Happy New Year!

It's Miller time...



Ann Miller, that is.

The Paco Command Center wishes each and every one of you a happy and prosperous new year!

Obama apparently wanted an even bigger Democrat loss

Barry’s “frustrated” that Democrats didn’t run on his “great record”.

I wonder if anyone even tried to tell him that it was his own stank that sunk the Democrats back in November. Not that it would have done any good. To quote a great line from a book I’m reading, “It don’t matter which end of a jackass you talk to, ain’t nuthin’ goin’ in”.

R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. lobs one over the plate and still gets the strike

Imagine that you have crashed a banquet held to celebrate the life and achievements of Bill Clinton. Imagine, further, that you are surrounded by the flower of the Democrat Party: actors, high-level political operators, wealthy donors, and glamorous hangers-on. Finally, imagine that in answer to a question from one of the guests, you sarcastically remark that you are the author of Finnegan’s Wake and that…the people at your table – one of whom is Irish - all believe you. Meet the Clinton brain trust.

Balloonkrieg!

A South Korean activist has vowed to float DVD's of The Interview into North Korea in the near future.

Cops' lives matter, too

This sort of thing has become ominously common, lately.

You've got to hand it to Obama

He almost always goes for the big lie.

“Hate” crimes are giving hate a bad name

Victor Davis Hanson explores the labyrinth of our society’s increasingly insane obsession with political correctness.

When justice becomes nothing more than a totem warred over by hostile tribes, then it really is time to turn the lights down low, lock those doors and windows, and walk among strangers bearing the old Marine adage in mind: “Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here..."Fore!"

The preshizzle drizzled on a couple's wedding by insisting on playing golf on a course where the ceremony was planned. Allahpundit brings the funny:

I’m tempted to call this The Most Obama Thing Ever but realistically it is and can only be number two on that list. To make it to number one, O would have had to tee off while standing underneath the couple’s trellis, the ball perched atop a champagne glass engraved with their initials, while the bride sobbed quietly in the background.

Monday movie

Humphrey Bogart is a temperamental artist who has a habit of murdering his wives, and Barbara Stanwyck is in danger of joining the club in The Two Mrs. Carrolls.

Sunday funnies

Close call in Alaska.

I'm amazed Hallmark hasn't caught up with these holidays, yet.

Scene stealers.

Laugh this one off, Jihad Boy (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

So, what are the hipsters eating these days?

There are greater and lesser douchebags...

...and then there is Max Blumenthal, who resides at the summit of douchebaggery, all by himself.

Happy Feet Friday

Forget the sleigh; Santa's travelin' these days in a boogie-woogie choo-choo train.

A blessed Christmas to all

From all of us here at the Paco Command Center, our best wishes for a merry Christmas!

Update: Sad news: "Santa Mistaken for Passenger Jet, Shot Down Over Ukraine".

Update II: I hope Santa had time to fill this order before being shot down:



(Updates courtesy of Bad Blue Guns).

What ho, Tuppy!

A bizarre form of vandalism has broken out called “Wodehousing”.

Maybe I’ll form a street gang in my area, and this will be our graffiti. Watch out Crips and Bloods! What you lookin’ at, MS-13? Don’t mess with the Roderick Spodes! (Or rather [shooting cuffs, and twirling silver-knobbed cane], “I say, you young slabs of damnation, bear in mind that if you seek to impede, retard or otherwise obstruct the Spodes in exercising suzerainty over the neighborhood, you will shortly find yourselves in the proverbial soup, what? Base over apex. Suffering the slings and arrows of something –something, I mean to say.”

Update: Or maybe I'll call them the Black Shorts...

“Don’t you ever read the papers? Roderick Spode is the founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a Fascist organization better known as the Black Shorts. His general idea, if he doesn’t get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which he and his followers indulge, is to make himself a Dictator.’

‘Well, I’m blowed!’ I was astounded at my keenness of perception. The moment I had set eyes on Spode, if you remember, I had said to myself ‘What ho! A Dictator!’ and a Dictator he had proved to be. I couldn’t have made a better shot, if I had been one of those detectives who see a chap walking along the street and deduce that he is a retired manufacturer of poppet valves named Robinson with rheumatism in one arm, living at Clapham.

‘Well, I’m dashed! I thought he was something of that sort. That chin…Those eyes…And, for the matter of that, that moustache. By the way, when you say “shorts”, you mean “shirts”, of course.’

‘No. By the time Spode formed his association, there were no shirts left. He and his adherents wear black shorts.’

‘Footer bags, you mean?’

‘Yes.’

‘How perfectly foul.”

- The Code of the Woosters

The increasingly dog-eared race card

Radical racist white guy Dr. Thomas Sowell breaks out the clue-by-four again to bat down some stubbornly persistent myths involving black people and the police. A sample:

Many in the media and among the intelligentsia cherish the romantic tale of an “us” against “them” struggle of beleaguered ghetto blacks defending themselves against the aggression of white policemen. The gullible include both whites who don’t know what they are talking about and blacks who don’t know what they are talking about either, because they never grew up in a ghetto. Among the latter are the President of the United States and his Attorney General.

Sure, why not?

They’ve apparently been running the government in Argentina for years, so it just makes sense.

Hey, great idea!

Jane Fonda is reportedly building a shrine to herself.

I think I'll build one, too. Not to Fonda, of course; to Pacoism. Commenters are invited to make sacred offerings of cash, gold and Chick-Fil-A discount coupons.

Joe Cocker, RIP

Intense rock singer Joe Cocker has passed away at age 70.

I loved his soulful, often frantic music. Here's my personal favorite (really dig the piano of Artie Butler):



And here's a lesser known tune, which features a curious dig at trade unionism (third verse: "You can stuff your trade Union bull-shit up your kyber/But you can't have my soul/Cannot have my soul today").

Assortment

Your go-to post for ammunition in dispelling the myth that 97% of scientists believe climate change is man-made and dangerous.

Roger L. Simon, a former leftist who made the journey to the right years ago, locates the seat of racism in American society today, and it’s right where readers of this blog would expect it to be.

New York’s Mayor de Blasio continues to shine – like the proverbial dead mackerel by moonlight. God have mercy on the souls of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, two of New York’s finest. And may He comfort their friends and families.

It doesn’t matter: polls or no polls, fair polls or skewed polls, I’m not giving up my guns (and Second Amendment or no, same comment; the Second Amendment acknowledged an existing right, it did not create a new one).

Tom Coburn’s weird man-crush on Obama.

The number one domestic problem that needs to be dealt with...

...is still ObamaCare.

The Christmas card as a sign of the times

Courtesy of John Snyder (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

Monday movie

Think you've got an unreasonable boss? Imagine being General Erwin Rommel trying to give Hitler some bad news.

Sunday funnies

Turning a nuisance into an opportunity.



If you're lacking the stamina to do a lot of decorating this year, take the lazy man's way out.

Seen any bad movies lately?

More interesting Gifs (particularly recommended is item #4 from Paco Electronics: the Pointless-O-Matic).

Haw!


Surrendering can get to be an awfully bad habit...

You just know it could have happened this way

President Obama at the annual White House Hanukkah reception (H/T: Larry Sheldon).

Happy Feet Friday

The fabulous Berry brothers perform one of their phenomenal dance numbers.

The difference between hip and cool

Bob Belvedere nails it (with an assist from Sarah Palin).

Even less believable than usual

Obama: I'm Jewish in my soul.

Fine, fine. You're Jewish in your soul. It's the anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian jerk on the outside we've got to worry about.

Haw!

You will no doubt recall the post from yesterday dealing with Michelle Obama, and her kvetching about someone asking her to get something off the shelf at Target. Doug Powers has absolutely the last word on the subject:

Cuba is still very much un-libre

The Obama administration has found another despotic regime to truckle to, and, as usual, has gotten everything wrong, from the substance to the timing.

But don’t take my word for it; check out this condemnation of Obama’s Cuba policy in the Washington Post, of all places.

One wonders what’s next. Maybe the preshizzle will order Che Guevara’s visage added to Mount Rushmore, or have a statue of Salvador Allende erected in front of OAS headquarters in Washington. How about kicking in with an aircraft carrier or two in a joint China/U.S. invasion of Taiwan, or secretly agreeing to Turkish suzerainty over Israel (yeah, good luck with that one, Barry). If we had whimsically decided to pick some over-educated third world malcontent, seething with resentment over colonialism and besotted with Marxist clap-trap , to be our president, we could hardly have done worse than Barack Obama, for whom America has never been anything but an accidental, and not particularly desirable, birthplace.

Our biggest national prison scandal?

“Who isn’t in them.” A typically insightful essay by Kevin D. Williamson which explores the stench emanating from the unholy nexus of bureaucracy, progressive politicians and public employee unions.

Who could ask for anything more?

Doug Giles: "All I Want Is Peace On Earth, Goodwill Towards Man And A Machine Gun".

These people are unbelievable

In an absurd attempt to lecture Americans, once again, about racism, Barry and Michelle are really grasping at straws in trying to characterize their own experiences as emblematic.

First, Michelle:

“I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn’t anything new.”

Huh? Why is this necessarily an instance of racism? Maybe the person was short, or afflicted with arthritis, and was simply giving Mrs. Obama some credit for being a normal person who wouldn't mind helping a stranger in a small way. Also - let's face it - Michelle is built along the lines of an industrial crane, so why not ask her to help you get something off the shelf if you can't reach it, or it looks too heavy?

And then there's BHO:

“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys.”

Really? There's no black male - no black male - of the president's age who's a professional who hasn't suffered this indignity? I doubt that this even happened to Obama. And if it did, look where he's lived; mostly Chicago and Washington. Odds are that if a white person ever presumed to think of Obama as a valet parking attendant, it was probably some liberal politician or lobbyist.

Pathetic.

Anyhow, Barry and Mrs. O, now you know how the military feels.

Update: Seems like Mrs. O has told this story before, and has only recently become aware of its racist vibe.

Don't worry. Based on some of his recent idiotic comments, I suspect the barrel is u-shaped.

"Bush fires starting pistol for 2016".

Time for Weepy John to cry him a river and float away

Image courtesy of Josh Berstein.

Taliban apparently trying to out-ISIS ISIS

"Taliban storm Pakistani school, killing 126". Most of the dead are children and teenagers.

Update: Now 141 confirmed dead.

Poetic license expires

"ENGLISH PROF ARRESTED at NY Protest: Charged w/ Assault on Police, Rioting – Had Backpack Full of Hammers".

I guess if all you have is a hammer, every cop begins to look like a nail.

As the linked post indicates, Linsker is a "published poet". Here, try a sample.

Mark Levin vs. the Vichy Republicans

I was able to listen to a little of Mark Levin's radio broadcast tonight, and he was pouring boiling oil on Boehner, McConnell and company for their total uselessness. And it was well deserved boiling oil.


The Boehner-McConnell GOP transformation project is nearly complete.

Or, to put it another way...



Update: Yet another version (H/T: R-Man, in the comments)



Cartoon courtesy of Legal Insurrection

Muslim terrorist takes hostages in Sydney

Tim Blair is updating.

Update: The siege is over. Perpetrator and two hostages dead. Iranian/pervert/murderer/Muslim cleric Haron Monis has been identified as the terrorist.

Update II: Wait for it..."Tensions surface as Australian Muslims fear Sydney siege backlash".

Monday movie

Irene Dunne and Dean Jagger discover a very unusual botanical specimen in the amusing fantasy film It Grows on Trees.

Sunday funnies

On the dangers of dining out in Saskatoon.

Well, that sort of proves the point, doesn't it?

I'm sure there must be a good reason to always smell like you've been tippling, but I can't figure out what it is (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

This may not be a complete list, but it's a good start: the 39 dumbest things that happened in 2014 (Another H/T to Captain Heinrichs).

Back to driving school.

Having trouble finding a job in Obama's America? Here are some interesting opportunities in China.

Turkey terrorizes somewhat less than intrepid reporter...

Dog bites man

"Obama: 'I Spend Most of My Time Watching ESPN in the Morning'”.

Quite possibly the least surprising news item this week. I mean, we already knew he didn't spend his time governing.

Looks like conservatives are going to have to fight, and win, a civil war in their own party before taking on the Democrats

We've got a long row to hoe.

Happy Feet Friday

Brrrr! It's positively frigid here in Occupied Northern Virginia. Time to let in a little of that tropical vibe, good and hotted up by Tommy Dorsey and the boys as they play Hawaiian War Chant.

Splendid word coinage from Smitty

"Boehnerdict Arnold".

Elsewhere, John Hayward looks at the “Cromnibus” bill. Money quote:

The GOP leadership can get through another year with its favorite wheezy excuse for not standing up and fighting for anything: Our hands are tied.  Sure, the knots are a bit clumsy, but that’s to be expected when you tie your own hands.

Barack Obama, Doctor of Divinity

In a recent speech, Barry quoted that famous line from the Bible about not throwing stones at glass houses. Oh, wait...

Here are some other Bible verses the Reverend Obama may want to use going forward:

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Measure twice, cut once.

Keep your powder dry.

If you drink, don't drive.

A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Probably not

Ed Driscoll considers the longing of some on the left for a Tea Party movement, and is highly skeptical of the likelihood of something like this happening.

I agree. The Tea Party was (and is) a genuine grassroots movement dedicated to changing the course of politics in America by challenging the ruling class (which consists of Democrat and Republican establishments). In that sense, it is revolutionary. So-called populist movements on the Left aren’t interested in changing course; they simply want to get to the worker’s paradise more quickly, and thus are concerned only with the pace of the march on the road to serfdom.

This is why the Tea Party might ultimately launch a successful revolution, but any leftist version will never be able to do anything but aid and abet a coup.

Professor A**hole

The modern day Harvard Man.

In short, the perfesser got overcharged by $4 for Chinese food and has threatened legal action.

After looking at the photos of both men (Harvard and the restaurant manager), I suggest a mixed martial arts, cage death match to settle the matter. Winner gets to display the loser’s skull in the window of his restaurant.

Good point

Amy Miller at Legal Insurrection wonders why we can have national “conversations” about everything except for militant Islam.

Militant Muslims have killed more innocent people than have American police officers and raped more women than have many generations of frat boys. So, let’s chat.

Just a reminder

The government is still piling up debt and an increase in interest rates could eventually turn the whole country into Detroit.

That is all.

Hey, Presto!

Amnesty: it's like magic, I guess.

Seems that Barry never issued a formal executive order.

So how did the president communicate his wishes to the Department of Homeland Security? Sources have revealed to Paco World News Daily (PWND) that the president pulled off his unconstitutional order via a simple document which was stuck to the door of the refrigerator in the DHS executive break room. A photo of this document was obtained surreptitiously and appears below:

Interesting idea

Ace suggested the other day that, while we can’t vote all of our a**holes out of office, we can target a half dozen or so wobbly Republicans in the House and dump them by voting for the Democrat opposition. This wouldn’t be enough for Democrats to take back a majority, but it would send a strong message to pusillanimous time-servers like Boehner (who I nominate as Target #1) that there is a price to pay for ignoring the clearly-expressed wishes of their own constituents.

BTW, I’ve often referred to Boehner and others of his ilk as “time-servers”, but I think this is only partly apt. It’s true that they’re poltroons who are afraid that bedrock principles are impediments to more important things – like turning elective office into a cushy career – but it’s also true that they are, indeed, willing to fight for some policies; unfortunately, those policies are all too frequently the same things the Democrats want – amnesty being the prime current example – and these Vichy Republicans work in an underhanded way to provide genuine support for the concept, while blowing a lot of smoke about how the concept is implemented. Boehner et al don’t really have a problem with amnesty, because it’s what the big RINO donors want. These congressmen are simply in a bit of a huff because of the way Obama is bringing it about, so they use the constitutional overreach of the president to flog the rubes into voting for RINO politicians, and then these same RINO politicians wind up signing off on Obama’s policy anyway. Therefore, they’re not simply time-servers who do nothing for fear of their own shadows, but active enablers of the progressive assault on America who grease the skids for the country’s leftward shift through a combination of ideological legerdemain and disingenuous political theater.

This is why, for constitutionalists who believe in limited government, RINOs are so much more dangerous than Democrats. No matter how generously a Democrat politician ladles applesauce over his ideas, you simply know that he fundamentally views America as a giant daycare center for moronic children and will govern accordingly. RINOs do not hold voters in significantly higher esteem, but do their devious best to convince the “children” that the little dears are actually in charge, and that they, the RINO politicians, are merely their servants (even if ineffectual servants because of the Big Bad Wolf in the White House).

To put it another way, a Democrat has no reservations about boldly jumping out and yelling “Stand and deliver!”, while a RINO insidiously swindles you. It is little more than the difference between the highwayman and the receiver of stolen goods – except that the former will always be able to cultivate a certain rakish, romantic aura, while the latter will increasingly be viewed as nothing but a shifty, calculating “fence”, too white-livered to face the risk entailed in committing the original larceny, but perfectly willing to take a cut of the profits - money and power - through backroom machinations.

Which is also why Democrats will continue to enjoy an edge in elections as long as the present Republican establishment maintains its dominance in its own party (recent midterm results notwithstanding; after all, one can’t always count on having an insufferable boob as president).The highwayman is genuinely attractive to his base, given his base’s hazy morality on the subject of mine and thine, and the average progressive’s feeling (albeit often mistaken) that his own property and privileges are secure, no matter what. The fence, on the other hand, can only succeed for a time by concealing his true character, motivations and activities, which are inherently repugnant to a decisive segment of the base, and when discovered, generally lead to a widespread withdrawal from the political process by discouraged GOP voters at very inconvenient times – i.e., during elections, and especially during national elections.

Moral of this rambling post? Simple: if we wind up with Hillary Victrix in 2016, it will largely be due to the invertebrate wing of the Republican Party and its failure, or unwillingness, to offer any credible resistance to the excesses of the human preposterosity currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Monday movie

Ah, the good old days, when bank robbers dressed for the occasion. Steve Cochran and company pull a heist in Highway 301.

Get a jump-start on repressing your appetite before those Christmas holiday calories begin piling up...

...by contemplating a movie in the works that deals with Barry and Michelle's first date.

Frankly, I can't think of anything more potentially stomach churning than a flick about these two up-and-coming political shakedown artists and their inaugural canoodling session. If you want real presidential romantic drama, turn to Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel.

Now here's a Democrat who's impressive

Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County has a few sharp words for liberals like AG Eric Holder and NYC mayor DeBlasio.

Sunday funnies

Beer: it now features in an athletic event (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

Do you have a skinny liberal friend who looks like he could use a little meat on those bones? He (or, as the case may be, she) ought to love this: canned unicorn meat.

Having second thoughts about installing a wood-burning stove.

Great Christmas gifts that will have your friends and relatives saying (or perhaps yelling) "you really shouldn't have."

That wild man of the worldwide web, Tim T, has become a bee-keeper. What could possibly go wrong?

I figured maybe he was beginning to choke on his own lies

But apparently it's just acid reflux.

Nice shootin', Tex

Austin Police Sgt. Adam Johnson nails shooter from over a 100 yards away - while holding the reins of two horses.

A different perspective

A black caller to a radio program had some refreshing comments to make about white protestors and the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Happy Feet Friday

The great blues slide guitarist Elmore James performs his classic, Dust My Broom.

Judas goat

John Boehner leads Republicans into a another pointless gesture.

Update: Yeah, what Smitty said...

It’s almost as if there is really one Progressive Party, with Democrat and Republican wings, that are doing more jockeying for power than their job.

Thanks for giving us a heads up, Jeb

As tough guy actor Mike Mazurki said in The Horn Blows at Midnight, "If only I hadda knew!" Jeb Bush says "he will not pander to his party’s conservative base in the primaries."

You know what else he said? "Republican candidates must be willing to 'lose the primary to win the general, without violating your principles.'”

Well, Jeb, I've got a couple of problems with that. In the first place, you RINOs always expect the conservative candidates to back down in the primaries, not the establishment toffs; in fact, you and your ilk have been known to torpedo conservative rivals, using the kind of dirty tricks one normally associates with Democrats (remember Chris McDaniel?). Secondly, a number of Republican establishmentarians barely squeaked by in the elections this year, and Karl Rove shut down one of his PACs due to its anemic performance in heaving GOP time servers into office. So we're talking about a thin market when it comes to the public demand for politicians whose main asset is the ability to work and play well with Democrats (who routinely steal their lunch anyway).

And frankly, I'd be scared that you really might not violate your principles - which, as far as I can tell, are centered on Common Core, amnesty, and that bitch-goddess of vaporish seat warmers everywhere, "pragmatism".

Anyhow, I'm perfectly willing for you to "lose the primary", as you might put it, even if it also means losing the general, because people like you are nothing but teeth in the wheel of the progressive ratchet.

Again, thank you for your transparency.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition

"A minister in Valley Center, Kan. defended himself and his family on Sunday morning by shooting a would-be intruder in the head."

The unserious president

Obama has apparently invited Al Sharpton to a meeting on race relations in the wake of the Ferguson shooting/looting/riots.

The only way this would make any real sense would be if Sharpton were being held up as Exhibit A of what’s wrong with race relations in America today. But we all know that isn’t the case. The Community-Organizer-in-Chief has found another cause he can use for the purposes of misdirection, and the Rev is the perfect smoke bomb for the occasion.

Yes, Sharpton is an evil clown, a semi-literate buffoon who has incited violence, championed frauds, and cheated everyone from his landlord to the IRS. But he gets attention and respect from the President of the United States Democratic base, and that is genuinely alarming, particularly since we are stuck with this pandering panjandrum for another two years. Too much more of Barry’s “post-racial” awesomeness, and our cities are likely to turn into smoking ruins.

Just a guess

But I believe that if everyone could afford a Rolex watch, limousine social warriors like Jay-Z and Ashton Kutcher wouldn’t be caught dead in a ditch with one.

Monday movie

Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) are two tough lawmen in Appaloosa (based on Robert B. Parker's novel of the same name, part of an excellent series).

Sunday funnies

I'll believe that when I smell it.

Sasquatch found!

Fortunately for the victims, some criminals don't seem to grasp all of the possible ramifications of this Facebook thing.

Just in time for Christmas: the strip-club playset (from the same company: the superlab playset, for you Breaking Bad fans).

Happy Feet Friday

Artie Shaw and the boys heat up the Carioca in this live recording.



On quite another "note", so to speak, here's the Schnickelfritz band from 1942 playing an appropriate tune for the Thanksgiving holidays, Turkey in the Straw.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes to Paco Nation on this Thanksgiving day!

Update: My Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears today, so there's at least one thing I'm thankful for.

Update II: I was going to write something about the obnoxious lefty tradition of instructing the faithful in how to propagandize their presumably oafish relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table, but the insightful Mr. Bingley has already done the job, so over to you, sir.

Mama bear avenges her cubs

An Afghan woman reportedly has taken up arms against the Taliban for killing her sons, and is making quite a good job of it.

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

You know what? Mug him again!

Liberal self-loather makes excuses for the guys who robbed him at gunpoint:

“Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as ‘thugs?’” asks Friedfeld. “It’s precisely this kind of ‘otherization’ that fuels the problem.”

Note to Mr. and Mrs. Friedfeld: are you sure you want to waste this kind of jack on your precious snowflake?

Assortment (Ferguson edition)

For starters, go to Gateway Pundit and just keep scrolling.

The NYT tries its hand at indirect vigilantism (and in the post linked, don't miss Iowahawk's great Tweet).

Good point: where was the National Guard last night?

If a black cop ever shoots a white guy in my neighborhood, I guess it'll be ok if I steal some neckties from Neiman Marcus, right?

Excuse me, can you repeat that?

Senator Chuck Schumer – DEMOCRAT FROM NEW YORK (!!!) – now says that it was a mistake to pass ObamaCare.

Interesting. What game is this slippery liberal playing? Is he acknowledging that Democrats focused on the wrong issue? Has he run the calculus and found out that the program, as currently structured, is a loser for his party long term? Or is he developing a cunning plan to head off Republican efforts at outright repeal?

One thing’s for sure: such is Schumer’s love for the cameras, we’ll eventually hear more from the horse’s mouth (er, depending on your perspective).

Peggy Noonan: You know, I think the Titanic may not be unsinkable, after all

Jean Kaufman reflects on Peggy Noonan’s unsure grasp of the obvious.

The news doctor takes steps to protect patients from an attack of the vapors

The New York Times deep-sixed some of John Kerry’s comments on the recent terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, apparently finding them insufficiently nuanced for easy consumption by the paper’s progressive clientele.

Actually, I think we’d be satisfied with a car that just didn't smell like puke and cat p*ss

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, President Obama opines that voters are looking for “that new car smell”.

Elsewhere, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is becoming familiar with the smell of a bus undercarriage.

Monday movie

In The Great McGinty, the "multiplier" effect often seen during elections in Democrat-controlled precincts is clearly illustrated.

Sunday funnies

I don't know if the food's any good, but the restaurant names are enticing.

Hey, you can always find another governor.

Gifs of the day.

Superheroes, 16th century style.

Just in time for Christmas, the Kim Kardashian snow-blower.

Here's one groundhog who wasn't afraid of his shadow - or of anything else.

Take a number.

Swampy goes a little Hollywood.

Narcissimo

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
I've got no questions, I know it all,
I'm telling you so you can see,
Ain't no one awesomer than me!

(Image gratefully pinched from Flopping Aces)

New York, New York

If you can make it there...well, it's a miracle, these days.

God bless Canada

When the microphone went out on the singer during the the Star-Bangled Banner at a hockey game, the Canadian crowd finished singing our anthem.

H/T: a great Canadian, John Heinrichs

I've seen this movie before

Il Douche: "All within my omnipotence, nothing outside my omnipotence, nothing against my omnipotence."

Mixed feelings

I guess we should be grateful that Obama is not a truly bloodthirsty tyrant who envisions concentration camps and mass executions. Yet there is undoubtedly something embarrassing about having to endure the dictatorial inclinations of a would-be despot who is so…Let’s see, what’s the phrase I’m looking for?...Oh, yes…There is something singularly embarrassing about living under the reign of an autarch who is so utterly candy-assed . For one thing, what does this say about the opposition? Am I supposed to be impressed that John Boehner is chattering like an indignant squirrel that’s been chased up a tree by a three-legged cat? Sure the squirrel is upset, but his mere squawking isn’t going to bring home the acorns. And what can we expect from Mitch McConnell? It isn’t only his physiognomy that suggests a frog that has narrowly escaped being gigged; there is an aspect of timidity to his temperament that impels him to seek the safety and comfort of the stationary lily pad over the deep and whirling waters of principle.

Well, we shall see. According to some recent reports, Boehner’s lawsuit may actually have legs; however, I continue in my suspicion that they are of the “peg” variety, and made of cheap plywood. Perhaps when all of the new Republican senators and representatives take their seats in January, they will, as James Boswell’s father said of Cromwell in a heated argument with Dr. Johnson, teach this king that he has a joint in his neck (I speak metaphorically, of course). Or possibly our political beclownment will simply continue apace, unimpeded by timeservers bereft of courage and unity. Stay tuned.

Happy Feet Friday

Muddy Waters is a king bee.

Obama apparently sees the rest of us as 320 million extras in his life story

Barry is moving ahead with his plan to ditch constitutional restraints on executive power by declaring amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. If anyone ever needed evidence of this guy's alienation from America and the concept of American exceptionalism, this is it.


"Well played, amigo! Now all you need is a cool uniform."

Update: "It’s not every day that you get to have a ringside seat at the birth of tyranny."

We're still plagued by racism and inequality here in America

I mean, we must be; otherwise Al Sharpton would be in jail.

A sad loss

Susannah Merry Hanson, daughter of Victor Davis Hanson, has died at the age of 27.

May God rest her soul and comfort her grieving family and friends.

Assortment

The Gruberization of America.

Cute, but apparently depraved, young woman claims she's going to marry Charles Manson.

My guess is they'll initially be targeting places with strict gun-control laws: "Islamic State Threatens Slaughter On Western Streets". Might be time to "bump" the ballistics up a notch...



How Ike handled the border problem.

I'm getting too old to keep up. Let's see...heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, metrosexual, and now, lumbersexual.

Taking cyber security into, er, your own hands.

The refreshing Ron Swanson.

Monday movie

Henry Fonda is a no nonsense lawman in Warlock.

Sunday funnies

Probably getting rarer under Michelle O's reign of lunch-terror, but here they are while they're still legal: "10 most amazing pieces of lunch art by parents".

Routine expenses in the City of Glasgow budget: road repair, public building maintenance, personnel, removing traffic cones from the head of the statue of the Duke of Wellington.

Curses! Where was the Paco Enterprises new product team while this guy was dreaming up the bikini car wash?

The long-standing question is still open.

The undertaker's bad day...

Happy Feet Friday

Ella Mae Morse exhorts the milkman to keep the noise down in this song from 1943.

The "Obama whisperer"

Some liberal news outlets have finally gotten around to noticing Obama's strange Valerie Jarrett dependency, as noted by Breitbart's Warner Todd Huston:

In one long ranging piece--The New Republic's "The Obama Whisperer"--Jarrett is described as a schemer who has made it her job to undermine anyone she thinks threatens her position as Obama's main (and some say nearly only) adviser. She is even reported as having essentially chased former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel out of Washington.

The New Republic piece is not a flattering picture of the president's muse. She comes off as cold, calculating, self-promoting, and churlish. She is said to offer insincere, sycophantic compliments to Obama and is presented as the type of person who lashes out, viciously cutting people off at the knees and banishing those seeking to help the president and his administration if she is displeased with their efforts.

Barack Obama: the first U.S. president to require the services of a Groom of the Stool.

A day late

But I can't let Remembrance Day completely get away without relating the story of Sir Thomas MacPherson, a very enterprising Scot who bluffed a German commander into surrendering 23,000 troops in 1944.

(A big tip o' the bonnet to Captain Heinrichs).

Kinda stupid

Three videos have now been uncovered featuring ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber practically crowing about the obtuseness of the American people, and how easy it was to pull the wool over their eyes – which doesn’t exactly make Gruber look like a genius, now, does it? Rather like a burglar who makes off with your cash and jewelry and then posts a selfie on Facebook flashing your grandma’s antique gold necklace and a silver-framed photo of your kids.

But that’s your typical progressive revolutionary, for you: just had to brag about how clever he was.

Update: Haw! Nice going, big mouth!

Congressional Republicans seized Wednesday on controversial comments made by a former health-care consultant to the Obama administration, with one leading House conservative suggesting that hearings could be called in response as part of the GOP effort to dismantle the law in the next Congress and turn public opinion ahead of the 2016 election.

"We may want to have hearings on this," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an influential voice among GOP hardliners and a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in an interview at the Capitol. "We shouldn't be surprised they were misleading us."

Most ignorant Canadian discovered?

Richard Brunt is baffled. He doesn't understand why Obama is so unpopular in the United States. Perhaps it's because he has confused the president with the tooth fairy, and seems never to have heard of places like Russia and the Middle East.

A letter to the editor at the Detroit Free Press (titled “America doesn’t know how good they have it with Obama”) from Richard Brunt, of Victoria, British Columbia, had a strong message for Americans who disapprove of their president.

“When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?”

Brunt began the letter, saying, “Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections.”

He credited Obama with lower[ing] the unemployment rate and lower gas prices.

“America is leading the world once again and respected internationally...

Tell you what, Richard (by the way, may I call you Dick?). I'm all for sending Obama your way right now. We'll make the sacrifice.

Proof positive

Pot makes you stupid.

Michael Roberts' awesomely horrible day

A burglar armed with a knife encounters two gun-toting homeowners in separate epic fails.

Thank God the American people are dopes

Otherwise, government might not be able to do things that are good for them - as ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber recently admitted.



Mr. Crock: "Transparency, Jim? That would be illogical."

Hey, Republicans, here's something you can sink your teeth into

Civil forfeiture laws are being used by law enforcement to literally - and I do mean literally - steal property from citizens.

Thank you, veterans

For your service and your sacrifices.

Monday movie

It is one of the most powerful scenes in Ben-Hur: the moment Jesus brings water to the exhausted Judah Ben-Hur, and the Roman soldier raises a whip to strike Jesus, but lowers his whip in confusion and something like shame when he gazes upon the face of Our Lord.

Obama's two presidential election victories explained

Epidemics, that's what it was: "Virus that 'makes humans more stupid' discovered".

Sunday funnies

Why realtors should be compelled to take a class in photography.

For when you're thirsty and anything (or whatever) will do.

Yeah, I hate when that happens.

We've all heard horror stories about terrible deliverymen, but nothing to compare with this...



If you're going to be top dog at the UN, you should probably learn the difference between Austria and Australia.

Iceberg? What iceberg?

Pelosi and Reid join Obama for a game of shuffleboard on the main deck of the Titanic.

This is the kind of self-delusion one tends to see in politicians who have been in office too long; their monomaniacal obsession with power eventually replaces whatever conscience and common sense they ever had, leaving the corpus intact and ambulant, but the mind and soul nothing but a lump of fossilized amour propre.

Obamasaurus, Pelosisaurus and Dumbasstodon. They belong in a museum.

A great example of prosecutorial zealotry

Unless, of course, you think a guy should get 20 years in prison for throwing some fish back in the water.

Hmmmmm…

Tim Cavanaugh offers up the intriguing possibility of a “stealth” challenger to Hillary Clinton: former Virginia Senator James Webb.

The election's not over until we've heard from Iowahawk

Bob Belvedere has done us all the great favor of collecting some of the master's election-themed Tweets.

Obam-Bam

(H/T: Walla Walla Tea Party Patriots)

Happy Feet Friday

Charlie Christian, Lester Young and Buck Clayton get together on Good Morning Blues.

This is kind of neat

The first known photograph of a human being.

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Obama says, “Massacre? What massacre?”

Barack Obama – rejected by Republicans, Democrats, independents, women, and increasingly by African-Americans – vows to carry on his one-man war against America.

Shame on us if we let one man – especially this man – hold 317 million of us hostage to his pathological narcissism.

Update: Haw! Funniest post-press-conference Tweet comes from Stephen Green: "Dear @The Democrats: You realize you're going to have to play the same role Edith Wilson did after Woodrow's stroke, right?"

What happens next?

I would very much not have to live in interesting times, particularly in an era of around-the-clock politics, where people who simply want to live a normal life wind up having to pay constant attention to the doings of the governing class as a matter of pure self-defense; this is all rather like living in a neighborhood where burglars run rampant, and you can’t sit at your dinner table or watch television without having to keep an ear cocked for the sound of breaking glass in the kitchen, or the sudden squeak coming from the stairs in the dead of night.

And yet if we are to remain free, the price does indeed seem to be eternal vigilance, so I ask the question that appears in the heading: what happens next?

The GOP has scored a famous victory, but if it is ever again to be a viable political party that gets things done (or stops bad things from happening), instead of merely serving as a bucket of cold water that voters occasionally pour over the heads of their Democrat overlords for the purpose of getting their attention, then the Republican Party is going to have to genuinely stand for something, and that “something” can’t be limited to the wish lists of the Chamber of Commerce and wealthy donors (Amnesty! Cheap labor!), or claims of vague, inadequately-defined differentiation from Democratic political candidates – the former is a mercenary betrayal of the base by party pashas interested only in hanging on to their jobs, and the latter is little more than political tribalism (and let’s face it: in any kind of tribal confrontation, Republicans are more likely to be led by a version of F Troop’s Wild Eagle than by a Geronimo or Cochise).

The GOP should focus on first principles: smaller, less intrusive, less costly government; a strong military, and the non-profligate but decisive use of same to confront international threats to the U.S. and its allies; the use of the public purse to restrain an imperial presidency; and the repeal, or effective gutting, of ruinous and unpopular legislation, notably ObamaCare (and at this stage, I don’t care if they repeal the damned thing, or pass a new law entitled the Super-Plus-Awesome-Barack-H-Obama-Memorial-Affordable-Care Act which pretty much converts the program into the equivalent of a gaudy necktie that you throw in a drawer and never look at again).

More impressive to me than the taking of the U.S. Senate is the many gains at the state level across the country – not only because restoring sanity is a project more effectively built from the ground up than from the top down, but also because it deepens the Republican bench in future national political contests. This is molecular change, and it offers the best promise for rejuvenating the party long term.

GOP tramples Obama

The Republicans have won the Senate, and have scored amazing victories in many state races, as well (even here in Virginia, Republican senatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has made a strong showing, although I imagine when they finish counting the votes in Occupied Territory, Warner will probably come out ahead).

I expect that before too long, this victory will start to make a sadly familiar hollow sound, but I intend to enjoy it today, at any rate.

A quick roundup from around the blogosphere:

Prelude to danger.

Democrats repudiated in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.

Unions crap out again in Wisconsin.

Mia Love is first black Republican woman elected to Congress.

Just sayin': 27 senators who supported ObamaCare are gone.



Image courtesy of Brian on Twitter.

When they were handing out butts, Kim Kardashian got more than her fair share

Brains, not so much: "Kim Kardashian has come out for the Dems, and President Obama, on Instagram".

We need to see more of this

Black Republican Elbert Guillory is challenging the Democratic establishment on several fronts.

Hey, you're not losing your old insurance policy

You're experiencing an opportunity to just, you know, find another one.

H/T: Doug Ross

Election day tomorrow

While I don't have any illusions that the GOP will, if it wins the Senate, display many (if any) heroic instances of intestinal fortitude, there is at least the satisfaction to be gained from seeing the execrable Harry Reid lose his job as majority leader. And I'd pay to see the facilities management people prying him out of the leadership chair to which he will likely epoxy his crinkly old ass as a last act of senile defiance.

Also, I fully expect Obama to continue playing the petulant prima donna, waiting for the multitudes to recover their previous worshipful admiration for his boundless awesomeness. Mark my word, he will end his term by sitting in the Oval Office, perhaps surrounded by the last handful of his die-hard supporters, clacking a couple of steel balls in his hand repeatedly, wallowing in paranoid self-pity, his face only lighting up when he recalls an imaginary victory over his detractors ("Ah, but the strawberries! That's where I had them..").

Monday movie

Robert Donat is an English agent who has infiltrated a unit of communist revolutionaries and is attempting to rescue a Russian countess played by Marlene Dietrich.

Sunday funnies

What your pets really think of those silly costumes you make them wear.

Man's, er, best friend. Here are the mug shots...



Too clever by half.

Don't believe everything you see in the movies.

Thank God for that

"Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, the Marine who spent eight months behind bars in Mexico, arrived back in the U.S. Friday night after a Mexican judge ordered his immediate release."

Somehow I missed this important anniversary

October 29 marked the 60th anniversary of the last Hornet automobile manufactured by Hudson before the company merged with Nash to form American Motors.

Here's a particularly nice specimen:

Happy Feet Friday

Tiny Grimes and friends truck on with some of that smooth post-war R&B boogie.

The First Amendment

Apparently more dangerous than ISIS, Ebola and Russian aggression combined.

African-Americans turn on Democrats

Some of them, anyway, as indicated in this interesting video.

ObamaCare: Surprisingly generous

Hey, Mr. and Mrs. American taxpayer, thanks for subsidizing insurance coverage for foreign diplomats (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

No surprise there

Bill Maher is apparently too right-wing for Berkeley.

With Obama...

...everything, including Ebola, is just politics.

The chickens**t comes home to roost

Ed Driscoll on the Obama administration's latest infantile attacks on Israeli prime minister Netanyahu.

Monday movie

Lee Marvin and Roger Moore mix it up in Shout at the Devil.

Spotted in the neighborhood

Saw this shiny red 1964 Impala convertible yesterday. Sweet.

Sunday funnies

We're one step closer to the world of The Matrix.

Take a note...

Hostile witness: "Cockroach disrupts pest control chief's testimony".

They didn't ask me! "America says no to cappuccino potato chips".

Let's talk about Vespas (from the amusing site, Stuff White People Like).

Air New Zealand's truly epic safety video.

Well, that's...interesting

Islam is the second largest religion in 20 states.

A small matter, perhaps

But flubs like this don’t exactly inspire confidence in the mainstream media. I was listening to the radio on the way home from work yesterday, and some guy at ABC news said that the Ottawa shooter was armed with a Winchester lever-action shotgun.

Now, Winchester did indeed manufacture lever-action shotguns in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but this line was discontinued in 1920 because it couldn’t compete against the far more popular pump-action shotguns. So unless the Ottawa shooter was armed with a very old weapon, he was, in fact, carrying a lever-action rifle.

Another brave Canadian Sergeant-at-Arms

Aaron Goldstein remembers René Marc Jalbert.

Hey, I don't want my hair to catch fire...

...but this looks like a potentially terrorist act: "Man with 'Islamic extremist leanings' attacks NY police".

Happy Feet Friday

Something a little different from my usual theme. Today we've got a combination of ballet - and magic.

Accountability

And the lack thereof. Kevin D. Williamson writes about the ominous increase in Gestapo-like raids by militarized police forces, and law enforcement’s apparently casual approach to, among other things, getting addresses right. A taste:

Bobby Griffin Jr. was wanted on murder charges. His next-door neighbor on Peck Street, Joseph Adams, wasn’t. But that didn’t stop the SWAT team from knocking down his door, setting his home on fire, roughing him up, keeping him tied up in his underwear for nearly three hours, and treating the New Haven man, who is gay, to a nance show as officers taunted him with flamboyantly effeminate mannerisms. If the events detailed in Mr. Adams’s recently filed lawsuit are even remotely accurate, the episode was a moral violation and, arguably, a crime.

Yeah, good luck with that lawsuit, Mr. Adams. Especially since the only witnesses were probably just the members of the SWAT team.

Rep. Jim McDermott reveals deep-seated fear of his hair catching on fire

Ostensibly the congressman is talking about people“overreacting” to the threat of Muslim terrorism, but he used the “burning hair” metaphor so frequently in an interview on MSNBC yesterday that it’s difficult to avoid concluding that congressman McDimwitt has some kind of phobia about his own, admittedly striking, mane of white hair suddenly bursting into flames, possibly as the result of overtaxing his thought-box:

You have to wait and get the information, and I think the president, by not getting his hair on fire is doing exactly the right thing. We don’t know who did this, we don’t know if there’s a conspiracy or anything else. All the speculation you’re seeing in the press is done by irresponsible people in my view…

You know, we’ve just gone through the Ebola virus. That was the crisis of last week. Everybody’s hair was on fire about Ebola and suddenly a shooting occurs in Canada and suddenly our hair is on fire that somehow the Muslim hordes are going to come and get us; there’s no evidence for that.”

”Hey, I smell smoke. Does anybody else smell smoke? Wait...OH MY GOD!!! MY HAIR!!!! IS MY HAIR BURNING?!?”

A good closing message for Republican candidates

From Jim Geraghty at NRO. Here’s a sample:

Democrats, as the party of government, have proven themselves all too willing to avert their eyes from the problems of government, to excuse or explain them away, or to announce some bold-sounding reform that never gets seriously implemented and is eventually forgotten. They’re all too enthusiastic about nodding in agreement to bureaucrats’ excuses that their failures can be solved with a bigger budget. They’re all too likely to believe that appointing some other D.C. staffer in a special czar position will suddenly create accountability, honesty, and diligence. They’re all too inclined to accept passive-voice “mistakes were made” explanations with blame assigned to “systemic” failures instead of particular individuals who failed to perform their duties, meet their responsibilities, and act with integrity.

Remember also Michael Walsh’s dead-on definition of the Democratic Party: “Think of the Democratic Party as what it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.”

The next step, of course, is likely to be more difficult than simply getting rid of Democrats: revivifying the GOP by replacing its useless establishment figures with principled constitutionalists. That task is likely to be a long, hard slog.

Chuck Norris vs. Wendy Davis

Sounds like no contest to me: "Chuck Norris Gives Texas Voters a Kick, Boosts GOP Candidate".

Today's Chuck Norris fact: Chuck Norris can catch more flies with vinegar than with sugar.

Terrorism strikes Canada

A gunman (a Muslim convert, who woulda figured?) shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, an army reservist standing guard at the National War Memorial, and then ran into the Parliament building, where he himself was shot and killed by House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers.

May God bless the soul of Cpl. Cirillo, and his family and friends. And hats off to Mr. Vickers, for stopping the terrorist before he spilled any more blood.

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

Former Australian Prime Minister hands in his dinner pail

About 40 years too late, apparently. Hal G.P. Colebatch remembers the late Edward Gough Whitlam – and not at all fondly. A small sample from a much longer indictment:

When Saigon fell in April 1975, Whitlam directed the Royal Australian Air Force not to evacuate Vietnamese who had worked for the Australians and whose lives were at risk. Huge Hercules transport aircraft flew out of Saigon and Da Nang empty. He even frustrated U.S. attempts to get them out.

Fellow sounds like the most frightful left wing ass.

The thing about the intelligentsia…

…is that they always seem to be making war on intelligence. Andrew Klavan confirms something that we’ve all long suspected: the elite (at least, the present crop of that self-appointed class) are actually pretty stupid.

New presidential logo

Found at that national treasure known as The People's Cube.

Is John Kerry the stupidest Secretary of State ever?

I don't know, he's probably got a lot of competition, including his predecessor, but he's in there fighting for the title. He has now briefly turned his brainstem from the contemplation of the horrors of climate change to the rise of ISIS, which he pretty much blames on you-know-who.

Is ObamaCare still a thing?

This horrible piece of legislation seems to have gotten lost in the crowd of the Obama administration's other disasters and scandals, but, for my money, it's still the number one domestic calamity hanging over the heads of present and future American generations.

Monday movie

John Wayne in an emotionally charged scene from the classic western, The Searchers.

Some weirdness to start out the week

Ten mysterious photos that (supposedly) have never been explained (although I suspect many of them have actually been debunked).

Sunday funnies

Chinese architects go all wild and crazy.

Why, yes, as a matter of fact this is sour grapes from a Detroit Tigers fan...



I guess it's more comfortable than a rocky beach: "Walrus falls asleep on submarine".

Dudley Moore is a one-legged man applying for the role of Tarzan with Peter Cook in this sketch from Beyond the Fringe.



Dear kitten.

Redlining on the irony meter

Obama has appointed an Ebola czar – naturally, it’s a Democratic Party hack with no experience in health care, epidemics or disease containment – but the real issue is the president already has a czar. And, for some reason, no one’s heard a peep out of her during this whole crisis.

Meet Dr. Nicole Lurie, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response within the Department of Health and Human Services. The most interesting thing about her time at HHS seems to be that she may have been involved in a funding scandal that channeled money to a company controlled by a big political donor, and away from a company that was doing research on a drug that, among other things, shows some promise in treating…Ebola.

This is not only the most dangerous and incompetent administration in U.S. history. It also represents a unique blend of tragedy and farce – rather as if P.G. Wodehouse had co-written Julius Caesar with Shakespeare. One keeps waiting for Obama to hit bottom, but we’re apparently peering into a mighty deep hole – so deep, in fact, that we may never even hear the thud (or splash, as the case may be).

Some people never learn

Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

Happy Feet Friday

In this recording of a live performance by Art Tatum of a tune called Tatum Pole Boogie, Tatum applies his magical technique to the old eight-to-the-bar standard. Listen, and you'll understand why someone once wrote that Tatum's lighting quick fingers made it sound like two guys playing the piano.

See no Islam, hear no Islam, speak no Islam

Mark Steyn opines on the resurgence of militant Islam and the possible restoration of the Caliphate (and the imbecility of secular progressives like John Kerry, who persist in arguing that this religion can’t possibly mean what many of its adherents fervently believe it means).

If we can’t impeach him…

…maybe we can quarantine him.

"Coherence Dissolves" would be more descriptive

"The Pentagon finally has a name for the operation against the Islamic State: Inherent Resolve."

Mmm boy!

Gonna get me some Cheerwine pie next time I’m in Richmond.

For those unacquainted with Cheerwine, it is a kind of cherry soda made by a company based in North Carolina. When I was growing up, it was only available in the western part of the state, and was a special treat that we only got when we visited my grandparents; however, they now “export” it to other states, including Virginia.

And you’ve got to love a magazine called Garden & Gun.

Due process?

What an archaic notion! What (according to false liberals such as Ezra Klein) is due process when compared to the benefits of social change? Charles C.W. Cooke explores the chilling totalitarian subtext of the progressive ethos.

Bad combo

Obama’s like a combination of three notable historical leaders; unfortunately, they happen to be Neville Chamberlain, Jimmy Carter and Salvador Allende.

Republicans are likely to score big in the upcoming elections, but it seems this will represent a public rebuke to Obama and the Democrats rather than an endorsement of Republican policy prescriptions.

Are there any Republican policy prescriptions, by the way? I mean, aside from watered down versions of Democrat policies? Mark Levin had a number of depressing observations to make last night on his radio program, including the evaporation of support among certain Republicans for repealing ObamaCare, and the continuing shiftiness on amnesty. Perhaps the most stunning of his assertions is that the Republican establishment is working hard to pad the GOP’s majority in the House, not to counter Democrats, but to isolate and contain representatives associated with the Tea Party. Perhaps voters are willing to rally around a banner bearing the motto, “At least we’re not that guy”, for one election cycle, but establishment pabulum doesn’t make very good mortar for an enduring political platform, and I fear that the Democrats will return, more menacing than ever, like the evil spirit mentioned in the gospel of St. Matthew:

"Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."

Time to retire, Karl

Karl Rove's American Crossroads group, which has focused far more on trying to freeze conservative Republicans out of elections than on opposing Democrats, seems to be sputtering.

For a guy who doesn't like the military...

...Obama has sure created a need for a bigger one.

Nobody could be a worse Attorney General than Eric Holder, right?

Wrong. Obama apparently has an even bigger scoundrel in mind.

Assortment

Did the Obama administration know well beforehand that we were facing an outbreak of Enterovirus D68 as a result of the anticipated increase in illegal immigration from Central America?

An interesting warning about the government's capacity for abusing its power from a guy who's in a position to know.

Few groups have the ability to make liberals' heads explode the way the NRA does: the L.A. Times blames the NRA for Ebola.

North Carolina State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler seems to think his personal opinion outweighs the law, at least when it comes to concealed carry. Bob Owens isn't having it.

The BBC seeks out... Iowahawk(!)

ISIS, Ebola, hordes of illegal immigrants, Russian imperialism. How comforting that our Secretary of State is still focused on - you guessed it! - climate change.

Some of Wendy Davis's best friends are confined to wheelchairs.

President Obama continues to train for second career after leaving White House.

Dumb and dumber...

Monday movie

Robert Newton plans revenge against his unfaithful wife's boyfriend.

Sunday funnies

Going green is sometimes like going crazy.

Another reason to hate jury duty.

Maybe they flew south for the winter: "Hunt on for 1.5-ton gargoyles missing from church".

Time to get your dog ready for Halloween.

Brighten up your kitchen with the Voodoo knife block!

Key and Peele and an awesome Hitler story...

Disaster Man

Gratefully lifted from the outstanding blog, Bookworm Room.

The Bush "dynasty"

The politics of meh. Patrick Howley reminds us that it was largely a combination of opportunistic conservative posturing and substandard opponents that enabled the Bush's to win elections (when they won elections).

I've got nothing against the Bush family, personally. H.W., W. and Jeb at least seem to be basically honest, decent men. But they're not fit to lead a revolution, because they either don't grasp the extent to which progressive ideology has undermined our traditional values, or perhaps because, at some fundamental level, they agree with some of the progressive movement's imperatives. We don't need dynasties (whether the name is Bush or Clinton).

Prayers for Richard McEnroe

Fellow blogger Richard McEnroe is having some significant health issues, as described by Deborah in the comments of a previous post.

We wish him the best of luck and pray that he comes through this trial safely.

Happy Feet Friday

Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (and crew) deliver a red hot version of Well, Git It.

How serious is Big Media about sponsoring intelligent programs dealing with important issues?

This serious: “NBC Tried to Lure Comedian Jon Stewart to Host 'Meet the Press'”.

A guy who’s made a career out of feeding breadcrumbs to an audience packed with liberal pigeons – sounds like a perfect choice to me, wonder how they let him get away.

Paul Krugman: Au contraire! Obama is quite the success story

Paul Krugman rolls up his sleeves, throws himself at the Augean stables, and emerges covered in horse shit .

Take just one topic: the economy. Does this look like success to you?

And if the guy’s been so successful, why are Democratic candidates treating him like he has Ebola? Why do a majority of Americans now consider him a flop?

When even the floptastic grandee of Georgia goobery starts to look statesmanlike next to Obama, the word “success” should be on no one’s lips as a descriptive term applicable to the present administration.