If you strike her down, she will only return even more powerful than before. Sarah Palin Strikes Back.
CNBC silencing criticism of Obama? Quite frankly, CNBC can "silence" criticism of Obama as much as they want, who is watching anyways? FOX News can show kittens and still draw higher numbers than CNBC. Wring your hands over something else, let CNBC implode in peace.
President Obama won’t talk climate change in Copenhagen. Apparently, he's "too busy" to go but he may talk about global warming in his Nobel acceptance speech. Which demonstrates that Obama has both two tin ears AND a humongous ego. Let's face it, the "Peace Prize" has been so utterly devalued by its being gifted to Obama that anything he says when accepting it will be treated as meaningless by just about everyone.
A reminder: You do not work for the President of the United States. You do not work for various lobbying groups. You do not work for any corporations whatsoever.
You work for your constituents under the guidelines of the United States Constitution.
You do not care what the President says. You do not care what lobbyists say. You do not care what corporations say.
The only thing you care about, the only reason why you exist in your position is to help your constituents. The People of America who voted you into office.
And if you don't listen to them, the People of America will vote you right out.
So if you think your constituents are going to howl in pain if you vote for Obamacare, remember they will blame YOU for voting that way not matter what anyone else told you.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is spending our money on very "questionable" items such as "$167,000 for a four-week seminar for 16 teachers on 'how British and American poetry ... reflects the patterns of life'". That's $10,437.50 per teacher for a four week trip to England (presumably) for them to study what can easily be gleaned from a couple of history books in the library.
Read this speech by Sen. Joe Lieberman and remember Daniel Pearl.
At the heart of the ideology that motivated Danny Pearl’s killers is not religion but the same totalitarian impulse that we have seen appear and reappear, like a pestilence, across numerous countries and cultures and eras, intensely so during the past hundred years.
It's Nazism with religious cover.
I should add that my husband was a staunch opponent of the death penalty (Hitler would have been given a "chance at redemption") until my husband was struck by a one-two punch. One night we watched a horrific documentary detailing an Australian serial killer who would paralyze his victims and then practice different execution methods. Shaken to his core at this display of actual evil, we went to bed. That morning, we learned that Daniel Pearl had been brutally beheaded. My husband is still opposed to the death penalty in most cases but he now acknowledges that there is some evil in the world that must be destroyed for the preservation of good.
We want promises kept. Big and small, it doesn't matter. Just do what you said you would.
Sure flowers and romance are great but in a real working marriage, promises have to be kept.
If you say you're going to be home at 8pm, then be home at 8pm. (And if you're late, call as soon as you realize you're late.)
If you say you'll take out the trash, then take out the trash.
If you vowed fidelity, then keep it in your pants.
No matter what promise you made, keeping it shows your wife that you love and respect her. It may be a stupid housekeeping promise that you think you can blow off, but to a wife it's a request she made and you accepted. By not doing what you said you would, you've told your wife that she are low on your priorities. Not the task, the person.
I know, I know, women are pains in the butts. We take things far too personally. Now that you know this, get over it. Because here is a simple solution which avoids a lot of trouble and tears. Keep your promises. Do what you said you would when you said you would do it.
Duh!
(Oh and by the way, the above is excellent friendship advice, professional advice, and parenting advice.)
I look at this picture and I just laugh and laugh.
Although on a serious note, what female politician in her right mind would wear a pink jacket at a political event and run the risk of appearing to be attempting to evoke Jackie Kennedy? YIKES!
Deadly anniversary. Remembering '83 Beirut attack. One of the survivors was on my dorm floor during my freshman year of college. He could never bring himself to speak of this event. He lost a lot of friends. I pray for him and the loved ones of those who died.
Written by my husband and a colleague, this article below is running in The Washington Examiner.
Conservative critics who disparaged the Nobel Prizes following the awarding of the Peace Prize to President Obama should think again. On November 12, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the economics Nobel jointly to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their advancement of the field of “economic governance.” The governance they analyze is actually governance without government, which could also be described as “voluntary self-regulation”—something American conservatives should celebrate.
Here's why. In traditional economic theory, the market allows resources to be allocated optimally by coordinating the actions of self-interested individuals through the power of price signals. However, there are circumstances in which some other mechanism or institution is needed, either because the transaction costs of determining a price are too high, or because the good in question is freely available—insofar as it is not owned by anyone—but nevertheless finite—as in, for example, fishing stocks. For many politicians, especially left-leaning ones, the solution is government regulation or ownership. Ostrom and Williamson, however, have explained how other forms of non-market governance have worked so well for centuries.
Oliver Williamson argues that when a transaction is very complicated and difficult to pin down in a contract, a company may be better off undertaking it internally. This is why companies often expand through mergers and acquisitions rather than outsource particular tasks. Williamson’s work has contributed to the recent welcome decline in antitrust intervention in the case of vertical mergers. Large companies, frequently maligned as rapacious by the left, expand to cut costs, not to impose monopoly prices on hapless consumers. Top-down government mandates that get in the way of such expansions make things worse for companies, their customers, and their employees.
Elinor Ostrom also has analyzed resources not regulated by market-transactions: those that are “unowned” or held in common, such as pastures, drinking wells, lumber, wild game, and fishing stocks. According to the theory known as the “tragedy of the commons,” the absence of property rights over such finite resources results in depletion or environmental degradation. The traditional solution has been to confer private property rights on individuals—such as in the English Enclosure Movement—or to impose government regulations.
But Ostrom argues that this is not necessarily the case. In situations in which the people who use a resource interact on a regular basis, credible retaliation makes cooperation possible. Ostrom cites numerous instances in which such “self-regulation,” via formal or informal agreements among private parties, has prevented the depletion of a resource held in common. She argues that government intervention often disrupts these institutions without providing an adequate or beneficial alternative, to the detriment of the stakeholders who are affected.
A similar logic helps explain how institutions ranging from voluntary associations to the family operate without price signals or top-down state control: If the agents in question regularly interact with each other, and the transactions cost for setting a price is high, then other forms of governance will naturally arise. Hayek’s concept of “spontaneous order” comes to mind.
Politicians’ pretense of knowledge and failure to understand the ability and willingness of stakeholders to cooperate help to account for the proliferation of damaging regulations across the economy. For example, logging restrictions are unnecessary, because loggers have an inherent incentive to avoid depleting their resources. In fact, the total forest area in temperate countries actually increased between 1980 and 1990, thanks to the use of efficient forest planting methods and improved agricultural productivity.
Yet even so, as The Economist reports, “an entire industry seems to have sprung up to identify ‘new commons’ or to claim as commons things not always seen that way.” For instance, recent and ongoing attempts by governments to regulate greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten to increase energy prices without any palpable benefit for consumers. Under the current European emissions trading regime, designed to cut emissions, total GHGs produced within Europe have actually risen even as energy costs have skyrocketed. The cap-and-trade bill now under consideration in the Senate would have a similar effect for American consumers.
With the economic crisis pressing heavily on voters’ minds, conservative politicians need to highlight the significant economic costs of state regulations and the additional costs that would be imposed by new environment and health care initiatives. And they might even find a good word to say for the Nobel prizes in the process.
ANYONE except Obama and his clownish co-horts could have predicted this result. Top employees leave financial firms ahead of pay cuts.
The Chicago Way.The Chamber of Commerce is only the latest target of the Chicago Gang in the White House. Basically Obama is seeking to neuter or destroy anything that challenges his attempt to hijack the US economy. AND Obama's Uncompromising Inner Man
AIG: 80 BoA: 40 Citi: 34 GM: 60 GMAC: 35 Chrysler: 10 Chrysler Finance: I couldn't find quickly
But isn't it the role of the Board of Directors to set executive compensation? Why would they not call a Board of Directors meeting and put the compensation packages to a vote of the shareholders (Hint: they may lose the vote)….
"No doubt many will cheer executive pay cuts ordered by the Obama administration at companies that received U.S. bailouts last fall, but the celebration will prove short-lived. Obama pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who has unprecedented authority to dictate pay in the private sector, has told executives at seven companies that their paychecks will be cut by 90 percent this year. In lieu of cash, the top 25 executives at American International Group (AIG), Bank of America, Citigroup, Chrysler, General Motors, and the financing arms of the two car companies will receive restricted stock in their companies, most of which they can't touch for years. On average, their total compensation will drop by 50 percent."
Too Much of a Good Thing? Public Health Plan Could Have Huge Advantage in Market.Under the plan being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a government-run health insurance plan would provide nearly the same benefits as the other private plans in a new insurance exchange, at a fraction of the cost. I believe Congress is accurately reporting the costs of Obamacare as much as I believe my sticky fingered son didn't eat candy before dinner.
Pelosi Reportedly Lacks Votes for 'Robust Public Option'. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly lacks the votes to pass a "robust public option," the most far-reaching of three forms of a public option House Democrats are mulling to overhaul the nation's health care system. Kill This Bill. Call your Senator AND your Representative today!
A bad idea is a bad idea is a bad idea. 'Public' Plan With State Option to Opt Out Mulled.Senate health bill provision would permit individual states to drop out of the system, a design that could make it more palatable to moderates, but some Democrats are already balking at the idea. The only healthcare reform I want to see is tort reform and competition across state borders. And fixing the messes of the EXISTING government-run programs in ascending order - Tricare, VA healthcare, Medicaid, Medicare.
VOTERS will also prove to be a problem for Reid. Senate Moderates Could Pose Problems for Reid on Health Care. Several Senate moderates have expressed concern with the possibility that a government-run insurance plan could emerge from closed-door talks in the majority leader's office.
Pelosi Reportedly Lacks Votes for 'Robust Public Option'House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly lacks the votes to pass a "robust public option," the most far-reaching of three forms of a public option House Democrats are mulling to overhaul the nation's health care system. Good.
'Public' Plan With State Option to Opt Out Mulled. Senate health bill provision would permit individual states to drop out of the system, a design that could make it more palatable to moderates, but some Democrats are already balking at the idea. Here's an idea to "mull", stop Obamacare and just reform the ALREADY EXISTING government-run healthcare programs (Tricare, VA Health, Medicaid, and Medicare). Plus throw in some real toothy tort reform and allow competition by removing the state border restrictions. How about that for an idea.
I wonder if scientific breakthroughs like this will even be possible under Obamacare. The US leads in healthcare research because of its private funding through corporate competition. 'Holy Grail' Of Cancer Therapy: Researchers Find Way To Protect Healthy Cells From Radiation Damage. Instapundit points out this could be a helpful development for space travel as well - another human endeavor threatened by Obama.
Fed Hits Banks With Sweeping Pay Limits. If Obama achieves his apparent ends of socializing the US economy, your paycheck could become government-controlled as well. Once politicians get a taste, they can't help themselves from gobbling up everything.
Congress extends hate crime protections to gays. Perhaps, it should just be a crime. I really dislike this trend of breaking the unity of Americans by hyphen. And seriously, you are a human being regardless of your sexuality. By letting that define you (or any other ethnic/cultural pigeon hole define you), you open yourself up to stereotyping. Why would you do that. You are a unique and whole person, not a stereotype. If your sexual preference, skin color, religion defines you so completely, then that's all you are. How boring. And how despicable of Congress to give one group of people extra protection under the law over others. The law should apply equally to all, not just select, self-identifying groups.
UPDATE - Hoax. - Apparently, the link below has been proven to be a hoax. What's interesting to me is that its plausibility. A good hoax has to have a kernal of truth behind it if it is to have any legs. That Obama has not officially released his college transcripts tells me that more of these "hoax" postings are bound to occur. The question I ponder is when the truth is finally revealed will we be disappointed or vindicated? Obama and the Constitution; He Has His Doubts Apparently the first 10 pages of Obama's Columbia University thesis indicate he wasn't too fond of the US Constitution. Let's think about that. The man who promised "transparency" won't release any of his personal records from birth certificate to graduate thesis AND when a glimpse of is provided, it indicates that same man - the elected leader of the United States of America - thinks the US Constitution "instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy." Hope for change, ya'll.
Why Can't MSNBC Say 'Sorry' to Limbaugh?MSNBC launches a campaign to discredit Rush Limbaugh but when the network screws up after running a fake quote it can only "clarify" its mistake. Any news organization that presents Olbermann and Maddox as "real" news anchors with a straight face is clearly an ass-clown news organization. Just ignore it and it'll go away.
JUNK SCIENCE/ENVIRONMENTALISM I don't agree with everything Bjorn Lomborg says, but I agree with him frequently enough to say he deserves to be heard A LOT. The View from Vanuatu on Climate Change. Torethy Frank had never heard of global warming. She is worried about power and running water.
Still, this might be a fair assumption to make--obviously the economy is #1 in peoples' minds these days, and understandably so. But isn't it slightly possible that there are other factors at work here that have people doubting Al Gore's hysteria?
As NewsBusters rightly points out, couldn't the fact the BBC recently reported that "for the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures" have an impact on peoples' perception of "global warming"?
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Feds designate polar bear habitat in Alaska. This is such a stupid, ignorant attack on Alaska and Americans' need for energy, it defies belief. The Polar Bears ARE NOT THREATENED. Dumb Asses. (I don't like to curse but this makes me see red.)
There May Be No Coping with Copenhagen. Just because Obama signs a treaty doesn't mean Congress will ratify it. Clinton signed Kyoto and while this current Congress is basically a corrupt cesspool, I'd like to think they want to be re-elected and agreeing to give up US sovereignty is not the way to win elections.
"Not Evil Just Wrong," the feature-length film she made with her husband Phelim McAleer, coolly reveals how Al's disguise of hot fanaticism as cold fact arrives as the Senate begins to gear up for debate on "climate change" legislation.
Watch the documentary, then buy my husband's book - Really Inconvenient Truths - and make a weekend out of it.
Pelosi on Elm Street I wish Crowder would stop this style of video clip and go back to more straightforward commentary. He's not as good at it as he thinks.
FIGHTING CORRUPTION McCain Puts Hold on Senate Confirmation of Obama's Labor Board Nominee. Arizona Sen. John McCain is blocking Senate consideration of the nomination of Chris Becker to join the National Labor Relations Board -- a five-member independent government agency that supervises union organization campaigns and investigates and remedies unfair labor practices.
As much as I am angry at the way most media outlets have treated the TEA Party protesters and their clearly liberal-but-unacknowledged-biased reporting, I'm putting this article by Charles Krauthammer under "Fighting Corruption" because the MSM fought the White House by defending Fox News. Fox Wars. Perhaps they are finally catching on.....
Time to Stand Up for America's Values.If the United States government does not stand for free elections, advocate for free elections, and commit itself to free elections, what then are we fighting for in Afghanistan? If America doesn't stand for freedom, she stands for nothing.
VIDEO Suicide Attack Turns the Tables on Iranian Regime. I can't support terrorism but I do support the Iranian people fighting back against their corrupt regime. My head isn't exploding but I do hear some popping sounds.
TOTAL MEDIA CORRUPTION 'The Nation’ Editors to Release Look-a-Like ‘Going Rogue’ Hit-Piece On Same Day as Palin’s Book Launch. This stunt by The Nation reveals the sophomoric pettiness and intellectual masturbation endemic amongst Liberals. Make sure you buy the right book, the titles are so similar and The Nation does NOT deserve the money. Entertainment Weekly (which has a very sound editorial on Polanski) reports here.
Many readers will have come across Roger Pielke Jr, a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Roger is a political liberal and a firm believer in the theory of anthropogenic global warming. However, because he has had the temerity to suggest that certain parts of the received wisdom of climate alarmists have little substance (such as the idea that there have been massive increases in weather-related damages caused by global warming), he is no longer welcome on the Left. What is most interesting is the way his detractors have gone about his ostracism. Roger describes how the leftist wing of the blogosphere works in some detail here. It is worth everyone's time to read. Some further details on the behavior of two of the principal actors against him, Clinton-era officials Joe Romm and Brad DeLong, are here and here.
Blogging will be difficult for me today as my youngest is ill.
I hate it when children are sick. You feel so helpless. You'd do anything to take that illness into yourself to spare them. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.
Sorry about the spazz out. He's only got a fever and a bit of a cough. Granted those are two symptoms I hate, I don't mind vomiting but a fever makes me so anxious.
I can't imagine what parents of truly ill children go through. My prayers go out to all of them and their kids.
Anyways, I'm going to be watching over my kid, steam baths and honey, fever-reducing medicine and thermometers are my future for the next few days.
At least, I was woken by him early enough to see the meteor shower (pretty but dim from light pollution) and then some deer go through our backyard. Both felt like glorious natural miracles. Let's hope there's a third event and my son's fever goes down.
White House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refers to "Beck" and "Hannity" as the reasons why the Obama administration is criticizing Fox News. Sooo, you're attacking Fox News for their opinions? Want my opinion on that?
Back during World War II, Great Britain knew it was fighting socialism in the form of Nazi Germany (aka National Socialists - a leftwing ideology by the way). After the war was over, Great Britain, and the rest of Europe, lost their by allowing socialism to creep back in.
How did socialism slither into Great Britian? When the NHS was born.
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