Real History of Fannie and Freddie

Follow this link to watch a video from 2004 where democrats argue for LESS regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while republicans argued for MORE regulation over those institutions.

Don't let history be rewritten by those who made the mistakes!

BWAHAHAHAH

Infighting amongst the democrats. Good!

Populism + Intelligence = Success

Our Conservative Intellectuals have lost their way. They are succumbing to the Cocktail Party Syndrome of believing their opinions are the only correct ones because everyone around them agrees.

And nice large dose of populism is the correct antibiotic for the CPS infection.

Our Conservative Intellectuals are valuing style over substance when they attack our Conservative Populists like Rush, Ann Coulter, Joe-The-Plumber, Palin and Jindal.

Think about that for a moment. Our Conservative Intellectuals are valuing style over substance. You would think that the very nature of an intellectual is the appreciation of the deeper, the wiser, the more profound.

But no, over and over again, our Conservative Intellectuals are framing their arguments in terms as silly as linguistic skill over the actual message.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Substance is always what matters but substance doesn't always come in bright, shiny, articulate packages. Failure to understand that is to value the glitter above the gold.

Yes, Coulter, Rush, Palin, Jindal and Joe stumble, say the "wrong" thing, and are not always correct. But ask yourself this, are they popular because they cater to the masses or are they popular because they speak the Conservative truths that we all understand, in ways nearly everyone can appreciate?

Our Conservative Intellectuals have just as much access to media outlets to make their scintillating views known and yet everyone knows Coulter, Rush, Palin, Jindal and Joe. As much as I admire and value them, our Conservative Intellectuals are not nearly as well known. I only need to use one-word names with our Conservative Populists, but our Intellectuals need both (or more).

When the jock is preferred over the geek, the geek rationalizes that his assets are more "valuable" because they are more "intelligent". It rarely occurs to the geek that the jock's less articulate "leadership" is equally valuable to the community.

Both populism and intellectualism have value. They are the two workhorses that will pull the Conservative cart out of the muck. Our Conservative Elites need to get off their high horses and put themselves into the harness, into the fray, next to our Conservative Populist who are trying as hard as they can to pull us forward.

For while our Conservative Intellectuals examine and develop our conservative policies, our Conservative Populists frame the argument against principles everyone can understand.

This is a two-step process much like the manufacturer and the advertiser. The Conservative product is made by our intellectuals and advertised by our populists. The process of production is intelligent, rational, and mechanical, the process of marketing is intelligent empathy that motivates one towards a goal (the buy in).

Our Conservative Intellectuals are valuable because they examine our Conservative policies. Our Conservative Populists are valuable because they promote our conservative principles.

I will leave you with this to think about, in The Watchmen, it is the Adrian Veidt (smartest man in the world) that kills millions of humans while Rorschach (the madman who fights evil) who struggles to stop him. Rorschach may be deeply flawed but he always knows what is right and never accepts anything less. This is a comic book story that resonates because it is a mirror of life, how many lives have been lost in the 20th century because a "smart man" felt he knew better?

Conservatives do not need a voice. We need a chorus. We need the Intellectuals to write the melody and the Populists to sing the lyrics. Both vital. Both in balance. And together, both will work.

Too Crazy To Post

Too. Much. Stuff. Going. On. Can't. Post. Anything.

I have fallen and I can't get up from all the stuff I've got to do.

Probably won't post anything today but will try.

Please feel free to look around and make lots of comments.

Better Take Care of Your Friends

I've been so annoyed at what a jerk Obama's been to the "Special Relationship" between the USA and the UK (let alone all our other allies), that I am copying this entire Mark Hemingway post from NRO - The Corner on Principle. ARRGH!

He's Just Not That Into The Special Relationship
[Mark Hemingway]

It's the top story in our web-briefing, but if you haven't heard the President gave U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown a gift 25 DVDs of classic American films. Given enough exposure, no doubt Brown will soon develop a taste for the strange and provincial American cultural expression known as "cinema." I hear it's finally starting to catch on abroad. Now here's the gift's Brown gave Obama:

Mr Brown’s gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President.

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet’s sister ship, HMS Resolute.

Another treasure given to the U.S. President was the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria.

Finally, Mr Brown gave a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

These gifts are even more impressive and thoughtful than these few paragraphs suggest, given the amazing story behind the Resolute and how it is a symbol of U.S.-U.K. relations. So Brown has clearly outclassed Obama in that regard.

But I also love the symbolism of that final gift — Martin Gilbert's classic Churchill biography. If it seemed a bit tone deaf when Obama returned the Churchill bust that had been in the White House, well it now appears that no less a figure than the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is subtly sending a message that Obama should better understand the historical importance of one of his country's greatest leaders. Well played.

I thought this was going to be the time when everyone likes us again, yet here is Obama trashing all our BFFs in order to suck up to the sandpit bullies.

BY THE WAY - This is what my husband said at NRO earlier in the day....

Ignored or Dissed?

Despite the fact that Gordon Brown's address to a joint session of Congress yesterday got 16 standing ovations, the general reaction to the first visit of the British Prime Minister during the new era of hope and change has been one of indifference. His plea to reject protectionism is likely to be given lip service, even as the Porkulus Act authorizes it, but that's about as much as he'll get. The general impression I get around this town is that Britain today is a busted flush — fatally weakened by its own financial mess combined with its currency crisis. Nevertheless, you'd have thought the President's most important ally in Afghanistan deserved better than this. I'm not about to endorse James Delingpole's theory that Michelle Obama was behind it all, but it does look as if the special relationship with Britain is one area of FDR's policy that his devoted disciple will not be following.

I'm not completely convinced of the Telegraph's arguments (yet) but again, I deeply believe Obama needs to break his habit of throwing friends under the bus during this time of global crisis.

Now How About A Life

I can't embed this but visit this hysterical Conan clip where comedien Louis CK talks about how great technology is and how much we take it for granted!

Obama's Security Blanket

Apparently Obama can't talk without his teleprompter. He travels with it everywhere. He tried to "wean" himself off it in Hawaii but failed.

This comes as no news to anyone who has spend three seconds on the internet.







And of course, he is also usually late. Presumably he'll continue being late while the teleprompter is being set up.

Bad Data Boy

Obama is using bad healthcare bankruptcy data to scaremonger us into accepting his latest legislative pork fiasco.

Automatic Audit For The People

Here's an Tax Revolt/Tea Party idea that might just help thin the tax-cheat herd.

If you want to hold political office you must submit to an IRS or State tax audit.

It doesn't have to be a full bore audit, just a forensic review of the last - oh say - three years of your tax forms.

State by state, we could demand a referendum requiring local, state, and/or federal politicians to submit to this review. Perhaps it could even become a Constitutional Amendment that all political appointees not be tax cheats. Government transparency, you know.

We require our politicians at every level not to be felons, addicts, or illegal immigrants, why not require our politicians to not be tax cheats as well?

And it would give our National Tax Revolt a nice clear objective and focus...

E-Verify Is A Good Thing

Reading an article on Politico.com about immigration and what Obama was going to do about it (completely devalue our nation's soveriegnty, I presume), I was struck by the claim that the E-Verify system has a "high error rate".

I googled and found an article from the Leadership Journal debunking that myth. What activists call an "error rate" looks pretty much like the percentage of illegel immigrants illegally holding jobs here in America.

It seems E-Verify might actually be working rather well.

Advice from VDH to Obama

Over at Works and Days, Victor Davis Hanson gives Obama some pretty solid advice.

American Voices - Pick Any Name From The Phone Book

WFB once said something along the lines of picking any name out of the phone book at random would produce a better politician than the ones we have now.

This video from ReasonTV at the Washington DC Tea Party proves the great man correct...

Science Is Funny

Especially when you read it over at Cracked.com.

Especially when you read their post titled "11 "Modern" Technologies That Are Way Older Than You Think". Most you probably already knew about this stuff (especially if you are a documentary junkie like me) but it is the writings and descriptions that win the day for me - I laughed so hard my eyes started to water.

Also check out this, this, this, and this.

Cracked.com is going on my blogroll and I'm going to set Cracked.com and TheOnion.com in a blogroll deathmatch. They both so totally rock.

WE are watching The Watchmen

My beloved husband is a fanboy. A huge fanboy.

Needless to say, we already have our tickets for The Watchmen, a babysitter lined up, and engorgement-on-popcorn plans in place (we follow Stephen King's "heavy bag" policy).

After reading this article over at Wired, titled "Filming the Unfilmable", I have to admit to being excited about this movie. Am now debating whether I should read the comic book first or after our screening.

Baby Born Alive Thrown In Trash

This is exactly why the Born Alive Act must be protected at all costs.

MIAMI - An abortion clinic owner is accused of delivering a live baby during a botched procedure and then throwing the infant away.

Belkis Gonzalez, 42, was arrested Tuesday and charged with practicing medicine without a license and tampering with evidence, both felonies, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office. If found guilty, Gonzalez would face at least a year in prison and up to 15 years.

The teenage mother, Sycloria Williams, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Gonzalez knocked the infant off the chair where she had given birth, and then scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag, and threw it out.

If You Like Him So Much Why Don't You Marry Him

Sean Penn must really "like" Harvey Milk because he is trying to make Milk's birthday a California state holiday.

Now yes, I know the title of this post is mean and that Milk was a good man and his assassination a tragedy and a loss, but just because Sean Penn pretended to be the man in a movie doesn't mean Harvey Milk deserves a state day of recognition - a day in the city of San Francisco absolutely. In all candor, Harvey Milk may have been the first openly gay elected official in California but he was only ever a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I am exhausted and nauseated by these celebrities suddenly picking up causes because they played a character or got the disease or whatever. Why not simply help others who were already fighting the fight you suddenly got interested in? Instead of creating a competing foundation, why not just help the ones that exist?

It is ego, pure and simple.

The worst of it is in Penn's case that he is an extreme leftwing liberal who's very association now makes it hard for any moderates who would like to honor Milk to get on Penn's bandwagon. I suspect for many Sean Penn's "brand" is toxic.

Going John Galt

Tell us what you really think Pursuing Holiness!

Excellent post - really well worth the read!

I'd be "going John Galt" if we weren't already barely living from paycheck-to-paycheck. That's the nice thing about having no stocks, no savings, no life insurance, nothing left to lose.

Just How Long Term Are We Talkin' Here?

Thanks to Jonah Goldberg and Perfunction

It's A Fiscal "Tramp Stamp"

Obama has decided to let everyone know exactly which about-to-fail pork projects are funded by the so-called stimulus act. The best way to do that was with this super-lame AARA logo.

I like to think of it as a "Tramp Stamp" for bad government policy.

A lovely Tribute to A WWII Vet

I cried reading this post over at Sippican Cottage because it made me miss my grandfather who was a B-17 pilot in Europe during World War II. He was a horrible speller and frequently wrote to his wife, my grandmother, starting "My Darling Angle".

I've written about his saviors - The Flying Black Aces - but I was too young to fully appreciate him in life. The writer of "My Father Askes for Nothing" is very lucky.

Technology and the Weather

Katherine Lopez of National Review posts this on The Corner...

Snow Day
The most frequently received comment I've received today is "I'm slammed." What happened to the glorious days when we looked out the window, saw the white, cold wonderland, and went straight back to bed — with a book or even better plans (until kids or shovelling absolutely demanded your presence)?

And my husband givers her an answer....

Re: Snow Day
The simple answer, Kathryn, is that technology has successfully "disintermediated" severe weather. It's a great example of adaptation to severe weather enabled by two things: a) innovation and b) access to affordable energy (the tech is useless without electricity and of only marginal usefulness if just the rich have access to it). So it is odd, to say the least, that climate alarmists say that if severe weather increases, we should reduce access to affordable energy (and, separately, impose restrictions on innovation they haven't approved beforehand).

I think he is very right. The more affordable energy we have the better everyone can use the available technology to innovate our lives and do things like work from home as my husband does at least one day a week.

Technology and affordable energy have enriched our lives by giving us far more flexibility than ever possible.

The only worry is depending on it too much. I think I'll take the kids camping this summer. They should know how to pitch a tent, build a fire, and protect their food cache from animals.

The (Boy) Periodic Table of Awesomeness

If I could figure out how to make one of these it would be different.

But only slightly.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

My husband's post from The Corner today.

We should remember that when he came into office, Gordon Brown had such a spectacular honeymoon period that he was looking into the prospect of a general election that could have destroyed the Conservative Party forever. Today, it looks like the Conservatives will be returned to power with a huge majority. So when he sat down with the President in the Oval Office today, it was tempting to think that the two men, obviously unseparated in ideology, are merely separated by their relative positions on the curve of their political careers. Certainly the two share the same capacity for self-delusion over the role of regulation in the banking crisis, as I explain here. Therefore, when they call for a Global New Deal, I suspect they do not realize that they are heading down a road Pete Wehner describes here:

Barack Obama — supremely ambitious, young, and new — has revived an age-old debate over how the economy works. He is casting his lot with collectivists and statists; his intent is to put us on a glide path to European-style socialism. Unless he is able to suspend the laws of economics, I rather doubt Obama will succeed. As a result, he may end up not repudiating Thatcherism and Reaganism, but revivifying them.

One can but hope.

VDH hits the nail on the head

I liked this by Victor Davis Hanson so much, I'm just totally copying it in full from NRO - The Corner.

Anatomy of Vero Possumus by Victor Davis Hanson

It is odd that after five weeks we can pretty much see the next four years:

1) Gorge the Beast on the home front. Shock-and-awe, "We're in the Great Depression" hysteria stuns the country into buying into what will be a multi-trillion dollar borrowing commitment. Once the desired social agenda is in place (and it is now), then there will be no alternative but to raise taxes and return wealth to its proper owners. (This is a variant of the Reagan-era "starve the beast" concept of cutting taxes, and supposedly cuts of wasteful spending follow — but a far more successful variant since taxing a few "greedy" is always easier than cutting everyone's entitlements.)

2) Carterism abroad. The al-Arabiya interview, the Hamas billion-dollar stimulus (the Chinese loan us the billion to give them,) and the Russian rebuff on Iran (no "haggling" please) sum up the Enlightenment arrogance that soaring rhetoric, stated good intentions, occasional abandonment of principle, and demonstration of caring and sensitivity can win over almost anyone. Of course, that assumes that disputes don't reflect genuinely antithetical values, but simply miscommunication and misunderstanding — or unnecessary "Manichean" world views of wrong and right. We've been here before between 1977-1980, so how it will end is no mystery. (No wonder they sent back to the owners the Churchill bust; whether the Brits send back one of Stanley Baldwin or Clement Attlee remains to be seen.)

3) The passive-aggressive style. We will get utopian rhetoric about a new ethical bar, followed by the nominations of serial tax dodgers, lobbyists, and DC insiders. We will hear sermons about a new bipartisanship, followed by comical attacks on talk radio, and deeming "unpatriotic" any who resent the ramming through of the largest increase in debt in a half-century. And there will be vero possumus oratory about a new unity and brotherhood, as serial attacks on private-jetting and Super Bowl-partying "rich" deliberately conflate the mega-rich with the small business-people and professionals who make between $250,000 and $500,000 and provide most of the nation's jobs and the nation's income tax revenue — and therefore must be both gouged and demonized in the process.

All that is left for central casting is the cardigan sweater and the fist pounding on the desk.

Janus-Faced Obama

Good ole Jonah Goldberg calls out Obama's two-faced talk in a well-cited USA Today opinion piece that pretty much says it all.

Here's a little taste but I always recommend you read Mr. Goldberg from start to finish!

No, seriously, try this with your boss sometime. First, go buy a Mercedes on the company credit card. Then tell him that you saved money because you were planning on buying a Lear Jet — two years after your mandatory retirement age. Then ask him for an attaboy, or even a raise. See what he says. I dare you.

Meanwhile, not a penny of the actual money raised under the Obama budget ever goes to reducing the deficit. It all goes to new or increased spending. Obama says that he and his team went "line by line" through the budget and found "$2 trillion in savings." But along with the fictional Iraq war savings, the bulk of the rest — a trillion dollars — comes from increased taxes.