Friday, June 29, 2012

When life hands you lemons...

...make hand-grenades out of them. Or something. Anyhow, Smitty makes the excellent point that, instead of endlessly picking over the SCOTUS decision and trying to figure out how Chief Justice Roberts was suddenly possessed by the ghost of Earl Warren, we'd all be better off channeling our anger and energy into something more productive - like bustin' a gut to get out the vote this November.

Outstanding advice. Let's go!

Picture, thousand words


Via Doug Ross and the People's Cube.

Happy Feet Friday

Another version of “Night Train”, by the guy who recorded the original hit back in 1951. Jimmy Forrest reprises the number, backed by Count Basie and his orchestra.




Thursday, June 28, 2012

There was at least one act of justice today

The contempt in which Eric Holder has long been held was formalized by the House of Representatives this afternoon.
The House on Thursday cited Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for contempt of Congress in a vote weighted with political significance — though it does little to break the stalemate over his decision to withhold documents over the Justice Department’s actions in a botched gun-walking operation.

The House voted 255-67 to hold him in criminal contempt in a vote that amounted to a political spanking for Mr. Holder and President Obama, underscored by the 17 Democrats who joined the GOP.

Hope I die before I get old

Not really, of course, but I can’t say that I’m looking forward to receiving a subpoena to appear before a death panel someday, with further instructions to bring my playbook.

The Supreme Court, as everyone knows by now, upheld ObamaCare, declaring that, while the mandate is unconstitutional, the requirement to pay for health care is a legitimate tax, despite the initial, and very clear, argument originally made by the administration that the mandate was not a tax (this looks like the old FDR bait-and-switch on social security, to me). Roberts voted with the leftists on this. That is a huge disappointment, but not entirely surprising given his reputation for the fine splitting of hairs on the narrowest possible legal grounds – legal folly, in this case, as the decision represents the upholding of an abominable law on the basis of a very dubious technicality. So, I suppose if the government can link any new encroachment on individual liberty with a tax, then the underlying legislation (or executive order) is constitutional. Funny, but I have a vague recollection of the origins of the United States of America having something to do with a little disagreement about the government’s power to tax.

The political upshot is that the decision may truly ignite the conservative base (and many independents) and boost turn out in November, so that we have a chance to heave the Choom Master out of the White House (and a substantial number of his Democrat confederates out of the Senate and House of Representatives). Otherwise, we will be well on our way to smiley-faced fascism (the smile ultimately to be dropped, no doubt, in the face of resistance). In fact, we have advanced pretty far down that road, already. I mean, consider this: if the economy were performing marginally better than it is right now, Obama would probably be coasting to a second term. In spite of the astonishing radicalization and lawlessness of his Department of Justice, the Fast and Furious outrage, the assault on states’ rights, the utter imbecility of the president’s budget proposals, the dictatorial wielding of executive orders and regulations, the divisive class warfare rhetoric, the overwhelming arrogance and ideological extremism of practically everyone in his administration, the modus operandi of Chicago gangsterism and crony capitalism - in spite of all this, Obama would very possibly be home free, save for the continuing bad economic news.

A people who have forgotten how to value freedom, and who have lost their commitment to staying alert to assaults upon it, do not deserve to, and will not, remain free. What a pity if those of us who love liberty find ourselves in some nightmarish, Orwellian world through the apathy, ignorance and dependency of 51% of our “fellow” citizens.

Update: Ace provides some much-needed perspective, and also offers up this hilarious take
BREAKING: Eric Holder releases new statement: Fast and Furious was a tax.
Update II: Not really relevant, but does anybody else think that Roberts looks a little like the “Bob” character who appeared a few years ago in those risqué ads for some kind of penis-enlargement drug? I merely ask.

Update III: If this is true, then Roberts obviously could use some of the aforementioned potion.

Update IV: Romney raises over $100,000 in donations in the fifty minutes after the SCOTUS decision on ObamaCare was revealed. Now (1:54 pm) over a million dollars, Romney and RNC combined.

Update V: Democrats keepin’ it classy.

Update VI: Jeff Goldstein absolutely nails the linguistic incoherence of Chief Justice Earl Warren’sJohn Roberts’ “reasoning”. Or, as that venerable Asian philosopher, Pok Ho, once put it…



Update VII: At the federal agency where I work, there is a senior staff meeting held every Thursday, almost without fail. Today, shortly after the SCOTUS announcement, the meeting, which had been scheduled to take place as usual, was summarily cancelled without explanation. I strongly suspect that the politicals have rushed off to join Pelosi and other assorted high-profile constitutional demolitionists at their impromptu orgies of self-congratulation. I am reliably informed, in fact, that Pelosi is at this very moment standing in the center of a pentagram drawn on the floor of her office for the occasion, dropping the shredded remains of the constitution into a steaming cauldron of chicken blood.

And since Pelosi really did throw a party today, celebrating this horrible SCOTUS decision, I pronounce her doom:

Exult in the deviltries of thy coven while thou canst , witch, for, come the autumn, Nemesis shall stalk the heath, and she shall bring off thy soul on the sword point of divine retribution, and she shall come to me and place the withered thing in the hollow of my hand.

Last update to this post: For those who think Roberts did conservatives some kind of favor, by allegedly cutting off future abuses of the commerce clause, Legal Insurrection encourages you to think again.


Think there's no vampire threat?

These guys apparently disagree.

A sort of pre-post

I will be at the office tomorrow (or rather, since it's after midnight as I write this, much later today) and unable to comment immediately upon the Supreme Court's decision on ObamaCare - not that the world is hanging on my opinion, of course, but it is something I will want to address simply as a citizen concerned about the preservation of individual freedom.

At this time, I will only make one observation: if the individual mandate is upheld, then there is, logically, nothing the government cannot make you do, and the idea of natural rights that exist above and beyond the reach of legislative or executive encroachment will have received a mortal wound.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Fore(ward)

A gallery of some of President Obama's favorite golf courses.

(H/T: The PJ Tatler)

Sad news

Ric Locke, whose blog, Ric's Rulez, has long been a fixture on the blog roll of Paco Enterprises, has been diagnosed with stage III lung cancer. He could use some help with an oxygen machine.

Bad polling news for Romney

"65 percent of Americans say Obama better suited to handle alien invasion than Romney".

Update: Frankly, I think Obama's response to an alien invasion would probably go something like this:

Now, that's a funny headline

"Rob Portman: Zombie Hunter".

Not convinced that Portman's cause is right, though. Banning bath salts because some idiots are ingesting the stuff and turning psycho? I dunno. What do you guys think?

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Dude, if you're heading toward a cliff, maybe it makes sense to back up

Noted constitutional scholar favors Supreme Court with his advice.

TSA reaches a new low

“Confrontation With TSA Agent Leaves Grandpa's Ashes On Floor”.
"They opened up my bag, and I told them, 'Please, be careful. These are my grandpa's ashes,'" Gross told RTV6's Norman Cox. "She picked up the jar. She opened it up.

"I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it."

Gross says about a quarter to a third of the contents spilled on the floor, leaving him frantically trying to gather up as much as he could while anxious passengers waited behind him.

"She didn't apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn't pick up all, everything that was lost.
Now, I know that President Romney will have his hands full in the first few months of his administration, but it would oblige me greatly if he could take a few minutes to get rid of the TSA.

Where the stupid things are

The late Maurice Sendak, children's author, fantasized about assassinating Bush and Cheney (not in his diary, in an interview).

Monday, June 25, 2012

Un-freakin'- believable

Aaron Walker, a victim of the Kimberlin combine, just got SWATted.

Update: Walker writes about the experience.

Lawless

The Supreme Court tossed out much of Arizona’s immigration law, but left in place a key provision giving law enforcement personnel the right to check status on arrests and detentions. Naturally, Homeland Security has decided that, when the calls begin coming in from Arizona, the phones will pretty much be out of order.


National disgrace




The physics of the knuckleball

I love baseball science!

Monday movie

Mysterious (and nicely shot) scenes from Phantom Lady.


Bonus! Here's a jazz scene from the same flick.



Sunday, June 24, 2012

For crying out loud, Barry, can't you deliver on anything?

Obama marked his election as, among other things, the point at which the oceans would start receding. Then how to explain this? - "Rising sea level puts US Atlantic coast at risk".



Sunday funnies


Gratefully lifted from The Weasel Times. H/T: Ace. Background here.

The dark side of Mickey Mouse.

TimT, that wild man of the world-wide web, ponders the early history of cheese and beer, and marvels over the ambulatory qualities of yeast.

10 funniest Batman costumes.

Obama's disarming approach to his Latino hosts (guns to Mexican narcotraficantes, ok; knives and forks for American Latinos at a luncheon - what, are you out of your mind?)


Maldito sea! Next time, why don't you just serve soup and sandwiches?

Update: More on the cutlery scandal from Dan Collins (HAW!).

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Quick thinking 14-year-old shoots armed intruder

Good thing this went down in Phoenix, not Chicago.

Oops!

In a case of mistaken identity, the suspected son of a Mexican drug kingpin, captured by Mexican Marines, turns out to be a car salesman, totally unrelated to the cartel.

Hey, bagging a car salesman's not all that shabby. I'd like to see some of the ones I've dealt with in cuffs.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Is Smitty angling for a Pulitzer?

Could be, and if so, best of luck to him. In any event, my suave and learned friend has launched a foray into the farthest reaches of esoteric culture with a blend of political commentary and literary afflatus published under the title SALVE: Shameless Acts of Literary Vandalism and Entertainment. For that special person on your gift list who thinks he has everything, show him (or her, as the case may be) how wrong she (or, quite possibly, he) is by getting him (or, mayhap, her) this book.

Remember: it’s for the children.

I've heard tales of the elephant graveyard...

...but the giant wombat graveyard? That's a new one on me.

I'm sure Thomas Friedman could find a way to justify this

An enterprising Chinese man devises a homemade baby seat.

We had something like that back in the hill country of North Carolina when I was growing up (except without the crate).

Happy Feet Friday

Count Basie and his band, featuring vocalist Jimmy Rushing, perform “Take Me Back, Baby.” Mellow, Jackson...



Thursday, June 21, 2012

Tricky Dick Obama

Tim Stanley of the Telegraph provides an excellent outline of the Fast and Furious scandal, and its possible consequences for Obama.

Is it not passing strange that a foreign media outlet should demonstrate more interest in this issue than, say, the New York Times or the Washington Post? “Why, no,” you say, “there’s nothing strange about it at all.” And you are, of course, right. Watch for the legacy media to spin this as mere Republican partisanship, with (naturally) undercurrents of racism. Because there is nothing - absolutely nothing - that Obama and his minions can do, or fail to do, that will alter the MSM’s vision of the Obama presidency as a rare and beautiful occurrence of historical justice, and a quantum leap in the evolution of American society toward the hoary Liberal dream of the Provider State. No lie is so outrageous, no policy so transparently idiotic, no body count so high, as to justify endangering the prospects of a second term for Barack Obama, the paradigm – indeed, the apotheosis - of the progressive dream.

Update - Jay Carney: Make no mistake, we'll never rest until we find out who killed what's-his-name.

More inscrutable verbiage from Nancy Pelosi’s pie hole

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the greatest living exemplar of the downside of democracy, has opined that Republicans are going after Eric Holder in order to “suppress votes”.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder was "a shameful display of an abuse of power" by House Republicans. She said it was not a coincidence that Holder is the government official in charge of preventing voter suppression and enforcing civil liberties.

"These very same people who are holding him in contempt are part of a nationwide scheme to suppress the vote" that also involves big donors who are anonymously contributing large sums of money to GOP candidates and causes, she said.
Just to be clear, “suppressing the vote” is Democrat-speak for “insuring that only live U.S. citizens who are registered to vote actually are allowed to vote”. If there’s a “conspiracy” to effect this end, put me down for a donation.

The bit about Eric Holder “enforcing civil liberties” is especially mirth provoking. The only people whose civil liberties Eric Holder has assiduously sought to defend are those holding membership in the New Black Panther Party and the FALN (the Puerto Rican terrorist group), and crooked financier Marc Rich. Oh, and Muslim terrorists, can’t forget them.

Elsewhere, Sheriff Pelosi inexplicably lets an outlaw evade the noose.

Another denizen of the MSM breaks ranks

Greg Kandra, formerly a writer and producer for CBS News, has an epiphany. In an open letter to NBC, he asks “What the hell is wrong with you?”
I’m tired. Truly. I’ve grown weary of trying to defend the indefensible and explain the inexplicable. For years, people have stomped their feet and pounded their fists and snorted “Liberal media bias!” and I’ve always tut-tutted and shooshed them and said, “No, no. Calm down. They meant well. It was just a misunderstanding. A mistake. These things happen.” I spent over 25 years working in the oft-reviled Mainstream Media and I saw up close and personal how the sausage was made. I knew the people who wielded the knives and wore the aprons, and could vouch (most of the time, anyway) for their good intentions.

But now?

Forget it. I’m done. You deserve what they’re saying about you. It’s earned. You have worked long and hard to merit the suspicion, acrimony, mistrust and revulsion that the media-buying public increasingly heaps upon you. You have successfully eroded any confidence, dispelled any trust, and driven your audience into the arms of the Internet and the blogosphere, where biases are affirmed and like-minded people can tell each other what they hold to be true, since nobody believes in objective reality any more. You have done a superlative job of diminishing what was once a great profession and undermining one of the vital underpinnings of democracy, a free press.
H/T: Wizbang

President Obama's continuing "evolution"

Growth in office.

Frightfully sorry, Mr. President!

Recently, President Obama was the target of a chorus of horselaughs in response to his comment that the private sector is "doing fine." Supporters later argued that the president's remark was taken out of context. As Fishersville Mike demonstrates, they were right.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

COVER-UP!

President Obama, in an effort to give Eric Holder cover in the latter’s stonewalling of the congressional investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal, today declared that the information sought by Rep. Issa is protected under executive privilege - which implies that the president, himself, knows more about F&F than he has let on. Perhaps Holder knows how much the president knows, and that’s why the Attorney General hasn’t been compelled to join Obama’s many other former associates under the bus.

I’m currently reading Katie Pavlich’s book on Fast and Furious, and will be providing a review sometime next week, I hope. I’m only 20 or so pages into it, and my blood is already starting to boil.

Hey, maybe there’s a new campaign theme in here someplace. Obama: “I liberalized the deportation rules to prevent young Mexicans from being shipped back to their native country, where they would probably be killed by the guns that my attorney general sent there.” Winning!

Update: Chris Matthews apparently is not as interested in the deaths of Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexicans as he is in upholding the sanctity of Eric Holder’s pigmentation.

Update II: Babalu found a great Twitter reaction: “Holder's dog ate the documents. Obama ate the dog. Executive privilege.”

Update III: Bryan Preston has some interesting speculations.

Update IV: Contempt!


Photoshop courtesy of Blogocracy



Yet another reason ObamaCare must be tossed out

I mean, who's going to be giving us physicals? TSA agents? 'Cause it sure doesn't look like there are going to be enough doctors to go around.





Ought to be enough to buy a nice funeral wreath

Chicago's offering citizens $100 gift cards if they'll turn in those nasty old guns.

Compare that story with this one.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

You're a hypocrite, Rep. Waxman

Waxman: I want a second opinion.

Me: Ok, you're ugly, too.

Henry Waxman rips GOP for energy package that had bipartisan support.

As to the ugly issue...well, you be the judge.



The last time I saw something that repulsive, it was hanging upside down in the rafters of a barn with its wings wrapped around it.

Assortment

I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like.

I also know what I don’t like.

Man bites dog: airline passenger gropes TSA agent.

Jonathan Steinberg reviews what looks to be a fascinating new biography of Otto Von Bismark.

Hey, New York Times, say hello to your future!

As is the case with practically every one of Obama’s edicts, the president’s recent exercise in pandering is not exactly as advertised.

How much of his presidency, thus far, has Obama spent playing golf? Let’s do the math.

Shouldn’t all of MSNBC’s cost of operations be treated as an “in kind” donation to the Obama campaign?

Smitty commits literature.

Hey, you stay classy, Rep. Lisa Brown!

Professor Jacobson is initiating another insurrection. Good on him!

Andrew Klavan comes clean

"I oppose Barack Obama because he's black."
Listen, I don’t mind black people in their proper place. I can accept someone like Thomas Sowell, say, as one of the greatest political philosophers of our time, or Congressman Allen West as a shining example of the best and bravest men this nation can produce. But when it comes to running an administration of incompetence, corruption, arrogance and ignorance, well, doggone it, I feel that’s a job for a white man!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Stop Obama's war on coal and the U.S. consumer!

The EPA's MACT rule is going to lead to astronomical increases in the cost of electricity.
Last week PJM Interconnection, the company that operates the electric grid for 13 states (Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) held its 2015 capacity auction. These are the first real, market prices that take Obama’s most recent anti-coal regulations into account, and they prove that he is keeping his 2008 campaign promise to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.”

The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt.

Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price.
A vote is scheduled this Wednesday in the Senate to overturn the regulation.

This regulation is truly insane - or rather, "transformative", in a heavy-handed, liberal-fascist sort of way. If this reg is not overturned, and if its inspiration is not tossed out on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue in November, then I guess the lights will literally be going out all over America.

Update: West Virginia's Democratic leadership is feeling the heat.
In a move showing how politically toxic President Barack Obama has become in parts of the country, three prominent West Virginia Democrats announced Monday they will not attend the Democratic National Convention in September.

Those opting out of appearing at the gathering of Democrats from across the country to officially re-nominate Obama for president include Sen. Joe Manchin, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Rep. Nick Rahall.


Ok, panic!

John Sununu provides an excellent brief summary of the Obama administration’s travails. One particularly amusing quote:
Grilled last week before a Senate Committee, [Eric] Holder awkwardly proclaimed, “I heard the White House press officer say yesterday that the president has absolute confidence in me.” The only thing that could have made that statement more damning would be if the president had tweeted it.
Haw!

Speaking of Holder, the National Border Control Council, which represents “all 17,000 of the agency’s nonsupervisory agents”, has a little favor to ask of the Attorney General.

The power of the EPA needs to be sharply curtailed

Let’s initiate the process by getting rid of this guy.

And while we’re on the subject of public employees abusing their positions, I wonder what the DEA has been up to lately.

Monday movie

The old prospector (Walter Huston) talks gold fever in Treasure of the Sierra Madre.


Come to the USA

Ray Stevens "celebrates" Obama's recent immigration decision.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Botanical inquiry

Does anybody know what this thing is? It sprouted in the front garden and it has interesting leaves, but I'm thinking of moving it (or throwing it away).



Happy Father's Day!



Enjoy your special day, all you dads out there.

Update: Beau Biden - a chip off the ol' crock.

Sunday funnies

Are We Lumberjacks? explains social media.

The good Samaritan.

Early Bill Cosby.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Let’s keep a good thought

Michael Walsh at the New York Post speculates that Eric Holder’s number is just about up.
After more than a year of half-truths, stonewalling, obfuscating and outright lying to Congress about the “gunwalking” scandal known as Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder now finds himself trapped in a box canyon, out of ammo and surrounded by hostiles.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
No, it couldn’t. And the Fast and Furious imbroglio is only part of the problem. Holder has also encouraged the radicalization of the civil rights unit within DOJ, which has led to truly preposterous outcomes, like the suit to block Florida from eliminating non-citizens from its voting rolls. And let’s not forget his attempt to give foreign terrorists the full protection of the U.S. legal system by removing them from the jurisdiction of military courts.

A contempt citation would be a good start, but the best way to remove this and all the other bad apples in the current administration is to turn Obama out of office in November.

Another great campaign idea from the Obama people

Bark for Obama.

If I can get a doggie sweater that says “I barf for Obama”, I’m in (not sure whether Mabel will wear it, though).

Hey, Obama finally comes up with a jobs plan

For illegal aliens.

Update: Via Rush Limbaugh...



Happy Feet Friday

Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen update an old Freddie Slack favorite, the House of Blue Lights.



Meet YAMAS

Seraphic Secret has links to a documentary on YAMAS, a counter-terrorist unit attached to the Israeli Border Police. Good stuff.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Romney turns the tables on Obama

Romney's latest ad, which underscores Obama's now infamous comment - "the private sector's doing fine" - is, as Bryan Preston points out, "the mirror image" of an ad from Obama's 2008 campaign highlighting John McCain's unfortunate choice of words ("the fundamentals of the economy are strong").

Money quote: "Today’s moves showed that the Romney campaign is living rent-free in David Axelrod’s head."

Hey, why not? There's plenty of room.

Happy Flag Day!


Long may it wave!

From the shelves of the Paco library



R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. - founder of The American Spectator, noted political essayist, and a long-time deathbed observer of American leftism - has penned a slender volume entitled The Death of Liberalism.

“Surely,” you say, “such a pronouncement is premature. Just look at the committed left-wing partisan who resides in the White House, surrounded by his zealous Mamluks! Look at the U.S. Senate, controlled by the Democratic Party under the leadership of the Undead Harry Reid! Listen to the president’s worshipful chorus of media sycophants!”

All true. But Tyrrell, although an inveterate optimist, is no fool. He realizes that Liberalism is still a potent political force; however, it is no longer a movement with a coherent philosophy, a worldview informed by plausible ideas. It is now nothing more than a loose federation of tribal interest groups whose only goal is the acquisition of money and power, an ever-grasping lunge for the main chance, a strategy of smash and grab. The death to which Tyrrell refers is the extinction of Liberalism’s intellectual pretensions, the complete atrophy of progressive ideas, the meaninglessness of progressive slogans in the face of the relentless, and merciless, operations of human nature and natural law. So, while Liberalism yet possesses the power to do harm, it is rather like the automobile of Secretary of Commerce Bryson, careening madly through the streets, its driver unconscious of speed, direction and even ultimate destination. A crackup is inevitable.

Couched in breezy and occasionally Menckenesque prose, Tyrrell's book tracks Liberalism’s gaudy genealogy back to Rousseau and Marx, and evaluates the evolution of the philosophy through generations of increasingly intellectually-challenged adherents, where it now promises to expire entirely in the incompetent hands of prodigal heirs. Along the way, the author provides us with dozens of amusing vignettes – for example:
Yet through it all [Edward Kennedy] had a habit of going off on sprees with Liberal colleagues like Christopher Dodd. One of their favorite Washington haunts was La Colline, where they would get thoroughly plastered, break crockery, and tear down pictures of their senatorial colleagues from the walls. Another was La Brasserie, where they would occasionally rough up a woman, and Teddy might be caught girl-hopping with his pants off. Occasionally he would journey afar. For instance, the FBI reports that a year before joining the Senate, Teddy attempted to rent out an entire whorehouse in Chile. Closer to home, he would journey to the wilds of Palm Beach with his nephews and son for nocturnal outings. During one famed jaunt, he paraded around, again with his pants off, while nephew William took a woman down to the beach and engaged in sex that she characterized as rape…”
Liberal lion, indeed!

Tyrrell sees Liberalism rapidly devolving into “Friendly Fascism”.
The real specter of Friendly Fascism was adumbrated in the crony capitalism that we saw in the first three years of our Stealth socialist, Barack Obama, with ever-larger sectors of the economy coming under government control. Socialism and fascism are not that different. Both disregard property rights, and both rule through bureaucracy. Though fascists tend to wear uniforms, some of which are very smart, socialists have greater direct control of their bureaucracies. If one thinks that a socialist cannot become a fascist, I would suggest following the late Benito Mussolini back to his origins as a lowly socialist schoolteacher; whereupon, as time passed, il Duce became a dictator. The blueprint for the future of the American left, if it can ever resurrect, is fascism with a friendly face.
Against the enervated, staggering ideology of Liberalism, Tyrrell suggests, stands the solid, common sense, time-tested values of the Constitution, a bright banner around which the citizenry will flock in expanding numbers as Liberalism either finally collapses, or wanders off in search of designer jackboots. Tyrrell is betting on the American people; I’ve no reservations in taking a flutter on them myself.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Evolutionary discovery

"Distant Human Ancestor Had Shark Head"
Peer far enough back in the human family lineage, and you'll find a fishy ancestor that looked surprisingly like a shark.

In fact, this now-extinct fish was among the first to split from sharks, whose bones are made of cartilage, to evolve into a line of tough-boned species that includes everything from bony fish to human beings. A new analysis finds that this controversial class of animals was more shark-like than expected.
Once again, the anatomical reconstruction experts at Paco World News Daily (PWND) have weighed in, creating an artist's conception of what this ancient fishy ancestor probably looked like:

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Hmmm. I'm beginning to think these experts are a one-trick pony.

Hey, Australia, don’t let this happen to you

John Muscat at New Geography provides an object lesson for Australians who have eyed California as a model.
Australians have long seen California as a trend-setter, given the common Anglophone culture and semi-arid climate on the Pacific Rim. There’s also the shared love of motor car mobility and suburban independence, and a voracious appetite for tech and entertainment products pouring out of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. But these days the Golden State is just as likely to fill Australians with unease. They find themselves infected with a strain of the green-welfare-utopianism that brought California to its knees.

Why is Holder’s DOJ afraid of honest voting rolls?

And, yes, that’s a rhetorical question.

Another good example of why this election is not just about the economy. It’s also about restoring the integrity of our institutions.

How about Ted Nugent?

“Obama Letting Americans Choose His Next Celebrity Guest”.

Bumper sticker of the week



(Via Moonbattery)

Dead psychopath still being propped up as a hero

Che Guevara is once again being trotted out as an Hispanic icon - this time, in a Canadian elementary school, but it could just as easily be New York or San Francisco.

Eric Holder sticks to his guns

So to speak.

Elsewhere in the valley of cluelessness, the preshizzle can't imagine that ObamaCare could have anything other than a positive effect on small business.

Here's a delicious thought: maybe Joe Biden is actually the, er, "brains" of this outfit.

Paco's online university

Where you can learn something new every day - or at least, every once in a while.

"10 words or phrases derived from falconry".

Monday, June 11, 2012

Happy days are here again!

Mitt Romney's people are making quite a bit of hay out of President Happy Jack Choommaster's assurance that the private sector is "doing just fine."

Here are some other things that are "doing just fine", according to the president's system of measurement.

The great auk.



The ivory-billed woodpecker.



Detroit.

The San Diego Padres.

Cabinet official takes a stab at performance art

Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, apparently having been fetched by a notion to symbolically depict the Obama administration’s economic policy, engaged in multiple hit-and-run incidents in California over the weekend, and was later found unconscious behind the wheel of his car.

Glad to hear that nobody was hurt, and I sincerely hope that Bryson has some kind of more or less reasonable explanation for all this.

Assortment

Yes, Mr. Axelrod. We call it “earth”.

Joe Biden: working hard to make satire impossible.

Marloes Horst looks like she could use a little help.

A fascinating update from Stacy McCain on the Kimberlin outrage.

Why is Australia essentially giving away 100,000 acres of good land to China? Steve at the Pub, quite understandably, would like to know.

Elsewhere in Australia (or rather, outside of Australia), two Olympic swimmers are in hot water for the unspeakably odious crime of…being photographed holding unloaded guns in a gun shop.

Swampie’s got the summertime blues.

36 Chambers and the Temple of DOOM!

Miss Red draws our attention to a startling article about the State Department’s lack of interest in religious freedom (Muslims persecuting Christians? Sorry, bad for the narrative).

Kae offers up a sterling example of how not to behave in court.

The stars come out for Obama. Makes you wonder what an actor of the old school might have had to say to Obama and Biden...



More evidence that Karl Rove’s reputation for brilliance is yet another urban legend.

Canadian vigilantes!

For those who really want to get away from it all.

Monday movie

The monster temporarily gets the girl in this clip from one of my favorite 50s horror movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Rats, sinking ship

Maybe, sometimes, Obama should just keep his mouth shut, says...Washington Post.

And, man, this one's gotta hurt.

Update: Rats on sinking ship actually fighting each other for a place in the lifeboats.

Sunday funnies

"Hungry Jack syrup truck spills onto Buttermilk Pike".
A highway truck accident never sounded so delicious. A semitrailer hauling Hungry Jack pancake syrup collided with a highway median at the Buttermilk Pike overpass in northern Kentucky, causing the truckload of syrup to spill all over the highway.

Don't mess with Texas.


Nobody clears a room like Paul Krugman.


Victor Meldrew and the yucca plant.




Update: From Mr. Bingley's hilarious "Spam of the Day" series.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Obama the uniter

Increasingly, even notable Democrats are shaking off their inhibitions and criticizing, either purposely or "accidentally" (like Bill Clinton), Obama's destructive policies and abysmal lack of leadership.



Congress is waking up to the SWATting threat

"70 House Members to Call on DOJ to Investigate SWATting of Conservative Bloggers".

Friday, June 8, 2012

In the Arab spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of...

...attacking women at an anti-sexual-assault rally.
A mob of hundreds of men assaulted women holding a march demanding an end to sexual harassment Friday, with the attackers overwhelming the male guardians and groping and molesting several of the female marchers in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Let me translate that for you

What Obama said: "The private sector is doing just fine".

What Obama meant: "I've got the private sector right where I want it."

Update Much more from Instapundit.

Update II: Private sector "doing just fine" like the Black Knight?

When it comes to silencing conservatives...

...it seems that everybody is trying to get in on the act.
Gerald Molen won a best picture Oscar for co-producing Schindler’s List with Steven Spielberg and has produced such Hollywood blockbusters as the first two Jurassic Park films and Twister. He’s a former U.S. Marine and is a sought-after motivational speaker.

So he’s not accustomed to being shunned.

Such was the case, though, when he was invited to speak to the graduating class at a Montana high school. But upon arriving, was told by the principal he would not be allowed to deliver the speech he had prepared.

The reason, he believes, is politics.
Liberals are increasingly coming to resemble radical Muslims in their attitude toward those who show insufficient deference to their "religion": they don't argue or reason with unbelievers, they just try to deny them the right to speak at all.

Just call me blabbermouth

A day of silence is being observed by various bloggers in order to draw attention to the guerrilla warfare that is being carried out by Brett Kimberlin et al against a number of conservative bloggers.

I don't really see the point of maintaining silence; or, rather, I see the theoretical point, but I don't buy into the practical utility of it. On this, I am with Bob Belvedere. Keep up the pressure, pursue without letup, use all legitimate resources, all the time.

More from Jeff G.

Update: Hats off to Senator Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Kenny Marchant for standing tall.

Happy Feet Friday

The boogie-woogie and the Lindy Hop: keepin’ it alive!


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Mayor Bloomberg somehow failed to offer this as Exhibit A for his anti-obesity campaign

“Obese woman’s body fat causes Austrian crematorium to burn down”.

In other international news, Dull and Boring have announced their engagement.

Estonia invades Paul Krugman's comfort zone

The mouse that roared tweeted.

Defections

Although that word really isn’t the mot juste, carrying, as it does, a vaguely negative connotation. Let us say, rather, conversions. Nice Deb has a good rundown on the trend of Democratic politicians shifting to the GOP.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Stupid: it's stickier than glue

Obama just can't let go of a discredited idea - no matter how dumb it proves to be, no matter how devastating. He can't even let go of a particularly imbecilic piece of a much larger moronic plan. Once he has given the thumbs up, reality is no longer relevant.

This seems to be the case with the bipartisan House effort to repeal the idiotic tax on medical equipment, a provision of ObamaCare.
In less than seven months, on January 1, 2013, a new tax on medical device companies (part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is set to steamroll American leadership in medical innovation. The 2.3% excise tax will be levied on all types of medical devices, from heart stents and pacemakers to MRIs and ultrasounds. Because the new tax is on revenue, not profit, a small company that is not yet in the black would bear the biggest brunt. This tax will hit medical device companies especially hard in states that are leading the way in medical innovation; states like Pennsylvania, Minnesota, California, New York, and Massachusetts.
Barry has threatened to veto any legislation designed to overturn this absurd tax. I turn now to a psychological expert for an opinion on why Obama would want to stick with such an obviously harmful revenue measure.





Ray Bradbury, RIP

An American icon of science fiction and fantasy stories, Ray Bradbury, has died at 91. The Telegraph has a wonderful obituary.

One of my favorite Bradbury novels is Dandelion Wine, because few, if any, authors succeeded like Bradbury in creating such evocative word pictures of small-town America, and, in this book, he was at the top of his form. Among what are probably his lesser-known works, I’d recommend his later noir fiction (one example of which, Death is a Lonely Business, was a Paco library feature).

We interrupt the Obama campaign’s non-stop harping about Bain Capital…

…to bring you the latest on Jon Corzine and MF Global.
James Giddens, the Trustee appointed in the wind-down of MF Global Inc., this morning filed a report on his initial findings in the investigation of the firm’s dramatic downfall, concluding that choices made my MF Global management and a lack of sufficient oversight systems led to customer property being improperly used.

As such, Giddens believes claims for breach of fiduciary duty, and negligence, can be asserted against former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, former CFO Henri Steenkamp, and former Assistant Treasurer Edith O’Brien, among others, according to the report. Giddens is already in talks with commodities’ customers’ class action counsel about actions against MF Global officers and directors and other employees.
Just to refresh your memories, Jon Corzine was one of Obama’s top fundraisers in the 2008 election campaign.

Whatever happened to Barack Obama, Superhero?



Oh, yeah. Heh. Guess there's no getting that groove back.

Or, as the slogan on a t-shirt once put it, "Sometimes your knight in shining armor is just a retard in tinfoil".

Vampire skeletons discovered in Bulgaria

You know I can't pass up a story like this.

Artists at Paco World News Daily (PWND) have seen photos of one of the skeletons, and, using the latest techniques in scientific facial reconstruction, have created this realistic picture of what the vampire probably looked like in the flesh.

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Woo! Creepy.



Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Walker wins!

Congratulations to Governor Scott Walker, who won a tough recall election tonight.

Sometimes, the extent of the public's commitment to do the right thing does trump union intransigence and voter fraud.

Say, doesn't this make Scott Walker sort of like the Margaret Thatcher of Wisconsin? I know, I know. Thatcher faced off against trade unions, whereas Walker defied the public employee unions, but still...

Update: Thomas Grier scoffs at the Democrat spin.

Liberalism building the largest clown car in history

Always room for one more! Meet Charles Barron of Brooklyn.

Elsewhere, President Obama picks up an important new endorsement.

The strange, statistically anomalous, completely inexplicable overlap between green energy subsidies and Obama’s donors

Just one of those things, just one of those crazy things.

In other government investment news, Romney claims that the Obama administration is delaying the sale of GM shares because the government would lose $16 billion on its $49.5 billion bailout. Can’t have an embarrassing thing like that happen before the election, can we?

Update: Honestly, this administration’s “investments” are starting to look like a giant mutual fund of FAIL.

And on the campaign trail, looks like Barry just can’t catch a break: “Senate Democrats blast national security leak on Iran cyber-attack”.




Monday, June 4, 2012

The Solomon of Maryland

What a titan of intellect, wisdom and legal knowledge is C.J. Vaughey! Patterico has audio and transcripts of Aaron Walker’s day in court with Brett Kimberlin, during which Judge Vaughey, among other sterling achievements, reinterprets First Amendment rights according to his own endearingly whimsical worldview (which the cynical and uncharitable among us might be tempted to label as staggering ignorance, and perhaps even as Exhibit A in evidence of hizzoner’s affliction with the Dunning-Kruger effect).

One cannot help but believe – or hope, at least - that Vaughey’s ruling will be tossed out on appeal, and that Vaughey himself will return to that retirement which he was unwisely persuaded to temporarily abandon, and in which he would be wisely counseled to remain hereafter, without further official exertions on his part in the cause of – or maybe it would be better, given his lack of seriousness on the subject, to say, “in pursuing the hobby of” - justice. If this distinguished jurist is looking for activities to fill up the idle hours of his day, might I suggest golf, or stamp collecting, or volunteer work outside of the legal realm? I recollect that he professed an interest in Royal typewriters; perhaps he could devote his remaining years to the collection and restoration of these relics of a simpler time, a time when judges were spared the tedium of staying abreast of rapid technological and social change, and were free from the indignity of seeing the gem-like magniloquence of their legal opinions marred by silly words like “blog” and “tweet” (a time, moreover, when a judge’s errors were not likely to be greeted by a younger generation with the ominously cryptic responses, “LOL!” and “WTF?”).

Who knows? Given sufficient time, and with the application of industry and determination, Judge Vaughey (ret.) may succeed in acquiring a complete set of Royal typewriters, produced down through the ages. He might even attain a certain local fame, like the woman in Cecil County, Maryland, with 60 cats, or like my own Uncle Hubert, whose vast collection of salt and pepper shakers is the wonder of Frog Pond, North Carolina.

When the EPA knocks on your door

Via Wizbang comes this ominous story about an innocuous email and the subsequent visit paid to the home of the sender by armed EPA investigators and a local police officer.

One of the first orders of business for President Romney should be to bring this outfit to heel. The police and judicial (or extrajudicial) powers of federal agencies should not be allowed to expand without clear justification – and certainly not without tough, regular oversight by a Congress that is paying attention.

Monday movie

The opening scenes from the charming comedy, The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Slapfight!

Har! Axelrod and Holder nearly came to blows, supposedly over White House interference with the DOJ. Once again, spoil-sport Valerie Jarrett intervenes.

Exijo una explicación!

The Mexican ambassador to the United States has some choice comments on Fast and Furious.

One particularly interesting thing we learn from the article is that Eric Holder, whose self-confidence was severely shaken by the backlash over his decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a criminal, as opposed to a military, court, was talked out of leaving by the always-helpful Valerie Jarrett. Thanks, Val! What a national treasure you are.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday funnies

Even animals sometimes have trouble with the concept of moderation.

Via Are We Lumberjacks?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Obama's economic Plan B

The president exhorts us to go out and buy a "thingamajig".

Paco Enterprises is proud to support Obama's plan for economic recovery, and has vastly increased its inventory of thingamajigs. Go out and buy one today!

Big Liz?

Meh. I dunno...

Friday, June 1, 2012

Cheer up, Democrats. You’ve still got voter fraud working for you.

The Department of Justice (Ha-Ha) has ordered Florida to stop purging non-citizens from the voter rolls.

One of the most objectionable things about Obama is the company he keeps, the political and ideological cronies, like the execrable Eric Holder, who are doing their level best to hollow out our most venerable and precious institutions in order to install their leftist clockwork. This is why, in spite of the tactically useful phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid”, it’s really never just the economy; it’s about the calculus of power, the entire relationship between the citizen and the state, “Who, whom?”

President Obama to Bill Clinton: “Stop helping me”

Bill Clinton commends Romney’s experience as a businessman and as a governor.

And Roger L. Simon has had enough.
But what we have may be worse than Cloward–Piven. It’s accidental Cloward-Piven. Cloward-Piven out of ineptitude.

I don’t need to see Obama’s hidden college grades. I know he’s a failure.

I don’t need to read The Amateur. I know he’s an amateur.

The sad thing is we are all paying for it — not to mention our children and our children’s children.

We’re not about to become Greece. We are Greece. Those of us who live in California are already Greece squared.

Liberalism is not only dead, it’s decomposed. We’d better inter it this November or we are all fools.
Amen to that, brother. The problem is, we don’t have to all be fools for the nightmare to continue. Just 50%+1 of us. Not by any means a safe call these days.


Applied Obamanomics

One of the many dumb provisions of ObamaCare is the excise tax that has been placed on medical devices. Representatives Tom Price and Renee Elmers explain.
Right now, access to innovative quality care in America is threatened by a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices that was included in the president’s disastrous health care law. Between 2013 and 2022, taxes are slated to increase on device manufacturers by $28.5 billion, a cost that would certainly be passed on to patients in the form of more expensive products and procedures. Tools and services that physicians and nurses utilize to help meet the needs of patients will become more expensive. In fact, instead of increasing affordability and protecting access to care for all Americans, this tax further widens the gap between those who can pay for quality care and those who cannot.
Update: Repeal may be on the way.

How many U.S. presidents does it take to replace a light bulb?

Amazing. The president is turning himself into a bad Polish joke.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Polish officials requested that Walesa accept the Medal of Freedom on behalf of Jan Karski, a member of the Polish Underground during World War II who was being honored posthumously this week. The request makes sense. Walesa and Karski shared a burning desire to rid Poland of tyrannical subjugation. But President Obama said no.

Administration officials told the Journal that Walesa is too “political.” A man who was arrested by Soviet officials for dissenting against the government for being “political” is being shunned by the United States of America for the same reason 30 years later.

Meanwhile, one of the recipients of the Medal was Dolores Huerta, the honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. So socialist politics are acceptable, but not the politics of a man who stood up and fought socialism.
H/T: Captain Heinrichs, Vice President of Research, Paco Enterprises

Happy Feet Friday

From That Night in Rio, a beautiful color video clip of Carmen Miranda performing “Chica Chica Boom Chic”.