you must resist unto death using the terminology of your enemy. The side that controls language controls thought.
"Anti-capitalists are onto this fact. Pro-capitalists need to catch up–especially since the mainstream media are dominated by anti-capitalists, who insinuate their distorted terms into what would otherwise seem to be open debate."

Does this sound like a man who understands business?

Can't anybody here play this game?


A John Lennon administration

Fireworks over Mt. Rushmore

Chris Rock Wishes Us 'Happy White Peoples Independence Day'

Breitbart   "Still carrying a grudge against a country that has made Chris Rock wealthy and famous way beyond where his waning talents should've taken him, this was how the once-interesting and once-edgy comedian celebrated the 4th of July on Twitter today:" 



Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks


"To divisive racialists like Rock, nothing will ever be enough. Not a Civil War, not electing a black president, not making "Head of State" a modest hit. 
"There is, however, a special day coming up I think we can ALL enjoy, and that's March 15, the one-year anniversary of the big, tough, bad ass Chris Rock attacking a woman."

"The land on which they formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class."




By way of contrast, Debbie Schlussel gives us this bit of tribute to my favorite detective:

Peter Falk: Proud American, Proud Pro-Israel Jew, of Blessed Memory "You may not know this but Peter Falk was a proud, pro-Israel Jew, in addition to being a proud American.  He served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II, after being rejected from the U.S. Armed Forces because of his glass eye.  But  he also volunteered to fight for Israel against Egypt in the 1948 War of Independence.  He was a proud, pro-Israel Jew.  From the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles:"...

ON JULY 4, REMEMBER: WE ARE NOT FRENCH

Ann Coulter  "The French Revolution is the godless antithesis to the founding of America.
Bing

"One rather important difference is that Americans did win freedom and greater individual rights with their revolution, creating a republic. France’s revolution consisted of pointless, bestial savagery, followed by another monarchy, followed by Napoleon’s dictatorship and then finally something resembling an actual republic 80 years later.
"Both revolutions are said to have come from the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers, the French Revolution informed by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the American Revolution influenced by the writings of John Locke. This is like saying presidents Reagan and Obama both drew on the ideas of Twentieth Century economists — Reagan on the writings of Milton Friedman and Obama on the writings of Paul Krugman."

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The Declaration of Independence Annotated

Volokh Conspiracy  "When reading the Declaration, it is worth keeping in mind two very important facts. The Declaration constituted high treason against the Crown and every person who signed it would be executed as traitors should they be caught by the British. Second, the Declaration was considered to be a legal document by which the revolutionaries justified their actions, and explained why they were not truly traitors. It represented, as it were, a literal indictment of the Crown and Parliament, in the very same way that criminals are now publicly indicted for their alleged crimes by grand juries representing “the People.”
....
"Later, the Declaration also assumes increasing importance in the struggle to abolish slavery.  It is a foundational document of the Nineteenth Century abolitionists and was much relied upon by Abraham Lincoln.  It had to be explained away by the Supreme Court in Dred Scott. Eventually, it was repudiated by some defenders of slavery in the South because of its inconsistency with that institution. This repudiates the claims of many who say the Constitution allowed slavery.


"To appreciate all that is packed into these two paragraphs, it is useful to break down the Declaration into some of its key claims."
Left Coast Rebel  posts this about the above article.  "Like everyone here, last week's developments find me deeply disturbed. Like many points in the past several years I fear for not only my safety, liberty and economic freedom, I also fear for the same thing for my family and my loved ones that will live in this land generations from now.  
"On this point -  just what should we celebrate Independence Day for today, this July 4? Independence from what? From England? Or is it a lot bigger than that (of course it is)...
"Randy Barnett, writing at the Volokh Conspiracy points us to an annotated version of the Declaration of Independence, what it means, and what it should mean in an America under the creeping shadow of an opressive(sic), all-powerful Leviathan government:"

The Annotated Constitution