| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Beating liberalism to death with a shovel and a smile. | ||
| |
| McQ (read all posts) Gun Bans and Murder Rates (December 3) Jackson For Obama's Senate Seat? (December 2) Mumbai? Blame America (December 1) |
| rwnadmin (read all posts) Doing The Jaz McKay Show At 4:07 PM EST (December 3) Conservative Grapevine Promo (December 3) Conservative Grapevine Promo (December 2) |
| Melissa Clouthier (read all posts) Bad Economic News (December 3) The Fight Is Never Over, Ever (December 3) Fred Thompson Was My Man, This Is Why (December 2) Conservative-Libertarian Treatise (December 2) |
| Robert Stacy McCain (read all posts) The crazy generation (December 3) |
| Sharon Soon (read all posts) They're Conservative and They Don't Even Know It (December 2) |
| Duane Lester (read all posts) Pentagon to Deploy 20,000 Troops in America by 2011 (December 1) |
| ADVERTISEMENT |
Conventional wisdom among those who believe it is guns which are responsible for murders is taking a drubbing in the UK:
One teenager has been killed on the streets of Britain every five days this year as the number of fatal stabbings soars, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.Official figures from each police force in the UK reveal a grim tally of 65 teenagers who have met a violent death since January 1 - almost two-thirds of whom were stabbed to death.
Perhaps it has to do with the culture?
The fact that knives are now reaping the same deadly harvest as did guns should clue someone into the fact that banning knives isn't going to stop these types of murder. But apparently that still hasn't sunk in yet:
In response, the Met launched its largest operation yet targeting knives, called Operation Blunt 2, using airport-style metal detectors, search wands and emergency stop-and-search powers. Since it began in the Spring, 150,000 people have been searched, 5,370 people arrested and 3,242 knives seized.Tough enforcement measures, a high detection rate and millions of pounds being spent on anti knife crime initiatives had not stopped the rate of killing rising sharply from 17 in 2006, 16 each in 2005 and 2004, and 15 in 2003. But the latest drive has significantly curbed the rate of killings in London in the last three months.
And that last statistic will, unfortunately, most likely convince law enforcement and political leaders that confiscation of the means of murder will somehow thwart the reason, no matter how illogical or irrational, for murder.
I wonder when we'll begin to read about a rise in clubbing deaths.
[Crossposted at QandO]
| Rate this article: |
|
At 4:07 PM EST, I'm going to be on the Jaz McKay show.
Click on Stickam in the left corner to listen to the show.
| Rate this article: |
|
Being a community activist is the perfect job for moonbats. With the media behind you, you get can all the way to the White House. Even if you don't, you can have lots of fun helping to dismantle civilization — like this guy:
MIAMI — Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. "All tile floor!" he says during a recent showing. "And the living room, wow! It has great blinds."
But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you've ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don't have a dime for a down payment.
Rameau is an activist who has been executing a bailout plan of his own around Miami's empty streets: He is helping homeless people illegally move into foreclosed homes.
"We're matching homeless people with people-less homes," he said with a grin.
According to Rameau, "everyone deserves a home" — even if it belongs to someone else.
America hasn't quite deteriorated into anarchy or socialism. Moving into other people's houses uninvited can lead to charges of trespassing, vandalism, and breaking and entering. But according to Miami spokeswoman Kelly Penton:
There are no actions on the city's part to stop this. It is important to note that if people trespass into private property, it is up to the property owner to take action to remove those individuals.
Rameau promises he's ready with free lawyers in case the police start upholding property rights. No doubt those lawyers will quickly appear from under their rocks when squatters manage to singe themselves by accidentally burning down someone else's house, or someone gets hurt when the owners follow Penton's advice and take what's left of the law into their own hands.
Atlanta pushes the moonbattery even further, by giving taxpayers' money to derelicts as payment for living in other people's houses "as a security measure."
Hat tip: Michelle Malkin, on a tip from V the K. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.
| Rate this article: |
|
The politically correct drive toward cultural suicide has crossed into the Twilight Zone in Britainistan, where Catholic bishops are calling for Muslim prayer rooms in every Roman Catholic school.
Catholic schools may also be required to feature Muslim pre-prayer ablution facilities, which will meaning installing bidets, foot spas, and hoses.
Just as victims of battered wife syndrome respond to beatings by pleading for forgiveness, the more the liberal elite accuses Christians of being "divisive" for believing in their own faith, the more they grovel and make extravagant gestures of submission, accelerating the Islamification of Britain by creating a vacuum where religion used to be.
Naturally Muslim colonists are delighted. Crows Majid Khatme:
If they do this all Muslims in Britain will be thankful to the Catholic Church to have facilities to pray. It is very, very encouraging.
Once Muslims achieve the majority, it will violate sharia to allow Christians to build or renovate churches. But maybe dhimmis will still be allowed to build schools, providing their Muslim overlords with another place to pray.
Hat tip: Gateway Pundit, on a tip from Burning Hot. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.
| Rate this article: |
|
For a long time in this country, citizens, businesses, local governments, and most of all, the federal government, have been running up debts as if they're never going to have to pay them back.
So what if the Big 3 car companies pay out pensions they can't afford? So what if the country gets trillions of dollars in debt? So what if millions of people buy homes they can't afford?
The "so what" is that the bill always eventually comes due as they're finding out in Vallejo, California.
When the town of Vallejo, California, declared bankruptcy this spring, Mayor Osby Davis predicted -- and rightly so -- that he'd get an earful from his constituents, employees and retirees. What he didn't anticipate was the chorus of phone calls from mayors outside the city, both close by and clear across the country. They told him they were watching Vallejo's bankruptcy proceedings closely, and some of them, he says, indicated that "they find themselves not too far behind us."Vallejo, a city of 120,000 about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco, flat-out went broke this year through a combination of generous public-safety salaries, declining property values and fiscal mismanagement. The city is estimating a $17 million deficit for the current fiscal year.
...Reasonable people can -- and do -- disagree about how Vallejo found itself in bankruptcy. There's no doubt, however, that many of the city's problems stem from its inability to recover from the 1996 closure of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, once the city's largest employer. The city also lost hundreds of thousands dollars per year in sales tax revenue after the closure of a Wal-Mart.
But the largest share of the blame in Vallejo has centered on public-safety salaries and benefits, which make up about 75 percent of the city's general fund budget. Base pay for firefighters is more than $80,000 per year and employees can retire at age 50 with a pension equal to 90 percent of their salary, the result of a retroactive pension increase several years ago.
With the downturn in the housing market hammering revenues, Vallejo is asking the bankruptcy judge to void the collective-bargaining agreements that led to those salary and benefit arrangements. And the possibility of hard-fought union contracts going up in smoke has struck fear in the heart of labor groups.
The California Professional Firefighters union proclaims, "If allowed to stand, Vallejo's attack on its own employees would send shock waves throughout the labor movement." Gloster, the attorney representing Vallejo's firefighters and police officers, says, "It's very difficult to see how their politicians should actually do the hard work to balance their budgets if they can get a do-over with a simple bankruptcy filing." Vallejo's unions are contending in court that the city is not truly insolvent. The city rejected an offer from the unions for about $10 million in concessions.
For Gloster, the question isn't whether Vallejo will have an effect on other cities but what ramifications other cities are already seeing. Specifically, he pointed to Vallejo's impact on ongoing labor negotiations. "What I hear from people in other cities is that it's already being played as a card," he says. " 'If you don't agree to these changes, we can do a Vallejo.' That's what they call it."
Now, I don't begrudge a union trying to cut the best deal it can for its members or anybody taking the best deal that they can get on a pension. If you don't act in your own self-interest, who will?
However, the problem we're seeing in private industry, in government, and in Vallejo is that the retirees are being paid far too well and for far too long. This is something politicians almost never say because those retirees can still vote.
But, what people have to understand is that the productive people, not the retirees, produce wealth and pay most of the bills for our society -- and there's a balance there. Yes, you don't want people starving in the streets when they retire, but you also don't want to saddle the people who are actually creating wealth with so much of a burden that they don't produce.
Unfortunately, in our society, the scales have been tilted way too far in the wrong direction already. Look at Vallejo. It may be a phenomenal deal for a fireman to work 30 years and then spend roughly another 30 years retired, making 90% of the salary he did when he was working, but it's such a bad deal for the people of Vallejo that the city is being driven into bankruptcy.
When the scale tilts too far away from the producers towards the takers in a society, inevitably one of two things will happen.
The first is that the producers will cry out in such numbers that there may be no choice other than to significantly cut the benefits for the retirees. People may not think that can happen, but remember what your parents used to say to you when you were a kid? "As long as you live under my roof, you'll follow my rules." Well, if you are living off of money made by the producers, then ultimately, you should have to play by their rules.
If that doesn't happen and the producers don't rebel, then eventually the people paying for their retirees will go broke and then there will be no other choice than to dramatically cut benefits.
That's what it came to in Vallejo and it's what it will come to with Social Security, Medicare, and the federal budget unless some changes are made.
| Rate this article: |
|
This economic news more than just about anything else bothers me:
The ADP Small Business Report has shown that:
Small businesses cutting employees mean that big businesses don't need what small businesses are producing. I suspect these numbers will get worse at the start of the new year. Obama or no, the economy is going to continue to contract. If people have money, they're not going to spend it. In fact, some of the business movement this year (travel, for example) happened because the trips were already planned. Next year will probably be worse. Time will tell.
Then, I can be overly pessimistic about this sort of thing. But maybe I'm not too pessimistic. Maxed Out Mama says and this is tangential but related because small businesses losing jobs at precisely the time when people need the money to save their homes:
I apologize in advance; here's where I lose my temper and the cussing starts. The borrower's mortgage payment more than doubled over the first few years of this transaction. Even if the borrower make it through the fourth year, the borrower is still almost always going to lose the home unless the borrower's income increases pretty hugely, or unless the borrower had saved a 7% downpayment. But very few of such borrowers would take such a mortgage; these things were marketed to those who really didn't have the money to buy.If borrower's income remains the same or increases moderately, borrower will lose the home. If the home appreciates only moderately, the borrower will lose the home.
So there are two conditions, and only two conditions, in which such a loan will not result in the borrower usually losing the home - the home must appreciate far beyond the historical norm, AND the borrower must have a major increase in income to pay the actual amortized cost of the refinanced mortgage.
At an APR of 6.5%, the amortizing mortgage payment would be about $1,820 on a 30 year. You have to have significant equity to get that rate, and a decent credit score. Thus, to escape this loan the borrower is going to have to pay substantially more plus have good credit, plus be able to pay about 1K more monthly.
I don't think this will be over anytime soon. 2009 is going to stink, I think.
Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com
| Rate this article: |
|
During the last leg of the campaign, I was tired and disgusted with the political nonsense. I was appalled at the lack of curiosity by both the press and the electorate. The salacious smears against decent people made me think that no rational person would ever want to serve his or her country. The ignorance and vitriol being spewed made me think that voters could be sold anything anyway, so it didn't matter.
What was the point of being involved? One vote hardly seemed enough of a message when one educated vote was canceled out by someone whose breadth of understanding about the issues could be encapsulated in Sarah Palin's daughter's uterus.
And today, the Congressional Visitor's Center opens and with it some nameless, faceless bureaucrat plasters propaganda up all over because Congress critters were more worried about office placement then the content of the ideas they'd be sharing with the world. In addition, the new $620 million dollar (9x over-budget of course) center is created to keep the "smelly" people, the BOSSES of these ostensible public servants and the ones who paid for this politically correct and self-aggrandizing shrine, out.
Relax for a minute, or ten, or a year, and those in the government will create something bad for Americans and make Americans pay for it, to boot. My brother told me, "they count on you getting tired". Indeed.
With the vast amount of information, misinformation, and sheer enormity of the government now, it takes armies of interested people to pay attention and alert others to what is going on. And still, it's impossible to sustain the battle-readiness mentality. For years now, really since Clinton's presidency, it has felt as if there is an all-out war and it has felt like conservative ideas, even when we've been are in power are losing.
The government has gotten gluttonously bigger funding all sorts of suspect projects. Americans seem to not mind as long as they're getting their share.
The conservative-libertarian movement must get across to the populace that government giving means loss of liberty. The government owns those it subsidizes. Citizens become slaves.
America's Founders rebelled against taxation without representation. Well, we are represented, alright. And the representatives need to be held to account. The glad-handing, you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yous-on-the-back-of-the-taxpayer mentality must be stopped.
We can't afford to get tired. We have to continue to fight and we need to unite against leaders whose primary goal is self-service while insulting the smelly people who put them in power to begin with.
Cross-posted at MelissaClouthier.com
| Rate this article: |
|
One thing I have been saying for a long, long time is that there are a lot of black Americans pulling the lever year in and year out for Democrats, when they SHOULD BE voting for Republicans based on their beliefs.
Well, Gallup is now bringing the numbers. What you'll notice about this particular chart is that on social issues, black Americans are closer to the GOP than the Democrats on EVERYTHING except the death penalty,
Gallup explains this by the percentage of black Americans who go to church. Believe it or not, black Americans actually go to church each week in higher numbers than Republican voters (76% vs. 67%).
Now, are there plenty of black Americans who are socially conservative, but liberal on other issues, and thus a better fit for the Democratic Party?
Yes.
Still, there are a lot of black Americans (I'd say at least 1/3) who should be voting Republican and the reason they're not doing so has more to do with attitudes in the black community towards Republicans than the issues.
That's why the GOP has got to change its approach to black America.
My solution? A National Association for the Advancement of Colored Republican People.
| Rate this article: |
|
Twent percent of kids are nuts:
Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.Bunch of psycho dope fiends! This explains why Obama won the youth vote 2-to-1.
The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence. . . .
Counting substance abuse, the study found that nearly half of young people surveyed have some sort of psychiatric condition. . . .
Personality disorders were the second most common problem behind drug or alcohol abuse as a single category. The disorders include obsessive, anti-social and paranoid behaviors that are not mere quirks but actually interfere with ordinary functioning.
(Cross-posted at The Other McCain.)
| Rate this article: |
|
There are a lot of great reasons to despise the Democratic Congress. They're completely out-of-touch, give away your money to get elected and then expect everyone to pat them on the back for being compassionate, and most of them seem to be primarily concerned with keeping their cushy jobs, not serving the people who put them in office.
But, comments like this one, from Harry Reid, deserve a special mention,
The Capitol Visitors Center, which opened this morning, may have tripled its original budget and fallen years behind schedule, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid found a silver lining for members of Congress: tourists won't offend them with their B.O. anymore."My staff tells me not to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway," said Reid in his remarks. "In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it's true."
So, in other words, we built a 640 million dollar structure because Harry Reid didn't want to smell the stink of common people anymore? This brings to mind another incident back in 2006, when the New York Times revealed that the Senators were horribly upset because they actually had to ride in the elevator with the people who paid their salaries,
In addition to lofty issues of war and peace, the Senate is grappling with another urgent matter: the senators-only elevators at the Capitol are being overrun by the unelected....The crowding extends to the elevators, one of the few sanctuaries available to beleaguered lawmakers as they try to navigate between the Senate chamber, various hearing rooms and offices in the Capitol.
...Add the elevator problem to the litany of senatorial hardships, somewhere between flying coach and the high costs of barbering.
At times, senators even find themselves on public elevators, an ordeal fraught with the possibility of having to push their own buttons (the senators-only elevators usually have attendants).
Worse, senators sometimes share their moving sanctums with staff members, lobbyists and T-shirt-clad tourists who apparently missed (or ignored or cannot read) the senators-only signs.
Even Marie Antoinette would look at these guys and go, "Don't you think you should tone the arrogance down a few notches?"
PS: In and of itself, the The Capitol Visitors Center that they're talking about is an abomination. Here's Jim DeMint talking about it in a way that every Republican on Capitol Hill should be,
"The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to tell the history and purpose of our nation's Capitol, but it fails to appropriately honor our religious heritage that has been critical to America's success," said Senator DeMint. "While the Architect of the Capitol has pledged to include some references to faith, more needs to be done. You cannot accurately tell the history of America or its Capitol by ignoring the religious heritage of our Founders and the generations since who relied on their faith for strength and guidance. The millions of visitors that will visit the CVC each year should get a true portrayal of the motivations and inspirations of those who have served in Congress since its establishment."The current CVC displays are left-leaning and in some cases distort our true history. Exhibits portray the federal government as the fulfillment of human ambition and the answer to all of society's problems. This is a clear departure from acknowledging that Americans' rights 'are endowed by their Creator' and stem from 'a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.' Instead, the CVC's most prominent display proclaims faith not in God, but in government. Visitors will enter reading a large engraving that states, 'We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution.' This is an intentional misrepresentation of our nation's real history, and an offensive refusal to honor America's God-given blessings. As George Washington stated clearly in his first inaugural address:
'...[I]t would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe, who presides in the Councils of Nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes: and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success, the functions allotted to his charge.'
"The fundamental principles of the freedom we enjoy in this country stem from our Founding Fathers' beliefs in a higher power, beliefs put forth in the Declaration of Independence and manifest throughout our Constitution," said Senator DeMint. "If we cease to acknowledge this fact, we may cease to enjoy some of the freedoms we take for granted. We must not censor historical references to God for the sake of political correctness. And we must truthfully represent the limited form of government the Constitution lays out so that our 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' So help us God."
Where's Boehner on this? Where's Mitch McConnell? Since when did men who call themselves Republican "leaders" stand by when athestic paeons to big goverment like, 'We have built no temple but the Capitol. We consult no common oracle but the Constitution' are being put up on their watch?
| Rate this article: |
|
In the closing days of an election in Georgia that was thought to be as close as 2 points a week ago, Saxby Chambliss attached himself at the hip to Sarah Palin.
On the other hand, his opponent Jim Martin launched robocalls from Barack Obama and spent his time with rappers Ludacris, Young Jeezy, & T.I. (Whose song No Matter What is one of my all-time faves).
Personally, I thought bringing Palin out at the close of the election was a stroke of genius by Chambliss and campaigning with a bunch of obscene rappers was a horrible idea, but as the ultra-geniuses in DC keep reminding everyone, all political wisdom comes from inside-the-beltway, so I must have been mistaken.
Yet and still, they had the runoff election last night and a contest that was very close on election day turned into a twenty plus point blow-out.
So, in their first proxy fight since the November election, the moose killer blew out the liberal thriller. Go Palin/Chambliss!
PS: The only reason there was a run-off vote in the first place was that a significant number of Republican voters pulled the lever for a Libertarian candidate as a protest against Chambliss' being soft on illegal immigration. In other words, had Chambliss taken the conservative position on illegal immigration all along, he would have won the election outright back in November. Instead, he had to risk a 2nd vote.
| Rate this article: |
|
