NurtureShock

The book, here, below is the trailer.

Been Following VodkaPundit For Years

Watch his "Hair of the Dog" here on PJTV. Always enjoyable.

When my husband launched his "The Edge Of England's Sword" website, VodkaPundit and Instapundit were also just starting. It was in some ways so frustrating because so few of our family and friends knew what blogging was.

My husband's old site (which I was a contributor on) ended up ranking 37th out of something like 123,000 political websites as described by Arts & Letters magazine one year. A bit later on, he was the first person to be fired for blogging (unfairly I might add as he had his old bosses permission and his "new" boss was aware of this).

Water under the bridge now. England's Sword is defunct and while I have this, my husband contributes to National Review's The Corner (as you've probably figured out) as well as several websites run by his think tank, Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Sorry about the trip down memory lane but watching VodkaPundit reminded me of how my husband first told me about him - that he drank a shot of vodka before posting which tickled my British husband immensely.

Jefferson V. Adams

My husband and I rarely argue. This debate is the only one that gets us to shouting match level. He thinks Jefferson was good. I think he was a bit of a douche-bag and much prefer Adams.

My husband has this post here up on NRO - the Corner with a mutual friend's perspective. The opinion of Daniel Hannan and Myron Ebell's is here.

Crasher-In-Chief

From my husband's colleague Lee Doren, Crasher-in-Chief of Bureaucrash

A Father Speaks Out

Watch this man - he was so angry at the Townhall meeting but when you hear his story and that he's already being threatened, then you must give him some faith.

Leah For President

Meet The Mob

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds

It's Funny Because It's True

Even Uber-Liberal Mass. Hates ObamaCare

They should know, Mass. already has "universal health" and it is a disaster.

Watch the video here.

My Kid's Birthday Is Coming Up....

I love Capitalism. It's the only system that can make this sort of thing happen. Buy one here. (As well as Amazon, ebay, fedex, craigslist, netflix, etc., etc.)

Showing True Solidarity

Andrew Breitbart's Op-ed in The Washington Times is basically a call to all those who detest what happened to Kenneth Gladney and are worried about the astonishing growth of debt being foisted on Americans by the Democrats by suggesting you make your voice heard at town halls.

Should SEIU union thugs be allowed to beat up someone without any news media covering it, simply because the SEIU men where black and they beat up a black conservative? That's okay?

Fight back or be steamrolled.

Another Example of Liberal Hypocrisy

Of course, Nancy Pelosi's "UnAmerican" comments in USA Today are another example of liberal hypocrisy when her buddies at SEIU issue this memo (links here) stating...

Action: Opponents of reform are organizing counter-demonstrators to speak at this and several congressional town halls on the issue to defend the status quo. It is critical that our members with real, personal stories about the need for access to quality, affordable care come out in strong numbers to drown out their voices.

So Nancy, where is your denouncation of that bit of UnAmerican behavior?

Democrats - a gift that can't stop "giving".

DNC's Manufactured Outrage

Discussing the "Angry Mob" at PJTV. Good fun.

The Gladney Beating

This taken from Instapundit in full.

MORE REPORTING on SEIU, St. Louis, and the Gladney beating.

UPDATE: More at Hot Air, including this from Jim Treacher: “If Kenneth Gladney was an Obama supporter, right now he’d be more famous than Rodney King.”

Indeed.

Protestors are demanding apologies - good luck.

Obamacare Outburst Round-Up

Anyone who disagrees with the Democratic members of Congress support of the monstrous Obamacare bill at an August townhall is being patronizingly told they are astroturf by their Democratic member of Congress - rather than being listened to.

Brilliant strategy Democrats. Insult your voters intelligence. Infer that your voters are fakes. And Ignore your voters wishes and desires. The three Is that are guaranteed to put you out of a job during the next election cycle.

Here, the Associated Press reports the following:

At a meeting in Des Moines, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, was interrupted several times by people in the audience shouting criticism and questions, even though he said he didn't expect Iowans to take part in what he called "scare tactics, misinformation and obstruction."

"As we have seen in recent days, opponents are pulling out all stops to kill the reform effort. This is a shame," Harkin said.

But his words didn't stop some in the estimated crowd of 200 from disrupting the meeting, where uniformed police officers were present. Des Moines police said no one was arrested.

At one point, a man from the audience yelled: "This is not health reform, this is control, control over our lives."

Harkin responded to one man shouting criticisms by saying, "As I said, there is a nationally coordinated effort to disrupt these meetings."

The man responded that no one had sent him to the meeting.

The Washington Times reports on an instance where the moment a Democratic member of Congress is innocently questions, he lashes out, here. This paragraph sums it all up...

Tensions are running so high at town hall meetings that Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, yelled at a local doctor concerned about health care after mistaking him for an "astroturf" political operative looking for a fight.

Needless to say, the doctor is lives in Scott's district and is unaffiliated with any political activist groups. Obamacare is indefensible as many of its supports are demonstrating by attacking the questioner rather than answering the question.

Of course, at least the above two representatives showed up. Some are cancelling citing "safety concerns" because the crowds are simply not buying the lies, they are telling. Here is a report about Rep. Claire McCaskill cancelling appearances from St. Louis Today.com.

Some representatives have even taken to hiding from their own constituents. Shameful. If you're legislation can't be defended, it is indefensible legislation.

It's A Dog's Life

The great Theodore Dalrymple has an editorial up over at the Wall Street Journal titled Man vs. Mutt, explaining exactly how it is better to be a dog in Britain than a human with "free" healthcare.

Yes, the NHS is that ghastly.

Mr. Hannon at Heritage

Mr. Hannon's speech to The Heritage Foundation, here, titled "Putting the Government in Charge: Why America Should Avoid Europe's Mistakes."

Watch and learn.

Book-Burning Club

Some people I know very fairly well were talking about a book club. The first person recommended someone to join and the second person said, "She can't, she's a Republican."

Person One said, "No, really?"

Person Two said, "Yes, can you believe it? She's a republican."

Curious, I asked why this republican couldn't join the book club and was informed that there was too much talk about politics during the book club session so it was determined that no republicans could join - only democrats.

I kept my mouth shut because I'm polite and didn't want to deal with the inevitable liberal screaming if I disagreed.

But I couldn't disagree more!

Now I don't know the circumstances. The conservatives in the book club could have behaved badly. Perhaps an attempt to curtail political discussion failed because of the republicans involved. Did the democrats - or more likely Obama supporters - simply out-number the republicans, so they were the ones who had to leave?

But to exclude one group of people simply for their beliefs is so unAmerican and repugnant, I feel ashamed for the folks involved.

Why not simply ban all political discussion and if you break that rule, then you are kicked out of the book club? I can understand the banning of non-book-related discussions, but your worldview informs your politics and vice-versa.

To refuse entry to republicans - or anyone with a different political view - is to refuse to be exposed to a different worldview. This isn't a book club, it's an echo chamber.

Book clubs are a group-endeavor, a joint exploration of the literary world and how it pertains to life as lived. This book club has become illiterate by their own exclusionary acts, it is now the equivalent of a book-burning club.

The Invisible Hand At Work

I noticed in the airport the other day that all the stores that sell Obama T-shirts (America, etc.) are now also selling "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain" and "Nope" T-shirts now too.

When the sellers of fawning propoganda start offering product from the other side, you know the polls have dropped and are dropping.

God Bless Capitalism.

Demolishing Jefferson

Since I deeply and actively dislike Thomas Jefferson and admire John Adams, I am posting this link, here, which is written by the great Daniel Hannan but principly offers up the wonderful Myron Ebell's "taut" destruction of the Jeffersonian mythos.

A sample...

“On thinking in the U. S. about the division and dispersal of power, it was not Jefferson but John Adams who was the major figure. Indeed, Jefferson was on the other side, although his rhetoric was designed to mislead. Jefferson may have said that that government is best which governs least, but he never had a useful thought about how to keep limits on government except to recommend revolution in every generation. Which is of course disastrous. But he was a very silly man - a true, because superficial and calculating, product of the Enlightenment. While Adams was horrified by the French Revolution as soon as Burke was, Jefferson was still enthusiastic even after the terror had begun. Jefferson was the inventor of faux egalitarianism, which was a way of keeping the enlightened patrician (and slave-owning) class in power based on the rationale that they were protecting the interests of common folk. FDR and Teddy Kennedy are the direct descendants, and indeed Jefferson was FDR’s hero and model of a patrician who protected the interests of his class by “representing” and looking out for the working man."

Myron goes on - in particular holding Adams over Jefferson.

John Hughes, RIP

The man made the movies that defined my teenage years.

I'm surprised at how sad I feel.

"Behold The Scary Swastika Astroturfers"

Redstate.com covers an AARP meeting where the AARP representative - despite being courteously treated - pulled the meeting because these retirees stood up and disagreed with them. For shame. Very shabby.

What I love is that the AARP members continued the meeting AFTER the AARP representative left! One guy towards then end says "We are all Americans. We have to show love for each other..." (paraphrased) And some how talk to each other until we can come to agreement. That, my friends is a townhall meeting.



Also this from ABCnews.com where the Obamacare protesters come out and say "We're real!"

Malkin's ACORN Watch

Michelle Malkin reports at her website that Louisianna-based ACORN is being investigated for various corruption charges, here.

About time.

The Trojan Horse is Just A Horse

As Jonah Goldber points out, they come out and say it around the 1:46 mark - Obamacare is designed to eliminate private healthcare.

Period.

Not immediately but soon.

Watch for yourself.


Hat Tip: Goldberg and Beck

One thing, I noticed is that they guy coming out saying this at the 1:46 minute mark was sponsored by Tides.org - you see the logo in the lower righthand corner. Tides Foundation is run by Drummond Pike who actively supports ACORN to the point of buying "the promissory note that required the Rathke family to repay Acorn the money that Mr. Rathke’s brother, Dale, had stolen.

Mr. Rathke is a member of the board of the Tides Foundation and other Tides-related organizations."

So I ask you - if ACORN and Obama and Rathke and Pike all have these "connections", why shouldn't we believe they also are all actively working for government-run healthcare.

I know that is arguably a leap but there it is.

34,000,000 on Food Stamps

That's a lot of suffering Americans who's economic problems could be cheaply resolved via judicious de-regulation and lower personal and corporate tax rates.

What are the odds that'll happen before 2010?

Reuter's is reporting the details here.