More NYT Junk

The New York Times is crap. And here is yet another reason why you're better off with the New York Post or the New York Daily News.

Another Example of Why Socialism is BAD

And this is in Great Britain.

Gordon Brown keeps this up and Britian may no longer be Great which would be a travesty.

A travesty.

Smells Like American Spirit

As Harry Reid spends your tax dollars, he complains that we stink.

The Capitol Visitors Center, which opened this morning, may have tripled its original budget and fallen years behind schedule, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found a silver lining for members of Congress: tourists won't offend them with their B.O. anymore.

"My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol[emphasis mine]. It may be descriptive but it's true."

But it's no longer going to be true, noted Reid, thanks to the air conditioned, indoor space.

And that's not all. "We have many bathrooms here, as you can see," Reid continued. "Souvenirs are available."

$621 million well spent.

After spending all that money to build one money hole and throwing billions upon trillions of Americans' money into another bailout hole, Harry Reid can kiss my fat white bottom next time he complains about smelly Americans coming to see the sausage factory that is Congress.

And maybe Mr. Reid should listen to his staff and keep his mouth shut.

God Bless Sandra Samuel

Sandra Samuel was a nanny for the Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, murdered in the muslem terrorist attacks in India.

She is an extraordinarily brave woman who saved the child of those murdered.

According to this CNN report, she was separated from the family. What happened was...

As the siege at the Chabad House began, Samuel heard the commotion, locked the doors and hid in a room.

"She heard Mrs. Holtzberg -- Rivka -- screaming, 'Sandra, Sandra, help, Sandra,' " said Robert Katz, executive vice president of the Israeli organization Migdal Ohr. Watch Katz describe the daring rescue »

The gunmen reportedly went door-to-door, searching for targets. Samuel unlocked her door and dared the gunmen to stop her, according to Katz.

She then ran upstairs to find the Holtzbergs shot dead, lying on the ground with their son crying over them.

"She literally picked him up and made a dash for the exits, almost daring the terrorists to shoot a woman carrying a baby," Katz said.

May God bless her and keep her for her bravery.

Don't Ask Me Why

So for reasons I can't explain, I decided to look up the total populations of some U.S. states. I found this table of state populations very handy and helpful.

As a former Manhattanite who still considers leaving The City to be as much of a wrench as my husband leaving his country to be with me in America, the state populations made me wonder what New York City's population is relative to the other states in America.

The population of New York City (not the state, the city) is 8,143,192.

Only 10 states in the union have a larger population than New York City. They are; California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York State, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

The other 40 all have fewer people in their entire state than this one magnificent city. Maybe New Yorkers are arrogant pains-in-the-butt but look how well (for the most part) over 8 million people from over 200 countries can live in such a relatively small place.

Can't be all bad.

Dream On

I think David Limbaugh has pretty much hit the nail on the head in his column today about whether Obama's cabinet picks are going to make the administration centrist rather than radical leftwing.

Between Obama's scant voting record, his recorded personal beliefs, his personal associations of the last 10 - 15 years, and his statements that whomever he picks as part of his administration, he is the one in charge (the decider?).

The right needs to be on guard because this administration will do everything it can to drag the United States down the leftwing primrose path to socialism and worse.

The Anglosphere Allies

Christopher Hitchens has written a very trenchant piece about the Indian terrorist attacks and why the United States must stand with India.

"India is emerging in many ways as our most important ally{emphasis mine}. It is a strong regional counterweight to Russia and China. Not to romanticize it overmuch, it is a huge and officially secular federal democracy that is based, like the United States, on ethnic and confessional pluralism. Its political and economic and literary echelons speak English better than most of us do. Its parliament in New Delhi—the unbelievably diverse and dignified Lok Sabha—was viciously attacked by Islamist gangsters and nearly destroyed in December 2001, a date which ought to have made more Americans pay more attention rather than less. Since then, Bombay has been assaulted multiple times and the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan blown up with the fairly obvious cross-border collusion of the same Pakistani forces who are helping in the rebirth of the Taliban."

I have one quibble with him. India is one of our most important allies because India is part of what The Anglosphere Institute calls, well, the Anglosphere. A group of nations - all former British colonies - who share some vital commonalities; Property rights, rule of law, high frequency of English speakers, and democracy of some sort.

India, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, America, Britain, etc. are all part of this informal group of nations. And when you look at history, we have all been each other's greatest allies. India's economic strides into the modern age should not be left to chance. We, her allies, must help her during this evil time so she can continue to grow and continue to be ONE of our most important allies.

Thomas Sowell is an amazingly insightful person and I especially appreciated his commentary on the election at NRO.

In this post at The Corner, Mr. Sowell discussed the true meaning of Freedom and why liberal leftwing policys such as enforced community service are not examples of liberty.

In other words, people on the left want the right to impose their idea of what is good for society on others — a right that they vehemently deny to those whose idea of what is good for society differs from their own.

The essence of bigotry is refusing to others the rights that you demand for yourself. Such bigotry is inherently incompatible with freedom, even though many on the Left would be shocked to be considered opposed to freedom.

He is, as always, so very correct.

The path of the leftwing liberal leads inevitably to socialism and its evil offspring communism. Forcing someone to do "good" is still forcing someone to do something they may not want to do. And that is bad.

Incredibly Moving Story

Again, another example of the heroism of the Taj Hotel staff and Indian Commandos during the obscene terrorist attack in Mumbai. Shame to Pakistan if they do not make these villains face well-deserved justice.

Get 'em While They're Hot.

Obama "products" for sale. Several blogs have mocked the "Obama collectors plate" and with good reason.
But I think they are missing out on some valuable other items that will surely become collectors items when the full disappoint of "hope and change" shifts to "business as usual" and euphoria purchases get tossed.

Among the items I'd keep my eye on - the Obama "Action Figure" and the Obama 2009 Calendar (mark the exact day the scales fell from your eyes).

I (heart) Technology

I find this astonishing. Machines so small they are powered by "the force of light".

What a wonderful, technolgically advanced world we live in.

Hope and Change

Code for business as usual.

Check out this.

When Big Is Bad

According to this piece, there is a shortage of Kosher meat which is bad right before Hanukkah.

The lack of beef is because Agriprocessors Inc., formerly the largest kosher meatpacking company in the nation collapsed after a May immigration raid arrested nearly 400 workers at the company's Postville, Iowa, slaughterhouse.

Since then, the company has struggled, and the plant has closed. It stopped shipping beef about three weeks ago and chicken in the last week, customers said. Since there are only a handful of processors nationwide who slaughter animals according to Jewish law and under the supervision of rabbis, the shutdown has cut the kosher meat supply to the bone.

This is a good thing (well it will be soon).

First, it is good because corporations who break immigration laws should suffer.

Second, it is good because historically large meat processors (and other industries) become large by buying up the smaller competition. While this does have many beneficial results - better efficiencies, lower prices - it also means quality can suffer, especially in niche markets like Kosher meat.

The end of this article talks about how other smaller Kosher meat processors are beginning to step up to fill the Kosher meat shortfalls now that Apriprocessors Inc. is out of the market. This could set a good example for all industries and entrepreneurs.

Maybe, dare I say it, the current financial crisis. Afterall it is the giants that are falling. My little credit union is doing just fine.

News Shocker - Teenagers Lie!

This article reports that teenagers lie but doesn't ask why?

What could be the root cause? How about baby boomer and current double-income parents who allowed daycare facilities to raise their children?

Ugh.

Venice Under Water

No, its not sinking.

According to this article, Venice is flooded due to storms, rising silt lifting the seabed floor, and - of course - "global warming" (the last despite the IPCC admitting that temperatures have not risen since 2001).

While my heart goes out to Venice and the Venetians, this wet stormy weather is afflicting all of Italy.

Venice was built in the 5th century. Hasn't technology improved enough that we can't raise Venice to a safer, above-the-waterline height. And whatever happened to those plans for huge floodgates. Did those ever get built?

This Charming Lady

I really like Condoleezza Rice and this makes me like her even more. Playing for the Queen of England at Buckingham Palace was apparently a dream come true for her.

What a dream. What a charming lady.

Always There For The Little People

In the middle of a global financial crisis, a gesture of crass consumerism from the man of "hope and change".

If McCain did this, wouldn't the media be SCREAMING?

God Bless The Anglosphere

From Jonah at NRO:

Immaculate Service [Jonah Goldberg]

While most of the news has been awful and grim, there are small human stories that bring some cheer. My favorite story to emerge from Mumbai massacre is from a Brit trapped at the Taj hotel:

‘I was extremely lucky. I was with a very good bunch of people. Three or four of us were Brits. There were some Irish as well. Most were Indian.

'We’d never met each other but I have to say, it was a true British stiff upper-lip situation. Together, the Brits helped to keep up morale.

‘There was a can-do attitude. We thought, 'Let’s get the barricades done, let’s do the practical things rather than sit there like sheep and wait to meet our fate.'

‘There was a lot of crying from many of the other people and I suppose comforting them was a way of keeping ourselves occupied. My boss Christopher Garnett and some old friends were sending me messages to keep my spirits up.

‘At one stage Christopher sent me some stanzas from The Private Of The Buffs [a ballad by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle describing the execution of a captured British infantryman for refusing to kowtow to the Chinese in 1860].’

Nick added: ‘We all decided that even though we had alcohol within reach we wouldn’t touch it because it seemed like a bad idea to get drunk.

‘But come 5am, we were fairly confident the police were going to get us out, so I marched over to the bar and found a bottle of vintage Cristal champagne and opened it and began pouring it into glasses.

‘Then the head waiter came rushing across to me and said, “No, no, you can’t do that!” and I said, 'Well we’re going to' and he said, 'No sir, those are the wrong type of glasses. I shall find you champagne flutes.'

Annie Get Your Potato Gun

Breaking Potato News from the good folks at The Onion.


USDA Official Takes Courageous Stand Against Interstate Countercyclical Potato Pricing

Three Restaurants

A reader responding to my post Memory Makers and Memory Re-Creators asked which top three restaurants, our British friend visited.

There are as follows (in no particular order):
El Bulli
The Fat Duck
The French Laundry

While I would be BEYOND ESTATIC to eat at any or all of the above restaurants, I would also be happy to eat at....

The Inn at Little Washington
or
Citronelle (Oh, wait I DID eat there and my husband proposed to me for the 4th time)
or
Le Bernardin
or anything by Gordon Ramsey, Fergus Henderson, Tom Colicchio, or Charlie Palmer or....somebody please stop me!

You get the picture. There's a lot of great chefs out there and I would love to try everything.

Oh Gosh, I think I'm reveiling my inner foodie.

Let's put it this way, not only have I been cooking since I was five, worked the line in College at a Bon Appetit reviewed restaurant, and have an entire bookshelf in my kitchen dedicated to culinary reading material but if a baby was born when I first subscribed to Bon Appetit, she'd be legal to drink by now.

The worst of it all is I've dragged my husband into this world now too.

But the original question was - which three restaurants - The Fat Duck, El Bulli, and The French Laundry.

ARGH!!!

I have a love/hate relationship with my damn pediatricians.

On one hand, they are great with well-baby appointments and severe illnesses. On the other hand, they are TERRIBLE with nonspecific things like prolonged coughing.

Or vomiting – my daughter was throwing up every 20 minutes and they gave completely unhelpful advice plus suggested using a saline nasal rinse for her runny nose when she was throwing up after being given a teaspoon of water.

Don’t want kids taking any medicine at all despite their clear discomfort. Drives me nuts. I mean, I'm not a crazy medicine, give-them-antibiotics-now mom but I think that after hacking up a lung for a week and a half that my pediatricians should cough up something better themselves than "have you given him honey?"

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Bad CAIR Day

Frank Gaffney has written about some rough times for CAIR. Which is good for everyone not CAIR.

But what I want to know is when is the media actually going to start investigating the dubious connetions Obama has to these grotesques? Ayers? CAC? Khalid? Rezko? ACORN? The list goes on and on and on.

And, of course, Obama has worked with CAIR too.

Lie Back And Think Of England

Theodore Dalrymple is one of my favorite writers over at City Journal (buy it, read it, memorize it). He is glum, caustic, and very witty. In short, he's British.

This is his latest "Oh, To Be In England" column, titled "The Quivering Upper Lip" and it is a wonderful read.

Karmic Ass

Deepak Chopra is an ass.

Totally Agree - This is SO COOL

Sooooo Coooool! [John Derbyshire]

When I was a wee lad, back in those far-off days when kids had hobbies, I spent many happy hours assembling model planes from kits. Airfix, Revell, Monogram, … I pretty much worked my way through their inventories. The art was in the painting. You bought teeny cans of paint made by a firm named Humbrol (still in business, I see), fine horsehair brushes, and lotsa white spirit.

If I'd kept at it, I might have attained these astonishing heights. The reader who sent me the link remarks:

The model was obviously hand built and runs on chain saw engines. Nice touch with the X-1. The voice of the boy saying "this is soooo cooool! " says it all.
Indeed it does.