Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Off the air

I'll be offline for the next four or five days, so please visit the fine blogs listed on the blogroll at the bottom of the page. And please put everything back where you found it.

Instant suspects

Rahm "Tiny Dancer" Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, wants to require that all gun sales in the city be videotaped.

Well, how about this deal? All meetings and telephone calls between hizzoner and contractors, union officials, Democratic Party apparatchiks and wealthy campaign donors should also be taped/recorded and posted for the edification of the citizens of the Windy City.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Are you digging all the hype over Kim and Kanye's wedding?

Yeah, me neither. But the whole gaudy business may have been worth it just to get the New York Post's priceless announcement.

Obama is officially worse than Bush

Whether it's income inequality, AIDS or the Veterans Administration, Obama is a flop compared to his predecessor.

Back to work

Monday, May 26, 2014

The kompetence just keeps koming!

"White House mistakenly identifies CIA chief in Afghanistan".

Much better!

Matthew fixes the Democrats' stupid bumper sticker.

God bless our troops

Past and present.



Monday movie

Jimmy Stewart winds up with some unwanted partners in The Naked Spur.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

DREAM on

The Obama administration has no trouble releasing tens of thousands of undocumented criminals into the U.S. population (guilty of crimes up to and including homicide), but can't seem to figure out how to assist the wife of a U.S. citizen in Sudan who has been condemned to death for marrying a Christian. Mark Steyn reports on the absurd hoops our immigration bureaucrats are trying to make this family jump through in a life and death situation (many of these details I am reading for the first time).

H/T: Captain Heinrichs

Sunday funnies

The French have always prided themselves on their intelligence. Why is that again?

Well, it sure beats "wash me".

Meh. Close enough...









Jeff Goldstein has a solution to the controversy over the name "Washington Redskins".

Swampie gets trapped in a web not of her own making.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Please patronize these fine eating establishments

They’re gun friendly.

If guns really make you nervous, however, you can always eat at a no-guns joint like Chipotle. Although you can’t always be sure that there won’t actually be any guns present – I mean, some people apparently can’t read.

Speaking of guns, I lucked out and found some .44 Russian and .41 Magnum ammo at Cheaper Than Dirt (those calibers are getting more difficult to find with any regularity). I bought this stuff just in case I ever happen to buy a Schofield top-break or a .41 Magnum revolver. Besides, ammo might make a good substitute currency if the dollar ever collapses (you’d probably have a little trouble getting JeffS and me to part with any, though).

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea

Robert Redford is in talks to portray evangelical minister Oral Roberts in an upcoming film.

In related news, Roseanne Barr has been signed to portray Ava Gardner in a new biopic.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

For a “phony” scandal, Benghazi seems pretty compelling

Victor Davis Hanson very carefully lays out the known facts (surprisingly few, due to administration stonewalling), and concludes that there’s nothing phony about the scandal at all:
Until these questions are answered, we are left with the strong possibility that the lethal attacks might have been deterred with adequate security, or even neutralized in mediis rebus: that high administration officials subsequently and deliberately misled the public, the U.N., our allies, and the relatives of the dead; that the president of the United States did not consider the attacks a crisis, or at least a crisis that could offer political opportunities, and subsequently and knowingly lied about the causes of the attack; that the U.S. government deliberately jailed a U.S. legal resident for reasons other than those alleged; that a U.S. election was influenced by administration deception; that the U.S. government was engaged in covert actions that might have been connected to the violence or were themselves ill conceived; that top intelligence officials did not tell the truth; and that almost immediately top administration handlers chose to construct a fantasy in lieu of reporting the facts about the death of four Americans.
At this stage, my disgust is no longer even directed primarily at the Obama administration; lying, corrupt, narcissistic, cowardly douche bags will do what lying, corrupt, narcissistic, cowardly douche bags always do. No, I am far more troubled by the extent to which the manipulative, mendacious hyper-partisan poison of this administration has been so shamelessly embraced by what appears to be the entire Democratic Party and its so-called “progressive” allies in the media. I am equally troubled by a citizenry huge numbers of which can’t be bothered to focus their attention and reasoning abilities (if any) for more than ten minutes on the cumulative effects of the present government’s lawlessness, perfidy and incompetence. I am not optimistic about America’s ability to survive the plague of big government, crony capitalism, proliferating “victim” groups, ideological indoctrination cloaked as “education”, and cultural fragmentation. I believe, in the words of the song, that we are facing “long hard times to come”.

Yet I shall be of good cheer, and will take as many of the bastards down with me as I can before finally climbing the gallows, from which platform, to borrow from H.L. Mencken, “my last word will be a hoot at socialism”.

The Chamber of Crony Capitalism

Dustin Siggins over at NRO explains why the GOP should start distancing itself from the Chamber of Commerce.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Big Sister

Michelle Obama has advised teens, in Jim Treacher's words, to "monitor your parents for thoughtcrime".

Before you young people embark on this mission, I've got two words for you to consider: Pavlik Morozov.

Just sayin'.

When you think of North Korea, what typically comes to mind?

Of course! The country’s commitment to dealing with climate change.

I’m surprised John Kerry hasn’t held the Norks up as a beneficial example of what can be accomplished in the battle against global warming. Maybe he’s still a little squeamish about that whole insane dictator/ mass starvation thing (or perhaps, as is more likely, in the dim recesses of what, for want of a better word, we shall call his “mind”, he experiences a certain wariness about linking climate action with the heavy hand of the state. Have to be careful not to give the game away prematurely, you know).

Anger management

The preshizzle has developed an increasingly unbelievable spinning technique (so regular and so apparently automatic that I would call it a spin-tic): whenever something goes wrong, another scandal takes off, another bureaucrat bumbles too publicly, Obama gets “mad”. His readings on the anger meter have been rising, as a matter of fact; lately, he has professed himself to be“madder than hell”.

What he means to say is “annoyed”. He’s annoyed that he and his people are getting caught so frequently in their lies, their displays of indifference, their gross incompetence, their malfeasance, their acts of lawlessness. The whole idea of a stealth coup, after all, is to avoid drawing too much attention to the nuts and bolts of the operation, which is hard to do when you have nuts and dolts running the thing. “Dammit, Eric! You can’t slip a few thousand guns into Mexico without getting caught? And Lois, have you ever heard of just picking up the damn telephone? Why did you have to leave a trail of incriminating emails? Oh, and as for you, Shinseki, nice work letting some of those veterans escape from the waiting room to tell the tale!” It must be frustrating to be a genius surrounded by morons.

This idiot

Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-bag, IL) says that "every institution in America" should work around our existing immigration laws - i.e., he is advocating a massive government conspiracy to break the law.

You know, a lot of people feel the same way about drugs and paying income taxes and observing posted speed limits. Is it just elected officials who can choose which laws to break or can we all get in on it?

Monday, May 19, 2014

Kind of like Whitewater, except on a larger scale

Inquiring minds – including many in Haiti – would like to know where all the money raised for Haitian relief, and managed by Bill Clinton, actually went.

This is one of the main problems with progressivism and social welfare. Even if there was no fraud involved in these Haitian projects, it is enough to assuage the liberal conscience that tens of millions of dollars were raised and something was done, however inadequate or incompetently managed. Doesn’t matter whether the “something” was efficacious or timely or cost-effective, liberals can simply check Haiti off their “to do” list and move on to the next issue offering opportunities for moral posturing.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat

And more than one way to attack our Second Amendment rights: “Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business with regulations and investigations that bypass Congress and choke off their lines of credit, freeze their assets and prohibit online sales.” Given the resolute opposition to gun ownership demonstrated by this administration and the Democratic Party (not to mention certain billionaire former mayors), my advice is this: if you don’t own a gun, but have been thinking of getting one, or if you have guns and would like to add to your collection, do it now.

BTW, if you’re not already boycotting Bank of America and BankUnited (a smallish Miami-area institution that went bankrupt in a former corporate iteration, so there probably isn't anybody among my readers who do business with it), you might want to give the idea some thought.

Assortment

Red on red: anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam.

Love can blossom even in the most horrifying circumstances.

And, unfortunately, the most horrifying circumstances can sometimes attach themselves to love (it's getting increasingly difficult to see Islam as being anything other than a cloak for a host of insecurities and pathologies, including, notably, misogyny).

What if #hashtag diplomacy had existed in WWII?

Nigerian villagers take self-defense into their own hands, repelling Boko Haram forces, not with #hashtags, but with guns.

Is Joe Biden ignoring messages from his home planet?

Now that's an awesome hat.

Wow, who saw this coming? Texas authorities overwhelmed by a surge of illegal immigrants.

Has anybody seen a committee of vultures lately? (No, this isn't a political joke).

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, my Tigers are red hot right now (though I wish they'd find another way to keep up their team spirit).

Monday movie

Clark Gable and Ava Gardner stir things up, with an assist from “Old Joe” in this scene from Mogambo.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Sunday funnies

Who knew? Toilet aficionados.

I'm thinking of giving up on the Washington Metro and trying this.

Yeah, I'm amazed nobody ever thought of this before: a bedbug tattoo.

Spice up your meals with Calamityware.

New from the home security unit of Paco Enterprises: low-cost security cameras.



That wild man of the worldwide web, TimT, ponders the joys of sneezing.

I rather suspect that the answer is a resounding "No!"

Friday, May 16, 2014

Happy Feet Friday

Little Walter burns up the recording studio with some eight-to-the-bar mouth harp.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

So, what are you U.S. farmers up to?

Ya’ll been sloppin’ yer hogs with substandard feed? Shootin’ your cows up with some ‘a them thar hormones? Lacin’ yer watermelons with corn likker? Ain’t plantin’ taters in old cemeteries, are ya? Ooooooo-eee! Ya’ll better watch yer p’s and q’s ‘cuz the USDA ain’t havin’ none a’ that:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts [sic] trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe [sic] or folding, magazine – 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.
Looks to me like they don’t need submachine guns as much as they need a dictionary; that’s some awesomely bad spelling.

Form and substance

For women who want to look stylish while carrying a concealed weapon.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

I always considered hanging, drawing and quartering to be a horrible form of execution...

...but I'm beginning to think that, under certain circumstances, I could get used to the idea.

Better yet, maybe the Brits will rise up and start doing whatever they need to do to protect themselves from the savages in their midst (government be damned).

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Barack Obama Reality Show

Todd Krainin at Reason describes how the Obama administration has attempted to monopolize the way their guy is portrayed to the public, particularly through official White House photographs.

You’ve seen these pictures, no doubt. Whether commemorating Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus or the moon landing, Barry’s PR staff always manages to create a dramatic Kodak moment in which the preshizzle essentially photo-bombs history. I’m surprised we haven’t seen him standing in a boat on the Delaware River in the winter, wrapped in a cloak, or maybe walking in the surf with a corncob pipe in his gob. Perhaps those images are too war-like. How about pottering around Yasgur’s farm in a tie-dyed t-shirt, or laying a wreath on the grave of banjo-plucking commie Pete Seeger? He missed a golden opportunity last year to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of farm-labor organizer Cesar Chavez – imagine Obama standing in a field in California, silhouetted against the rising sun, gravely contemplating a head of lettuce (with purposeful overtones of Hamlet and the skull of Yorick).

I just got an email from the White House: “Why don’t you apply for a rotation to the President’s PR staff? Bring your camera!”

No, thanks. I’m currently working on a photo layout featuring Ted Cruz and the Alamo (with Karl Rove photoshopped in as General Santa Ana).

Warren Buffett apparently creeping out over the prospect of the continued growth of “the masses”

Tycoon has given more than $1.2 billion to abortion groups.

Look for a visit from the ATF in three, two, one…

I hope we still have free speech in this country; I haven’t checked this week.
A Texas gun store has put up a new sign that is grabbing people’s attention.

“I like my guns like Obama likes his voters: Undocumented,” the Tactical Firearms sign states.
BTW, if I ever commit a felony, I guess the smart move would be to claim that I’m an undocumented alien from Honduras.

Monday, May 12, 2014

How about if somebody (say, his constituents) nudges Boehner to step down?

Weepy John Boehner continues to aggressively not get it.
House Speaker John Boehner said he is "nudging" former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to run for president...
Are we going to actually have to wait for the current generation of establishment GOP jellyfish to die off before we're rid of them?

These are a few of my favorite (climate change) things

Is there anything climate change can't do? Apparently not. Bob Belvedere has a comprehensive list.

Update - Oh, about all those Himalayan glaciers that are melting: never mind.

Update II - Al Gore diagnosed with Reid's Disease, blames Republican skepticism about global warming on the Koch brothers.

Monday movie

Sydney Greenstreet is up to no good in Across the Pacific.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day!

Best wishes to all those women out there without whose love and sacrifices we wouldn't be here today.


"Now git yer ass down to the CVS, sonny, and pick me up a Whitman's sampler!"

Sunday funnies

On Mother's Day, it's the thought that counts; however, maybe these folks should have thought of something else.

Hey, beta males, have I got a fan club for you!

Well, er, yes, they would, wouldn't they?

Close calls.

I'm sure there must be a good reason for this.

Even in the Obama economy, there are still plenty of rewarding jobs out there.

The fate worse than death...

Friday, May 9, 2014

Assortment

Tom Rogan has a suggestion for dealing with Boko Haram: Hellfire ‘em.

Brent Budowsky continues to amuse. Last week he compared John Kerry to Winston Churchill; now he compares Hillary Clinton to Pope Francis and says she could carry 45 states.

What happens if you go “by the book” and the damned book is wrong? Mark Steyn on America’s increasingly trigger-happy cops (and, just in time, another “police shooting frenzy”).

Apparently, in Hollywood progressivism is something that only occurs in public, outside the home.

Now that’s what I call “settled science”.

Harry Reid, national embarrassment.

What the hell’s wrong with you, America? Why do you keep letting Obama down?

Leading climate scientist comes over to the dark side.

Oh for the day when we can beat our hashtags into ploughshares!

Danse Macabre

A dose of creepiness to start the weekend (unless you watch MSNBC, in which case you probably reached your daily requirement some time ago). From friend and occasional commenter, Nashville Beat, comes this weird little short film based on a true incident.

Hillary Clinton eager to compete with Obama...

...for the title of nation's leading gun salesman.
At the rate we're going, we're going to have so many people with guns everywhere, fully licensed, fully validated, in settings where [one] could be in a movie theater, and they don't like someone chewing gum loudly or talking on their cell phone and decide they have the perfect right to defend themselves against the gun chewer or cell phone user by shooting.
I guess we can continue to look forward to full employment for straw men.

BTW: Too bad there weren't more Americans with guns - fully licensed or not - at the embassy in Benghazi.

Happy Feet Friday

Gene Krupa and his band get in some hot licks.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Hey, here’s one of Hillary Clinton’s achievements as Secretary of State

Alone among federal agencies, the State Department under Clinton was the one agency – the one with ultimate decision-making authority - that refused to brand Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. Pretty curious considering the fact that this Al-Qaeda-linked group is one of the most murderous outfits on the planet, having slaughtered thousands of Christians in West Africa, and lately having distinguishing itself by kidnapping hundreds of young girls and threatening to sell them into sexual bondage.

Heckuva job, Hill!

Update: Much more from Andrew McCarthy.

How do I despise thee…

…let me count the ways.

Cliven Bundy, call your office

Maybe if ranchers out west equipped their herds with these things, the Bureau of Land Management would look at things a little differently.

Harry Reid drops the ball

Senile Senate majority leader Harry Reid blames the Koch brothers for climate change. But he has completely glided over all of the Koch's other nefarious deeds.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Transparency so thick you have to cut it with a knife

Why does the EPA have its own “Office of Homeland Security”?
A unit run by President Barack Obama's political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a "rogue law enforcement agency" that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA's inspector general for years, a top investigator told Congress.


The office of about 10 employees is overseen by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy's office, and the inspector general's office is accusing it of impeding its independent investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats, including compelling employees involved in cases to sign non-disclosure agreements.

"Under the heavy cloak of 'national security,' the Office of Homeland Security has repeatedly rebuffed and refused to cooperate with the OIG's ongoing requests for information or cooperation," Sullivan wrote in prepared testimony obtained by The Associated Press. "This block unquestionably has hamstrung the Office of Inspector General's ability to carry out its statutory mandate to investigate wrongdoing of EPA employees."
Are these clowns armed, too? If so, why? And what is the linkage between the EPA and “national security”? Is Al-Qaeda secretly draining duck ponds or something?

Who is Tom Donilon?

And what is his connection to the Benghazi outrage? Jeffrey Lord, with a big assist from Pat Caddell, offers some interesting background (and informed speculation) on yet another loathsome, behind-the-scenes Democrat political operative who works in the shadows of power.

One way or the other

The Democrats’ stupid proposal to change the First Amendment might not be going anywhere, but I guess there’s always executive action.
Government officials, reacting to the growing voice of conservative news outlets, especially on the internet, are angling to curtail the media's exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations, a potentially chilling intervention that the chairman of the Federal Election Commission is vowing to fight.
H/T: Robert of Ottawa (who asks, in the comments, “What's going on in your country, Paco?” What’s going on is that people are taking liberty for granted, and when they think of it at all, fail to see both its inherent value and its inherent fragility. Maybe they see the constitution as an immutable law of physics rather than as a noble idea that could perish tomorrow without constant vigilance).

Smells a little like...crap

The preshizzle claims that the U.S./Israel relationship "has never been stronger".

Well, as Goebbels used to say, if you're going to tell a lie, might as well make it a whopper.

Scratch a liberal...

...find a fascist.

A valuable lesson in economics

Swampie walks away from the raspberry Kefir.

Monday, May 5, 2014

I dunno

Nancy Pelosi says we should honor the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo by passing amnesty legislation.

Wouldn’t it be more in the spirit of Cinco de Mayo to just beat up some Frenchmen?

Caution: Link features an auto-loading video of Pelosi rambling incoherently.

Harry Reid to blame the Koch brothers in three…two…one

“As many as 90,000 Nevadans may have their health insurance plans canceled this fall due to Obamacare, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.”

C’mon, Mr. Claymation Senate Action Figure, let’s hear how the Kochs are responsible for this.

Monday movie

Barbara Stanwyck's been a bad girl (The File on Thelma Jordan).

Sunday, May 4, 2014

A mighty, mighty man

Walter R. Walsh - FBI agent, Marine sharpshooter and Olympic contender - has died at the age of 106. Read his fascinating history here .

Sunday funnies

I guess this is great, if you really like chicken.

American woodcocks have rhythm.

Superman, we hardly knew ye.

"Merely Canadian..."


Which is not quite the same thing as being merely Australian.

Get rid of those freckles with the Paco Enterprises Despotter.

Cheap pets.

Police baffled by missing children in park...

Friday, May 2, 2014

Appalling

The totalitarian temptation has now become the totalitarian addiction for leading Democrats as Chuck Schumer, Mark Udall and others seek to amend the constitution to radically restrict free speech rights.
Displeased with recent legal victories in which free speech has prevailed over limitations on political speech imposed by Congress, Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.), Mark Udall (D., Colo.), and other Senate Democrats have introduced a constitutional amendment that would not only set aside the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence and invest Congress with virtually unlimited power to regulate the political activism of private citizens, alone or in groups, but would also give the federal government and the states the power to shut down newspapers, television stations, and radio networks that displease them. This is an all-out assault on the First Amendment and an act of vandalism against the Constitution.
I don’t think this is going anywhere, but the mere fact that it is even being floated as a symbolic gesture is ominous. And the thing to remember is that the Democrats, unlike many Republicans, are absolutely relentless in pressing their ideological goals. This kind of thing isn’t going away until people like Schumer and Udall are made to go away, which means that the proportion of idiots in the voting pool is going to somehow have to be diluted. I have no idea how that can be accomplished, unless a significant number of them begin learning some lessons in the school of hard knocks. I am not at all sanguine about the prospects of this happening.

Good (and frankly surprising) news, if true

John Boehner has announced his intention to establish a select committee to investigate Benghazi.

Democrat gubernatorial candidate confused about the history of the KKK

"Democratic State Representative and gubernatorial candidate Brett Hulsey is going to Milwaukee this weekend to hand out KKK hoods at the GOP state convention."

Could this be the stupidest thing written all year?

I know it's just May, but still. Brent Budowski over at The Hill:
Looking across the landscape of world affairs, from sectarian carnage to Middle East instability, from climate change that threatens the earth to a Russian dictator who threatens security in Europe, from the bellicosity of China to nuclear issues with North Korea and Iran, if there is a Winston Churchill of modern times who issues warnings and offers solutions, it is Secretary of State John Kerry.
Yessirreee, put a brandy in one hand, and a cigar in the other, and you've got the just-as-good-Winston-Churchill substitute.

H/T: Ed Driscoll.

Happy Feet Friday

B.B. King and Jeff Beck team up to perform an old Paco Enterprises favorite, Key to the Highway.


Bonus Beck! Jeff and friends rock the Peter Gunn theme (don't miss the solos by saxophonist Leo Green and trombone man Troy Andrews).

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Great idea

May Day has traditionally been celebrated by commies and their near kin for decades, and has been revived in Putin's Russia. Via the Walla Walla Tea Party Patriots comes a terrific idea: let's turn this day into a time for commemorating the victims of communism.

Banana peel at the Pearly Gates?

The head of Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun organization is stepping down, apparently from injuries sustained in repeatedly banging his head against a wall.

Bloomberg, who recently claimed that his work on gun control had earned him a place in heaven, may have to settle for a park bench in the limbus fatuorum.

Abolish civil forfeiture

Why? Because agencies like the IRS can’t be trusted not to abuse it.

This looks like it’s going to be good

A documentary about the American volunteer pilots who helped save Israel during the 1948 war (H/T: Small Dead Animals).

Batting a thousand

Everything Obama has touched has turned into a crap sandwich for the American people.


"Oh, goodie! Another Obama policy!"

Amazing treatment

A young woman with a deadly brain tumor has been cured through the use of a polio virus.