Monday, April 30, 2012

Forward

Jim Treacher – the undisputed leader of conservatives’ Twitter guerilla war against the president’s reelection campaign – is having a high old time with the campaign’s new slogan.

Update: Ace is having fun with it, too.

Update II: No reason I can't play.


Update III: Another guy who got some mileage from the "Forward" slogan.

"Forward to Communism!"

Update IV: One last one, for good measure.


Update V: That wild man of the interwebs, TimT, composes a campaign hymn (from the comments section):

Move forward, comrades!
Forth into the past!
Eyes firmly fixed behind us
As we charge back very fast!

Move forward, comrades!
Never wavering or slowing -
We don't know where we come from,
But we do know where we're going!

Move forward, comrades!
Forth into the past!
The only thing can stop us now
Is ultimate disast




A dog’s life is frequently pretty good

Seraphic Secret has some fascinating – or, if you’re the President, some mouthwatering – photos of celebrities and their dogs.

Obama secures the all-important smut peddler endorsement

The guy just keeps getting cooler and cooler.
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who once ran for governor of California with the slogan “the smut peddler who cares,” told The Daily Caller that he will vote to re-elect President Barack Obama in November.
Maybe Flynt is angling for a job in the next Obama administration – Health and Human Services, perhaps, or Safe Schools czar.

The "cool" president


Well, awwwwwreet! This is the preshizzle comin’ at you from Cap City, USA, an’ I want all you gates and wrens to dial this in and listen up. Looks like the GOP gonna field some icky Jeff, some goon from Saskatoon, to run me off the main kick this November. Neighho to that, hep cats and kittens, I know ya’ll ain’t comin’ on that tab. I may have to bust my conk, but, come election time, ya’ll know the ol’ O is gonna break it out, and that square’s gonna have to trilly. So, you alligators and brees roll out of them lily whites in the early bright on November 6th, shove your dogs in your ground grippers and truck on down to the pollin’ booth, and we’ll collar four more years of righteous jive. Solid, Jackson!

Monday movie

Bob Mitchum makes a BIG mistake in falling for Faith Domergue (from Where Danger Lives).


Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sunday funnies

It took me a while, but, yes, I got it.

So, now we hear that lefty scold and Democrat senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren has some native American geneology. For you doubters, Steve Burri has the proof.

Ask and you shall receive.

The little-known alternative to the Titanic.

The "your lane sucks" phenomenon.

Having too much time on your hands: example #137.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Next we'll be hearing that Obama drinks strawberry daiquiris out of Bin Laden's skull

Please. Obama agonizes over ordering the hit, finally gives the word, Bin Laden is iced. Any president would have done the same (although perhaps without the procrastination).

Including a President Romney, in spite of shabby Democrat suggestions to the contrary.

The jug-headed Rambo routine is wearing thin very fast.

Update: Via Rebecca in the comments, the big stick seems to be looking kinda twiggish.

Sad news

Don Surber, a columnist for the Daily Mail (Charleston, WV), is hanging up his pajamas.

I’ll miss Don’s blog. It was a daily stop for me, and frequently featured items that I wouldn’t see anywhere else, or which I saw on his blog first. In addition, Don’s a funny guy, and I admired his witty headlines and posts.

Best of luck to one of the good guys.

Democrats: “Please don’t throw me into that briar patch, Br’er Fox!”

Anybody think Jeb Bush is really the Republican VP choice that Democrats most fear?

Maybe I’m being too cynical. What are your thoughts on the subject?

No wishy-washiness, if you please

From Junius (the real one, not my alter ego): "Let me exhort and conjure you never to suffer an invasion of your political constitution, however minute the instance may appear, to pass by without a determined, preserving resistance. One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate, and constitute law…Be assured that the laws, which protect us in our civil rights, grow out of the Constitution, and that they must fall or flourish with it… [emphasis mine – Paco].”

Assortment

Allen West is da man!

Troglopundit considers the fundamentals of beauty.

Swampy always gets to the heart of the matter: "Are cockatoos edible?” (I don’t know about cockatoos being edible, but there’s at least one cockatoo that thinks Swampy is).

The Department of Justice goes after the kulaks (H/T: Classical Liberal).

Some interesting history, courtesy of kae.

A new tradition in the making, via WyBlog (H/T: Fishersville Mike).

The good guys win one: “Mojave cross to be restored”.

TimT gets a case of the yawns.

Obama’s legal pelican eagle has another bad day in court.

Celebrating the…Zambian space program?!? (H/T: Who else, but Captain Heinrichs!).

Happy Feet Friday

The great trumpeter, Wingy Manone, and his band belt out “Vine Street Blues”.



Bonus clip! Harry James performs Flight of the Bumble Bee (somehow making it look effortless).




Thursday, April 26, 2012

Mark Steyn leaves 'em laughing

Steynamite! Courtesy of Blazing Cat Fur (and, of course, that indefatigable, eagle-eyed internet watcher, Captain Heinrichs).

It's still the economy, stupid

The Heritage Foundation has some very revealing charts that tell the story of the Obama administration's economic imbecility.

That this guy's approval ratings aren't down around the level of Herbert Hoover's circa November 1932 is a tribute to the sycophancy of the mainstream media, and to the ignorance and willful blindness of increasingly large segments of the population. God help us.

The Stupid Agency

Is there such a thing as affirmative action for morons? If so, is TSA the pilot program? The absurdities just keep piling up.

This is why, until a stop is put to this nonsense, I'm not planning on going anywhere that I can't drive to.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A target-rich environment

Roger Simon at Pajamas Media has come up with an excellent award: the Walter Duranty Prize.
Starting this year, PJ Media, in conjunction with our good friends at The New Criterion, will be awarding the first annual Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity.

The first annual Duranty Prize will be given for what our readers consider the most egregious example of dishonest reporting for the fiscal year 2011-2012 (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012).

We will be officially accepting nominations from PJM and TNC readers starting May 1, 2012, at Duranty@pjmedia.com (but if you want to go ahead now, no one’s going to stop you – the email address is functioning).

So many examples, so little time...

Confessions of a blogger

"27 Daily Affirmations" over at American Digest.

My favorite? "Joan of Arc heard voices too, but she was wise enough to have herself set on fire before she logged on."

(H/T: The Other McCain)

Truth in advertising

Another customer collapses from hamburger rapture (or maybe it was rupture) at the Heart Attack Grill.

My guess is that it was probably the piece of lettuce that did her in.

Like what, a famine bomb?

North Korea claims that it has weapons that can strike the U.S.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Well, it ain’t Cooperstown…

…but I guess he’ll be pleased: Al
Gore is inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.


Welcome to the pantheon, Al!

BTW, I hope this honor works out better than his last one.


How about justice for random white people?

There have been at least three separate incidents involving black-on-white assaults, prompted, at least in part, by the urge to get revenge for Trayvon Martin. Or “justice” as the assailants put it. Does beating up innocent people who look like Obama’s mother’s relatives equal justice for Martin? Ok, then, deal. “Justice” has been done. So there’s no point in trying Zimmerman now, I guess, right? Ace makes a very good point:
I repeat: No national coverage of this racial hate crime pattern in the media. Apparently some victims are unworthy, and some hatred and violence is justified. Is Obama going to say anything? Call at least one of the victims? Attempt to bring calm? Attempt a "Sister Souljah" moment (which could actually benefit him politically) and call out violent black racists? Apparently not, and the media has decided that's their preferred political strategy, too.
Unrelated bleg: Do any of you Blogger users out there know why the "enter" key isn't spacing the text? Every time I try to create a new paragraph, I hit "enter" and it doesn't space the text at all. I know that Blogger "upgraded" its site recently, but I don't remember having this problem. See? No new paragraph.

Update: Never mind. I figured it out - with the help of Mrs. Paco.

Marion Barry doubles down

Former Washington, DC mayor, and current city councilman, Marion Barry, not only wants to get rid of Asian shopkeepers, but thinks we could do with fewer Filipino nurses, too.
“In fact, it’s so bad, that if you go to the hospital now, you find a number of immigrants who are nurses, particularly from the Philippines,” Barry said. “And no offense, but let’s grow our own teachers, let’s grow our own nurses — and so that we don’t have to be scrounging around in our community clinics and other kinds of places — having to hire people from somewhere else.”
Is this part of that racial discussion that Eric Holder said we were too cowardly to have?

Obama job search

Assuming Barry gets canned this November, he'll be needing a new career. Now, here's an interesting franchise opportunity: a Dead Dogs hot dog stand (hey, just tryin' to be helpful).

Can we stop giving money to Palestine now?

Palestinian man sentenced to death for selling property to Jews.

Monday, April 23, 2012

You know what's doing a booming business in the Obama years?

Debtors' prisons. So, pay up, suckers, unless you want to find yourselves living in a Charles Dickens novel.

Progress!

How can Michael Bloomberg improve your life? (Or, "My Thomas Friedman Voice")

Pejman Yousefzadeh has had it with NYT columnist Thomas Friedman. Friedman wrote a piece recently in which he used a few personal annoyances to justify a third-party presidential run by nanny-stater Bloomberg. This tears it with Pejman:
No, you weren’t imagining things. Friedman thinks that Bloomberg needs to run for president because the paved streets around Union Station were not up to Friedman’s standards, his cellphone kept dropping calls on the Acela, and the escalator in the parking garage was broken. Friedman felt it was important to write a column pointing all of this out, a column infused with the premise that the president of the United States is some kind of glorified alderman, who runs around and fixes every pothole that Friedman deems a blight.
Pejman goes on to suggest a meme:
One of the best things that can be done for the state of the New York Times editorial page is to either shame Thomas Friedman into giving his readers better material, or to shame him out of the business of opinion-writing forever. So I propose that we take Friedman’s column and mock it with a meme that will hopefully spread through the Internet like wildfire. Please devote as many blog posts, tweets, Facebook/Google+ status updates, and other social media utterances as you can to mocking Thomas Friedman’s column. The rules are as follows: You must focus on an exceedingly small issue that nonetheless bothers you. The small issue in question must be one that the president of the United States can do absolutely nothing about. You must nevertheless demand that the president of the United States do something about it. You must demand that in order to get major-party presidential candidates to focus on your issue, Michael Bloomberg must run as a third-party presidential candidate in 2012. Please use the words “My Thomas Friedman Voice” as part of the title to any blog post and as a blog post tag, or the hashtag #mythomasfriedmanvoice on Twitter.
Sounds like fun! Here's mine:
We have three ferrets, Doug, Wilson and Skeeter. Wilson stubbornly refuses to poop in the litter box, and is setting a bad example for Doug and Skeeter, who have always tried to do "the right thing", but are weakening in their resolve. Obama's only interest in pets seems to be what kind of wine goes with them, so I am supporting a third-party run by Michael Bloomberg, because he is the only political figure who has demonstrated the willingness to stick his nose in any kind of mess, however small, to get the job done, and I am confident that, with his help, we can get a federal subsidy to finance housebreaking Wilson.
(H/T: Ace of Spades)

Going for broke

Reaganite Republican summarizes the case against Obama. We simply cannot afford another term.

Elderly woman thwarts burglar

With a little help from her .38 revolver.

Best way to celebrate Earth Day?

Thank a hunter or fisherman.

Monday movie

The climactic poker hand from The Cincinnati Kid.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Congratulations to Mia B. Love

The Utah conservative has won the Republican primary for District 4, and is now headed to the general election in November against Democrat Jim Matheson. Check out her website.

Why Matt Damon would like to kiss George Bush

Meh, if I were George, I'd just as soon be spared the honor. But the real point here is Bush's charitable commitment to Africa, and the good work he continues to do there.

Sunday funny

New, from Paco Enterprises! Click to enlarge.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Interesting combo

Prick with a Fork pulls off a great bank shot, tying Obama's unfortunate foray into the Trayvon Martin shooting case to his dog eating - yielding this photo for the ages:
(H/T: Tim Blair)

The science may not be settled...

...but the pathology certainly is. Noted Cli-Fi nutcase Steve Zwick introduces arson into the argument over global warming.
Writing for Forbes Magazine, climate change alarmist Steve Zwick calls for skeptics of man-made global warming to be tracked, hunted down and have their homes burned to the ground, yet another shocking illustration of how eco-fascism is rife within the environmentalist lobby.
Better be careful, Steve. Little boys who play with matches sometimes get more than they bargained for.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Lonesome Barry

Remember that scene toward the end of the 1963 Cleopatra movie, where Richard Burton (Mark Antony) wakes up in his tent on the morning of what he anticipates will be his final, desperate battle, and finds out that his army has bolted? I wonder if Obama’s not starting to feel the same way?

Bank of (Blue) America

Bank of America cancels lines of credit to a gun manufacturer because it's...a gun manufacturer.

Certain things just make you think of Bill Clinton



H/T: Doug Ross.

And here's the woman at the center of the Secret Service imbroglio.

Happy Feet Friday

The Andrews sisters, in “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” (with an assist from Harry James and his orchestra and …Shemp Howard?).

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A different kind of Democrat

Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, shows what a genuinely public-spirited politician can accomplish when he sets his mind to it.
A Democrat, Booker nevertheless remained an outsider, often outvoted eight to one by the Newark Democratic political establishment. So he began staging media events—dismissed as “stunts” by Mayor James—to draw attention to local ills, including camping out on street corners to spotlight the drug trade that openly flourished in the city. Booker also crossed party lines to seek solutions to Newark’s problems. With South Jersey Republican businessman Peter Denton, he cofounded the education-reform group E3, which advocated bringing more schooling alternatives—from charter schools to vouchers—to struggling inner-city kids. “When I first met Cory, school choice was still very controversial in Newark,” says Denton. “In black communities, it was understood as something that white Republicans supported. But Cory understood its importance right away and was willing to advocate for it.” Booker was appalled to see many of Newark’s political leaders—“the connected, the elected, the elite,” he calls them—sending their kids to private schools but condemning poor children to remain in the terrible public schools. 

Unable to get the political establishment to pursue the needed reforms, Booker decided to run for mayor. In his first campaign, in 2002, he slammed headlong into James’s political machine. As recorded in the Oscar-nominated documentary Street Fight, Newark police ejected Booker from housing projects where he was campaigning, while a businessman who held a fund-raiser for him had his firm shut down for dubious code violations. James and his supporters shamelessly played the race and religion cards. On the Today Show, James declared that the Baptist Booker was actually Jewish (while at Oxford, he did become the first non-Jewish, nonwhite president of the campus’s L’Chaim Society after befriending the group’s rabbi). Calling himself “the real deal,” James also questioned whether Booker was authentically black. The mayor told Booker, “You have to learn how to be African-American, and we don’t have time to train you.” As transparent as such ploys were, they helped give James a narrow victory. The margin was close enough, however, that when Booker ran again in 2006, James declined to seek a sixth term. Booker crushed a James ally, deputy mayor Ronald Rice, to become Newark’s 36th mayor.
Read the whole thing.

Your guide to fine dining

Of course, the nutrition Nazis have to disguise it with a pc headline: “11 Worst Burgers in America”.

Workers’ Comp (Australian style)

A woman who was injured while having sex in her hotel room during a work trip is entitled to compensation.

In the Federal Court today Justice John Nicholas ruled that the woman was injured during her “course of employment”.
The woman, who cannot be named, challenged the rejection of her workers' compensation claim for facial and psychological injuries suffered when a glass light fitting came away from the wall above the bed as she was having sex in November 2007.
The male friend said in his statement at the time that they were "going hard” and he did not know if they bumped the light or it just fell off.

“I think she was on her back when it happened but I was not paying attention because we are rolling around.”

Very plausible

The People's Cube boldly takes up the challenge to participate in the public conversation on racism.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Dog's on!







California's economy is saved!

Governor Jerry Brown has scrapped the state's requirement for an annual report on kangaroo harvesting in Australia.

Maybe one of my California readers can explain why this information was ever considered a matter of importance to state authorities.

Hot dawg!

Ace has some hilarious photos and captions pertaining to President Obama’s favorite food, here and here (at the bottom of the post).

Protocols of the Elders of Zion National Park

Stacy McCain observes liberal talking heads just asking a few questions about Mormonism. You know, just being inquisitive, like they were about Obama’s spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, and his political guide, Bill Ayers.

Dick Clark, RIP

America’s DJ passed away today, struck down by a heart attack.

In his honor, here’s the theme song from his long-running TV show, American Bandstand (“Bandstand Boogie”).




BTW, check out his Flinstone home.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

At least Mitt Romney didn't eat a dog

Jim Treacher derails another Obama meme.


"Vote for Obama? I think not."

Update: We've also heard from President Obama's dog, Bo:


"Oh, everything's fine here, just fine (please, somebody SAVE ME!!!)

I'm for it

Term limits for federal judges.

From the shelves of the Paco library



Owen Wister’s novel, The Virginian, was first published in 1902. It is generally considered the first serious novel about the Old West, and is still, in my opinion, one of the best. It contains showdowns and other scenes of violence – including a shoot-out and an “extrajudicial” execution – but is most interesting as an exploration of cowboy psychology. The hero – who is referred to throughout most of the work simply as “the Virginian – is a strong, reticent, self-sufficient man, confident in his competence as foreman of the Shiloh ranch in Wyoming, but possessing depths of feeling and compassion that, although not worn on his shirtsleeve, nonetheless manifest themselves in the consistency, fairness and courage of his actions.

The book includes many themes, and even some expressions (“When you say that, smile”) that ultimately became clichés in both the literary and movie renditions of the western frontier; however, one encounters them here, not as tropes, but in the freshness of their original appearance: the strong, silent and lonely cowboy; the schoolmarm from back east who struggles to adjust to the vast emptiness of the plains and their sturdy, sometimes frightening, inhabitants; the thwarted bad man, whose heart smolders with the desire for vengeance; the good man gone bad, whose friendship with the hero is trumped by the necessities of justice. As with many westerns, the stark and unforgiving land, to which men have come to carve out a life at the edge of civilization, creates an environment in which moral choices are few and simple – often terrifyingly so.

The author wrote from personal knowledge of the terrain and the cowpunchers who have come to symbolize the romance of the American frontier, having spent summers in Wyoming in the 1880s and ‘90’s. It was a fascinating, but fleeting, world, as Wister notes in his introduction:
Any narrative which presents faithfully a day and a generation is of necessity historical; and this one presents Wyoming between 1874 and 1890. Had you left New York or San Francisco at ten o’clock this morning, by noon the day after tomorrow you could step out at Cheyenne. There you would stand at the heart of the world that is the subject of my picture, yet you would look around you in vain for the reality. It is a vanished world. No journeys, save those which memory can take, will bring you to it now. The mountains are there, far and shining, and the sunlight, and the infinite earth, and the air that seems forever the true fountain of youth, but where is the buffalo, and the wild antelope, and where the horseman with his pasturing thousands? So like its old self does the sage-brush seem when revisited, that you wait for the horseman to appear.
But he will never come again. He rides in his historic yesterday. You will no more see him gallop out of the unchanging silence than you will see Columbus on the unchanging sea come sailing in from Palos with his caravels.
But the spirit that gave rise to the wild life of the cowboy is never completely absent:
[H]e will be here among us always, invisible, waiting his chance to live and play as he would like. His wild kind has been among us always, since the beginning: a young man with his temptations, a hero without wings.
As the saying goes, the Virginian was a man to ride the river with, and this novel makes the trip amply worthwhile.

Jimmy Carter had his killer rabbit…

…Newt Gingrich has his angry penguin.

Honesty really is the best policy

Kathy Shaidle, proprietor of the Five Feet of Fury blog, never minces words – which, no doubt, earns her the ire of a host of PC types who find truth – hard or soft – difficult to swallow.

But her uncompromising candidness sometimes pays off in unexpected ways. For example, here is an email pertaining to black-on-black crime she received from a black man living in Detroit. It is a genuine cri de coeur, in which Kathy’s correspondent expresses his gratitude that somebody is paying attention to the horrible pathologies of the inner city, and their tragic results.

Hey, I’m glad I don’t do this for a living

Write, that is. The pros seem to go through an awful lot of hand-wringing, angst and despair.

Me? As I’ve said before, I just want to earn enough money to buy a new hat.

Preparing for life in Obama's America

A Frenchman shows the way: "Hamster Villa Let's You Experience Life as a Small Rodent".

Ultimately, of course, Obama's vision will turn into the nightmare of the zombie apocalypse. You can practice for that, too.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Rather petty, wouldn't you say?

Cleveland-area high school senior, Austin Fisher, isn't being permitted to walk with his graduating class due to too many absences - which turn out to be days he spent caring for his cancer-stricken mother.

Are school administrators these days completely relieved of the responsibility of using personal judgment in cases like this?

Assortment

Pundit & Pundette on motherhood.

If “Stand Your Ground” laws are so awful, how come some very prominent Democrats have supported them?

The economic collapse of Los Angeles is not a matter of if, but when (thank you, public sector unions!)

George Washington, badass.

“Democrat-controlled Senate laziest in 20 years”. BTW, Harry Reid just called and left the following voicemail: “I take strong exception to…to…erm…z-z-z-z-z-z….”

An arrest has been made in connection with that horrible mob attack in Baltimore on a white tourist (I don’t plan on going to Baltimore anytime soon – or ever, really – but maybe I’ll invest in one of these, just to be on the safe side).

The Obama presidency: it’s getting to be like an orgy onboard the Titanic. Good thing we’ve got Hillary to set a dignified example…


Oops! Never mind.

So, what’s new in the English caliphate?

The absurd green fabulist, David Suzuki, thinks the problem with the Cli-Fi message is that it was never radical enough.

Obama combines stupid policy with geographical ignorance

The preshizzle says the U.S. will remain neutral in the dispute between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands – which have never belonged to Argentina, and are populated primarily with the descendants of British immigrants who don’t want to be under Argentinian sovereignty. He then proceeded to mislabel the islands as the “Maldives” (in Argentina, the Falklands are called the “Malvinas”).

One wonders if Barry can find his way to his own bathroom in the White House living quarters without a GPS.

A little rule 5 diversion

The ladies of the NRA convention.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Netanyahu bombards prospective protesters with deadly Israeli sarcasm rays

"Dear activist..."

We ought to know by November...

...whether our society is too stupid to survive. Mark Steyn:
He thinks you’re stupid. Warren Buffett thinks you’re stupid. Maybe you are. But not everyone is. And America’s foreign debtors understand that “the Buffett Rule” is just another pathetic sleight of hand en route to the collapse of the U.S. dollar, and of American society shortly thereafter.

When he’s not talking up his buddy Warren, the Half-Millennium Man has been staggering around demonizing Paul Ryan’s plan, which would lead, he says, to the end of the weather service, air-traffic control, national parks, law enforcement, and drinkable water. Given what’s at stake, you might think then that the president would have an alternative plan. But he has none, save for his proposal to pay off the 2011 federal deficit by the year 2526. The Obama No-Plan plan means the end of everything. That really ought to be the only slogan the Republicans need this fall:

What’s your plan?

And all you hear are crickets chirping.

Monday movie

Carmen Miranda and Edward Everett Horton discuss investments (from The Gang’s All Here).

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Sunday funnies

Key & Peele in "Phone Call".

Draw a stickman and watch him go!

Iowahawk makes a (typically) shrewd observation.

More on the late Michael "Flathead" Blanchard (H/T: Captain Heinrichs).

The Metro blues

Smitty's post on the Washington Metro is absolutely spot on (be sure to check the stories linked).

One of the things that I'm most looking forward to in retirement is never having to ride the damned thing again as long as I live.

The three biggest real estate problems

1) Bad location.
2) Decline in market prices.
3) The house is haunted.

Detroit's death spiral

Hey, I bet racism's to blame.

Not to worry, though. In order to defuse racial tensions nationwide, Obama's team is busy reaching out to responsible community leaders.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Well, that's awkward

A dozen Secret Service agents sent to Colombia to guard the Prez have been relieved of duty.
A dozen Secret Service agents sent to Colombia to provide security for President Barack Obama at an international summit have been relieved of duty because of allegations of misconduct.

A Secret Service spokesman did not dispute a tip received by The Associated Press that the misconduct involved prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, the site of the Summit of the Americas.
Update: Now, how does this work, exactly? The Secret Service is paying Joe Biden rent in order to protect him? Hell, they can protect me, and I'll only charge them half as much.

Update II: Five military people have been caught up in the Colombian scandal, too.

Update III: The hidden costs of being a cheapskate.

RIP, Michael "Flathead" Blanchard

Never heard of him until now. Wish I had known him.
“Mike wanted it known that he died as a result of being stubborn, refusing to follow doctors’ orders and raising hell for more than six decades. He enjoyed booze, guns, cars and younger women until the day he died.” The obit continues to say that Blanchard was an avid Republican and NRA member.

He also takes jabs at some of his former friends from the grave: “So many of [Blanchard's] childhood friends that weren’t killed in Vietnam went on to become criminals, prostitutes and/or Democrats."
So long, Mike!

(H/T: Captain Heinrichs)

Obama: Candidates’ families should be off limits

Starting now, I presume. Barry tries to distance himself from the Rosen boomerang (if you can’t catch it, you shouldn’t compel it to be thrown).

Mmmm! I love the smell of…desperation. First, the Prez spends a week peddling the absurd “Buffett Rule”, which he’s now forced to admit will have about as much impact on the deficit as a crow would have on the Washington Monument if it alighted for a couple of minutes to sharpen its beak. Then, his campaign strategists unleash Hillary Rosen to attack Republicans for their mythical war on women, which assignment she executes by…attacking a woman (and, by extension, a whole lot of other women).

On the other hand, what else has he got? It’s not like Obama has a record he can run on (not if he expects to win, anyway). The safest prediction in the world right now is that we are going to see one hell of a nasty campaign from Barry & company, and it’s going to get nastier the closer he gets to seeing the handwriting on the wall. But let us maintain our equanimity, because, in January of 2013, God willing, we will be rid of this ridiculous stick figure of a president.

Looking for a hobby?

Why not learn how to build your own casket?
With the rising costs of funerals, a New York Mills family is lessening the burden by making personalized caskets at a discounted price.

They also offer classes where people can make their own caskets, and caskets that can be used as furniture, such as a table or bookcase, before the owner is buried in it.
(H/T: Drudge)

"Oh, what a lovely armoire!"

"No! Don't open the..."

"Eek!"

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Happy Feet Friday

Aileen Shirley, assisted by the Minoca Maids of Melody, sings “I’m Coming, Virginia”.

Was the White House behind Hillary Rosen’s attack on Ann Romney?

Well, now, I wouldn’t bet against it.

I think we’re going to have to find something besides “Nixonian” to describe this administration's devious political machinations. Nixon just wasn't in Obama's league.

Update: Legal Insurrection has some great tweets on this topic from the right side of the blogosphere. My favorite? Jim Treacher. "Hillary Rosen: the first suicide bomber in the Democrats' War on Women".

Update II: The Democrats' War on Mothers: like a Nork missile, except even more FAIL.

Harvard creates a course entitled “Understanding Obama”

Smitty extends “a joy-buzzer wielding hand”.

As Mark Steyn says, “Big government makes small citizens”

William Tucker over at American Spectator discusses Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart, a fascinating treatise on the erosion of traditional values among white working-class Americans – a phenomenon greatly exacerbated by our old friend, the federal government.
The cultural earthquake that Murray has brought to national attention in Coming Apart goes as follows: Whatever the causes, the social disintegration that once seemed to apply only to African Americans has now engulfed blue-collar, white working-class communities as well. Men are dropping out of the workforce, single motherhood has risen to nearly 50 percent, crime has skyrocketed, religious faith is declining, and the chances for upward mobility are rapidly diminishing. As Murray concludes: "The absolute level [of social cohesion] is so low that it calls into question the viability of white working-class communities as a place for socializing the next generation."
Where does the government come in? Right here.
Now the process has been disrupted by abortion and the ubiquitousness of social programs. AFDC is gone but there is Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers, and the latest form of "welfare," Social Security Disability Benefits, all of which can make a man's paycheck look small. As Mario Cuomo once bragged, "If we take a 16-year-old single mother, get her on welfare, give her food stamps, get her in her own apartment and have her back in school taking classes, what's the problem?" As a consequence, illegitimacy in Fishtown and other white working-class neighborhoods is already 25 percent and for mothers under 30 has reached 50 percent.

Yet you can't blame just the unmarried mothers. Murray shows that blue-collar men have also changed drastically over the last few decades. Maybe it's the sense that they aren't entirely responsible for pregnancies—after all, the girlfriend can always get an abortion, can't she?—or maybe it's just the futility of competing with government programs, but the work ethic among Fishtown men has collapsed. Unemployment, which was below the national average until 1980, has climbed to 50 percent above. While 10 percent of working men put in less than 40 hours at their jobs in 1960, 20 percent do today. The number of prime-age men who have dropped out of the labor force altogether was only 3 percent in 1970, 14 percent in 2010. As Murray says, "[O]nce, working at a menial job to provide for his family made a man proud and gave him status in his community…. [N]ow it doesn't."
As long as we permit government to treat us as exalted lab rats, this kind of thing will be the inevitable consequence.

Federal government: Meh, a little arsenic won't hurt you

The U.S. Forest Service refuses to let the town of Tombstone, Arizona repair its water lines.
In 2011, the Monument Fire ripped through the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona—land belonging to the U.S. Forest Service. Following the fire, floods and torrential mudslides destroyed mountain spring water lines to the town of Tombstone.

Approximately one year later, “The Town Too Tough To Die,” is still unable to fix its water lines, affecting 1,500 residents and more than 400,000 annual visitors.

Due to the location of the springs being on a government wild land area, Tombstone residents cannot use the heavy machinery necessary to fix its water supply—Forest Service rules won’t allow it.
It gets worse:
The crisis doesn’t end there. Because of the damaged water supply, an element called arsenic is running through Tombstone resident’s tap water at a higher level than allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Not only are residents and tourists alike stuck with a damaged water supply but a contaminated one as well. By EPA standards, the federal government is poisoning its own citizens because they refuse to allow them to fix the pipelines that bring them safe drinking water.
How long before the EPA begins to fine the town?

You might need a microscope to see the progress

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is defying a hold put on the disbursement of funds to Palestine by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. At least she has a good reason:
"[The funds deliver] critical support to the Palestinian people and those leaders seeking to combat extremism within their society and build a more stable future. Without funding, our programs risk cancellation," the official, who was not authorized to speak about the issue, said in an e-mail. "Such an occurrence would undermine the progress that has been made in recent years in building Palestinian institutions and improving stability, security, and economic prospects, which benefits Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Hey, all that payola is really yielding some great benefits:
A Palestinian Authority minister stated last month that the Palestinians should unite in order to focus on the destruction of Israel.
The next president is going to need one hell of a big broom and dustpan to clean up the mess left by Obama and his gang.

Argentinian doctors

A second, or even a third, opinion might not be enough.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

So wrong

Eric Holder addresses Al Sharpton's National Action Network.
“This — this — is our moment,” Holder added as the crowd cheered.
Define "our", counselor.

Really, worst Attorney General in history.

Some acts of violence are more equal than others

This one, for example, was ignored not only by the media, but by the police.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

I wonder if I can get a concealed carry permit for some of these

"5 real-life weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie".

Assortment

Why does global warming charlatan Jim Hansen still have a job? (And, yes, that's a rhetorical question.)

Common sense from John Stossel, via Friends of Carbon Dioxide.

Congrats to kae on her, um, big lottery win (hey, I ain't knockin' it; all I've got to show for my investment in five Megamillions lottery tickets is heartache).

Smitty ventures into the heart of darkness.

Liberty at Stake on "Barry's Iron Triangle of Economic Fail".

Cubs vs. White Sox.

Elephants on Mars!

Correction: I think I may have misunderstood the Buffett Rule (jeez, the thing's practically a bill of attainder).

Just as I suspected! Swampman is an old softie.

Planning a surprise party? Don't make a move before consulting TimT.

Excessive government spending: a picture's worth a thousand words.

Faces of Palestine (H/T: Jill J)

California: circling the drain...

Paco Enterprises endorses the Buffett Rule

Not paying back taxes sounds good to me (that is the Buffett Rule, right?)

The simplest idea is often the best

Last week there was considerable buzz about Neo-Nazis patrolling Sanford, Florida. Professor William Jacobson had a simple, but brilliant, idea: let's just call up the police department down there and see if there's any truth to the story.

As it turns out, the story was bogus. Kudos to Professor Jacobson.

And withering scorn for Eric Holder's Justice (Ha!-Ha!) Department for taking no action in connection with the bounty placed on George Zimmerman's head by the New Black Panther Party.

I mean, is this considered ok, now? For individuals or non-government organizations to offer bounties for the apprehension, "dead or alive", of private citizens? Because if it is [extracts legal-size sheet of paper from pocket, filled with names], I've got some money-making opportunities for you bounty hunters out there...

Caption time!


"So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce the new head of the General Services Administration..."

(Photo gratefully lifted from Drudge)

RIP

Lefty Australian blog, Larvatus Prodeo - which I think is Latin for "Godly grub" - has handed in its dinner pail. Old time Tim Blair readers will remember the running battles between Tim (and his commenters), and this collection of Queensland worthies. Good times, good times.

H/T: Bruce

Monday, April 9, 2012

Urine luck!

New, from Paco Enterprises', er, musical plumbing subsidiary: Guitar Pee.

Coming soon: flutulence!

Unrelated update (no, really): Happy Dyngus Day!

Busy, busy

Has Detective Paco had his license revoked? Did J. Packington Paco III succumb to apoplexy after one of his typical six-course meals? Was Brad Smilo fired by Paco World News Daily (PWND) for engaging in NBC-producer-type editing?

Some of you may be glad to learn that the answer to all three questions is “no”. It’s just that real life has been taking quite a toll on body and soul recently, which has led to a dearth of opportunities for genuinely original, creative posting here at Paco Enterprises. But keep a stiff upper lip (although, I don’t know about you, but whenever I try that I wind up looking vaguely like a chimpanzee). There are a couple of good things in the works.

I received the proofs from my publisher for the Che novel today, so, as soon as I make final corrections/changes, I’ll be sending that back for publication (and remember: I need to sell enough copies to generate royalties sufficient to fund the purchase of a new hat). I’m also mulling over a story featuring J.Packington Paco III and Bill Ayers - inspired by the commie professor’s statement that he gets up every morning, warmed by the idea that, “today, I will end capitalism.” Wouldn’t it be amusing, I thought, if J.P. ended Bill Ayers, instead? And perhaps my 18th century alter ego, Junius, will have a few more things to say to the scabrous louts who people the environs of the nation’s capital, and prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of our patrimony.

Anyhow, those are my windy promises, which I hope you all will find nearly as nourishing as the product itself.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Gorgeous spring

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day here at the Paco Command Center, and the season is unfolding in all its glory.

Here are the first peony blossoms of the year.



The winter was so mild that these snapdragons survived unscathed from last summer.



And this shot of the blue sky through the branches of a dogwood tree almost looks like the portal to heaven.

Monday movie

Abbott and Costello, in a scene from my favorite A&C movie, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (sorry, the screen is too large to embed in my blog; the link goes directly to YouTube).

Sunday funnies

Australia welcomes the Easter Bunny Bilby.

* * * * * * * *

From the in-box:

THE BEST SOUTHERN HOME SECURITY SYSTEM

1. Go to Goodwill and buy a pair of size 14-16 men's work boots.

2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo Magazine.

3. Put four giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazines.

4. Leave a note on your door that reads ......

Bubba,

Bertha, Duke, Slim and I went for more ammo and beer. Don’t mess with the pit bulls. They got the mailman this morning and messed him up bad. I don’t think Killer took part, but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyway, I locked all four of ‘em in the house. Better wait outside. Be right back.

Cooter


* * * * * * * * *

I can't believe I missed it again this year! International Pillow Fight Day.

Happy Easter!


After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

Matthew 28:1-10

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Come to beautiful Baltimore

But please arrange for security prior to your visit.

Unemployment falls to 8.2%

That’s the headline that the White House and the lapdog press are pushing. Things, however, are not really as good as all that.
Swing and a miss. A big miss. A really big miss. U.S. employers added just 120,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. That’s the smallest increase since October. Economists polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm employment to increase by 203,000. And as economist Robert Brusca points out, “The strong amazing run in household jobs came to a crashing halt as employment in that survey fell by 31,000 after rising by 42,000 last month and 847,000 the month before that.”

Science or scientism?

George Walden offers some excellent observations on science and its sometimes overly ambitious practitioners. For example:
An obvious area of interest for the new utopians is criminality, and Tallis has fun with the advocates of biological justice. The idea that criminals are in thrall to their amygdala (the seat of aggression, it seems) is no more, he says, than a materialist updating of demonic possession. And instead of justice taking an understanding view of offenders, logically they should be given longer sentences, because nothing can change them. When Zeno whipped him, a thieving slave protested: "But I was fated to steal." "Yes, and be whipped for it too," the philosopher replied. Getting a moral grip on oneself is possible, Tallis believes, but that cannot be the view of those who insist there is no "self" to grip, or do the gripping.

Friday, April 6, 2012

A government as good as its people

Which must mean that a disturbingly large number of the denizens of D.C.’s 8th ward are bigoted morons.

Beat to the punch, once again

The trouble with fisking David Brooks’ columns is that they’re almost always so glaringly idiotic, that, before I can get a crack at them, they’ve already attracted the attention of other, more prominent connoisseurs of stupid.

Coming soon: Fidel Castro’s 12 Steps to Killer Abs

The Stalin exercise book (H/T: Small Dead Animals)

You're more likely to get struck by lightning than to win the lottery

As this guy found out.

Elsewhere: Snakes on a plane, Australian version.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Happy Feet Friday

Here’s an audio of Pinetop Smith’s 1928 recording entitled, simply, "Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie". Absolute classic.



Bonus! Here's a V-Disc recording of Tommy Dorsey's big band orchestration of Pinetop's Boogie Woogie from WWII.

Really, shouldn’t Tim Blair be awarded a Nobel Prize or something?

Liberal MLC (whatever an MLC is) Peter Phelps lauds our blogfather for his brilliant success in promoting the Hour of Power.
Last Saturday at 8.30 p.m. people who believe in civilisation gathered around the planet to celebrate the Hour of Power. While hippy, mung bean-eating, pot-smoking types sat around in unlit rooms pretending that they were Jesus and could save the world, people who believe in civilisation, advancement and human endeavour set about to try to use as much electricity and other carbon dioxide producing products as possible, and it was a great success…In closing, I thank the person who started it all: Tim Blair of the Daily Telegraph. I congratulate him on starting a worldwide movement that celebrates human achievement. Well done, Tim Blair.
So say we all. Well done, indeed.

Con man

Professor Thomas Lambert – who was a student in Barack Obama’s Constitutional Law class – has a great post up at Truth on the Market that shines light on the president’s seeming lack of knowledge on the issue of judicial review. A sample:
Thus, a Wall Street Journal editorial queried this about the President who “famously taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago”: “[D]id he somehow not teach the historic case of Marbury v. Madison?”

I actually know the answer to that question. It’s no (well, technically yes…he didn’t). President Obama taught “Con Law III” at Chicago. Judicial review, federalism, the separation of powers — the old “structural Constitution” stuff — is covered in “Con Law I” (or at least it was when I was a student). Con Law III covers the Fourteenth Amendment. (Oddly enough, Prof. Obama didn’t seem too concerned about “an unelected group of people” overturning a “duly constituted and passed law” when we were discussing all those famous Fourteenth Amendment cases – Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, Romer v. Evans, etc.) Of course, even a Con Law professor focusing on the Bill of Rights should know that the principle of judicial review has been alive and well since 1803, so I still feel like my educational credentials have been tarnished a bit by the President’s “unprecedented, extraordinary” remarks.
Read the whole thing (you’ll be glad you did!)

H/T: Powerline

Supreme arrogance

And ignorance, as Peter Wehner points out.
Obama, a former community organizer who is perhaps unaware of the finer points of the law, might want to acquaint himself with an obscure 19th century case, Marbury v. Madison, which established the doctrine of judicial review and grants federal courts the power to void acts of Congress that are in conflict with the Constitution. What Obama describes as “unprecedented” has, in fact, been done countless times since 1803.
So, what may we conclude from observing Obama's public display of pique and obtuseness?
I don’t know what the political effect of all this will be. But intellectually, this is the week where Barack Obama jumped the shark. In a deep, fundamental way, he is no longer a serious man. Nor an honest one. His public words are now purposefully bleached of truth. And that is a painful thing to have to say about an American president.

One distinct disadvantage of having a name tattoo

It's hard to get away with using a fake moniker.

Well, it ain't the Christmas Truce...

...but, still, it's a curious example of opposing armies taking time off from a war to collaborate on a mutually beneficial project. During WWI, wolves gathered in such great numbers on the Russian front, that German and Russian forces declared a temporary truce in order to jointly hunt them down.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Yet another “Great Moment in TSA Job Performance”

A potty-mouth TSA screener responded to a request from a pilot to tone down her language by throwing hot coffee at him.

You go, girl! Right on down to the police station.

Now, here’s what I’d like to know: will this woman ultimately be…

1) fired?
2) temporarily suspended pending an investigation?
3) reprimanded?
4) promoted?
5) the big winner in a worker-grievance lawsuit?

I’m torn

Frankly, I’d love to see Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket, but at the top, not playing second fiddle. Also, I tend to think he’s more useful in the House of Representatives where he can really play an important role in the nuts and bolts of budget legislation. On the other hand, he’s a known quantity, with a well-earned reputation for fiscal responsibility, which might help him to balance concerns that many conservatives have about Romney’s economic vision (or Rick Santorum’s, for that matter). How says the commentariat?

Jack Murtha is dead...

...but his legacy lives on.
The Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., is a prime example of taxpayer spending that refuses to die. Representative John Murtha steered some 150 million of taxpayer dollars to this eponymous airport over the last decade and despite the fact he died more than a year ago, the money keeps on coming.

Three years ago, we first visited the tiny airport, and found a monument to pork barrel spending: An airport with a $7 million air traffic control tower, $14 million hanger, and $18 million runway big enough to land any airplane in North America. For most of the day, the only thing this airport doesn't have is airplanes.

And clap the erasers when you're done



(H/T: Protein Wisdom)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Democrats' tasteful, dignified outreach to Jewish donors

Stacy McCain has the details.

You know, I could have told them this was a bad idea. During the early phase of my presidential candidacy, I tried to do outreach to my fellow Catholics with a catchy slogan; however, "Cough it up, mackerel snatchers!" earned me zero donations and a stern letter from the Holy See.

The high road: always take it.

Really, the Obama campaign will take money from anybody

John Hinderaker has some fun with Obama’s donation site. Read it and laugh (or weep, as the mood strikes you).

Humiliating

Rush may be right about Obama being a thug; but what does it say about us as a nation that we should permit ourselves to be imposed upon by such a candy-assed thug? This narcissistic, petulant, ignorant, intellectual nothing-burger of a glorified ward heeler. Who wears mom jeans and munches on arugula. T.S. Eliot really demonstrated a knowledge of his onions when he wrote, “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Monday, April 2, 2012

You want fries with that, sailor?

“Woman Blames McDonald’s for Prostitution”

From the shelves of the Paco library


Taking a break from writing his comical Kai Lung yarns, Ernest Bramah penned a curious novel in 1907 entitled The Secret of the League. The book is a work of futuristic fiction that envisions a socialist England, and a successful revolt by the upper and middle classes against a government that looks too painfully similar to much of what prevails today (or, at least, to what prevailed in the years leading up to Margaret Thatcher’s accession to power). Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book is its uncanny foreshadowing of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: the rebels launch an “insurrection” in which the primary weapon is their withdrawal from the economy – specifically, a consumer strike against the purchase of coal. Even the alias used by the prime mover of the anti-socialist movement – “George Salt” - is strangely suggestive of the hero in Atlas Shrugged (John Galt).

The action of the novel, which presumably takes place a decade or so after the year of publication, is set in an England in which a succession of labor victories (greatly assisted by a rapid expansion of the voting franchise) culminates in a powerful socialist party, which introduces a profusion of new taxes aimed at the middle and upper classes (Bramah, incidentally, asserts an early version of the Laffer Curve, in which the increase in taxes actually results in a fall in government revenues). The inevitable consequences of the Socialist Party’s policies include a growing sense of entitlement among the working classes and a fall-off in productivity, as well as a general decline in the standard of living – not to mention the erosion of British military power, as the unfortunate country now sees its once peerless navy being pushed around by that of France(!)

Out of nowhere, a man calling himself George Salt materializes, and proposes a plan for the overthrow of the socialist government to Sir John Hampden, a Tory politician who has retired from public life. Sir John, impressed with the plan and its prospects, establishes an organization called the Unity League, which publicly proclaims its opposition to the present government, and pledges to dislodge it by peaceful means. After two years of preparation – notably, securing vast supplies of oil which it stores at a well-guarded rural compound – the League announces a strike against coal consumption. Gradually, the consumer strike weakens the economic foundations of the country, as the League’s members – five million strong – substitute oil for coal. Privation eventually edges toward starvation for the working classes, who increasingly blame their own government. A socialist paramilitary force, supported by the government, launches an attack on the League’s oil-storage facility, but is repulsed. George Salt, trapped in London before a mob of starving, desperate laborers, finally reveals his true identity – he is a highly-regarded naval hero – and succeeds in pacifying the crowd. Socialist representatives, now seeing no future for either their government or their cause, agree to a national-unity government, in which members of the League will assume leadership. Thus, socialism is handed a critical defeat - but not, as the author underscores, a necessarily permanent defeat, as several key labor leaders remain defiant and promise to fight on another day.

The Secret of the League is a literary curio, an early example of the futuristic fiction that was beginning to come into its own in the Edwardian era. Beyond that, however, it is also an indication of Bramah’s prescience in seeing so clearly the theoretical fallacies of socialism that have been borne out innumerable times since the author’s day in one practical failure after another.

Obama: Hey, Hitler's money is as good as anybody else's

The Obama campaign has once again disabled credit card verification, the better to keep that sweet foreign getus flowing in without the annoyance of transparency. The results are...interesting. One enterprising fellow "says that he donated to the Obama campaign as 'Adolph Hitler,' occupation 'Dictator' living at a German address. As you can see in the clip, citizen journalist George Scaggs of Austin tries the same thing at three different campaign sites, that of Obama, Romney and Santorum. Only the Obama site accepted the donation without the verification number."

Will one man decide the fate of 300 million Americans?

Mark Steyn cuts to the chase on the horrible confluence of Big Government legislation and a Supreme Court that is increasingly adrift.
And yet, and yet . . . If you incline to the view that Obamacare is a transformative act, isn’t there something slightly pitiful about the fact that the liberties of over 300 million people hinge on the somewhat whimsical leanings of just one man? I mean, Kennedy seems a cheery enough cove, but who died and made him the all-powerful Sultan of Swing? “It is a decision of the Supreme Court,” explained Nancy Pelosi a few years back in more congenial times for the Democrats. “So this is almost as if God has spoken.”

That’s not how earlier Americans saw it: “If the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,” wrote Abraham Lincoln, “the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.”

Which they have. Or it would not have come to this.
One of many reasons why we should focus like a laser beam on senate and congressional elections. Monstrous infringements on liberty, like ObamaCare, should never even see the light of day, let alone become the law of the land. Nor should bad laws be carved in stone at the behest of a high court whose members include an uncomfortably high proportion of ideological hacks and dreamy navel-gazers.

An important new book

Or rather, a book that has been around for a while and has just recently been translated into English: At the Edge of the Abyss: A Concentration Camp Diary, 1943-1944, by David Koker. Koker was a Dutch Jew who was arrested, along with other family members, in early 1943, and sent to a concentration camp in the southern Netherlands. He was eventually consigned to Dachau, but died in transit.

The book looks to be an excellent read; note the fine powers of observation as Koker gets a firsthand glimpse of Heinrich Himmler:
A slight, insignificant-looking little man, with a rather good-humored face. High peaked cap, mustache, and small spectacles. I think: If you wanted to trace back all the misery and horror to just one person, it would have to be him. Around him a lot of fellows with weary faces. Very big, heavily dressed men, they swerve along whichever way he turns, like a swarm of flies, changing places among themselves (they don’t stand still for a moment) and moving like a single whole. It makes a fatally alarming impression. They look everywhere without finding anything to focus on.
Edge of the Abyss is a valuable addition to Holocaust literature, and Jordan Michael Smith’s review is a good introduction to the mind and work of a man whose intellect remained free and active, even in the harshest surroundings imaginable.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Actually, no, but thanks for the compliment

NYT columnist Thomas "I ♥ Red China" Friedman thinks the Republican Party has become radicalized.

Dudes, it's not about you, it's about the teachers' unions

Students in a Detroit high school suspended for demanding an education.
About 50 students were suspended Thursday from the all-boys Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit, Mich. for walking out of classes in protest, demanding "an education."

Among their complaints: a lack of consistent teachers, the reassignment of the school principal, educators who abuse sick time and a shortage of textbooks.
(H/T: Instapundit)

You show me yours

The Obama campaign wants to see Romney's tax returns for the last eight years. Doug Ross has a list of Obama documents we'd all like to see, too.

Monday movie

Guinn “Big Boy” Williams appears in another fight scene – this time, outside of the saloon.