Saturday, August 31, 2013

Assortment

Update and bumped: I don't know about everything on this list of Most Annoying Songs of the 1970s - yeah, they're all annoying, but I can think of some that are more so - however, numbers one and two are spot on.

Another inauthentic, traitor to his race explains his break with the One True Party, Holy and Vitriolic.

Is it too much to ask that Senators read their own bills? (H/T: 36 chambers).

Guys, I don't think the expression "get a room" means what you think it means.

Over at the Public House, two women experience their first meal in a restaurant. Ever.

What'll it be, politics or feminine pulchritude?

Miss Red provides a road-map for understanding the Middle East.

Obama: "Trust me."

The, er, shy and retiring Mark Levin passes along a few gentle observations on some current events.

Randy does the math.

Beer statistics.

Swampy's husband is what I'd call an Idea Man.

Breaking America: the final season.

Obvious



(Yes, I signed up with someecards).

Time to celebrate!

It's International Bacon Day!

Had some this morning, with homemade waffles. Yowzah!


"This is the day the Lord hath made. Rejoice and be glad in it."

Friday, August 30, 2013

Job opportunity

“Tortured spirit”?

Meh, I don’t think so. More like a water-boarded ego.
White House aides say President Obama’s drawn-out decision making process on military action against Syria is evidence of a thoughtful, responsible leader. But it could also be the sign of a tortured spirit, a reluctant president who never wanted to find himself in this position in the first place.
If the guy had been truly “thoughtful” and “responsible”, he wouldn’t be in this fix.

As an anonymous commenter wrote in response to a previous post: “Syrians kill Syrians and Obama wants to send in the troops. Libyans kill Americans and what difference does it make?”

People I’d like to see chased down a blind alley by a pack of angry dachshunds

Or by a mob of clowns armed with cream pies (take your choice).

Let’s start with Al Gore – as Jay Nordlinger does in this wide-ranging post.

BTW, Al sure is getting…well, immense. He looks like an armoire with the clothes hanging on the outside.

Je ne say what?

France and the UK appear to be rapidly walking back their threats against Syria.

General Custer Field Marshal Barry is starting to look kinda isolated out there - and increasingly confused in his strategic thinking.


"Hmmm. Maybe I should drop some ObamaCare on Syria."

Happy Feet Friday

The great Peggy Lee, looking and sounding wonderful, singing Lover.


Thursday, August 29, 2013

Let a smile be your umbrella

ObamaCare Navigators (i.e., low-level administration shills) are being taught to smile as they lie to you about how great the Affordable Care Act is.


“Now, let me just touch briefly on your end-of-life options.”

Outrage

So, the makers of the Monopoly board game have retired the token shaped like an iron and replaced it with a…cat?!?

Personal disclosure: whenever I play Monopoly – I admit, it’s been quite a while - I always choose the iron. I admire its simplicity, its sturdy utilitarianism, its reflection of the virtues of domestic tidiness and order. And now, a cat, forsooth! The living, breathing apotheosis of cranky narcissism, the symbol par excellence of bewhiskered anarchy, the shedding, dander-broadcasting hypocrite that will purr and rub against your leg one moment, and bury its claws in your ankles the next.

What enormity can we expect from Hasbro down the road? Will they replace the top hat with a baseball cap? Will the exquisitely attired Rich Uncle Pennybags be pensioned off for a geekish IT tycoon in sneakers, or for a wealthy rapper decked out in the gaudy haberdashery of a grand vizier from the reign of Harun al-Rashid? Surely, these are the end times.

On the other hand, I anticipate a huge jump in demand for the iron tokens among purists, so I will attempt to corner the market (these may be the end times, but there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to make a buck on ‘em).

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

In case you were wondering

Yeah, I took the day off. D.C. is supposedly a mess today because of all the people converging on Washington to listen to a bunch of race hustlers demean and corrupt the noble effort of MLK and his contemporaries 50 years ago to promote civil rights for all.

Update: Oh, naturally. "Sen. Tim Scott, R.-S.C., the only African American serving in the United States Senate, wasn't invited to the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's march on Washington."

Bureaucratitis

Yeah, that's what America is all about. A home garden planted by the four-year-old daughter of a disabled single woman (who struggles to get by on a $625 monthly disability payment) has to go because it violates USDA rules.

(H/T: friend and commenter Deborah).

Chicago: the death spiral continues

Is this any way to live? "Drones For Safe Passage? 'Why Not?' Ald. Cardenas Asks".

Ok, start flexing those brains

Here's a word ladder puzzle to stretch your minds. C'mon, show the world what the Paco Brain Trust is made of!

Er, you go first.

You don't see that every day

Snowfall in the Atacama desert.

Islamic justice

In this case, as in many, the juxtaposition of the two words is obscene. A Christian woman in Pakistan is sentenced to death for drinking water from a Muslim well.

Benjamin Brophy at the American Spectator has a useful suggestion:
Simply put, we should cut down the amount of foreign aid we send to Pakistan for as long as they allow persecution of any religious minority. The $1.7 billion in undistributed 2013 funds (according to the State Department) would be a good place to start, though this amount barely puts a dent in the nearly $23 billion we have committed to supplying.

Religious freedom and right of conscience are values that America has propagated since its inception. How can we continue to spend lavishly on a country that turns its back on such basic rights? What is the point of joining forces to fight terrorism when our ally continues to align with our enemies on questions of basic human dignity? Governments who stand idly by while people of faith are persecuted, beaten, and killed are not our friends. Pakistan goes beyond this by sanctioning such tragedy.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Now, that right there's some silver-tongued oratory

An assistant dean at Tulane University responds with Johnsonian eloquence to the efforts of conservative investigative journalist James O’Keefe.
“Listen to me,” he continued. “You're violating federal law. You spend your life as a snail. You do weird little political things. You're a horse's ass.”
What majestic, withering obloquy! What acerbic wit! The only thing missing was the emphatic shooting of cuffs, and the ostentatious taking of a pinch of snuff. Obviously, there’s nothing more for O’Keefe to do but to withdraw from public life and to find some quiet spot where he might live out the rest of his wretched life in well-deserved obscurity.

Joe Biden’s advice on shotguns vs. AR-15s, demonstrated

Wrong again, Plugs.

That must be one hard test

“Liberia's education minister says she finds it hard to believe that not a single candidate passed this year's university admission exam.

At least they have entrance exams over there. In the states, for many state colleges and universities, if you’ve got a high school diploma, you’re pretty much in.

Teen upgrades his "knockout game" with a stun gun

Oops! Victim had a .40 caliber pistol, teen takes one in the gluteus maximus.

All's well that ends well.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Past is prelude

Those who cannot remember Clintonism are condemned to repeat it.



C’mon, America. This is no time to get stoned.

(Image gratefully pinched from Moonbattery)

“Safe passage” routes in Chicago working about as well as expected

The latest from that toddlin’ teeterin’ town.
The eyes of the city were on Chicago Public Schools “Safe Passage” routes Monday morning as a 28-year-old man was shot along one of the routes and a 14-year-old boy was shot to death near another one, the day before school starts.

The 14-year-old boy was shot and killed within a block of a welcoming elementary school, Melody Stem School, 3937 W. Wilcox. It’s at least the third fatal shooting along or near a Safe Passage route since mid-August.
What’s next, letters of transit?

The attitude demonstrated by some of the parents of school-age children is astonishing:
“I don’t really feel too threatened,” said Vicki Brown, 29, a parent with two kids at Melody. “It’s a relative thing. You can’t control the violence.”

Kaylyn Williams, the children’s father, agreed.

“I feel the kids are relatively safe,” he said, as sirens wailed in the distance.
Nope, you can’t control the violence. It’s just a force of nature or an act of God, like the city’s corrupt Democratic machine, and the self-replicating failure of the welfare system and its fueling of social pathologies, and the consequent destruction of family values, and the endless series of feckless mayors whose unwavering adherence to gun-control laws has placed whatever’s left of Chicago’s law-abiding community at permanent risk of injury and death at the hands of gangs that completely ignore such laws. No human agency involved at all, just one of those things.

What a cultural and political sink hole. But, unfortunately, only one of many.

One sure way of reducing crime

We have our hands full dealing with crimes committed by native-born Americans, so why make things worse by taking a slack approach in enforcing immigration laws? What size body count is acceptable to Democrats looking for more voters, or to Republicans intent on pandering to businesses that want cheap labor?

Monday movie

From The Bride of Frankenstein, a scene in which Dr. Pretorious reveals the results of one of his strange experiments.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Political termites

The Obama administration continues to maintain the outer shells of our institutions while emptying them of their original purpose and turning them into the building materials of his unconstitutional, leftist state. The latest example is a teaching guide from the Department of Defense that potentially places yours truly and the many millions of people who share the same beliefs on a government watch list.


Anarchist banner.

Sunday funnies

At last, a device (ouch!) that helps me (yow!) limit my time on the internet (owww!)

There are no stupid questions. Or are there?

I wonder how Ace feels about the selection of Ben Affleck to play Batman.

We know, we know...

Steve Burri's got your border security right here.

Hey, stop playing with your food.

Whoa, what's that smell?

Clothing malfunction from Bringing Up Baby:



Emergency Update: they're coming.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Business opportunity in Detroit

Hunting safaris.

In other "big cat" news, the Tigers' pitching ace, Max Scherzer, not only won his 19th game today, but hit a run-scoring double.

A 1949 Packard Limo

Why? Just because.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Wait. What?

The Obama administration is working with Mexico to help that country beef up security on its southern border?!?

So, border security is important in some cases; just not where it impedes the acquisition by the U.S. of millions of new Democrat voters. Got it.

What a relief!

President Obama assures us that the NSA isn’t trying to “listen in” on our emails.

I don’t know about yours, but my emails have a distinctive eight-to-the-bar beat, with some occasional hot trumpet licks and sizzlin’ saxophone solos. If somebody at the NSA is listening to my emails, he’ll be the one tapping his feet.

Happy Feet Friday

Under Judy Garland’s influence, classical pianist JosĂ© Iturbi becomes quite the hep cat in "The Joint is Really Jumpin’ Down at Carnegie Hall" (from the 1943 movie, Thousands Cheer). It’s the mezz, Jackson! Well, awwwwwreet!

Now here's a special day I can support with gusto

Let's all celebrate Joe Wilson Day!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Assortment

The brutal murder of Australian Chris Lane by three “bored” teens earns a dreaded frowny face from Jesse Jackson.

John Stossel: “Beware the warrior cops”.

Will Boehner and company get the message before it’s too late? (If I were a betting man, I’d need to get some very good odds to gamble on the affirmative – and even then I sure wouldn’t bet the farm).

Ace reporter Jack Wiley Dithers lands exclusive interview with an al-Qaeda operative.

Transparency so thick you can cut it with a knife.

ObamaCare comes to Charlottesville, Virginia.

Boy on a Bike suffers in his, er, amour propre from a sudden cold snap.

An increasingly intrusive federal government threatens artistic freedom – just ask Swampy.

Isn’t this slightly more ominous than the antics of a rodeo clown?

One of the biggest, and most overlooked, threats to our freedom today comes from a lazy and negligent Congress that delegates its power to the executive branch. Charles Cooke:
But for the essential balance of power to be upset, one needs neither a tyrant nor a coup; one needs only a compliant or underconfident branch of government. This we have seen since Obama’s inauguration. In the past four years, Congress has happily handed over to the executive branch regulation of the environment, of the financial sector, and of the health-care market. It is currently considering doing the same thing with immigration.
Boehner, Cantor et al seem hopelessly stupid on this point (or cunningly complicit; pick your poison).

The new normal in employment.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Recipe for being a talking head on television

Take a large mixing bowl, add a sack of ignorance and a bottle of arrogance, toss in a heaping helping of stupid and a dash of pure infantilism. Stir vigorously, pour onto a greased pan, stick in the oven, set for “half-bake”. Once the smell becomes unbearable, remove from oven and let cool. Serves…well, however many people there are in Chris Matthews' audience.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Faith, but I would like to go!

The Irish Redhead convention is being held this weekend, and it sounds like it ought to be a blast (if our own Miss Red went, I’m sure she’d take a prize).

I have always had brown hair, but when I was younger there were a few red/gold highlights, and my beard (Och, but the auld days are gone forivver!) was a nice auburn color. The last time I grew one, it was sadly more reminiscent of a pinto pony (some auburn with an unsettling amount of white), so I’ve put the thing in mothballs, so to speak (at least until I retire; then I’m seriously considering going all Duck Dynasty).

Where does MSNBC get ‘em all?

Joy Reid – described at the link as a “contributor” to MSNBC – thinks that there’s “this sort of neo-Confederate thread that runs through this pro-gun movement and NRA movement”.

Huh. I wonder where all those confederates in Northern Colorado came from.

And I have to say I am abashed to learn that all those Pacos who died fighting in the Civil War on the side that came in second were done in by a bunch of bluecoats carrying, apparently, nothing but barrel staves and pocket knives.

Update: Rinardman, in the comments - "I think there's this sort of neo-idiocy thread that runs through this MSNBC movement."

Then and now

A fascinating look at the evolution of one aspect of law enforcement by a retired police lieutenant (H/T: Protein Wisdom).

Monday, August 19, 2013

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking

But I’m not the one who bought it: “Ferrari NART Spyder sets $27.5 million auction record”.

Smoke and mirrors

Does anybody out there – anybody at all – believe that Joe Biden has a ghost of a chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination?
While Mr. Biden has made no decision about his future, people familiar with his thinking say, he hasn't ruled out a bid for the White House. If he runs, that could set up a titanic battle between two of the party's most prominent figures.
Leave aside, for the nonce, the curious phrase, “people familiar with his thinking”, which bears the same semblance to reality as, say, people who are familiar with the method of changing lead into gold, or with the digestives process of the Loch Ness Monster (and as to the notion of a “titanic” clash, I leave it to you to figure out which candidate would be the iceberg, and which the doomed ship). The Biden candidacy speculation smells a lot like a false flag operation by Hillary Clinton’s team to obscure the rapidly spreading perception that she is approaching the nomination more in the character of heiress to the throne than in the spirit of a mere competitor for elective office – a perception that, even in the current celebrity environment of American politics, could still redound to her disadvantage.

And, to return to the intellectual deficiencies of Joe Biden, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised to learn that he’s unwittingly playing along, convinced, in the amusement park that is his mind, that he’s got the stuff to shine in the shooting gallery and take home the giant stuffed panda. Sorry, Joe, but you’re likely to find out that those rifles don’t shoot any truer than their counterparts in the real world.

Update: Steve Skubinna, in the comments - "Joe Biden, dumber than a sack of hammers, will be the perfect final president of the USA. He'll punch the button to nuke Omaha while trying to dial Domino's for pizza."

Yeah, what the Chicago Tribune said

“Let's delay and rewrite this ill-conceived law.”

Yes, let’s. And while we’re at it, perhaps we can find a way to disabuse politicians from seeing themselves as a corps of legislative Solomons who are entitled to substitute their own alleged wisdom for the natural laws that govern economic behavior, and to prescribe wholesale remedies in matters affecting life and death.

Defund, repeal, “rewrite” – something must be done, or this law will ruin us.

Monday movie

Richard Burton as the reluctant executioner in The Robe.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Sunday funnies

How about a Million Obama Mask March on D.C.?

Disguise Fail: “China Zoo Under Fire for Disguising Dog as Lion”.

Now, those are what I call speed bumps (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

Obama finds a way to pass the time during the Bin Ladin raid (H/T: Victor Davis Hanson).

Friday, August 16, 2013

Happy Feet Friday

Ella live!



Not exactly from the shelves of the Paco library...

...but soon to be an acquisition: Mark Levin's Liberty Amendments. John Hayward has a comprehensive review over at Human Events, and does a fabulous job providing context. Just a taste:
A Constitutional reset is necessary because the progressive project is a cascade of lost freedoms, designed so that each step is irreversible, and every inch of ground taken by the State is claimed forever. The distribution of power to unelected bureaucrats is a key element of this process. One of the Liberty Amendments “sunsets” all federal departments and agencies, unless Congress reauthorizes them every three years by majority vote. Every big-ticket Executive Branch regulation would be subjected to review by a joint congressional committee. This amendment would pull the plug on the unstoppable federal bureaucracy, forcing every department to perpetually justify its existence, and terminating President Obama’s beloved practice of circumventing Congress to legislate by decree.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

"Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign begins this year in Virginia"

So, Virginians, get out there and vote for Ken Cuccinelli!

The illegal alien problem

Unfortunately, Vanessa Pham is not available for comment.

This crime, incidentally, happened less than three miles from my house. I’m delighted that the police caught the guy, but as Michelle Malkin points out in her post, the murder wouldn’t have happened at all if the swine had been deported when he first embarked upon his life of crime.

Just in case Matt Walsh ever feels the need to apologize to me…

…I hereby grant my forgiveness in advance. Really: no apology necessary! (H/T: Protein Wisdom)

Ongoing analysis of Dick Durbin’s thought box

Imagine being a politician, and being the subject of a 5-part (and counting!) series called “Worse than Stupid”.

Now, ol’ Dickie probably won’t be moved by whatever conservatives have to say about his policies or opinions, but I’d like to think it would nettle him, even if just a little, to know that someone out there believes he’s the kind of guy who would get fired from the M&M factory for throwing away all the W’s.

HAW!

Hooters bans San Diego mayor Bob “Horn Dog” Filner from its establishments.

Of course they did. Can you see Filner in a place like Hooters? He’d be the Human Octopus.

The humercenarians

Have the Clintons ever done anything in the way of humanitarian work that was not ultimately linked to the promotion of their personal interests? Probably not, says Tim Stanley over at the Telegraph, who commends a recent article in the NYT for its takedown of the Clinton Foundation, and provides some useful context of his own:
The Clintons have never been able to separate the impulses to help others and to help themselves, turning noble philanthropic ventures into glitzy, costly promos for some future campaign (can you remember a time in human history when a Clinton wasn't running for office?). And their "Ain't I Great?!" ethos attracts the rich and powerful with such naked abandon that it ends up compromising whatever moral crusade they happen to have endorsed that month.
Well, charity begins at home, as they say.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Outbreak of severe coulrophobia in Missouri

Not only has the rodeo clown in the Obama mask been banned for life from the Missouri state fair (as I mentioned yesterday), but there are now calls for a DOJ “investigation”, and mandatory “sensitivity training”.

I cannot remember where I read it, but someone recently posited that the reason liberals are outraged over this – let’s be honest about it – pretty mild mockery of the president is because they know their guy is weak and thin-skinned and generally feckless, and even trivial barbs are likely to puncture the balloon of fantasy that has carried his career into the dizzying heights. Which all reminds me of this story by G.K. Chesterton, in which the author pokes fun at the idea of the Nietzschean superman (or, as we might say these days, “lightworker”).

I also stumbled upon something that explains (or partially explains) my distaste for many politicians, particularly of the liberal stripe. It’s called the “uncanny valley” effect: “a hypothesis in the field of human aesthetics which holds that when human features look and move almost, but not exactly, like natural human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.” Gore, Schumer, Reid, Pelosi. They look and move - and speak - almost like humans, but not…quite.

Say...

...I mentioned that I now have a granddaughter, didn't I? For some reason, I'm thinking that I might have forgotten to make an announcement.

She's the daughter of #1 Son, the eminent Virginia tattooist, and her name is Magdalen (Maggie) Lee, now 14 months old.



Ah, yes, that's the classic Paco family expression, alright: a little shifty, with an eye toward the main chance.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

"Dudeoir" photography?

I don't know if the human race is destined to die out, but I'll keep a good thought.

Assortment

So, a rodeo clown in Missouri receives a lifetime ban from the state fair because he wore an Obama mask. The outrage seems a little selective, to me.

Now, a small, but classy, thing for the president to do would be to intercede on the clown’s behalf. Unfortunately, Obama, though small, is not at all classy, so that ain’t gonna happen.

* * * * * *

Ok, guys, I take that as a firm promise: “Morsi supporters in Egypt pledge to die rather than disband protest”.

California: where every prospect pleases and man alone is vile.

Thank God Bush is gone, and we now have things in the Middle East under control (really, really under control).

Wrong again, Al.

Well, yeah, that ought to help people lose weight, through the simple expedient of depriving them of their appetite.

Just curious: did Gabriel Heatter interview, say, Heinrich Himmler or maybe Hermann Göring during the height of WWII?

Common Cents has the video of Sean Hannity interviewing Mark Levin about the latter’s new book, The Liberty Amendments.

Swampy may well have just discovered the supposedly non-existent “free lunch”.

36 Chambers provides some exquisitely sophisticated stick-man humor.

Isophorone’s blog posts are woefully infrequent, and I totally missed this one, but I link it now, very belatedly, because his wit deserves a wider audience (if my 12 or so regular readers actually qualify as a “wider” audience).

That's the old Viking spirit!

Danes decide to continue serving pork in hospitals and kindergartens, regardless of the opposition from, er, Presbyterians.

(H/T: Captain Heinrichs)

Monday, August 12, 2013

What, did he miss the plane?

Why did the First Dog need his own personal Osprey to carry him to Martha’s Vineyard?

Follow-up question: how did Barry become the American Sun King?


"Sequester this, peasants!"

The Republican establishment’s brilliant rebranding strategy



Yeah, that ought to work (H/T: Moonbattery).

Meanwhile, that pesky Ted Cruz just won’t stick to the script.

The best thing to come out of Arkansas since Bill Clinton

I kid. This is much better than Bill Clinton: “12-Year-Old Discovers 5-Carat Diamond”.

Smart power

As in, “Ouch, that smarts!

Monday movie

What do you have to do to get a little service around here? Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall find out in Open Range.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sunday funnies

Bad hair day.

Man brews beer using yeast harvested from his own beard (er, I'll have a Heineken, thanks).

The difference between cats and dogs.

A better plan for airport security?

Slow news day at the Guardian.

Otis buys a horse.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Friday, August 9, 2013

Now, that's what I call downsizing

Man converts dumpster into home.

Happy Feet Friday

Helen Forrest performs Skylark, with a little help from Harry James and his band.


Thursday, August 8, 2013

Are you BRINGING IT?

Ace of Spades is stomping all over Piers Morgan (and I am lovin' it!)

An inspirational religious story

From atheist, Allahpundit (he's nothing if not evenhanded).

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Colinoscopy

I’m beginning to think that the primary result of the evolution of social media is the creation of more opportunities for people to make complete fools of themselves. George Neumayr at the American Spectator discusses Colin Powell’s ludicrous cyber-canoodling with Romanian diplomat Corina Cretu (Try reading Corina’s emails out loud in a Greta Garbo voice; it’s more fun that way. Even better, considering the eccentric spelling and grammar, give it a Carmen Miranda delivery. And for Powell, I’m thinking perennially disappointed suitor and baffled dufus, Ralph Bellamy).

Welcome to Zimbabwe’s blacks-only stock exchange

You know Robert Mugabe, of course, as the criminal lunatic who was recently re-elected as president of Zimbabwe. Now, meet two of his henchman, Saviour Kasukawere and Psychology Maziwisa, who, in the zeal of their nationalist and racial obsessions, are in the process of setting up a highly exclusive stock exchange. Judging by those names, it looks like both the secular and non-secular factions of Zimbabwean politics are now united in their hallucinations.

Think I’ll change my name to Moses P. Chiropractic and see if I can’t score a government job over there (although I’m going to need a melanin implant).

I’m so confused

So, does Obama think it would be beneficial for more people to die in terrorist attacks than in automobile accidents, or just what, exactly?
“The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately”. [emphasis mine – Paco].

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This will probably become SOP under ObamaCare

95-year-old WWII hero in nursing home refuses surgery, becomes agitated, and winds up getting killed by police armed with tasers, a shotgun loaded with beanbags, and a riot shield.

Feel good story of the day

“A gun in the hands of a good person”.

The threat comes not from a conqueror astride a war horse…

…but from ten thousand busybodies on Shetland ponies. Kevin Williamson, at NRO:
But the United States is not going to fall for a strongman government. Instead of delegating power to a would-be president-for-life, we delegate it to a bureaucracy-without-death. You do not need to install a dictator when you’ve already had a politically supercharged permanent bureaucracy in place for 40 years or more. As is made clear by everything from campaign donations to the IRS jihad, the bureaucracy is the Left, and the Left is the bureaucracy. Elections will be held, politicians will come and go, but if you expand the power of the bureaucracy, you expand the power of the Left, of the managers and minions who share Barack Obama’s view of the world. Barack Obama isn’t the leader of the free world; he’s the front man for the permanent bureaucracy, the smiley-face mask hiding the pitiless yawning maw of total politics.
H/T: BC.

Is the Obama administration being played?

An interesting take on the recent spike in terrorist threats from Powerline.

Kellogg's to buy New York Times

In a stunning follow-up to the purchase of the Washington Post by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the Kellogg Company has bought the New York Times and will move the newspaper's headquarters to Battle Creek, Michigan. Jim Jenness, chairman of the breakfast foods giant, revealed the takeover at a press conference today.

"We're excited to bring the Gray Lady into the Kellogg's family", Jenness said. "And it's only appropriate that we give her a new name. So, please, everybody welcome the new paper of record, Liberal-Frosted Journo-Bits!"

Oh, it's coming. You know it's coming.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Governor Chris Christie is the fattest political figure in the country

Oops! Did I say “fattest”? My bad. I meant “hottest”.

No doubt, a Sopranos-style faux tough guy attitude may well trump political principle in today’s Republican reality show environment. It is time – indeed, past time – for conservatives to openly revolt against the Rove/big donors/ McCain-Graham-Bush wing of the party. I can accept – sort of – that someone like Christie may be the best the party can do in New Jersey, for now. As a model for the party at large, however, he is manifestly unsuitable – not just for his squishy RINOism, but also for his tendency to let personal ambition and petty animus take precedence over the greater good. One John McCain is more than enough, thanks.

Beyond the pale

Some insightful observations from Café Hayek on the way we ought to start looking at budding politicians:
Perhaps our next big step toward being even more civilized – a step that has yet to be taken by a minimally sufficient number of people – will be when we come to regard those who lust to hold political power as being ethically indistinguishable from pickpockets, shoplifters, and card sharks. Our civilization will leap forward if and when it finally comes to pass that the young person who announces to his or her family a desire to enter politics is regarded by his or her family in the same way that mom, dad, Aunt Dolly, and Uncle Jimmy today would regard a young person who announces his or her ambition to become a successful house burglar.
Via Monty at Ace of Spades, whose periodic “Doom” reports are always a must-read.

I love baseball

I learn something new about the game all the time.

Hey, glad to help out

“Gun Crimes decline as Gun Sales Surge in Virginia”.

Monday movie

Inspector Clouseau demonstrates the importance of setting priorities.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Sunday funnies

Hey, the federal agency where I work is full of 'em.

Chinese traffic cops attempt to save their bacon.

If you don't mind looking like an idiot, here's a novel way to quit smoking.

Before there was Sharknado, there was Piranhaconda.

Hyacinth has a spot of dog trouble.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Assortment

Gee, if Benghazi is a phony scandal, I wonder what a real one looks like (here's another way of looking at it).

The New York Times and its inherent biases (does a fish "feel" wetness?)

Democrat history: down the memory hole.

The ballad of Carlos Danger.

Historic photo.

Inland. I must keep moving further inland.

Suddenly, I'm feeling very dumb.

Please, fellow Virginians, do not put Clinton stooge Terry McAuliffe in the governor's mansion.

Stress relief: a little submachine gun fun with the excellent Hickock45.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Happy Feet Friday

Some live, and lovely, ballad work from Les Paul and Mary Ford.



Thursday, August 1, 2013

The GOP establishment

Illustrated.

There’ll never be another Reagan, but we could certainly use someone with his vision and determination today. A genuine conservative who looks upon the Republican Party these days can only shake his head in contempt. McCain, Graham, Rove, Boehner. A host of pygmies do not add up to a giant.

I think one of the main differences between Democrats and Republicans – and I am talking about the professional class of politicians, most especially the elected ones – is that Democrats never feel that they have to be in a majority to make a difference, whereas Republicans (at least the current crop) seem to feel that if they don’t have solid control over at least one legislative chamber and the White House (or both legislative houses) they are utterly powerless.

Now, Democrats will fight tooth and nail to get what they want, undermine the opposition at every turn, and, even when indisputably in the minority, keep the pot on the boil in order to be ready, at any time, for the main chance. Much of what they subscribe to is tragically wrong, and some of it is stone-cold evil, but they do believe. Belief is important. Open, uncompromising commitment to ideals is important. Ideas matter – bad ones, too, because they are sometimes amazingly popular, and the only way to effectively combat bad ideas is with good ones.

Which brings us to the Republican Party, or rather, its “elite”. Against the ominous juggernaut of the nanny state, the national suicide pact known as ObamaCare, the usurpation of congressional authority and the destruction of constitutional rights by an imperial president, the disastrous fiscal policy, the fox-in-the-henhouse regime at the DOJ, the Republicans are offering…what, exactly? The last time I checked, a disconcerting number of them seemed to be obsessed with helping the Democratic Party acquire millions of new voters through the implementation of an amnesty scheme. And when they’re not doing that, they’re busy trying to undermine the handful of genuine conservatives, like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, who are attempting to rein in the excesses of a government that is growingly dangerously large and out of control. “Yes, yes”, the elite seem to say, “all in good time. Mustn’t do anything rash, however; we need to wait until we have overwhelming numbers. Then you’ll see some action.”

Swell. A whole officer corps made up of McClellans. And assuming they do ever have the upper hand in numbers – an increasingly doubtful prospect – what will they do with their power? My guess is, very little, indeed. The Republican elite is all about tinkering around the edges, not wholesale reform. They don’t really believe in anything but their own incumbency. And yet, what good is it to be an incumbent - sitting in your posh office in the nation’s capital, well away from the madding crowd of your constituents, luxuriating in prestige and privilege – if the cool kids at the Washington Post and Politico and CNN are going to disturb your equanimity by saying mean things about you? That eventuality is simply not to be borne.

Completely self-defeating, of course. It takes votes to win elections, and if the only thing the Republicans have to offer is discounted, “just as good”, factory-second socialism lifted from the Democrats’ scratch and dent table , the “independents” who like big government are going to go ahead and choose the Democrats’ flashy designer version, and the conservatives are going to stay home, or start their own party. It is simply not reasonable to expect substantial numbers of people to rally around a banner reading “Me, too!”

To be rigorously fair, I may be overstating the extent of the Republican elite’s insouciance about the growth of Big G. It’s possible that their hearts secretly throb with a passionate love for our constitutional rights and our traditions of personal freedom, but that they have decided, in a misguided excess of realpolitik, to bide their time against the advent of developments more favorable to ultimate victory. Perhaps they plan, after a long period of near-dormancy, to burst upon the scene in overwhelming numbers and to sing in one loud, unified voice as they roll, unstoppable, across the land. In which case I submit that it would be more honest for the GOP to exchange the elephant for the cicada as its symbol. Unfortunately, the motto, “We shall return – after eating dirt for 13 years or so”, strikes me as being somewhat uninspiring as a clarion call to arms.

I confess: at this stage, I am more sanguine about the survival of conservatism as a political movement, than I am about the survival of the Republican Party. Leftism is a congeries of fantasy, sinfulness, violence and mental illness; while nature will not permanently abide it, nevertheless, much damage can be done, and many lives wasted or destroyed, as long as it is in the ascendency. If the Republican Party continues to serve as an enabler of leftist metastasis, then the Republican Party deserves to die.

Free advice to Anthony Weiner

Dude, rent one of these and use it as your campaign bus. You’ll win in a landslide. Or, at least, you’ll win by a significant margin. Worst case scenario, you ‘ll barely eke out a victory.

Ok, you might not win at all, but at least you’ll leave us laughin’.

Oh, wait. We’re already laughing. Never mind…

There is one law for us…

…and another law for them.