Alan Caruba; Witness to the Decline

Warning Signs  "If one were to try to identify the decline of the American society and system of governance, it would be tempting to say it began with the election of Barack Hussein Obama, but it began much earlier. I am inclined to believe it began in the 1960s when the nation’s educational system was taken over by the teacher’s unions and when education—a word that does not appear in the Constitution—became a federal government department in 1979. The systematic dumbing down and indoctrination of several generations of Americans began in earnest."...
Read the full article here.

Sowell on Guns and Pensions

Thomas Sowell  "Huge pensions for retired government workers can be found from small municipalities to national governments on both sides of the Atlantic. There is a reason. For elected officials, pensions are virtually the ideal thing to spend money on, politically speaking. Many kinds of spending of the taxpayers' money win votes from the recipients. But raising taxes to pay for this spending loses votes from the taxpayers. Pensions offer a way out of this dilemma for politicians.
"Creating pensions that offer generous retirement benefits wins votes in the present by promising spending in the future. Promises cost nothing in the short run -- and elections are held in the short run, long before the pensions are due."

Head Honcho Hassled Over Hagel Haggle

Heritage; Top 3 Reasons Chuck Hagel Is Wrong for Secretary of Defense "President Obama’s pick as the next Secretary of Defense is the wrong one. Heritage’s defense and foreign policy experts have examined the record of Chuck Hagel, the Republican former Senator from Nebraska, and concluded he simply does not have the experience and skills for the job. What’s more, his vision for dealing with other nations is dangerous for America.
"Here are the top three reasons Hagel is wrong for the job."....
The big reason for me in the above article is this next question:

Why Does Iran Endorse Chuck Hagel?  "Hagel has called repeatedly for better relations with Iran, the worst state sponsor of terrorism in history. In several past speeches (some not provided to the Senate Armed Services Committee), Hagel was open about the “need” to reach out to and have a normal relationship with Iran. He makes it appear as if the differences we have with Tehran—which supplied military-grade weapons to our enemies in Iraq specifically designed to kill Americans—are somehow our fault."

Which conforms serendipitously with Obama's own outlook, wouldn't you say? Does it not seem to you that Hagel would have been Ron Paul's choice as well? In the area of our Middle East policies I feel Paul would have been like having Chuck Hagel as president.  TD

seattletimes.com

Democrats can say stupid stuff too

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Rape comment by Rep. Joe Salazar reaps viral reaction   "Conservatives escalated their attacks on a Colorado Democrat Tuesday over his comments on rape, even falsely tying Rep. Joe Salazar to a 2006 university police memo that advised "vomiting or urinating" may ward off attackers.

But he did say this:

It's why we have call boxes. It's why we have safe zones. That's why we have the whistles, because you just don't know who you're going to be shooting at. And you don't know if you feel like you're going to be raped, or if you feel like someone's been following you around or if you feel like you're in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop... pop a round at somebody.

I like that "safe zone" idea; that should solve the problem. Before conservatives gloat, however, keep these words from Legal Insurrection in mind:
No, Democrats do not have a “full blown Akin” on their hands  "How do I know that this will not be the Democrats’ Todd Akin?
"Because he’s a Democrat, he’s at the state level, and this is not an election year.
"But mostly because he’s a Democrat."

Report: Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu a ‘Radical’

Washington Free Beacon.  "Kenneth Wagner, who attended the 2010 speech while a Rutgers University law student, provided the Washington Free Beacon with an email he sent during the event to a contact at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The email is time-stamped April 9, 2010, at 11:37 AM.

Donkey Hotey

" “I am sitting in a lecture by Chuck Hagel at Rutgers,” Wagner wrote in the email. “He basically said that Israel has violated every UN resolution since 1967, that Israel has violated its agreements with the quartet, that it was risking becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state. He said that the settlements were getting close to the point where a contiguous Palestinian state would be impossible.” "
....
"The Free Beacon is working to obtain transcript and video of Hagel’s comments during the question and answer sessions at Rutgers in both 2007 and 2010, and is continuing to speak to others who attended both events.
"A representative for Hagel did not respond to a request for comment by press time."

A Cluttered Desk is a Sign of Genius

TOTUS  There is another saying that "A cluttered chaotic desk is a sign of genius." A picture is worth a thousand words..........

William F. Buckley

 

Albert Einstein

 

Conservative columnist resigns after Kentucky paper refuses to run op-ed on publication’s liberal bias

Daily Caller  "Dyche says he quit after Pam Platt, the paper’s editorial page editor, left him a voicemail on Feb. 11 making it clear they wouldn’t run his piece about the paper’s politics.

“Hi, John David, it’s Pam Platt at the Courier-Journal and I’m just calling to let you know that I’m not going to run your column tomorrow,” Platt said, according to a transcript provided to TheDC. “To me it goes sort of off of what your column is supposed to be.”

Typical cartoon from the Courier-Journal

"Added Platt: “My understanding is a conservative take on issues of the day and that’s not what this is. So, anyway, thanks a lot and I’ll talk to you soon.”
....
"After Platt rejected the column, Dyche sent an email letter to her and publisher Wesley Jackson offering his resignation. He argued his submitted column very much fit under the category of “a conservative take on the issues of the day.”
“ 'One of those issues is liberal media bias,” he wrote in the email, which The DC obtained."

Here is the full opinion story by Dyche that was rejected:  An excerpt is posted below.

"The Courier-Journal opinion pages are stridently liberal. Journalistic jihads against Kentucky’s Republican U. S. Senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and crusades for gun control and higher taxes, are in full force and frequently fill almost the entire editorial and op-ed pages. Such one-sidedness neither works in the marketplace nor serves the public interest."

Have you heard the one about "Global Warming"

COMMON CENTS   "Global Warming Update! Amazing Documentary.  The Great Global Warming Swindle should be required viewing for anyone interested in Global Warming.      All emphases in the original.

 

IMDb cast and summary of the movie  Lots of "Himselfs".

 

Top Documentary Films  "Some have called The Great Global Warming Swindle the definitive retort to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Using a comprehensive range of evidence it’s claimed that warming over the past 300 years represents a natural recovery from a ‘little ice age’."

Wikipedia explores arguments for and against and a Google search brings up many articles that disagree with the documentary. Just as other sources refute Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth"  including this one:
Gore's climate film has scientific errors - judge

The dark ages of journalism seem to be on us

http://terrellaftermath.com/ Notice the snarky windmills?

BS alert! Politico claims that: "The MSM Can’t Resist Obama’s Power" 
"None of this would be possible without the news media being a willing partner. The media never had any trouble complaining vociferously about Bush’s attempts to ‘manipulate them.’ Even when he wasn’t trying to manipulate them.

"If the media were unhappy about any of this they would have been screaming bloody murder before Obama was even elected in 2008. But, instead they have been eager carry water for the Obama. Just as they have steadfastly refused to ever vet Obama. Let alone, writing anything negative about him."
Related: Former Obama camp spokesman defends media strategy

NBC’s David Gregory Thinks Republicans Are ‘Just Trying to Jam the President Up'  "NBC continues to lead the way in belittling any and all Republican attempts to stand up to President Obama. On Sunday’s Today, David Gregory rehashed the common left-wing talking point that Republicans are opposing Obama at every turn merely for the sake of being obstructionist. "
I remember well the shabby public disrespect this man treated President Bush with where he looked like the school bully in front of his cheering friends.

Christians Murdered In New Jersey…Not A PEEP From The Mainstream Media


Breaking: David Axelrod Hired By MSNBC… "Didn’t really need another reason not to watch MSNBC, but looks like we got one anyway."
                                            Axelrod toon at right by Steenwyck

Politico, NBC News Ignore Fact that Sequester Is Obama's Idea  "Neither outlet, though, bothered to mention one small, crucial fact: that Obama not only signed on to the sequestration deal, he proposed it."

 

NBC News Deceptively Edits Paul Ryan  "To set up his question, Roberts showed a clip of Rep. Ryan on ABC News' "This Week." The clip was meant to make it look like the Wisconsin congressman was opposed to the bill simply due to the fact that the President is for it, and not on any substantive level. However, take a look at the clip. MSNBC selectively edited Ryan in a very deceitful way."

US Military Officer Files Formal Complaint Against National Defense University for sharia/blasphemy enforcement (censorship) about Islam and jihad

Atlas Shrugs  "A defense university silencing the truth about the enemy is, in fact, aiding and abetting that very enemy. The university should have its credentials pulled.
"Bravo! Thank G-d for patriots like Lt. Col. Dooley taking on the Hamas goons of CAIR. He shouldn't have to, of course, but it is indicative of how compromised and infiltrated our armed forces have become."" Pamela Geller, in her intro to the post below

"A top United States counterterrorism expert, who taught a course that familiarized military officers with the U.S. war against radical Islamists was fired from a military college and had his course removed from the curriculum, is retaliating against university officials, according to a U.S. police counterterrorism expert on Friday."
....
"The police source, Sean Hanrahan, told the Law Enforcement Examiner that the officer/instructor was informed the course materials would be revamped to exclude references to Islam and use terms such as extremists or militants. In addition, the course instructor, Lt. Col. Dooley, was removed from the faculty permanently for telling students that practitioners of Islam are responsible for terrorism."

Reading list: Life with Obama

The Obama Bankruptcy Curse Strikes Again!  ".... when Obama visits or supports a business, the plaque should read "Because of Barack Obama the business you didn't build will soon be out of business." "

President Obama has set in motion forces that he can't handle  "Barack Obama is a terrible president. That's obvious to everyone who isn't chronically ignorant or incurably liberal.  By "liberal" ... I mean the modern version of liberal: self-centered, emotional, illogical, and void of reason."

 Will young adults face ‘rate shock’ because of ObamaCare?  "The nation’s insurers are engaged in an all-out, last-ditch effort to shield themselves from blame for what they predict will be rate increases on policies they must unveil this spring to comply with President Obama’s health-care law."

Confirmed: Obama Made No Calls, Took No Action During Benghazi Attack  " “During the entire attack, the president of the United States never picked up the phone to put the weight of his office in the mix,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham... who had held up Mr. Obama’s defense secretary nominee to force the information to be released. Mr. Graham said that if Mr. Obama had picked up the phone, at least two of the Americans killed in the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi might still be alive because he might have been able to push U.S. aid to get to the scene faster."

Our Petulant President   "All of a sudden there was a child stomping his feet and stating he was not going to do what he was told. He made a big scene even after he was told that these are the rules and you have to follow them. It was quite surprising that people were watching this and not pointing out the wrongness of the behavior. Then everyone realized that it wasn’t a five-year-old but rather our president...."

Obama: My climate change policies make energy ‘a little more expensive’
" ...but he suggested that the initial cost is worth the long-term reward of lowering carbon emissions."

Obama's Governing Philosophy: Plausible Deniability  Rush Limbaugh:

"Well, have you heard anybody blame Obama? Let's go back when the gasoline price was rising during the Bush years.  You heard people in the media and Democrat Party every day demanding that Bush do something about it.  Do you hear anybody demanding Obama do anything about this? No, because it's assumed by the low-information voters that he's already t[r]ying."

Jennifer Rubin; Was Chuck Hagel nominated out of spite?  "... the deference assumes the president in good faith believes his nominee is the best person for the job. However, when the latter is admittedly not the case then no deference is owed. Indeed, there is an obligation to block an unqualified nominee."

 Victor Davis Hanson; Obama’s Hypocritic Oath "There is no reason to believe that Obama has become more circumspect and now understands that he cannot meet the very expectations he demanded of others, or that the media will try to salvage their tattered reputation by applying the same scrutiny to Obama that they did to others."

 

More Good News on Obamacare: Some May See Rates Double  "Perhaps I am naive in thinking that people will take out their frustrations over Obamacare on the Democrats. But even low-information voters have a sense of how the world works. Seeing their premiums go up, having to wait months for a doctor’s appointment because of the physician shortages, and wrestling with the complex state exchanges or Medicaid applications — all are hard to blame on anyone but the authors of Obamacare."

A little debt and disaster humor