Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

Pelosi says that GOP budget puts ‘women and children last’

6:18 pm

The head squealer goes oink! Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said yesterday that the proposed GOP budget would put “women and children last.”

Meanwhile, her assistant squealer, Steny Hoyer, insisted that a government shutdown could only be the fault of the Republicans. According to Hoyer, the Democrats in the Senate are mere bystanders, having nothing to do with any of this at all.

What incompetent idiots.

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Austrian Court fines speaker for describing Islam accurately

2:18 pm

Bad news for freedom: An Austrian court today convicted Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for speaking out against Islam. Key quote:

It seems the case turned on the judge’s reasoning that her statement that Islam’s prophet Mohammed was a “pedophile” was defamatory since his child bride Aisha (age six at the time of marriage and nine at the time it was consummated) remained his wife when she turned 18.

More details at Gates of Vienna.

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Science an Early Budget Winner … But Fight Has Just Begun

10:44 am

Await the squeals from scientists: The journal Science notes the differences between the budget proposals coming from the House Republicans (cutting funds to science) and Obama (increasing funds to science) and hopes for the best. (You can also get a good idea about the increases to science that Obama proposes by going to this ScienceInsider story and scanning down the various articles.) Key quote:

Both conservatives and liberals agree: the main pressure pushing the federal deficit is entitlements; the discretionary budget is dwarfed by mandatory Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending. And yet neither the House of Representatives Republican appropriators’ proposal to tackle the deficit starting in 2011 nor Obama’s new budget for next year tackles the real challenge of entitlements. Instead, both pick and choose the discretionary cuts they want to start with.

From my mind, we should accept the cuts from both sides, then go after the entitlements.

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In his new budget, Obama kicks the can one more time

11:36 pm

Another critical look at Obama’s budget proposal, this time from liberal Dana Milbank at the Washington Post! Key quote:

Obama’s budget proposal is a remarkably weak and timid document. He proposes to cut only $1.1 trillion from federal deficits over the next decade – a pittance when you consider that the deficit this year alone is in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion. The president makes no serious attempt at cutting entitlement programs that threaten to drive the government into insolvency.

And here’s another: “Steep cuts?” Even the left Is starting to notice.

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Astronauts simulate Mars landing

9:14 pm

Astronauts on the Russian Mars500 simulated Mars mission simulated a Mars landing on Saturday. Key quote:

Three astronauts on the Mars500 simulated mission will make a simulated walk on the Mars “surface” Monday. After working 30 days on the simulated planet, the crew will then embark on a simulated 240-day return trip to Earth. Officials said the 520-day Mars500 mission is designed to test how humans cope with the physical and mental stresses of a long space flight.

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Bernanke to Congress: We’re Much Closer to Total Destruction Than You Think

6:51 pm

Bernanke to Congress: We’re much closer to total destruction than you think. Key quote:

One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will come as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis.

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