Selective Quotation is Alive and Well

(Originially posted on NRO - The Corner by my husband)

A few years ago I quoted somewhere the alarmist scientist Steve Schneider as saying,

So we have to offer up some scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts we may have . . . each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective, and being honest.

A reader wrote in to upbraid me for missing out the next sentence, where Schneider said, "I hope that means being both." The reader was right. Missing out the sentence was not fair to Schneider, but nor does it materially change the import of Schneider's statement. Since that day I have tried to include it whenever I can. And I have also tried to be careful about quoting selectively in general. I cannot say for sure that I have always succeeded, but I have tried to be fair.

This, of course, makes me particularly interested to see instances where I myself am selectively quoted, which happens every so often. The most recent example is today, in an article by Charles Holman of The Washington Monthly, which adopts an oh-these-conservatives-when-will-they-learn approach to the grand experiment that was Culture11. For some reason he singles out my only contribution to the site:

The goal of providing conservative journalists a place to write for their fellow conservatives about cultural subjects gave the lesser features and reviews by young writers the sheltered-workshop aura of a college newspaper, and occasionally dipped into the kind of "these kids today" cultural commentary that right-of-center magazines have never been short of, with Iain Murray—one of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s in-house authorities on climate change denial—harrumphing that "it seems impossible to find a show that airs after 8 p.m. on any of the major networks that is not obsessed with sex."

Yes, I did write that. The trouble for Holman's argument is that the way he uses the quotation ignores the entire point of the article. For instance, the next paragraph begins:

Now this is not to say that sex is not funny or that it should be bowdlerized out of comedy. As should be obvious, I really enjoy all these shows. The problem is monotony.

My whole point was that bawdy comedy and elegant comedy have existed side-by-side for the entirety of human existence until, it seems, the last couple of years. I'm not "harrumphing" about sex comedy in the slightest, just the monotonous obsession with it. Would Holman care to defend that monotony?

The really funny thing is that Holman's complaint about my harrumphing is in itself a harrumph. And I'm sure Culture11 could have published something very good about that.

Geithner's Guess

Geithner is asking for unprecedented control over the US banking industry. At this point that's like one of the three stooges babysit your infant.

No way. No how.

Think, I'm alone on this position, check out the falling stocks on Wall Street.

Or Noble Prize winner Stiglitz who says the "The Geithner plan is very badly flawed"

Geithner's power grab should be added to the ever growing list of things to protest at Tax Revolts!

Human Achievement Hour

Originially posted by my husband at NRO - The Corner

The usual suspects have announced a strange new holiday: Earth Hour, which is to be celebrated by turning off the lights and electricity (but presumably not by holding your breath, denying emergency service, or anything like that). In response, my colleague Michelle Minton had the brilliant idea of celebrating Human Achievement Hour at the same time; let's celebrate all the good technology does and all the wonderful things mankind has created. This, unsurprisingly, has attracted derision from said usual suspects, who are astounded that anyone could ever wish to celebrate the massive increase in human welfare accessible energy has brought, as Michelle details here. In doing so, she highlights the key point:

If our Human Achievement Hour is at all a dig against Earth Hour, it is so only by the fact that we are pointing out what Earth Hour truly is about: it isn’t pro-earth, it is anti-man and anti-innovation.

Quite so.

Tossing Trillions Tends Towards Taxes

And Tax Revolts.

Obama announces another trillion in American Taxpayer money shall be burned in panic. And Sen. Gregg explains how Obama and his "plans" are going to economically destroy our great nation.

Also, Paul Krugman in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed explains why Obama and Geithner's "cash for trash" isn't so hot an idea (even though its been recycled).

Obama and Notre Dame

If this year's graduates of Notre Dame truly believe that having such a staunch and radical supporter of infanticide as Obama speaking at their graduation ceremony is a true and deep violation of Catholic pro-life values, then they should simply not go.

Imagine the humiliating picture, if enough graduates boycotted the graduation ceremony, of Obama speaking to an auditorium filled with mostly empty seats.

I know graduation is an important ceremony in marking life's achievements, but isn't standing up for the preservation of your Catholic beliefs and the sanctity of life an important lifelong achievement?

New Era of Hope and Change in Action: Part LXIX

This was originally posted on NRO - The Corner by my husband.

An omnibus lands bill that was actually a land-grab bill failed to pass the House last week. So what are they doing? Via E&E Daily:

Earlier this month, the House fell two votes shy of passing the bill under suspension of the rules, a maneuver that shields legislation from amendment or a motion to recommit but requires a two-thirds majority for passage. Senate leaders then devised a strategy to use a bill that had already passed the House — H.R. 146, a proposal to protect Revolutionary War battlefields — and strip its contents, replacing it with the omnibus lands bill.

Because the House already passed H.R. 146, the Rules Committee can approve a closed rule that would block a motion to recommit, eliminating the GOP's best procedural chance to stymie the bill. The chamber would only need a simple majority vote to concur with the Senate amendment.

Who says that our legislative process is broken?

Socialists Unleash Class Warfare

Daily News columnist Micheal Goodwin calls out Obama Congress for =despicably promoting class warfare and violating all that America is.

Everybody makes mistakes, and I made a beaut the other day. I was wrong to call members of Congress blow-hards and buffoons and declare them worse than useless.

I was too kind.

I should have said our representatives are gangsters in pinstripes and pearls. They are petty tyrants and the more power they grab, the more at risk we are. Homeland Security should flash Code Red any time this Congress is in session.

It is twilight in America now. The House vote to use the tax code to retroactively punish bonus babies was an act of sheer madness. What started as phony outrage at AIG has crossed the line into insane policy. It is stunning that the vote was lopsided and bipartisan.

The Senate is itchy to go along, and President Obama says he's ready to tighten the thumbscrews on the banks. Is there no adult who will bring a straitjacket?

We should all be very afraid. Class warfare is mere predicate for a witch hunt that, once unleashed, will not stop with misbegotten wealth. It will punish success and stifle innovation. Dissent will invite dishonor.

That Congress is a gang of cheap connivers is not news. Chris Dodd, Charlie Rangel, Charles Grassley, Barney Frank - they have been national embarrassments for years.

But now they are dangerous, emboldened by public fear and anger. They know nothing, but have power and smell opportunity for more.

Read the whole thing.

The only part I disagree with is "We can't say we weren't warned" because the Mainstream Media did such a piss-poor job vetting Obama that few Americans (die-hard bloggers and their readers) knew just how radical Obama IS.

New Boss, Same As The Old Boss?

Hat Tip: Perfunction

More Examples of Tax Cheaters in Congress

TaxProf Blog names and shames several members of Congress for being tax cheats.

Go TaxProf Go!

LA Times also names Dem. Pete Stark as a tax cheat.

How Bad Is ACORN

How rotten is ACORN if the House Judiciary Chairman and die-hard democrat Rep. John Conyers Jr. wants to investigate them?

In an startling partisan shift, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. on Thursday proposed holding hearings on claims the liberal activist group ACORN engaged in a pattern of crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style “protection” racket.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat and fierce partisan, suggested a congressional probe after scathing testimony about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) during a hearing on various voting issues related to the 2008 presidential election.

Not that ACORN would admit to any wrong doing, and if the representative was serious he'd be calling for more FBI investigations but at least now ACORN will be put in the hotseat if only a little.

Top Ten Gaffes of Biden and Obama

Friend of my husband's, the excellent Toby Harden, has put together a Top Ten list of gaffes by both Biden and Obama since taking office for The Daily Telegraph in the UK.

I really appreciate the accompanying video so we can see and hear the ghastly mistakes rather than simply read about them.

I especially appreciate the President Ford reference. Cheerio, Toby, terrific job.

Where I Come From

A lot of AIG employees live in the part of Connecticut that I grew up in. I can tell you that these people do not deserve death threats because they received bonuses.

But they are preppy scum. (My hometown was mentioned three times in The Preppy Handbook.)

I'm just saying, no death threats but feel free to loath based on cultural bias.

Barney Frank is a Hypocritical Scumbag

The individual most responsible for destroying the economy of the United States of America via his regulation and manipulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Barney Frank, is now calling for a stop to the bonuses he allowed to be issued to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac employees.

This from a man who claimed he had "no idea" is boyfriend was running an escort service from his own apartment.

Why are these crooks being tolerated in Congress by the American people.

Personally, I blame the media and lack of Congressional term limits.

Pesticides Good, Organic Bad

Yet another reason to organic food, deadly spiders.

True or not, I have no fear of pesticides (I can wash them off) but have a real phobia of spiders.

Who Gave AIG their Bonuses?

Personally, even a failed company employed hard-working, decent people who deserved a bonus. Congress did the evil here, not AIG employees or necessarily any employees of any failed bailout company. Someone high up made bad decisions and they should not receive bonuses but the average employee who tried real hard should be rewarded.

Who really should be punished is Congress who took us down this stupid bailout path instead of forcing these failing companies to go into Chapter 11 for a proper and necessary restructuring.

Period.

Obama, Pelosi, and Reid's Thugocracy

As Mark Steyn rightly points out in this article from NRO - The Corner, the threesome listed above are destroying everything that is good about America if they persue this unreasoning and panicked attack on AIG.

Any sentient being dumb enough to fall for this AIG huffin’ an’ a-puffin’ from Barry, Barney, Doddy, and the gang is a fool who deserves the vaporization of his assets that the national political class is lining up for him. As Charles Krauthammer pointed out, the $165 million in bonuses is less than 1/18,500 of the $3.1 trillion budget. The massive expansion of government the president is planning is forever, and will ensure you that end your days in what Peggy Noonan calls “post-prosperity America.” More immediately, what message do you send to the world when legal contracts can be abrogated by retrospective confiscatory bills of attainder? You think that’s going to get anyone investing in America again?

The real criminals here are not at AIG but in Congress, Dodd, Barney, Pelosi, Barry, Kennedy, Reid, and the rest are the scum that re-enforce my belief in term limits for Congress NOW.

Gov. Palin Joins Chorus of "Shame on You Obama"

Gov. Sarah Palin rightly pulls no punches in her condemnation of Obama's "special olympics" statement on Leno.

As private citizens, we've all said things that can be considered hurtful, however a public servent - especially one on national television - should be able to think before opening their mouths. Apparently, without his beloved teleprompter, Obama reveals his true self to his own shame.

Picking On Gov. Palin

The DNC makes the brilliant move of picking on Gov. Sarah Palin for not excepting the full so-called stimulus act money attributed to Alaska.

Have they picked on any of the other governors or are they so deranged by their hatred of Gov. Palin that they couldn't help themselves.

Losers.

Post-Op Fever

Spiked a fever after my operation and now am on antibiotics that apparently can wipe out anthrax!

Now I'll be germ-free, dizzy, and according to the side-effects description unable to be in indirect or direct sunlight.

Another Environmental First

A post written by my husband and originally published at NRO - The Corner

For the first time since Gallup started asking the question in 1984, more Americans value economic growth over environmental protection than vice versa. They are also essentially equally split on the question of "whether they favor protection of the environment at the risk of limiting energy supplies, or favor the development of U.S. energy supplies at the risk of harming the environment" (and that's despite the drop in the oil price from last year's highs). What's perhaps most interesting is that while Democrats continue to favor the environment over the economy, the margin is just 50-44. This suggests to me that the "green jobs" attempt at fusionism between leftists interested in the environment first and those interested in jobs first isn't working — if the jobs-first Democrats believed the hype, they wouldn't regard environmental protection as incompatible with economic growth, and would answer in favor of the environment.

Gallup's own conclusion should make grim reading in the environmental movement's swank headquarters:

There is little question that the current economic crisis poses a significant challenge for the environmental movement in this country. Previous Gallup research has shown that concern about global warming has diminished this year, and the research reviewed here shows clearly that Americans are more willing than ever to forgo protection of the environment if needed in order to ensure economic growth or the production of energy. With the economy as bad as it has been in recent memory, Americans' preferences have swung even more strongly in the direction of the economy over the environment.

Two questions emerge: First, will this shift in opinion lead to a reduction in funding for these people, or will they make it up with increased donations from the philanthropic funds begun by oil barons?

And secondly, will this affect President Obama, whose own Energy secretary is recklessly suggesting a trade war with China over emissions? Time will tell.

Pelosi Makes Everything Worse

Referring to work site enforcement actions by ICE agents, Pelosi said, "We have to have a change in policy and practice and again ... I can't say enough, the raids must end. The raids must end.

"You are special people. You're here on a Saturday night to take responsibility for our country's future. That makes you very, very patriotic."

Great, on top of deliberately destroying the US economy with horrible monetary and fiscal policies, on top of tolerating outrageous corruption and greed, and on top of repeatedly lying about the purpose and intent of the democrats in power, on top of all of that Pelosi tells illegal immigrants they are responsible for the future of the United States of America.

At this point, better them than her.

The real voice of power

Visit this website and read Obama's teleprompter's blog.

An insightful look at the administration from one of the many tools Obama uses to prop himself up with.

Ouch, ouch, ouch

I'm back but moving slowly. Apparently having a major organ (uterus) removed is very painful.

Who knew!

And while I was out, it looks like everything went to hell in a handbasket.

I could blog for days on all the jackanapes in Congress but I'm supposed to be on bedrest, the meds make me a little goofy, and there's just so much stupidity out there - it's like an avalanche of dumbassness.

I'll try my best though.

Out Sick

Dear Readers,

I am having an operation tomorrow - March 16th - and will most likely be unable to post for a couple of days. I hope you will come back and visit soon.

Thank you for your support.

K

Robert is Right

Who knew Robert Reich would be right to take Geithner to task for his "dithering".

On his blog today - http://robertreich.blogspot.com/ - Reich accused Tim Geithner of "spooking everyone" with his "dithering" and his "incapacity to speak clearly" about what to do to rescue the nation from recession. It was all part of a post in which the Cal-Berkeley professor outlined what he would say to Mr. Obama if he were Paul Volcker, a leading economics adviser who briefed the President in the White House today.

"You may not want to hear this, but your Treasury Secretary is making things worse. His dithering on what to do about Wall Street, and his incapacity to speak clearly to the Street and to the public about what needs to be done, is spooking everyone. Why doesn't he just put the irrevocably insolvent banks into receivership under the FDIC, sell off their assets, protect depositors, and reimburse taxpayers with whatever remains? Let the rest of the banks fend for themselves -- working out their bad loans with their creditors. As to AIG, well, that's a complete basketcase. Put it out of its suffering. Take it over, sell its assets, protect policy holders (you'll need to create a big co-insurance plan with every other major insurer in the world), then get out."

Read it all.