Tag: oppression
“Ann Romney needs to die.”
It’s the ideology, stupid.
It’s easy to forget, but Republicans swept the 2010 midterms not through a sweeping indictment of Obama’s economic stewardship, but by hammering Congressional Democrats over their support of the president’s health care law, the stimulus and Democrats’ pursuit of a cap-and-trade energy policy. Running on a firmly ideological agenda, House Republicans picked up 63 House seats – a larger pickup for Republicans than in any election since 1946.
What’s remarkable is that all the fundamental indicators from that historic moment have hardly changed – and in some ways, have worsened for the president. The 2010 midterm NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 32 percent believing the country was headed in the wrong direction; their latest poll shows that “right track” number exactly the same, with even more believing the country was on the wrong track. Obama’s job approval in the October before the midterm was at 47 percent; it’s only inched upwards to 48 percent in the most recent survey. [emphasis mine]
2010 wasn’t a fluke, it was a trend. And running on the “ideology” of fiscal responsibility, a balanced federal budget, and a smaller federal government does not seem to me to be very ideological. Rather, it is simple common sense, which is why it worked in 2010 and will work again in November.
It’s easy to forget, but Republicans swept the 2010 midterms not through a sweeping indictment of Obama’s economic stewardship, but by hammering Congressional Democrats over their support of the president’s health care law, the stimulus and Democrats’ pursuit of a cap-and-trade energy policy. Running on a firmly ideological agenda, House Republicans picked up 63 House seats – a larger pickup for Republicans than in any election since 1946.
What’s remarkable is that all the fundamental indicators from that historic moment have hardly changed – and in some ways, have worsened for the president. The 2010 midterm NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 32 percent believing the country was headed in the wrong direction; their latest poll shows that “right track” number exactly the same, with even more believing the country was on the wrong track. Obama’s job approval in the October before the midterm was at 47 percent; it’s only inched upwards to 48 percent in the most recent survey. [emphasis mine]
2010 wasn’t a fluke, it was a trend. And running on the “ideology” of fiscal responsibility, a balanced federal budget, and a smaller federal government does not seem to me to be very ideological. Rather, it is simple common sense, which is why it worked in 2010 and will work again in November.
The first five minutes in Marine boot camp.
An evening pause: A taste of what every man and woman in the military has experienced and lived through.
But only a taste.
The ex-Marine, arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Go for it: Brandon Raub, the ex-Marine who was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Go for it: Brandon Raub, the ex-Marine who was arrested and placed in a psychiatric ward because government officials didn’t like his Facebook postings, has announced he is suing the officials involved.
Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
We’ve only just begun: Two more evangelical colleges have joined the lawsuit against the Obama administrations’ contraceptive drug mandate under Obamacare.
An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
Leftwing civility: An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
I like the aide’s comment at the end of the video: “You’re messing with the wrong people.” Video below the fold.
» Read more
Leftwing civility: An aide to Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren threatened and pushed a reporter this weekend, knocking his video camera to the ground.
I like the aide’s comment at the end of the video: “You’re messing with the wrong people.” Video below the fold.
» Read more
Bob is a Racist
An evening pause: Apropos of the uplifting nature of modern political debate, especially on the left, let’s find out why “Bob is a racist.”
The war on children
More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Finding out what’s in it: More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates — which refers to patients who return within a month — by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014. Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so — even for accepting seniors who are sick.
The penalties are bureaucratic and statistical in nature, and have no relationship to the actual treatment of patients. Thus, they illustrate in one bold sweep the idiocy of Obamacare and why it must be repealed.
Finding out what’s in it: More than 2,200 hospitals face penalties under Obamacare for how they decide to treat patients.
Starting in October, Medicare will reduce reimbursements to hospitals with high 30-day readmission rates — which refers to patients who return within a month — by as much as 1 percent. The maximum penalty increases to 2 percent the following year and 3 percent in 2014. Doctors are concerned the penalty is unfair, since sometimes they have to accept patients more than once in a brief period of time but could be penalized for doing so — even for accepting seniors who are sick.
The penalties are bureaucratic and statistical in nature, and have no relationship to the actual treatment of patients. Thus, they illustrate in one bold sweep the idiocy of Obamacare and why it must be repealed.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of his writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck said the judge dismissed the case Thursday against Brandon Raub. The judge said the original petition for Raub’s detention contained no facts. In other words, there was no information on why Raub was being held — and the judge deemed this violated his civil liberties. As a result, the judge ruled law enforcement has no grounds to hold Raub.
If I was this Marine, I sue everyone I could find for false arrest and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
A Virginia veteran who was arrested because of his writings on Facebook has been ordered released by a judge.
CBS 6 News’ Catie Beck said the judge dismissed the case Thursday against Brandon Raub. The judge said the original petition for Raub’s detention contained no facts. In other words, there was no information on why Raub was being held — and the judge deemed this violated his civil liberties. As a result, the judge ruled law enforcement has no grounds to hold Raub.
If I was this Marine, I sue everyone I could find for false arrest and a violation of his First Amendment rights.
A Connecticut gay man has pleaded guilty to sending hundreds of threatening letters, including death threats, to the director of a conservative organization opposed to same-sex marriage.
Leftwing civility: A Connecticut gay man has pleaded guilty to sending hundreds of threatening letters, including death threats, to the director of a conservative organization opposed to same-sex marriage.
Some quotes from his letters:
» Read more
Leftwing civility: A Connecticut gay man has pleaded guilty to sending hundreds of threatening letters, including death threats, to the director of a conservative organization opposed to same-sex marriage.
Some quotes from his letters:
» Read more
Hundreds of Homeland Security employees arrested last year.
Does this make you feel safer? Hundreds of Homeland Security employees were arrested last year, for crimes ranging from child porn to aiding the drug cartels in Mexico.
Does this make you feel safer? Hundreds of Homeland Security employees were arrested last year, for crimes ranging from child porn to aiding the drug cartels in Mexico.
Police are preparing for significant violence at next week’s Republican convention in Tampa, based on threats by a number of leftwing groups.
Leftwing civility: Police are preparing for significant violence at next week’s Republican convention in Tampa, based on threats by a number of leftwing groups.
In related news, the man who entered the conservative Family Research Center with a gun and shot a security guard after announcing “I don’t like your politics” has been indicted.
Leftwing civility: Police are preparing for significant violence at next week’s Republican convention in Tampa, based on threats by a number of leftwing groups.
In related news, the man who entered the conservative Family Research Center with a gun and shot a security guard after announcing “I don’t like your politics” has been indicted.
A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a state law banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Saving the day for freedom: A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a city ordinance banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Update: I have corrected the post, as I initially called this a state law, which it is not. Thank you Blair.
Saving the day for freedom: A 5-year-old Oklahoma kindergarten student was banned from wearing a University of Michigan t-shirt because it violated a city ordinance banning any apparel that didn’t support the state’s college teams.
Update: I have corrected the post, as I initially called this a state law, which it is not. Thank you Blair.
Of thee I sigh: Baby boomers bust.
P.J. O’Rourke: “Of thee I sigh: Baby boomers bust.”
My sad generation of baby boomers can be blamed. We were born into an America where material needs were fulfilled to a degree unprecedented in history. We were a demographic benison, cherished and taught to be self-cherishing. We were cosseted by a lush economy and spoiled by a society grown permissive in its fatigue with the strictures of depression and war. The child being father to the man, and necessity being the mother of invention, we wound up as the orphans of effort and ingenuity. And pleased to be so. Sixty-six years of us would be enough to take the starch out of any nation.
The baby boom was skeptical about America’s inventive triumphalism. We took a lot of it for granted: light bulb, telephone, television, telegraph, phonograph, photographic film, skyscraper, airplane, air conditioning, movies. Many of our country’s creations seemed boring and square: cotton gin, combine harvester, cash register, electric stove, dishwasher, can opener, clothes hanger, paper bag, toilet paper roll, ear muffs, mass-produced automobiles. Some we regarded as sinister: revolver, repeating rifle, machine gun, atomic bomb, electric chair, assembly line. And, ouch, those Salk vaccine polio shots hurt.
The Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik caused a blip in chauvinistic tech enthusiasm among those of us who were in grade school at the time. But then we learned that the math and science excellence being urged upon us meant more long division and multiplying fractions.
The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs were cool, but not as cool as the sex, drugs, and rock and roll we’d discovered in the meantime. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969, many of us had already been out in space for years, visiting all sorts of galaxies—in our own heads. And in our own heads was where my generation spent most of its time.
Read the whole thing. O’Rourke, in his witty style, captures the failure of my baby boom generation perfectly.
P.J. O’Rourke: “Of thee I sigh: Baby boomers bust.”
My sad generation of baby boomers can be blamed. We were born into an America where material needs were fulfilled to a degree unprecedented in history. We were a demographic benison, cherished and taught to be self-cherishing. We were cosseted by a lush economy and spoiled by a society grown permissive in its fatigue with the strictures of depression and war. The child being father to the man, and necessity being the mother of invention, we wound up as the orphans of effort and ingenuity. And pleased to be so. Sixty-six years of us would be enough to take the starch out of any nation.
The baby boom was skeptical about America’s inventive triumphalism. We took a lot of it for granted: light bulb, telephone, television, telegraph, phonograph, photographic film, skyscraper, airplane, air conditioning, movies. Many of our country’s creations seemed boring and square: cotton gin, combine harvester, cash register, electric stove, dishwasher, can opener, clothes hanger, paper bag, toilet paper roll, ear muffs, mass-produced automobiles. Some we regarded as sinister: revolver, repeating rifle, machine gun, atomic bomb, electric chair, assembly line. And, ouch, those Salk vaccine polio shots hurt.
The Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik caused a blip in chauvinistic tech enthusiasm among those of us who were in grade school at the time. But then we learned that the math and science excellence being urged upon us meant more long division and multiplying fractions.
The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs were cool, but not as cool as the sex, drugs, and rock and roll we’d discovered in the meantime. When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon in 1969, many of us had already been out in space for years, visiting all sorts of galaxies—in our own heads. And in our own heads was where my generation spent most of its time.
Read the whole thing. O’Rourke, in his witty style, captures the failure of my baby boom generation perfectly.
NASA scientists in a battle with astronomers over who gets to name things on Vesta and Mars.
A rose by any other name: NASA scientists are in a battle with astronomers over who gets to name things on Vesta and Mars.
This is not a new problem. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has maintained its power over naming everything in space since the 1960s, even though the IAU has sometimes ignored the wishes of the actual discoverers and explorers and given names to things that no one likes. For example, even though the Apollo 8 astronauts wanted to give certain unnamed features on the Moon specific names, the IAU refused to accept their choices, even though those astronauts were the first human beings to reach another world and see these features up close.
Eventually, the spacefarers of the future are going to tell the IAU where to go. And that will begin to happen when those spacefarers simply refuse to use the names the IAU assigns.
A rose by any other name: NASA scientists are in a battle with astronomers over who gets to name things on Vesta and Mars.
This is not a new problem. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has maintained its power over naming everything in space since the 1960s, even though the IAU has sometimes ignored the wishes of the actual discoverers and explorers and given names to things that no one likes. For example, even though the Apollo 8 astronauts wanted to give certain unnamed features on the Moon specific names, the IAU refused to accept their choices, even though those astronauts were the first human beings to reach another world and see these features up close.
Eventually, the spacefarers of the future are going to tell the IAU where to go. And that will begin to happen when those spacefarers simply refuse to use the names the IAU assigns.
The atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation has threatened to sue 151 Mississippi schools if they allow students to pray using public address systems during athletic events.
Freedom for me but not for thee: The atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation has threatened to sue 151 Mississippi schools if they allow students to pray using public address systems during athletic events.
In other words, according to this atheist organization, all expression of religion must be banned from the public marketplace of ideas. Only then will we have true freedom!
What is encouraging from this article is the increasing willingness of school officials, religious leaders, and students to resist this oppression.
Freedom for me but not for thee: The atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation has threatened to sue 151 Mississippi schools if they allow students to pray using public address systems during athletic events.
In other words, according to this atheist organization, all expression of religion must be banned from the public marketplace of ideas. Only then will we have true freedom!
What is encouraging from this article is the increasing willingness of school officials, religious leaders, and students to resist this oppression.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.
The article does not tell us anything about the doctor who filed the complaint. I wonder what that doctor’s motives are.
Criminal charges have been filed against a German rabbi for performing circumcisions.
A doctor from Hesse filed a criminal complaint against Rabbi David Goldberg, who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), according to the Juedische Allgemeine weekly newspaper. The chief prosecutor of Hof confirmed that charges had been filed against the rabbi. The charges are based on the controversial decision of a Cologne district court, which ruled in June that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.
The article does not tell us anything about the doctor who filed the complaint. I wonder what that doctor’s motives are.
Massachusetts has passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do.
Coming soon to a country near you! In order to control the out-of-control costs of RomneyCare, Massachusetts has just passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do in the practice of medicine.
It’s worse than you think:
» Read more
Coming soon to a country near you! In order to control the out-of-control costs of RomneyCare, Massachusetts has just passed a law that places the state in control of every doctor and everything they do in the practice of medicine.
It’s worse than you think:
» Read more
A man was arrested in Toronto on Saturday for walking his dog in a public park, because the dog offended some Islamic demonstrators.
A man was arrested in Toronto on Saturday for walking his dog in a public park, because the dog’s presence offended some Islamic demonstrators.
A man was arrested in Toronto on Saturday for walking his dog in a public park, because the dog’s presence offended some Islamic demonstrators.
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
Read it and then return. Back yet? Okay, two comments:
» Read more
This Ohio newspaper editorial about the Presidential race and the choices it offers us might be the most forcefully blunt I have ever read.
Read it and then return. Back yet? Okay, two comments:
» Read more
The modern leftwing disconnect from reality.
The modern leftwing disconnect from reality.
[L]ast week a man called Floyd Corkins shot another man called Leo Johnson, the security guard at the Family Research Council, a “conservative” group, according to the muted media coverage, or a “hate group,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, who spray that term around like champagne on a NASCAR podium. Mr. Corkins, an “LGBT volunteer,” told his victim, “I don’t like your politics.” In his backpack, he had one box of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Had he had one Chick-fil-A sandwich and 15 boxes of ammunition, he might have done more damage. Or then again perhaps not, given that, as bloggers Kathy Shaidle and “the Phantom” pointed out, he reached his target and then started “monologuing,” as they say in The Incredibles….
I’m not blaming Floyd Corkins’s actions on the bullying twerps at the Southern Poverty Law Center or those thug Democrat mayors who tried to run Chick-fil-A out of Boston and Chicago. But I do think he’s the apotheosis of narcissistic leftist myopia. He symbolizes that exhaustion of the other possibilities — the dwindling down of latter-day liberalism to ever more self-indulgent distractions from the hard truths of a broke and ruined landscape. Our elites have sunk into a boutique decadence of moral preening entirely disconnected from reality: A non-homophobic chicken in every pot, an abortifacient dispenser in every Catholic university, a high-speed-rail corridor between every two bankrupt California municipalities.
Read the whole thing. Steyn once again notes the bankruptcy of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party, which — unless the American public rejects it — will lead to the bankruptcy of our country and probably the world.
The modern leftwing disconnect from reality.
[L]ast week a man called Floyd Corkins shot another man called Leo Johnson, the security guard at the Family Research Council, a “conservative” group, according to the muted media coverage, or a “hate group,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, who spray that term around like champagne on a NASCAR podium. Mr. Corkins, an “LGBT volunteer,” told his victim, “I don’t like your politics.” In his backpack, he had one box of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Had he had one Chick-fil-A sandwich and 15 boxes of ammunition, he might have done more damage. Or then again perhaps not, given that, as bloggers Kathy Shaidle and “the Phantom” pointed out, he reached his target and then started “monologuing,” as they say in The Incredibles….
I’m not blaming Floyd Corkins’s actions on the bullying twerps at the Southern Poverty Law Center or those thug Democrat mayors who tried to run Chick-fil-A out of Boston and Chicago. But I do think he’s the apotheosis of narcissistic leftist myopia. He symbolizes that exhaustion of the other possibilities — the dwindling down of latter-day liberalism to ever more self-indulgent distractions from the hard truths of a broke and ruined landscape. Our elites have sunk into a boutique decadence of moral preening entirely disconnected from reality: A non-homophobic chicken in every pot, an abortifacient dispenser in every Catholic university, a high-speed-rail corridor between every two bankrupt California municipalities.
Read the whole thing. Steyn once again notes the bankruptcy of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party, which — unless the American public rejects it — will lead to the bankruptcy of our country and probably the world.
A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit by an automobile industry consortium that wanted to prevent the EPA from approving the use of 15% ethanol in gasoline.
Not good: A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit by an automobile industry consortium that wanted to prevent the EPA from approving the use of 15% ethanol in gasoline.
Not good: A federal court has thrown out a lawsuit by an automobile industry consortium that wanted to prevent the EPA from approving the use of 15% ethanol in gasoline.
One businessman’s comment on Barack Obama
One businessman’s comment on Barack Obama.
It starts here and only gets better.
As a small business owner all I can say is that I think the current sentiment in the small business community is that we didn’t sign up for this shit. Y’all can vote for whatever the hell you want but we are not going to be a part of it.
One businessman’s comment on Barack Obama.
It starts here and only gets better.
As a small business owner all I can say is that I think the current sentiment in the small business community is that we didn’t sign up for this shit. Y’all can vote for whatever the hell you want but we are not going to be a part of it.
The Washington, D.C. bubble.
A modern intellectual looks at the Syrian revolt and immediately concludes it was global warming that caused it
A modern intellectual looks at the Syrian revolt and immediately concludes that it was caused by global warming!
Climate change: is there anything it can’t do?
Seriously, the drought in Syria might be a factor behind the revolt, but to assert that the drought was caused by global warming is weak at best. There is no data to make that assertion, none at all. All we have is the opinion of some global warming scientists that such extreme droughts might happen more frequently as the Earth warms. And since the temperature increase as predicted by those very same scientists has not occurred, we should take all their predictions with a big grain of salt.
A modern intellectual looks at the Syrian revolt and immediately concludes that it was caused by global warming!
Climate change: is there anything it can’t do?
Seriously, the drought in Syria might be a factor behind the revolt, but to assert that the drought was caused by global warming is weak at best. There is no data to make that assertion, none at all. All we have is the opinion of some global warming scientists that such extreme droughts might happen more frequently as the Earth warms. And since the temperature increase as predicted by those very same scientists has not occurred, we should take all their predictions with a big grain of salt.
400 economic experts have signed a petition supporting Romney’s economic plans.
Racists! 400 economic experts have signed a petition supporting Romney’s economic plans.
They also condemned the efforts and future proposals of the Obama administration.
Racists! 400 economic experts have signed a petition supporting Romney’s economic plans.
They also condemned the efforts and future proposals of the Obama administration.
The gap between mainstream America and official Washington
The gap between mainstream America and official Washington.
The gap between mainstream America and official Washington.
A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine for feeding hungry children
We’re here to help you: A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine from her local township for feeding needy children on her private property.
We’re here to help you: A Philadelphia woman faces a $600 per day fine from her local township for feeding needy children on her private property.
A Texas policeman has been accused of shooting a woman’s pet dog, while the dog was still on its leash.
Does this make you feel safer? A Texas policeman has been accused of shooting a woman’s pet dog, while the dog was still on its leash.
Does this make you feel safer? A Texas policeman has been accused of shooting a woman’s pet dog, while the dog was still on its leash.