The Cassandra Page

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2011-10-29T11:07:00.001-04:00

This country's broke. As I said last week, it has to pay back $15 trillion just to get back to having nothing at all. And that's more money than anyone ever has had to pay back.

Mark Steyn - 10-28-11

Why is there no looting in Japan? Answers from Johnstown flood of 1977

2011-03-14T10:12:00.002-04:00

The following clip may explain why there is no looting in Japan in the wake of the earthquake/flood/nuclear meltdown(s).

This clip is from CBS News in 1977 in the wake of the Johnstown flood.

Quote of the day - Christopher Hitchens

2011-03-08T23:13:00.002-05:00

Heroism breaks its heart, and idealism its back, on the intransigence of the credulous and the mediocre, manipulated by the cynical and the corrupt.

Christopher Hitchens

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

2010-09-14T10:37:00.001-04:00

If you reject a political claim made in the name of any category of people, you can expect to be accused of hating all the people in that category.

Joe Sobran

Record cold in Los Angeles

2010-07-11T10:55:00.002-04:00

This summer has brought record cold temperatures to Los Angeles, even as the global warming believers double down on their religion and demand further government crackdowns on what is left of U.S. industry.

"Everyone draw Mohammed" day

2010-05-20T15:05:00.004-04:00

Mohommed

Today is "Everyone Draw Mohammed" day. I cannot draw, but I can post links to the drawings and artwork of others. The point is to depict Mohammed in defiance of Islam.

Check out these other posts.

Morgan Elizabeth Woolard nude pics; sex tape; scandal; drugs; prostitution; DUI

2010-05-17T21:46:00.005-04:00

Of course none of the above terms apply to Morgan Elizabeth Woolard, the Miss USA contestant from Oklahoma who spoke mildly in support of Arizona's immigration law and strongly in support of state's rights at the recent pageant (at which a Lebanese Muslim was crowned Miss America - no doubt as a stepping stone to the Nobel Prize).

But if you have found this page, it is likely you were directed here from Google as you were hoping to find dirt to descredit Ms. Woolard.

They did it with Sarah Palin, Carie Prejean and others. Now they are hoping to smear Ms. Woolard instead of allowing someone to favor publicly the concept of states rights.

Morgan Elizabeth Woolard

Morgan Elizabeth Woolard

Vera Baker video; Vera Baker pics; Obama sex video will never see daylight; the Obamacare trumpcard.

2010-05-01T14:23:00.011-04:00

Don't be too excited about the prospect of another Obama scandal (as reported by the recently more reliable National Enquirer.)

The Enquirer claims that a video tape exists of Obama with Vera Baker at a hotel:

Analyzing the reports, a top DC insider said the driver's account had been independently corroborated by investigators who believe the couple spent the night together at the hotel.

On-site hotel surveillance video camera footage may provide indisputable evidence.

"Investigators are attempting to obtain a tape from the hotel (that) shows Vera and Barack together," the DC insider confided.

"If the tape surfaces, it will explode the scandal."

I am almost certian that no videotape will ever surface. [The MSM/DNC has been sitting on this story for 1.5 years already.] Obama's thugs at SEIU, ACORN, etc. have an easy job if they wish to squelch the video. Assuming they find the person that now holds the video, they need only promise to exempt him from Obamacare.

The creation of Obamacare now gives the regime a weapon like no other. Americans face the loss of their ability to obtain medical treatment under Obamacare. We will all become lost in the new medical bureaucracy, like today's residents of UK and Canada. But for those that the regime exempts from the system, medical care will be available. The passage of Obamacare now gives the regime the opportunity to dole out life and death, simply by exempting its friends from Obamacare's provisions.

Obama sex tape soon to look like this?

A video of Vera Baker with the President would seemingly be quite valuable. Such a video would fetch a high price on the black market. But now, no amount of money could equal a "get out of Obamacare" card. The regime holds the ultimate trumpcard.

Vera Baker

visit counter added on May 1, 2010

Arizona immigration law; Seth Meyers; late-night comedians; Goerge Orwell - 1984; two minutes hate.

2010-05-01T10:24:00.005-04:00

For all of its weaknesses, the MSM/DNC still has the ability to flog a talking point to death, especially on an issue as crucial to the MSM/DNC as flooding our borders with illegal aliens.

In the "debate" over Arizona's border protection law, the MSM/DNC has given up any pretext at rational argument and simply vowed to repeat the "fascist/Nazi/Hitler" talking point until Americans are intimidated into giving up any attempt to protect the border. Hitler would have loved to have such a fifth column operating in the countries he invaded.

One example comes from SNL's Seth Meyers, who attacked the Arizona law by asking, "I know there are some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but can we all agree that there's nothing more Nazi than saying, 'Show me your papers?'"

Really? Nothing more Nazi than saying "show me your papers?"

What papers?

Do you mean proof of a social security number, without which Americans cannot work or obtain credit?
Or do you mean tax returns, for which your failure to file results in prosecution?
Or do you mean all of the documentation that will soon be necessary for law-abiding Americans to comply with Obamacare, including proof of participation in (and payment into) Obama's socialized insurance pool?
Or do you mean the new national ID proposed by Democrats that would contain biometric information on every law-abiding worker in the United States.
Or do you mean all of the "papers" contained in the FBI files that the Clinton White House improperly obtained and used against political opponents in the 1990's?
Or do you mean the various registrations and permits that the government has used for decades to "control" guns and (only law-abiding) gun owners?

Of course Seth Meyers and the other late night "comedians" do not mean those papers. He means only the papers that would protect our borders and the lives and pockets of law abiding Americans.

The welfare state has turned "show me your papers" into standard policy ever since the New Deal. The welfare state propoganda machine known as "late night comedians" have voiced no objection. Indeed, for the past year and half, they have even forgotten that a man named "Hitler" ever existed. It has become "hate speech" even to draw comparisons between Obama's statist policies and the failed totalitarian regimes of the past.

But now that one state demands basic "papers" to protect its citizens against foreigners who would overwhelm the very welfare systems created by the left, the late night propagandists suddenly rediscover Hitler.

The very notion of comedians becoming the number one weapon in the hands of a statist regime is unsettling. We are being told that if we oppose Obama's policies of increased government control and increased statism, we will be singled out for character assassination.

Late night comedians and their coastal audiences are the equivalent of the "two minutes hate" from George Orwell's 1984. Crowds are gathered. Enemies are identified. Instead of anger, the audience is encouraged to laugh at this evening's enemy of the state, no matter how uninspired the joke. Slowly, but surely, the viewers at home learn to keep silent for fear of being laughed at themselves.

As the ratings for the evening news decline, and as sales and advertising revenue plummet for all major newspapers, the welfare state has one weapon left - the late night comedian and his obedient audience.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2010-05-01T10:12:00.001-04:00

The same day that Mayor Newsom [of San Francisco] took his bold stand [against Arizona], I saw a phalanx of police officers doing the full Robocop – black body armor, helmets and visors – as they marched down the street. Naturally I assumed they were Arizona State Troopers performing a routine traffic stop. In fact, they were the police department of Quincy, Ill, facing down a group of genial Tea Party grandmas in sun hats and American-flag T-shirts.

Mark Steyn 4-30-2010

Dan Rooney - hypocrite; Ben Roethlisberger; Ernie Holmes

2010-04-16T00:17:00.005-04:00

Dan Rooney is the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I have been disillusioned with him ever since he credited Barack Obama for the Steelers' victory in Super Bowl 43.

Barack Obama has never had reason to demand the return of his 30 pieces of silver.

Now Dan Rooney has been conspicuously noncommittal about Ben Roethlisberger in the face of a scandal in which quarterback Ben Roethlisberger somehow avoided criminal charges in Georgia. Rooney refused to defend Roethlisberger, preferring instead to praise the backup quarterback regarding the backup's charitable work in Pittsburgh:

"My job is in Ireland," added Rooney, now the U.S. ambassador to that country, indicating that the team in his absence is run by his son, president Art Rooney II, along with coach Mike Tomlin and director of player personnel Kevin Colbert. "I would just say that it's a serious matter. And it's being handled properly with Art, Mike and Kevin Colbert. I think they're handling it very well. The commissioner as you know saw Ben [in New York Tuesday]. I don't have any more to say."

Asked about the general behavior his family expects from Steelers, Rooney -- standing with state AFL-CIO officers, his son, Jim, and Steelers backup quarterback Charlie Batch -- said: "I think the players have to be special. And we have a special man here in Charlie, what he's done, what his foundation does as far as children in this community is exemplary. That's the way it should be. Everybody makes mistakes. But I don't even want to talk about that."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - 4-15-2010

This and other noncommittal behavior has been interpreted by many in Pittsburgh as a public rebuke to Roethlisberger by the Steelers. The Steelers are prepared to suspend Roethlisberger related to the Georgia incident.

The Steelers' (and Dan Rooney's) attitude toward Roethlisberger stands in marked contrast to a different incident in the 1970's when one of the Steelers was arrested for shooting a police officer. In 1973, defensive tackle Ernie Holmes fired a gun at trucks on the highway and a police helicopter, wounding one officer and endangering the entire helicopter crew. After a large manhunt, Holmes surrendered. Dan Rooney was supportive of his tackle in that case:

This time the Steelers helped him out. [Coach Chuck] Noll and Dan Rooney went to the jail where he [Holmes] was being held and the Chief [Dan's father Art] visited him nearly every day in the Western Pennsylvania Psychiatric Hospital, where he stayed for almost two months. He pleaded guilty on three counts of intent to kill and was placed on five years probation.
Roy Blount, Jr., About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, (1974) p. 57

Ernie Holmes

The Rooneys' support of Holmes was very public and contributed to the Rooneys' image as "caring" owners. Ernie Holmes was never suspended.

So Dan Rooney stands by a man who shot a policeman (and pled guilty) only to abandon his quarterback who was charged with nothing. As another Post-Gazette columnist noted:

There also is pressure on the Steelers -- again, some of it racial -- to come down hard on Roethlisberger.

Whether the Rooneys are simply yielding to racial pressure or are determined to make the Steelers into an affirmative action football team, the effect is the same. While I do not defend Roethlisberger, make no mistake that the Steelers' choice of who to discipline is based not on moral outrage, but the kind of political calculation that landed Dan Rooney in Ireland.

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Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell - health care costs

2010-02-28T21:01:00.002-05:00

Here is a math problem for you: Assume that the legislation establishing government control of medical care is passed and that it "brings down the cost of medical care." You pay $500 a year less for your medical care, but the new costs put on employers is passed on to consumers, so that you pay $300 a year more for groceries and $200 a year more for gasoline, while the new mandates put on insurance companies raise your premiums by $300 a year, how much money have you saved?

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - Greek crisis; Obamacare

2010-02-27T14:55:00.006-05:00

While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand new, even more unsustainable entitlement at the health care "summit," thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen - because they're part of the same story. It's just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They're at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is further upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided, instead, that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter 20 (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter 17 or 18.

Mark Steyn - 2-27-10

John Murtha; Dr. Hendricks; Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand; Socialized medicine

2010-02-10T12:03:00.003-05:00

There is irony to be found in the death of Congressman John Murtha this week. Congressman Murtha was a liberal Democrat who supported government growth and government pork for decades. He provided unwavering support to the Democrat leadership in Washington as they sought to nationalize the health care system.

The irony is that Murtha died from a medical mistake during otherwise routine surgery. Murtha died from something that will become all too common for every American in the coming years if the government completes its nationalization of medical care. Medical care will degenerate like every other government "service." Today's doctors will either quit or become government bureaucrats (or will take orders from bureaucrats). The fictional Dr. Hendricks told our future in Atlas Shrugged:

I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago . . . . Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything - except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of their patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' That a man who's willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards - never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind - yet what is it that they expect to depend on when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kinds of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it - and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't.
Atlas Shrugged, p. 744, 35th Anniversary Edition

So what was the situation with Murtha's doctors? Did they resent being dressed in white coats as props for Obamacare? Or did Murtha get the leftover doctors after the resentful ones quit?

Top 12 things that James O'Keefe did not do.

2010-02-01T14:36:00.001-05:00

Click here for the James O'Keefe story and my earlier commentary.

Click here for Ben Stein's commentary on James O'Keefe.

We still don't know exactly what O'Keefe is supposed to have done that is illegal. I will add to this story only by listing the top 12 things that O'Keefe did not do:

He did not falsely accuse American soldiers of purposely shooting at journalists.
He did not alter a photo of Condi Rice to make her eyes appear "demonic."
He did not publish a photo of an
unrelated car to dramatize the aftermath of
shots fired at an Italian journalist.
He did not falsely report that a Koran
had been flushed down the toilet, thus touching
off riots and death across the middle east.
He did not stage a fake canoe ride in 4
inches of water.
He did not attribute muslim riots in Paris
to "African-Americans."
He was not forced to resign after being discovered
inventing characters for columns.
He did not invent the "fake, but accurate" standard.
He did not print analysis of Iraqi
election results prior to the actual elections.
He did not coach on-air guests to sound angry
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
He did not invent a story about baby seal hunts in Canada.
He did not use fake quotes, interviews and sources, forcing the resignation of his executive editor.

These are only the things that O'Keefe did not do in 2004 and 2005. This list does not include the things O'Keefe has not done since that time. The corresponding people and organizations who actually did these things are listed here (with links). They remain at large:

Obama attacks the Supreme Court; Mark Steyn; Hugh Hewitt; Justice Kennedy; Robert Mugabe

2010-02-01T13:00:00.000-05:00

After last week's "State of the Union" speech (during which President B. Hussein Obama attacked the Supreme Court), Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn discussed Obama's attack in the context of today's politics and future decisions of the Court:

BHO: With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.

HH: Now Mark Steyn, that is not accurate. The Austin decision is 20 years old, it had never been directly challenged. This was explained in the Chief Justice’s concurrence. But putting that aside, he attacked the Court which is non-partisan, and is supposed to represent the rule of law. It’s really unprecedented.

MS: Yes, and it’s very interesting. I would be interested to know what Nancy Pelosi thinks of that, because Nancy Pelosi’s comment, best known comment on Supreme Court decisions is that oh well, they’re sort of like God. In other words, once the Court has ruled, that’s it. It’s chiseled in tablets of stone, brought down from the mountain, and delivered in this case by Justice Kennedy. I mean, what I find so odd about this is that Justice Kennedy is the new Sandra Day O’Connor on that Court. He’s the swinger. He’s the swing vote. And I think, I don’t think it’s strictly in naked political interest, it’s sensible for Obama to actually publically sneer at Justice Kennedy when he’s sitting a few feet away from him. It just seems to me a very odd thing to do, and yet another example of how isolated and detached from the facts on the ground this Oval Office is.

Steyn's point is that Obama made a political mistake by attacking a swing voter on the Supreme Court, which attack will adversely affect future Court decisions.

What Steyn does not mention is that Obama (and the left) does not care so much about a few decisions of the Court. He cares about destroying the institution and its ability to check and balance the other branches of government. By attacking the Court publicly in this fashion, he has helped diminish the Court in the eyes of the 40% of the poll respondents that will follow Obama no matter how badly he performs in office.

Obama has promised to transform America. He means it. He has taken many steps designed to bankrupt this country. He has taken over industries. These are transformative steps. Destroying what is left of the rule of law is another such step. Diminishing the Supreme Court is necessary to the destruction of the rule of law.

Obama and the leftist utopians envision a world where the President can give any order without worrying about a pesky court getting in the way. The left can not get to that promised land without constant attacks on the Court. Obama's 40% must be mobilized against the very institutions that stand in the way of the progressive, populist dictatorship. (Whether Obama is the ultimate beneficiary of this dictatorship is irrelevant to the "progressive" masses. There will be a dictator someday - the name of the puppet that dances on the end of the strings is irrelevant.)

Did Robert Mugabe worry about the attitude of the swing voters on the Zimbabwean Supreme Court as he was seizing farms and turning the currency into confetti? Obama and his allies have a broader agenda than bean counting votes on the Supreme Court.

James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles, Mary Landrieu

2010-01-29T15:12:00.001-05:00

Many on the left have spent the past few months trying to dig up and manufacture dirt on Hannah Giles in retaliation for her work in exposing the corruption and fraud at ACORN.

In this week's news comes the (at this point) strange case of her partner in the ACORN expose' - James O'Keefe - who was apparently arrested in the early steps of a similar investigation into the offices of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Few people are asking what it was that O'Keefe was trying to investigate at Landrieu's office. Whatever it was, it was probably worse than what O'Keefe may have actually done. I could feel more sympathy for those who are now calling for O'Keefe's head if it weren't for what the same people have tried to do to Hannah Giles.

Whatever it was that O'Keefe was up to, it apparently was not "wiretapping" (although it would have been nice to catch Landrieu in a Blagojevitch-type conversation with the White House after her Louisiana Purchase payoff fell through in the wake of the collapse of Obamacare).

Global warming delayed again; Winter of 2010; Citrus crop endangered in Florida

2010-01-03T13:24:00.007-05:00

Global warming is once again on hold (as seems to happen every year around this time):

The U.S. East Coast faces the coldest night of the season as frigid air spills south and threatens agriculture in Georgia, Alabama and the orange crop in Florida.

Freeze warnings were posted by the National Weather Service as far south as the Orlando area, which may be as many as 20 degrees below normal tonight, the National Weather Service said. The advisory alerts growers that subfreezing temperatures are imminent and may kill crops or other sensitive vegetation.
H/T Bloomberg

This is no minor event. In addition to biting cold we feel as we walk outside, crops are being harmed and records are being set:

Jacksonville, Florida, may see a record low tonight, Keefe said. The Miami area will see temperatures 12 degrees to 13 degrees below normal for this time of year, Keefe said.

Tonight will be the coldest and offer the greatest danger of crop damage, Keefe said. The next chance for freezing will come next week.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month estimated Florida’s orange crop will be 0.7 percent smaller than earlier forecast because adverse weather reduced fruit size.

These conditions are not isolated to the South:

While bitterly cold air grips the Midwest, another shot of extremely cold air is right around the corner. More of the nation's midsection will have to endure the upcoming arctic blast, which will be worsened by fierce biting winds.

A frigid dome of high pressure continues to have a firm grasp on the Midwest this weekend. Temperatures dangerously plummeted down to near -15° in Minneapolis and -35° in International Falls, Minn., early on Sunday morning.
H/T Accuweather.com

H/T Accuweather.com 1-3-2010

Anyone who briefly checks recent weather history in the U.S. and around the world will know how common these conditions are.
--------------------------------------
update January 4th -

Accuweather.com also provides the following additional maps

Accuweather.com

Also, remember the following stories about records in Vermont, China and elsewhere with well below normal temperatures in Europe, India and the midwest the next time we hear the phrase "global warming" mindlessly repeated by followers of socialism.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2009-12-27T11:23:00.002-05:00

After you’ve turned citizens into junkies, with government as the pusher, it’s very hard to turn them back again, and even harder to get them to quit (if you’ll forgive the expression) cold turkey. It’s all but impossible in the present Continental political culture. Europe has a psychological investment in longer holidays: the fact that they spell national suicide is less important than that they distinguish Europe from the less enlightened Americans.

Mark Steyn - 12-27-04

Copenhagen; Worldwide blizzard

2009-12-20T14:14:00.001-05:00

Last week's climate summit in Copenhagen is today known as a joke. The delegates could barely meet for the storms and cold that ravaged not only America, but Europe.

But with a little MSM/DNC spin, that summit will soon become "historic." The word "Copenhagen" will soon take on the significance of the word "Kyoto" as a weapon in the global warming scam. Obama will use "Copenhagen" as a justification for tremendous crackdowns on the American economy, as he attempts to further weaken us for the benefit of his allies in China, Venezuela and the Moslem/terrorist world.

I link to the stories of the worldwide winter weather so that we can remember the true context in a few years as the MSM/DNC focuses only on some "agreement" that binds the U.S. to achieve true third world status.

Climategate; Warmergate; Lessons for the future; the "consensus" v. our own eyes; confessions of a proud "denier"

2009-12-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

I now think that "global warming" has been proven to be a hoax, especially in light of the e-mail scandal that has broken in the last few weeks. I no longer think it is something worth debating.

As the scandal expands into a "journalism" scandal in addition to a "scientific" scandal, it will be easy to get lost in the particulars of how the "scientists" managed to perpetrate this hoax for so long and why the MSM/DNC continues to ignore it.

I would like to focus on something else. I would like all of us to be prepared for the next such hoax, as we can bet that even now the left is inventing more hoaxes for the purpose of imposing their totalitarian tyranny. We cannot expect to get lucky again by finding thousands of pages of smoking guns like we did this time. In my case, I have written about global warming for several years. My focus did not depend on a smoking gun or the release of internal documents revealing the truth. I wrote about observable conditions.

I chronicled, storm-by-storm, cold spell-by-cold spell, recent winters and how each such event contradicted the "global warming" mantra. One storm would not be enough to prove anything, but repeated cold events (including record low temperatures), winter after winter (and even in the summer), definitely contradicted the official story.

Here are links to each set of data that I have observed or reported. I have blogged only since 2004, so I have left out much cold weather information from before that time.

Winter of 1987
Storm of the century - 1993
Winter of 1994
Winter of 1996
Winter of 2007
Winter of 2008
Winter of 2009-2010

The point is, in response to vague references to "global warming," I have observed that it is really cold outside. I have made this observation with my own skin. I believed my own observations instead of the propaganda or the polls. The items linked above include also news reports from around the world, not simply in my own immediate environment.

We must learn to trust and remember our own observations instead of polling data, the "consensus" or other spin that the MSM/DNC wants us to believe. We must never be lulled to sleep. When we feel the pain of the biting cold and record low temperatures, we must not be lulled into supporting policies that assume that our observation and experience never happened.

Years from now, as future generations laugh at us for believing that the earth was going to heat up and melt the icebergs, those of us who ignored the "consensus" can proudly say that we were among the "global warming deniers" who were not fooled.

Pearl Harbor 68 year anniversary

2009-12-07T07:55:00.001-05:00

Here is a photo of the beginning of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor 68 years ago this morning. The photo depicts the plumes of water from torpedoes exploding as they hit U.S. battleships near Ford Island. The plumes in this photo appear to be rising near the West Virginia and the Oklahoma, both of which would sink relatively quickly that morning.

December 7, 1941

The photo was captured from the Japanese at the close of the war. I got it from Navsource.org.

Previous - a chilling story on board the West Virginia.

White House party crasher Tareq Salahi is a muslim activist extremist

2009-11-29T13:33:00.003-05:00

Debbie Schlussel posts the story of Tareq Salahi's ties to radical Islam (through his board membership of American Task Force on Palestine)- a story that the New York Times first reported and then deleted.

If it was not already clear, this story reminds us that The New York Times and the rest of the MSM/DNC will not only fail to report Islamic terrorist connections (even when those connections place the President in potential danger) they will actively hide and delete all references and facts that might reveal the truth.

Of course, the President was in no real danger, as the Islamic extremists have no intention of harming their greatest ally.

October 2009 among the coldest on record; NOAA

2009-11-10T21:21:00.001-05:00

According to NOAA, October 2009 was among the coolest on record:

•The average October temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20th Century average and ranked as the 3rd coolest based on preliminary data.

•For the nation as a whole, it was the third coolest October on record. The month was marked by an active weather pattern that reinforced unseasonably cold air behind a series of cold fronts. Temperatures were below normal in eight of the nation's nine climate regions, and of the nine, five were much below normal. Only the Southeast climate region had near normal temperatures for October.

•Statewide temperatures coincided with the regional values as all but six states had below normal temperatures. Oklahoma had its coolest October on record and ten other states had their top five coolest such months.

George Washington University Homeland Security Institute (HSPI) (HSI); Nidal Malik Hasan (Hassan)

2009-11-07T11:13:00.011-05:00

Here is an interesting item from the Canada Free Press:

In 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Institute (HSPI) initiated a transition task force to help craft homeland security policies during Obama’s transition period. In May of 2009 HSPI finished its report titled, “Thinking Anew-Security Priorities for the Next Administration.” One of the members of this Obama transition project was none other than the Muslim murderer Nidal Hassan.

So while the Homeland Security Department was targeting the alleged "right wing," a future mass murdering muslim jihadist was helping to advise the administration on homeland security policies.

Nidal Malik Hasan now joins the ranks of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and other terrorist advisers to President Obama.

Here is the HSPI website, in which they downplay Hasan's role.

Michelle Malkin posts on Muslim soldiers and their jihadi activities. So does Debbie Schlussel.

Nidal Malik Hasan

Update - Atlas posted this story yesterday.

Red Decade; Eugene Lyons; thug persecution of anti-Obama dissent

2009-11-01T14:56:00.000-05:00

We have had more than a year to observe the religion that is Obama-worship and the Obama cult of personality. But worse than the unearned praise and unearned rewards are the personal attacks on those who refuse to worship Obama. Right now we are witnessing coordinated attacks upon "Fox News," the Chamber of Commerce, "big insurance," Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, etc.

This type of attack is nothing new. In the 1930's, American supporters of the Soviet Union would not tolerate criticism of their faith. Anyone who pointed out the brutality of the Soviet system was attacked [I am referring to attacks by American fifth columnists for the Soviet Union - not persecution by the Soviet government in Russia]:

People shut their eyes and their ears and their minds to anything which might reflect on their new religion. Supposed "intellectuals" were sure they were demolishing detailed reports on Russian realities by insulting the authors. I shall have more to say about the arts of character assassination as practiced against infidels. The process served essentially as a psychological trick for ignoring their views with a clear conscience.

One day an apologetic stranger came to see me. He told me a heart-rending tale. It seems that his wife, a high-strung and warm-natured woman, had devoted years of ardent effort to the communist movement. Several weeks before, she had heard me speak at a forum meeting at the Community Church of New York. What I had to report on Russia had shaken her faith. She came home that night and suffered a nervous breakdown. Now her husband came to plead that I go to the hospital and assure the woman that I had lied, that everything in Russia was lovely . . . .

I became familiar with high-pitched, hysterical hecklers; with insulting letters. As I came out of the auditorium after talking to a few hundred schoolteachers gathered at the Ethical Culture School on a Sunday afternoon, a wild-eyed, dark-visaged woman shouted obscenities at me and tried to scratch out my eyes. She was one of the "activists," I was told, of the communist local of the New York Teachers Union.

And my own experience was mild compared with those of dozens of others who dared to tell aloud what they knew of the bogus Utopia. Eye-scratching and name-calling and sneering were in the temper of the Red Decade. The methods seemed even less edifying when disguised as "literary criticism" in the New Republic or as "economic analysis" in the Nation, or as slapstick humor in a column by the late Heywood Broun.
Red Decade, p. 194

Only when we see the thugs through the eyes of history can we see them for what they really are.

Burlington Coat Factory riots;

2009-10-16T12:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we saw a perfect demonstration of how the welfare state works. In Columbus, Ohio, a woman named Linda Brown showed up in a limousine at a Burlington Coat Factory store (did someone say "limousine liberal") claiming to have won the lottery. She promised to pay for everyone's purchases. [But, like posturing Democrat politicians pretending to "get tough" on welfare recipients, she put limits on the giveaway - she promised to pay only for purchases up to $500.00.]

"Well, of course, people like to hear that," [police Lt.] Deakins said. "Apparently they were in line calling relatives who were not at the store and told them to come."

So she told the people what they wanted to hear, and they immediately called their relatives to get in on the free goodies. The inevitable then happened:

People flooded the registers as cashiers began ringing up purchase after purchase, but Brown had not yet paid the bill, Deakins said. At least 500 people filled the aisles and another 1,000 were outside trying to get in, he said.

This sounds eerily like our own welfare system, which has been overwhelmed over the past few decades. The difference is that it took longer than one day to overwhelm the welfare system. Because it has taken so long, it has been harder to notice and easier to get used to. Much like the government, our coat philanthropist had no actual money to honor the welfare promises:

"She was telling people she won $1.5 million," Deakins said. "But it ends up she didn't win anything. She had no money to pay for anything." About an hour later, Brown had the limousine driver take her to a bank to withdraw money, but she returned empty-handed, police Detective Steven Nace said. By then, store employees had called in two dozen police officers to handle the crowds.

The results were predictable and inevitable:

By the time employees realized Brown didn't have any cash to pay, police said, she already had taken off in the limo. That's when angry customers, realizing they weren't getting free coats, began throwing merchandise on the floor and grabbing clothes without paying for them, Nace said. "Everybody was like, 'I still want my free stuff,' and that started the riot," he said. "It looks like (Hurricane) Katrina went through the store." Police said they have no way of tracking down the customers who stole items and fled, but they're reviewing surveillance video.
emphasis added

Even though there was no money and it was not the store's fault, people still wanted their "free stuff." The promise of free goods had created an expectation among those who would not otherwise resort to theft. Linda Brown, much like the welfare system, turned law abiding people into thieves and rioters. Police eventually arrested Linda Brown on prior warrants:

She was jailed late Wednesday, but no charges had been filed against her related to the coat store chaos pending a mental health evaluation.

It is now too late to perform "mental health evaluations" on FDR, LBJ and the other creators of today's federal entitlement mess, but what can we say about those who would perpetuate this system, knowing that it is bankrupt.

According to WCPO (channel 9) in Columbus:

Police arrested her for fraud and inducing panic, because of the commotion in the store.

Can we arrest Congress and the President for "fraud and inducing panic." There is no doubt that the federal welfare system is fraudulent, seeing as how there is no money to pay for it. There is also no doubt that political leaders rely on fear and panic during election years every time a challenger suggests even modest reductions in the rate of increase in welfare spending. The ability to induce fear and panic among welfare recipients is the key weapon for incumbent politicians.

video from channel 10

What if the police, instead of quelling the riot, had promised the rioters that another lottery winner would soon show up? Would that have solved the problem? If not, how do we expect the federal welfare programs to be successful?

Watts riots - a lottery hoax on a grand scale and its aftermath

Winter of 2009-2010; hurricane season; more record cold

2009-10-15T08:27:00.003-04:00

Snow is forecast for Pennsylvania. Record cold has hit Washington state and Montana:

We haven't just set new records, we've blown them out of the water. The lows have been 10, 11 and 8 the last three mornings in Missoula, and we've gone at least nine degrees lower than the old record each morning.

Record cold continues in Chicago.

Meanwhile, hurricane season this year has been the quietest in more than a decade.

Barack Obama's Nobel prize; Emperor Nero and the Olympics

2009-10-11T10:34:00.000-04:00

By now, all of you are aware that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. And all of you are aware that the prize is a joke. I found a writing of historian Will Durant, in which he described a similar "honor" bestowed upon Emperor Nero:

. . . Nero left in 66 [A.D.] to compete in the Olympic games and make a concert tour of Greece . . . . At Olympia he drove a quadriga in the races; he was thrown from the car and was nearly crushed to death; restored to his chariot he continued the contest for a while, but gave up before the end of the course. The judges, however, knew an emperor from an athlete and awarded him the crown of victory. Overcome with happiness when the crowd applauded him, he announced that thereafter not only Athens and Sparta but all Greece should be free - i.e., exempt from any tribute to Rome. The Greek cities accommodated him by running the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games in one year; he responded by taking part in all of them as singer, harpist, actor, or athlete. He obeyed the rules of the various competitions carefully, was all courtesy to his opponents, and gave them Roman citizenship as consolation for his invariable victories. . . . . When he sang in a theater, says Suetonius, "no one was allowed to leave, even for the most urgent reasons. And so it was that some women gave birth there, while some feigned death to be carried out." . . . . Alarmed by further reports of uprisings and plots, Nero returned to Italy (67 [A.D.]), entered Rome in a formal triumph, and showed, as trophies, the 1,808 prizes he had won in Greece.
Will Durant, Caesar and Christ, 1944, pp. 282-283 (emphasis added)

Just as the Greek Olympic judges knew an emperor from an athlete, the Nobel committee knows an emperor wannabe from a truly deserving recipient.
Mark Steyn points out:

Barack Obama will have history’s most crowded trophy room, but his presidency is shaping up as a tragedy — for America and the world.

Obama has a ways to go before he equals Nero's 1,808 prizes, but give him time. Obama may yet achieve true "tragedy" faster than Nero did. We should be mindful of the lasting consequences from this administration even as we laugh at the seeming idiocy. As Durant wrote of the period immediately following Nero's accumulation of the 1,808 prizes:

Tragedy was rapidly catching up with his comedy.
p. 283

Rome would spend the next several years in alternating periods of revolt and bloody civil war, during which time Nero was deposed and assisted in suicide [Durant, p. 284]:

Many of the populace rejoiced at his death and ran about Rome with liberty caps on their heads. But many more mourned him, for he had been as generous to the poor as he had been recklessly cruel to the great. They lent eager hearing to the rumor that he was not really dead but was fighting his way back to Rome; and when they had reconciled themselves to his passing they came for many months to strew flowers before his tomb.
Durant, p. 284

Every bloated windbag of a tyrant has his sycophants and leaves a bloody legacy.

Nero

What will Obama's coin look like?

BBC questions "global warming;" MLB playoffs in Denver; early snow in Chicago.

2009-10-10T13:19:00.003-04:00

These stories have all been featured and linked by Drudge, but I am reporting them anyway so that I can access them later more easily.

BBC has begun to ask the question, "What happened to global warming?":

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

Meanwhile in Denver, cold weather threatens the baseball playoffs.

In Chicago, the city is threatened with its earliest snow in history:

What’s worse than the snow is the below freezing temperatures that are expected to accompany it.

I ask once again, please do not destroy our economy in the name of fighting "global warming."

More evidence to disprove global warming

2009-10-02T20:38:00.001-04:00

Cold temperature records were set or tied yesterday in Michigan:

It was colder this morning in Port Huron than it has been in more than seven decades.

The Port Huron waste water treatment plant recorded a temperature of 32 degrees at 8 a.m., one degree colder than the record low set Oct. 1, 1935, according to information from the National Weather Service in Oakland County’s White Lake Township.

Amos Dodson, a weather service meteorologist, said no records were broken elsewhere, including at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus and in Flint.

and in Florida:

In fact, Daytona Beach International Airport reported a record-tying low of 58 degrees at 3:33 a.m. That tied the previous record set back in 2001, when we had another cool start to October.

Orlando officially dropped to 62 degrees, which is just one degree shy of the record, and Melbourne bottomed out at 65 degrees under some of those heat-trapping high clouds.

The cold has caused additional problems in Idaho:

With a quick flip from summer-like weather to freezing cold temperatures, homeless shelters we talked to have never been busier.

While this evidence is anecdotal, the evidence presented by global warming advocates is fraudulent and nonexistent.

Hannah Giles; nude photos; playboy photos; sex video;

2009-09-21T17:26:00.001-04:00

If you are looking for dirt on Hannah Giles in retaliation for the videos that exposed corruption at ACORN, you have been suckered. Or should I say, "suckered again?"

Of course I have no such pictures. But that doesn't stop the left from looking, as if nude photos of an investigative reporter could justify ACORN's attempts to undermine the electoral process.

I previously baited leftists here who were searching google for dirt on Sargeant Crowley, Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean.

Hannah Giles

The leftwing attack machine never rests, and neither do I.

Edward Gibbon; Rome/U.S. parallels

2009-09-13T14:01:00.000-04:00

" . . . he valued nothing in sovereign power, except the unbounded licence of indulging his sensual appetites."

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, volume 1, p. 81. (Modern Library edition).

Gibbon; Rome / U.S. parallels

2009-09-10T12:03:00.000-04:00

"A law was thought necessary to discriminate the dress of comedians from that of Senators." Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol II, p. 495.

What Obama should have told the students . . .

2009-09-09T17:35:00.002-04:00

B. Hussein Obama's defenders dismiss criticism of Obama's speech to school students yesterday on the grounds that such speech had been cleaned up to be innocuous. The education materials accompanying the speech were removed, leaving little for the President to say outside of telling the students to wash their hands and work hard.

This was all quite pointless to the point of hypocrisy. The President pretended to be the students' friends while failing to tell them what he did in February that destroyed their future. The President failed to mention yesterday that the students he addressed will have to work for the rest of their lives to pay off the stimulus bill. The President failed to mention that even if they work all of their lives, the stimulus bill will be left to his audience's children and grandchildren to pay. He also did not tell them that this point is probably moot, because by the time these students enter the workforce, so much new debt will have been piled on top of the stimulus debt, the economy and the currency will collapse under the weight of such debt.

Instead, he tried to take credit for building schools for the children and pressuring their parents into accepting "responsibility." He could have set a tremendous example of accepting responsibility by accepting responsibility for the stimulus bill and the horrible consequences that will follow for the children in those classrooms.

Maybe he should have told the children what it is like to live in a country where the currency has been destroyed, like Argentina or Zimbabwe. Maybe he should have told them what it is like to live in a country without a manufacturing base. At least that information would help them prepare for the future. Maybe he should have told them what it will be like to watch their parents and grandparents die from otherwise curable illnesses once we endure rationing under his health plan.

But those messes will be for others to endure and for others to explain to the children.

Rathergate; Edward Gibbon; Rome/ U.S. parallels

2009-09-08T21:24:00.005-04:00

Today is the fifth anniversary of Rathergate. Click here for the four year anniversary post.

I celebrate this year with a quote from Edward Gibbon:

"Every channel of communication was stopped or corrupted."

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, Vol II, p. 226.

Edward Gibbon; Roman Empire/US parallels; Yankee Stadium; Giant Stadium

2009-08-28T06:12:00.000-04:00

"The Senators . . . . were obliged to provide daily entertainments at an immense expense. . . . "

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, volume 1, p. 118. (Modern Library edition).

USS West Virginia; Clifford Olds; Ronald Endicott, Louis "Buddy" Costin; Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T22:39:00.002-04:00

One of the most chilling and horrifying stories I have ever read is a true story.

We all know what happened on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. We know the story of the Arizona. We have seen photos of the Arizona Memorial. We have seen movies dedicated to the loss of the Arizona and the other ships that day. But what you may not have heard is the story of Clifford Olds and his shipmates on board the USS West Virginia. That story is told on the pages of USSWestVirginia.org. Briefly, Clifford Olds and two of his shipmates were trapped in the lower decks of the battleship West Virginia ("WeeVee") when the attack started. The West Virginia was hit by numerous Japanese torpedoes and sank quickly:

The choicest of targets, she took 9 torpedo hits December 7, 1941. Her port side was literally blasted off. The USS Oklahoma, just ahead of the WV, suffered similar wounds and immediately capsized, but BB48 was of a more advanced water-tight construction. The fast thinking of Lt. Claude Ricketts (THE hero of this ship) prevented the Battleship from turning over. Instead, she settled in the mud on an even keel. This was accomplished by closing all hatch compartments and counter-flooding the starboard side of the ship in a procedure called "set zed". Every sailor knew fate could place them in a doomed area to be drowned like rats. Old Timers would tell 17 and 18 year old "boots" that if that time came "just inhale water quickly and get it over". This, the "grizzled Ones" claimed, was preferable to a slow death in a pitch-black void. For Clifford Olds(20), Ronald Endicott(18), and Louis "Buddy" Costin(21), this would tragically come to pass. Trapped in the forward fresh water pumping station known as area A-111, their fate was sealed when "set zed" was announced after the first Japanese torpedo struck shortly before 8am. Sinking straight down rather than "turning Turtle" enabled hundreds to escape. Those in the lower compartments were drowned, but Olds, Endicott and Costin were alive and well in their air-tight compartment at the bottom of the ship. They did not know what had happened, nor the extent of the carnage above them. Above deck, the Captain was disemboweled by a bomb blast and the Arizona's explosion 50 yards aft rained "Dante's Inferno" onto the WeeVee.

Over 100 died in every way possible. BB48 sank into the Harbor amid burning oil. She burned for 30 hours. When her fires were extinguished late Monday Dec. 8, Guards were posted on the shoreline of Ford Island, next to "Battleship Row". Jittery over rumors of invasion, Sentries at first didn't hear the noise. WeeVee Marine Bugler Dick Fiske recalls: "When it was quiet you could hear it...bang, bang, then stop. Then bang, bang, pause. At first I thought it was a loose piece of rigging slapping against the hull". Then I realized men were making that sound-taking turns making noise". After that night, no one wanted guard duty, but someone had to do it. Bang, bang. It went on for 16 days, slowing in frequency until Christmas Eve. Then silence. The adjacent Oklahoma was upside down and holes were drilled in her bottom to allow a precious few to escape their coffin. The pressure of water inside the hull, pushing up on air pockets, meant as soon as the hull was breached, little time was left before remaining air escaped. Shipmates often drowned in front of rescuers eyes before a hole could be made large enough for escape. Cutting torches ignited trapped gasses and exploded, killing more. Jack-hammers jammed and men drowned while looking at a small hole of light. Knowledgeable Mates quickly learned to "rip open" hull plates fast to insure victims survival. A macabre Naval "C-section" with the same purpose.

Olds, Endicott and Costin were sitting on the harbor floor completely surrounded by water, 40 feet down. Cutting through the side of the hull for rescue was out of the question. The smallest of holes in a pressurized compartment would cause a "blow-out", something Submariners knew well. Besides, considering the destruction and carnage above, the problems of three men didn't amount to a "hill of beans" to busy Navy Brass. All Sailors know they are expendable after "set zed". Concerned Shipmates pin-pointed their banging as coming from the bow section, but could do nothing. Clifford Olds' friend Jack Miller had a sinking feeling Olds was trapped. He knew the pump station well, as Cliff would often invite him there for "bull sessions". It was so air-tight, they often closed the hatch and dared people to hear them cursing wildly inside.

Late spring 1942 found Navy salvage teams finally getting to work on the WV. An Inventive series of tremic cement patches were fitted to her port side, and enough water pumped out to partially float the once grand ship. BB48 was nudged across the Harbor into drydock and the grim task of finding bodies began. For Commander Paul Dice, compartment A-111 was expected to be like the rest: Put on gas masks, place some goo into a bodybag and let the Medical boys worry about identification. They had seen it all, but this compartment was different. Dice first noticed the interior was dry and flashlight batteries and empty ration cans littered the floor. A manhole cover to a fresh water supply was opened. Then he saw the calendar. It was 12"x14" and marked with big red Xs that ended December 23. Hardened salvage workers wept uncontrollably as they realized the fate of these men. Word quickly spread among salvage crews: Three men had lived for 16 days to suffer the most agonizing deaths among the 2800 victims at Pearl Harbor.
emphasis added

The point is, these three men lived in an airtime room for 16 days underwater, while those above could not get to them. It would take months, as recounted above, for the salvage and rescue workers to raise the ship and reach their level. Read the whole thing.

USS West Virginia with crew members trapped below in the dark

Why do I write of this now? Why not wait until the next anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Because I cannot sit still while network hagiographers wax eloquent over Ted Kennedy and Republican apologists minimize the issues as mere "philosophical differences." Ted Kennedy's most famous crime, Chappaquiddick, was not a mere "philosophical difference." After reading of the "slow death in a pitch-black void" sufferred by the three young sailors barely younger than Mary Jo Kopechne, one cannot help but wonder about the person who would willingly subject someone to this fate.

Yes, it was an accident that the car went off the bridge. But it was no accident that Kennedy refused to demand help from every home in the vicinity while there was a chance to save the woman who most likely lived in an air pocket for hours. It was no accident. It was pure political calculation. Ted Kennedy calculated his political future and his ability to avoid blame while Mary Jo Kopechne slowly suffocated in a dark cramped space.

After Pearl Harbor, we did not rest until every Japanese ship that took part in the attack was sunk and the empire of Japan lay in ruins. Millions would die before we made peace. But for Ted Kennedy after Chappaquiddick, life continued on as before. He retained his power and his freedom. He is now an icon of the leftist establishment in this country.

As Kennedy's worst actions are dismissed as mere "disagreements," we must remember what is at stake. Kennedy advocates socialist/totalitarian policies. His policies infringe on our very core freedoms. We would not mourn the passing of a third world dictator. We should not do so merely because the totalitarian happens to have been born in the United States and is supported by a well funded totalitarian movement.

Ted Kennedy's fate is between Kennedy and God. I wish him the best in that regard. But we are under no obligation to pretend that the past did not happen. We must not create an idol where evil existed. History must not change because the establishment wills it. The king cannot compel a lie.

Woodstock 40th anniversary; New York Times coverage; Ayn Rand; Nightmare in the Catskills

2009-08-16T13:51:00.003-04:00

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of "Woodstock." We are supposed to celebrate "peace," "love" and other stuff in honor of this anniversary. Debbie Schlussel has the real story:

I really don’t care that the “greatest names in rock of the day” performed there. So what? And who cares if Jimi Hendrix played there? Look what happened to him just over a year later. Dead of a drug overdose and too much alcohol. Typical of the Woodstock idiots. They, the rockers, and the hippies, yippies, and other numbskulls making up the boomer generation at this infest-o-fest brought us free love . . . and STDs and AIDs, single mothers and baby mamas, and a whole new hipness to out-of-wedlock births that has brought us crime waves, sensitive men a/k/a wimps, and a whole lot of other problems. Their sexual mores brought us sky-high divorce rates and a rate of out of wedlock mothers–40%–that rivals many Western democracies.

They are the liberals who voted for Barack Obama and not too long before him, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. They are the ones who made today’s consideration of socialized medicine possible.

Apparently Debbie didn't get the MSM/DNC memo (or she got it but was able to ignore it like the rest of us should).

In 2007 [in the immediate aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting], I wrote in detail about the changing way we view news stories after the initial event. I chronicled how the MSM/DNC line develops, after which all of the MSM/DNC outlets learn to stick to their story:

Years from now, we will forget that we were in the dark for so many days or hours in the immediate aftermath of the killings at Virginia Tech. MSM/DNC becomes more polished the more time passes in the wake of any news item. As various parts of the MSM/DNC "get their story straight," the MSM/DNC line becomes standard and can be reduced to a few soundbites. That is why immediate coverage of any major story is interesting. We have the chance the catch the MSM/DNC off guard.

The same is true of Woodstock. On August 18, 1969, the New York Times published an editorial highly critical of the gathering entitled "Nightmare in the Catskills." By the next day, the Times had apparently received the MSM/DNC memo and changed their position. Today, the Times' original editorial has disappeared down the memory hole. Other MSM/DNC outlets fell into line quickly also.

The definitive piece on Woodstock was written by Ayn Rand four months later. She not only summarized the social implications of the gathering but she chronicled facts that have been lost to history. Debbie Schlussel has summarized the negative consequences created by the participants, consequences from which we suffer today. Those consequences were easily predictable for anyone who had read Rand's piece - "Apollo and Dionysus."

In particular, Rand chronicled the hardships created for neighboring farmers and small businessmen by the Woodstock event:

Richard C. Joyner, the operator of the local post office and general store on Route 17B "said that the youngsters at the festival had virtually taken over his property - camping on his lawn, making fires on his patio and using the backyard as a latrine

Clarence W. Townsend, who runs a 150-acre dairy farm . . . was shaken by the ordeal. "We had thousands of cars all over our fields," he said. "There were kids all over the place. They made a human cesspool of our property and drove through the cornfields. There's not a fence left on the place. They just tore them up and used them for firewood" . . .

"My pond is a swamp [said Royden Gabriele, another farmer]. I've got no fences and they used my field as a latrine. They picked corn and camped all over the place. They just landed wherever they could . . . We pulled 30 of them out of the hay mow smoking pot . . . If they come back next year I don't know what I'll do," Mr. Gabriele said. "If I can't sell, I'll just burn the place down."
The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, p. 71 [Signet edition] (quoting New York Times, August 20, 1969)

As Rand wrote, "No love - or thought - was given to these victims by the unsanitary apostles of love." Ibid.

The apostles of love have been enabled for decades since that event (much in the way summarized by Eugene Lyons in the Red Decade (referring to the 1930's)). The enabling and coddling has led that generation to give us the unsustainable welfare state of today with no thought of the consequences. As revealed by a New York Times interview with participants the following week, the participants had no thought of consequences for their own basic needs at the festival:

Q: What about food?
A: We brought a bag of carrots. And some soda.
Q: Did you expect to be able to buy more there?
A: We never really thought about it.
[As quoted by Rand, p. 73.]

In the same way, these same people are now supporting Obamacare without thinking about what will happen when they are denied medical treatment under the system of rationing that may soon be enacted.

No living, eating or sanitary facilities were provided; . . . "Festival food supplies were almost immediately exhausted . . . and water coming from wells dug into the area stopped flowing or came up impure. A heavy rain Friday night turned the amphitheater into a quagmire and the concession area into a mudhole. . . Throngs of wet, sick and wounded hippies trekked to impromptu hospital tents suffering from colds, sore throats, broken bones, barbed-wire cuts and nail puncture wounds. Festival doctors called it a 'health emergency,' and 50 additional doctors were flown in from New York City to meet the crisis." [There will be no "50 additional doctors" flying to our rescue under Obamacare - Salt.]
According to the New York Times (August 18), when the rainstorm came "at least 80,000 young people sat or stood in front of the stage and shouted obscenities at the darkened skies [a precursor to the anti-Christianity that pervades today's culture? - Salt] as trash rolled down the muddy hillside with the runoff of the rain. Others took shelter in dripping tents, lean-tos, cars and trucks . . . Many boys and girls wandered through the storm nude, red mud clinging to their bodies."
Rand, pp. 69-70

Has it ever occurred to you that it is not an accident, but the psychological mechanism of projection that has made people of this kind choose to call their opponents "pigs?"
Rand, p. 75

Who will the leftists shout obscenities at when they cannot receive medical treatment under Obamacare? The thought of such a scene makes it tempting to support Obamacare - except for the fact that I will suffer also.

Drugs were used, sold, shared or given away during the entire festival. Eyewitnesses claim that 99 percent of the crowd smoked marijuana; but heroin, hashish, LSD and other stronger drugs were peddled openly. The nightmare convulsions of so-called "bad trips" were a common occurrence. One young man died, apparently from an overdose of heroin.
Rand, p. 70

There is much more to Rand's article, especially the discussion of the attitudes of the participants, and their expectations of happiness without work and life without thought.

These details (especially the destruction of neighboring property) have largely been ignored in today's MSM/DNC memorials to the event. So have the subsequent disputes among the organizers of the event (over money). That the event was organized by wealthy heirs who spent the next few years fighting over money does not fit the MSM/DNC theme of peace, love and utopia that we are all expected passively to accept. Woodstock has become another object of worship among the MSM/DNC. Leftists expect their history books to treat Woodstock much the same way that Christianity treats the "Sermon on the Mount." They fail to realize that as more of the leftist agenda becomes law, civilization will continue to collapse. With the end of civilization comes the end of higher learning, including the faithful recording of history (even propaganda). Propaganda itself depends on the existence of the civilization that the left seeks to destroy.

As the left becomes more politically successful, the gods of leftism will fade into the memory hole along with the rest of our knowledge. By passing Obamacare, cap-and-trade, the stimulus bill, etc., the left relegates itself (and the rest of us) to oblivion. Future generations will know little or nothing of Woodstock, the first African-American President, the first hispanic Supreme Court justice, the Vietnam protests and other landmarks of leftism. They will know only that the greatest civilization ever to exist somehow collapsed, leaving them to struggle on a daily basis for their very survival.
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Visit counter added August 16, 2009

Red Decade; Eugene Lyons; youth groups as cannon fodder.

2009-08-16T10:28:00.000-04:00

Eugene Lyons 1941 book, Red Decade, described how totalitarians of the 1930's used "youth movements" as pawns much like the demagogues of today. Young people have become cannon fodder in political wars, much like other minority or pressure groups. They are reduced to pawns in the game of conquest played by the MSM/DNC:

The glorification of Youth is a modern development. It puts a premium on lack of experience, mental fuzziness and intuition as against intelligence and maturity. I watched both Italian Fascism and German Nazism at close range in their formative stages. It is not generally appreciated to what a large extent they were bothy Youth movements. Demagogues who knew what they wanted used the energies and emotional drives of young people who had not the remotest notion what they really wanted. In both these countries, Youth was deliberately mobilized to beat civilization into a pulp.

Watching the Youth movements in this country against the memory of Italy and Germany, I have been struck by the similarity of the procedures. American Youth was no longer descriptive of an age group passing through adolescence - its organized and regimented minority had become a sloganeering political lobby, a bigger and louder pressure group, competing with elders for handouts and privileges as though it were a permanent class rather than a period of biological transition. The more articulate and capable were making professions and careers as Youth leaders. Partly through sentiment and largely for political advantage, politicians flattered the Youth lobbies and catered to their pretentious self-importance. It was inevitable that the most rigidly organized, disciplined and purposeful minority would take over this Youth racket and use it for its own purposes - and for a long time the elders, from the President of the United States down, were content to applaud the antics instead of exposing the influences and motives behind the whole show.

Those who should guide young people are content to follow, leaving that function to crackpot "champions of Youth" or political demagogues aiming to capture the campus and the youth. A lopsided liberalism has led teachers to believe that Youth must be given complete independence, that its preferences are inviolable. The result is that young people are set adrift just when they need and crave steering; the first group with a plausible and exciting program takes them over.
[p. 205, 1971 edition]

Lyons has touched on many issues in this brief segment. Various youth groups (so long as they support leftists causes) are treated as oracles of wisdom instead of those with much to learn. They are accumulated as parts of "coalitions" in league with minorities, unions and others whose only value is their votes and their ability to intimidate political opponents .

It is the youth, themselves, that suffer the most. Generations have been lost as political ideology has captured and exploited youth for decades in schools and through television and popular culture.

Long ago someone should have pointed out that young people have much to learn and do not necessarily possess the wisdom that we traditionally ascribe to ethnic pressure groups. In fact, Eugene Lyons did point this out 68 years ago. We simply have to rediscover his words.

Record cold in New York City all summer long

2009-08-01T16:44:00.000-04:00

Like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter, I am saving links to articles about the record cold so I can use them the first time the MSM/DNC seizes upon some warm day in January or some heat wave as evidence for the hoax known as "global warming." In New York City, residents are enjoying the "coolest June and July since either 1903 or 1881 . . . "

This was the sixth coolest July on record. The high was 86 on July 17. For June and July, the average as of Thursday was 70.6, the third coolest. As of the end of the day Thursday, the average temperature in July was 72.6, nearly four degrees below normal.

“A monthly departure of four degrees below normal is very significant,” said Gary Conte, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The relatively cool first half of summer in the Northeast and Upper Midwest has had far-reaching effects.

In New York, Con Ed produced 5.5 percent less power in June than the year before, never appealed for special conservation protocols and reported no blackouts or brownouts. Daily peak use, which reached 10,934 megawatts on Tuesday, was well below this summer’s projected high of 11,945 megawatts. Many electric bills have shrunk by 6 percent or more.

Attendance at city beaches through July 28 was down 30 percent, from 7.3 million to 5.1 million.

From July 1 to 28 in 2008, the Emergency Medical Service answered 134 heat-related calls. This year, there were 41. In 2008, the office of the chief medical examiner blamed the heat for nine deaths, all in June. This year, not a single heat-related death has been reported.

The threshold for opening cooling centers for the aging and other vulnerable New Yorkers was never reached. Nor was the 90-degree trigger requiring that carriage horses be stabled.

Of course, it is likely that the "experts" of the global warming religion will tell us to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" as they urge us to surrender our industries. "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" they seem to ask with every denial of the obvious.

Click on the "global warming" label below for links to weather data throughout the United States over the past decade and half (or more).

Quote of the day - George Jonas - multiculturism

2009-07-31T09:00:00.002-04:00

Multicultural Canada is turning from a country of two nations into a country of a dozen xenoliths: Inward looking, hostile fragments, jealously guarding their ethno-religious distinctions as entitlements, while resenting the entitlements of others as privileges. It's scant consolation that, being culturally silver-plated, such groups are likely to express their sectarian sentiments in idiomatic suburban English, sometimes peppered with current slang, Internet lingo or even mock-liberal concerns.

"By their fruits shall ye know them." We disdained the American melting pot and embraced multiculturalism instead. We forgot that the opposite of integration is disintegration.

George Jonas - National Post - 7-22-09

Record cold in Chicago; global warming postponed yet again

2009-07-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

From CBS 2 in Chicago on Tuesday:

Have you left your air conditioner in the closet this summer, and worn long pants more often than shorts? If so, you may not be surprised to find out that Chicago is seeing its coldest July in more than 65 years.

The National Weather Service says 2009 has seen the coldest July since the official recording station was moved away from the lakefront in 1942. The average temperature this month in Chicago has been a mere 68.9 degrees.

Even in the years before 1942, when the National Weather Service recorded temperatures at the cooler lakefront, there are only three years that had colder Julys through the 26th.

There have also been far more days than usual with high temperatures less than 80 degrees this year. In 2009, there were 13 days where the temperature did not exceed 80 degrees. Only three Julys in the past 67 years have had more days in Chicago with highs less than 80 – there were 18 such days in 1992, and 14 in 1996 and 2000.

We have also failed to reach 90 degrees at any time this month.

Most of the MSM/DNC's case for the "global warming" hoax is based upon repetition of that phrase. MSM/DNC has been left with little else in recent years, as cold weather data continues to accumulate around the country and around the world.

But it is still early in hurricane season. MSM/DNC can still hope for a big disaster that might be spun into a global warming story that might rescue Obama's Cap and Tax plan.

Quote of the day - Professor Ian Plimer

2009-07-26T16:48:00.001-04:00

I’m a natural scientist. I’m out there every day, buried up to my neck in sh**, collecting raw data. And that’s why I’m so sceptical of these models, which have nothing to do with science or empiricism but are about torturing the data till it finally confesses. None of them predicted this current period we’re in of global cooling. There is no problem with global warming. It stopped in 1998. The last two years of global cooling have erased nearly 30 years of temperature increase.

Australian Geologist Ian Plimer - H/T Mark Steyn

Sgt. James Crowley; scandal; DUI; police brutality; drugs; alcoholism; bribery

2009-07-25T16:23:00.000-04:00

I am trying another experiment. Last year, I attracted google traffic from idiots looking for dirt on Sarah Palin. This past April, I attracted google traffic from idiots looking for dirt on Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California whose crown was removed because her views on gay marriage agree with those of the majority of Americans.

Both posts drew tremendous amounts of traffic (especially the post on Carrie Prejean).

Now, I want to see how many people are trying to find dirt on Sgt. Crowley so as to somehow justify the race card comments of Barack Obama this week.

Obama plays the race card; Professor Henry Louis Gates; Tavis Smiley; Mark Steyn; The big picture

2009-07-25T15:34:00.003-04:00

The nation has become embroiled in another racial controversy this week, as President Obama lashed out at local police officers who arrested a black Harvard professor. Conservatives who attack the President by getting bogged down in the minutiae of the arrest are missing the point.

The same story repeats itself every time.

(1) Some racial incident occurs.
(2) The left predictably cries "racism."
(3) The left predictably links the incident to the entire US history.
(4) President Obama either (a) attacks America for its racist past or (b) flies to a foreign country and apologizes to terrorists for America's racist past.

There is no point in arguing about what some Harvard professor said to the police or whether the police should have arrested him. The real point is that the election of the nation's first black president has accomplished nothing. The sequence of events listed above has been repeating itself for decades [except for the part about Obama making it worse.]

We elected a black president, yet white America receives no credit for this fact. We are still accused of racism at every opportunity. Overpaid taxpayer funded PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley has stated that Obama's election was only a "down payment" on what white America owes to African Americans.

Barack Hussein Obama, the candidate, held out the promise of ending bitterness in American politics. Obama was elected with the help of a few moderate swing voters that abandoned the Republican party in favor of "change" and the promise of an end to divisive politics. Those who thought they were voting for Ghandi or the Dalai Lama or Jesus Christ are now surprised to learn that they ended up with Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson with a better haircut and less jewelry. There is little that Obama said in speaking out against the police officers that would not have been said by Jackson or Sharpton.

In fact, it seems that the Obamedia owes an apology to Bill Clinton. In 2008, Clinton was denounced after he discounted the South Carolina primary (in which Obama beat Hillary) by comparing that primary to previous South Carolina primaries in which Jesse Jackson emerged victorious. It turns out that Clinton's comparison was closer to the truth than the Obamedia would have had us believe at that time. As president, Obama has played the race card just as clumsily and dishonestly as Jackson ever did during his heyday.

Mark Steyn is among the few that have placed the incident in its proper context:

A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the "post-racial America" will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like professor Gates unto the end of time.

In a fairly typical "he said/VIP said" incident, the VIP was the author of his own misfortune but, with characteristic arrogance, chose to ascribe it to systemic racism, Jim Crow, lynchings, the Klan, slavery, Jefferson impregnating Sally Hemmings, etc. And so it goes, now and forever.

As long as one white person in America is not penniless or holds a job or owns anything that might be taxed by the government or taken by force, the race-baiting establishment MSM/DNC will cry "racism." Black on white racism does not stop merely because the blacks have seized power. In fact, with more power in the hands of the reverse racists, we can expect race card usage to intensify.

Somewhere in the United States there is another innocent policemen or local official or average homeowner or financially strapped employer that will be the next victim of the race card. As Mark Steyn wrote, "[a]nd so it goes, now and forever."

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter - Universal food coverage

2009-07-23T14:15:00.001-04:00

Isn't food important? Why not "universal food coverage"? If politicians and employers had guaranteed us "free" food 50 years ago, today Democrats would be wailing about the "food crisis" in America, and you'd be on the phone with your food care provider arguing about whether or not a Reuben sandwich with fries was covered under your plan.

Ann Coulter - 7-22-09

Massive data accumulates to bury "global warming" hoax;

2009-07-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

Debbie Schlussel posts a news report of record low temperatures throughout the Southern and Midwestern United States:

Yup, global warming. And, in a few years, we'll all be having our groceries fall out of ripped paper bags and be stuck with those ugly "energy-saving" non-conventional bulbs, all because of this cultist hype that continues to be disproven.

Question: In a few years, when I and many other Americans have to throw out our lamps that work only with old-school incandescent bulbs, how much landfill waste and more alleged "global warming" will that cause?

Gateway Pundit posts an even larger pool of data on record lows throughout the United States. Attached to Gateway's posts are links to many prior articles similarly destroying the global warming hoax.

Whenever I post an item like this, some idiot comments that we can't draw conclusions from only one incident or one location. Gateway's links refer to areas throughout the United States and the world (including the growing ice mass in Antarctica). My own prior links refer to the past two decades.

Winter of 1987

Storm of the Century - 1993

Winter of 1994

Winter of 1996

Winter of 2007

The evidence is overwhelming no matter how one spins the data. Global warming is a lie. The administration would have us dismantle our remaining industries for a lie.

Quote of the day - Dick Morris - Obama health care bill

2009-07-21T13:56:00.002-04:00

The Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare, putting a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. This board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and for what patients.

The bulk of this rationing will fall on the elderly. We’ll have to revisit the idea that the elderly have, in the words of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, “a duty to die.”

The more word gets out about what the bill contemplates, the firmer opposition will grow. That’s why Obama wants to push it through now, while he retains some popularity.

And if the bill passes? The howls of protest from the elderly the first time they’re denied care will be something to behold. It will become evident that the health-care resources being denied to the elderly are going instead to immigrants — legal and not. The anger will be enormous and instant.

Dick Morris 7-21-09

Mark Steyn on the decline of Western and Japanese populations

2009-07-20T14:09:00.003-04:00

Mark Steyn's post in The Corner on Saturday paints a grim picture of the future of Western Civilization:

The transformation of developed societies — either into old folks' homes (like Japan) or semi-Islamized dystopias (like Amsterdam, Brussels, etc) — will lead, in fact, to emigration. A young German or Japanese circa 2040 will have no reason whatsoever to stay in his native land and have most of his income confiscated in a vain attempt to prop up an unsustainable geriatric welfare system. So many will leave. Where will they go? At one time the obvious answer would have been America — but Good King Barack seems determined to saddle us with the same unaffordable entitlements that have scuttled the rest of the west.

For much of the developed world, the "credit crunch," the debt burden, and the rest are not part of a cyclical economic downturn but the first manifestations of an existential crisis.

What is most tragic is that we now have the opportunity to receive the best and the brightest from the declining countries in Europe and Asia. But the present administration (with a little help from FDR, LBJ and 75 years of the welfare state) is ruining this opportunity by plunging us toward bankruptcy as fast as the other developed nations.

In this case, the "existential crisis" of which Steyn speaks does not refer to some subtle interpretation of Sartre or Nietzsche, but the very existence of our nation.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - paying for socialism

2009-07-19T11:42:00.002-04:00

There aren't enough of us to pay for all this – for government health care, government banks, government mortgages, government automobiles, government horses, government burros, for cap-and-trade, for stimulating phony-baloney nonjobs like Deputy Executive Associated Assistant Stimulus Resources Manager on the Stimulus Co-ordination & Compliance Commission.

Mark Steyn - July 17, 2009

Ann Coulter on Walter Cronkite

2009-07-17T21:28:00.003-04:00

In a controlled scientific experiment, Donahue was given his own TV show on MSNBC in the new competitive environment of cable TV. That Boy's ratings are the lowest in primetime TV for any news program. They are so low, Nielsen can barely detect them. One wishes bitterly that MSNBC could give shows to all the other pompous liberal blowhards once forced on the public, like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, so we could see how they'd fare with a little competition. Nielsen would not be able to "See It Now."

Ann Coulter - February 19, 2003

Socialism and union control; On the Waterfront

2009-07-15T01:18:00.002-04:00

Here is a three (3) minute clip from the movie, "On the Waterfront." This clip is 55 years old, but it shows our future.

In this clip, the union boss hands out small chips to the dockworkers. Having a chip allows the worker to work for that day and collect a paycheck. Those workers who have an "in" with the union leadership get a chip. The others either receive nothing or must fight each other for the remaining chips while the union bosses watch and laugh.

Either give kickbacks to the union bosses or don't work. A classic example of "pay to play."

The priest observes the situation with the sister of a dockworker who was recently murdered by the union/mob so he could not testify about union/mob activity on the docks. At one point, she intervenes to help her father obtain a chip.

This is how health care, automobile jobs and other perks of socialism will soon be handed out. These conditions will prevail in any industry that is dominated by government/unions. It is already beginning to happen. Note the Chrysler dealers that were terminated solely because they had not donated money to Obama.

Imagine being seriously ill and having to fight this way for the few health resources that might remain in our soon-to-be socialized medical system.
--------------------------------
Michelle Malkin posts a more specific video about the future of socialized health care.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2009-07-14T10:43:00.000-04:00

"Obama can't use the words 'single payer.' What he can do is take steps that will make private sector health care shrivel and wither and leave you with a de facto government domination of health care."

Mark Steyn - July 9, 2009

Mercenary Scribblings; Austrian School of Economics; Ludwig von Mises;

2009-06-27T13:27:00.005-04:00

I just added a new link to my sidebar.

Check out Mercenary Scribblings for discussions of the "Austrian" school of economics. It has been so long since I seriously read Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt, Rothbard et. al, I feel like Rip Van Winkle trying to remember my own past as I read Mercenary's posts.

I have written sparingly of Mises, et al. here at this blog. Here is a short review of one of his books. Follow the links and "labels" for more of the same.

Quote of the day - Dana Milbank - planted questioners at "press" conference

2009-06-24T10:14:00.001-04:00

The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world -- Iran included -- that the American press isn't as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn't so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, "The Obama Show."

Dana Milbank - Washington Post - 6-24-09

Tami Farrell; Miss California; nude photos; Playboy; scandal; DUI; crimes; sex

2009-06-12T10:29:00.000-04:00

In April I posted an item about Carrie Prejean in which I lured google traffic to this site on the false promise of nude pics and scandal. That post was my biggest traffic draw since the inception of this blog. When the homosexual lobby (otherwise known as the MSM/DNC) found out that Prejean was against gay marriage, they responded not by engaging in rational debate, but by trying to dig up dirt against Prejean. Tens of thousands of "people" were simultaneously searching the internet for evidence that Prejean was once nude (or any other scandal that might exist). And I was the biggest beneficiary of that traffic.

Now that Prejean's replacement, Tami Farrell, has stated the same position on gay marriage as Prejean, she is undoubtedly under similar attack. If you came here looking for such scandal, get a life. You have been fooled again.

Tami Farrell

Tami Farrell

Tami Farrell

Quote of the day - Bloomberg News - Kevin Hassett

2009-06-09T17:16:00.002-04:00

I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.

Once that happens, their new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg can set the wage for everybody and Rahm Emanuel can stack the boards of all of our companies with his political cronies.

Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg News - June 8, 2009

It takes Burger King to disprove a hoax.

2009-06-08T17:56:00.004-04:00

Mother nature continued its assault on the hoax known as "global warming," as record cold has gripped parts of Wisconsin:

The high temperature for the day, reached at 9:50 a.m., was 52. That set a record for the lowest high temperature for June 6, according to the National Weather Service office in Ashwaubenon.

The old mark was 53, set in 1943.

Similar records were set across Wisconsin today. Manitowoc's high was 54, breaking the record of 56 set in 1935. In central Wisconsin, records were set in Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, Marshfield and Merrill, all breaking marks set in 1935.

At the same time, western North Dakota saw snowfall in June for the first time in 60 years:

Snow has fallen in Dickinson in June, the first time in nearly 60 years the city has seen snow past May.

National Weather Service meteorologist Janine Vining in Bismarck says there were unofficial reports of a couple of inches of snow in Dickinson on Saturday.

Vining says snow in North Dakota in June is uncommon, though it's not unheard of. She says other parts of the state have seen June snow within the past 10 years.

H/T memphisflyer.com

previous: Winter of 2008

Winter of 2007

Winter of 1994

Storm of the Century

Government spending depresses housing market.

2009-06-07T19:18:00.000-04:00

An AP story yesterday demonstrates why government interference in the economy will never "work" (assuming one's definition of "work" is to promote prosperity instead of to wreck the economy so as to pave the way for dictatorship)no matter what action the government takes:

The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.

But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.

That's the Catch-22 threatening to make an awful housing market potentially worse and keep the economy stuck in a funk. Kick-starting the economy requires higher spending, but rising rates mean fewer Americans will be able to refinance their home loans. And some potential buyers will be shut out of the market by higher monthly payments they won't be able to afford.

Every action the government will be defeated by some consequence about which the government and the MSM/DNC will not warn the public.

To understand how this is all connected, you have to think like a bond trader.

No, you need only think like someone whose livelihood does not depend on a government check.

Inflation is their enemy because it means the purchasing power of the dollars they receive when bonds eventually are paid off will be diminished. The only question is by how much.

That is only partially right. Inflation is everyone's enemy (except for those who want to wreck the economy to pave the way for dictatorship) because it will destroy savings and make it impossible for planning, economic calculations and hiring decisions. Without savings and long term planning, there will be no jobs and no production. If that thought has not sunk in, it will. Just wait until the stimulus money kicks in.

Quote of the day - Mogambo Guru

2009-06-06T11:35:00.001-04:00

As an interesting aside, as in, "We're freaking doomed by a clot of corrupt government devils," Mr Willie says to "give credit to the US Govt stat rats in their busy laboratories. They decided to ramp up the Q2 Gross Domestic Product by including all US Govt rescue funds for the big banks, including the diverse funds from the many liquidity facilities. All those funds will go directly into the GDP for Q2 as a special line item. Expect a miraculous economic recovery in the second quarter, based on vapor."

Miraculous indeed! Hahaha! What a blatant governmental affront! What a colossal, transparent, low-IQ fraud!

Magambo Guru - June 6, 2009

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter [Miguel Estrada, Sonia Sotomayor]

2009-05-29T09:06:00.002-04:00

After aggressively blocking Estrada's nomination to a federal appeals court during Bush's first term solely on the grounds that he is Hispanic and was likely headed for the Supreme Court -- according to Senate Democrat staff memos -- now Democrats have the audacity to rave that Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice!

Ann Coulter - May 27, 2009

Quote of the day - Mogambo Guru - [Richard Daughty]

2009-05-05T09:55:00.002-04:00

And what is the problem with creating excess paper, fiat money? Well, ask the people of Zimbabwe, whose moronic government has been creating so much of it for almost 15 years that, towards the end, inflation in prices could only be poorly estimated, as prices soared more than a million percent, or a billion percent, or more. Nobody knows. A lot, though!

Richard Daughty [Mogambo Guru] - May 2009

Chrysler; UAW; FIAT; Walter and Victor Reuther; Ricardo Montalban; Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Hill Street Blues; Walter Chrysler; Stephen King;

2009-05-03T18:02:00.005-04:00

Last week, I posted photo and video tributes to Pontiac on the occasion of the announcement of Pontiac's discontinuation. This week's announcement of a Chrysler/UAW/Fiat/Obama deal/bankruptcy is not an official discontinuation, but the end of the storied carmaker is all but official.

Chrysler will now be effectively controlled by a combination of the UAW and the federal government, with a foreign automaker thrown in for window dressing. Private ownership is dead at Chrysler. While UAW control may seem preferable to government control because the UAW appears to be a private entity, UAW exercises many of the powers of the government, including the right to use force to obtain favorable contracts. The UAW is a de facto arm of the government. It was Walter Reuther and Victor Reuther, the UAW founders, that wrote to an ally in the labor movement in 1934, "Carry on the fight for a Soviet America." [Congressional testimony, 75th Congress, vol. II pp. 1659]. It appears that they have succeeded.

The last trace of the profit motive is gone from Chrysler and it is taking with it the last remnants of individual initiative and any need to please the consumer. From now on, MSM/DNC news reports about Chrysler will de-emphasize sales and "numbers" and will focus, instead, on glowing reports of worker satisfaction and benefits, the environment, dubious references to Chrysler's history, the need to "buy American," community outreach and revitalization and other non-business oriented items.

Chrysler will now be the politically correct car to buy. When you buy a Chrysler, your money will go first to the UAW where it will then be diverted to Democrat candidates for public office. If and when the other carmakers are laid low in this or similar fashion, Chrysler can fulfill the left's vision of making cars similar to the Euro-socialist models:

Yugoslovian car

Polish car

Russian car

In order to understand what we have lost, here is a tribute to the Chrysler that was euthanized this week. As I wrote last week about Pontiac:

The point is that our civilization and our culture are composed of many interwoven elements. Even something as seemingly mundane as a line of cars can have an impact on our education and our entertainment. As our civilization is destroyed by the barbarians from within and without - as each strand that comprises our culture disappears, the impact will be felt far beyond the loss of any one particular item. Only when we see how far something like Pontiac had become ingrained in our society can we truly appreciate what we are now losing.

I include a very few of the Chrysler cultural references over the decades:

1960

1941 Plymouth

Christine - 1957 Chrysler

From the Stephen King movie, Christine.

Christine giving chase under fire

1972 Dart

The Darts from the early 1970's lasted for years. It was not unusual to see these and similar Dart models in traffic well into the 1990's.

Chrysler always seemed to provide the vehicles for TV cop shows (with some exceptions like The Andy Griffith Show, which used Fords).

Here is the opening theme from Adam-12, featuring the 1968 Plymouth Satellite:

In 1981, Hill Street Blues debutted on NBC, with opening credits featuring mid-1970's Plymouths.

I believe these are 1974 Plymouth Gran Furies, but I could be off by a year or two. The show continued to use this opening sequence until the end of the series in 1987.

There were other police shows featuring Chrysler vehicles (e.g. The Rookies).

One of the most well-known examples of Chrysler police cars appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963, which featured many car chase scenes and numerous police cars.

The photo below is of a Chrysler taxi from the final chase sequence.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

In the film clip below, the police cars are early 60's Chryslers (probably a 1962 Dodge Polara and a 1962 Plymouth) and the red convertible is probably a 1962 Dodge Polara. [The blue car is a 1961 Chevy.] You can also catch a glimpse of a 1961 Plymouth Valiant being run off the road at one point.

Someone has uploaded a Youtube clip containing only those portions of the movie featuring a 1962 Chrysler Imperial Crown convertible.

Chrysler produced its share of concept cars over the years.

1963 Chrysler Ghia turbine concept car

Only 50 of the Ghia turbine concept cars were produced. The idea of a turbine operated engine had potential, but mechanical difficulties prevented the concept from being successful. The design resembled a prior version of the Ford Thunderbird because the designer had recently left Ford to join Chrysler.

1958 Ghia coupe concept car

General Lee - Dukes of Hazzard - Dodge Charger

Of course, everyone remembers "soft corinthian leather" from Ricardo Montalban and the 1975 Cordoba:

Montalban later commented on this term and the marketing behind it:

Chrysler was saved from bankruptcy the first time (in 1980) by the K car (and a government backed bailout).

1981 Reliant K

In the mid-1980's, Chrysler pioneered the minivan that has become a staple of American transportation.

1984 Plymouth Voyager

And last, but not least, George Costanza's "Jon Voigt car" from Seinfeld.
Jon Voigt car - mid 1980's LeBaron

As I said earlier, these references only barely scratch the surface. Like all of the car makers, Chrysler has enjoyed many cultural reference over the decades. These cultural items will not disappear. We still have copies of the old movies and pictures of the old cars, but we can only wonder what kind of culture we will be left with, not to mention what will be left of our industry now that Chrysler is a government operated shell. I cannot imagine the Euro-socialist cars pictured above forming the basis of classic movies or classic themes from TV shows. As the left destroys our economy piece-by-piece, the left also takes away our history and our culture.

Keith Olbermann challenges Sean Hannity; Melissa Doi; waterboarding;

2009-04-26T00:32:00.004-04:00

Keith Olbermann has offered to pay Sean Hannity's charity $1,000 for every second that Hannity endures waterboarding.

I have my own offer to make to Keith Olbermann. The idea of paying $1,000 per second is silly. This issue is not about money. This issue is not about charity. Olbermann was trivializing the issue by suggesting a dollar equivalent and Hannity is revealing his own talking-points-straightjacket mentality by invoking charity as a legitimate tradeoff for waterboarding.

Waterboarding has nothing to do with charity. The U.S. waterboarded terrorists to prevent more terrorist attacks. We waterboarded terrorists to prevent another 9-11 or worse. The Obama administration is withholding memos that revealed the extent to which waterboarding prevented terrorism. The Obama administration is not withholding documents to hinder charitable contributions.

The victims of 9-11 endured horrible consequences from the Islamist attacks. The victims did not suffer the mere loss of charitable contributions. The true trade-off is not waterboarding versus charitable contributions. Any true trade-off must involve waterboarding versus another terrorist attack.

So in the spirit of addressing the real issue, I have a proposal for Keith Olbermann. Instead of (or in addition to) waterboarding Sean Hannity for charity, Keith Olbermann can waterboard me. I will give up my previous anonymity and, with Olbermann's consent, go to a location of Olbermann's choosing so that Olbermann can waterboard me. But first, Olbermann must do something that I want. And what I want is the equivalent of what we prevented by waterboarding.

Olbermann has several options:

1) Since the 9-11 victims endured incineration in their own offices from the burning planes in Towers One and Two, Olbermann must endure the same. Olbermann must be enclosed in a small space the size of an office. The office must be doused with jet fuel and filled with plastic, carpet and other items that emit thick black smoke when they burn. The fuel must be ignited so that it becomes a roaring inferno. For every second that Olbermann endures the inferno without begging for mercy, he can waterboard me. Here is a sample of a 9-11 tape showing what some of the victims endured. The voice is Melissa Doi, who died near the top of the World Trade Center.

Melissa Doi died on that day, Keith, but you will be able to walk away.

Melissa Doi

Keith, can you endure the flames, smoke and fumes as long as she did?

Since Olbermann probably will be afraid to endure that challenge, I have some other options for him.

2) One of the terrorist attacks that we prevented would have blown up several airliners over the Atlantic Ocean simultaneously. Had any passengers survived the explosions, they would have landed in the ocean without a parachute or other safety equipment. Olbermann can jump out of an airplane high over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without a parachute or other equipment. If he somehow makes it back to New York, he can waterboard me for as long as he likes.

3) The main attack we are trying to prevent is a dirty bomb or a suitcase bomb in the middle of Manhattan or other American city. I don't know all of the consequences from such an attack, but we can compare it to Hiroshima. Temperatures from the Hiroshima blast reached 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit. The future victims of the Islamists' next terrorist attack may have to endure such temperatures. If Obama's Department of Energy will recreate those conditions for Olbermann, we may have a deal. For every second that Olbermann can endure 7,200 degree temperature, he can waterboard me for one second. This option becomes more appropriate as the area of Taliban domination in Pakistan creeps closer to the capital in Islamabad and control of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

But he probably does not want to choose options ## 2 or 3 because those options would be fatal. Olbermann probably does not want to choose option #1 because too many of his viewers believe that 9-11 was a hoax perpetrated by Dick Cheney. He does not want to be seen by his viewers taking any action that recognizes the existence of an event in which they refuse to believe.

For that reason, I offer one final option:

4) Olbermann can allow a doctor to peel away a large patch of skin from his body and pour a strong salt solution over the wound. Also, Olbermann will drink the solution. For every pint of the salt solution that he drinks, he can then waterboard me for one second. He probably cannot accept this option either, because it would make public one of the procedures for abortion. Not only has abortion become a religion for his viewers, but the very denial of the cruelty of this procedure is just as much of a religion for those same viewers.

Because Olbermann cannot accept any of these options (as much for ideological reasons as for any concern for his own safety), Olbermann will pretend that this challenge was never made. He will continue to express bravado on the air as he attacks talking-point Republicans like Hannity, pretends that 9-11 never happened, ignores the Taliban's growing control over Pakistan and decries "torture" while defending "a woman's right to choose."

The end of Pontiac - Pontiacs on film; GTO; Bonneville; Firebird; Grand Prix; Sid Davis

2009-04-25T21:56:00.003-04:00

Click here for a photo tribute to Pontiac on the occasion of GM's impending cancellation of the Pontiac line. I wrote yesterday that a long line of automobile history is meeting its official end. But we are seeing the end of more than simply a line of automobiles.

Here are some examples of Pontiac on film through the years. The first four films are Pontiac commercials from the 1960's. The commercials are as different from each other as the classic styles were from those of modern cars:

1964 Grand Prix

1966 GTO

1967 GTO

1968 GTO

The next one is a brief promo for one of the earliest Firebirds:

The 1980 Bonneville commercial shows obvious influence from the economics of that age, as the commercial focuses on gas mileage instead of image and styling. Prices in general and the price of gasoline in particular skyrocketed that year (and the year before). The same conditions that resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 were reflected in the Pontiac ads.

Here is a two-part 1960 educational documentary that features the 1959 Pontiac as the main star. The film was meant to deter young men from juvenile delinquency. The car was the focal point of the story - "Temptation is waiting in the form of a sleek bronze convertible. . . . "

The 1959 Pontiac saw tailfins reach their height, much like the other American car lines.

These videos barely scratch the surface of the films in which Pontiacs have played an important role. The point is that our civilization and our culture are composed of many interwoven elements. Even something as seemingly mundane as a line of cars can have an impact on our education and our entertainment. As our civilization is destroyed by the barbarians from within and without - as each strand that comprises our culture disappears, the impact will be felt far beyond the loss of any one particular item. Only when we see how far something like Pontiac had become ingrained in our society can we truly appreciate what we are now losing.

Pontiac to be discontinued

2009-04-24T20:08:00.002-04:00

CNN reports that GM is set to announce the discontinuation of the Pontiac line:

General Motors is preparing to announce that the Pontiac car brand, once marketed as GM's "Excitement division," will be killed off, according to a source familiar with the decision.

An official announcement is expected Monday. GM spokesman Jim Hopson declined to comment on Pontiac's fate, saying the automaker has no announcements to make at this time.

A long line of automobile history is coming to an end. GM began using the Pontiac name in 1926. The rest, as they say, is history -

1936 Pontiac

1948 Silver Streak

1950 Pontiac [from Jaylenosgarage.com]

1950's Pontiac salesmen training DVD

1958 Parisienne

1966 Bonneville

1969 Bonneville

1970 Bonneville

1970 Bonneville

1969 Grand Prix

1966 GTO

1968 GTO

1974 GTO

Pontiac Stinger - 1989 concept car

While the Pontiac brand lost its uniqueness years ago, it is sad nonetheless to see the end made official. The news will surprise no one and may very well be repeated for other brands of GM and other manufacturers.

Congratulations, UAW. Mission accomplished.

---------------------------------------------------------
update - click here for Pontiacs in film.

Quote of the day - The Mogambo Guru - Inflation

2009-04-23T12:44:00.003-04:00

. . . . inflation in prices is going to get a lot worse, as the loathsome and thoroughly despicable Federal Reserve is financing the absurd stimulus programs of Barack Obama so much that (audience shouts out, "How much, Marvelous Mogambo Master (MMM)?") on Wednesday, April 15, the national debt was $11,218.8 billion, while on April 8, One Freaking Week (OFW) earlier, the debt was $11,145.4 billion, which is not only $73.4 billion more, but is also a Hell Of A Lot Of Money (HOALOM) in OFW!

Mogambo Guru - Richard Daughty - 4-23-2009

Carrie Prejean; Miss California; nude photos; Playboy; scandal; DUI; crimes; sex;

2009-04-20T15:33:00.010-04:00

Of course none of the above terms apply to Miss California Carrie Prejean. She has no scandal, there are no nude pics, there is no crime and no DUI.

But if you are reading this post, chances are that you were searching Google for some weapon to use against Miss Prejean because she is against gay marriage. You were suckered the same way that leftists were repeatedly suckered here last fall when they were vainly searching Google for some dirt on Sarah Palin.

Leftists argue for their favorite causes not with logic, but by smearing their opponents.
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update - May 5, 2009
Some sources are now claiming that nude pics are about to appear. Leftists argue that this somehow proves that gay marriage is a good idea. Years from now, when archeologists are trying to figure out why we abandoned the institutions of western civilization (including marriage), they will never know and would not believe that we allowed our civilization to be destroyed because a beauty pageant queen was photographed nude.

I (and other logical people) say that it makes no difference. Personal attacks do not trump arguments for or against western civilization. If nude photos appear, take a break from fighting gay marriage to enjoy the photos.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Carrie Prejean

Carrie Prejean

Carrie Prejean

Carrie Prejean

Eugene Lyons; Red Decade; Stalinists of the 1930's

2009-04-19T12:58:00.001-04:00

Those of us who grow frustrated at the seeming contradictions of leftists' public positions should take comfort in the knowledge that this policy is nothing new for the leftists.

Today, we see leftists (1) demand different methods of counting votes depending on whether the method helps their candidate, (2) remain silent about DHS targeting of private, nonleftist citizens even though the left previously opposed the creation of this very Department, (3) oppose all anti-abortion religions except those whose operatives kill large numbers of Americn citizens, (4) honor national heroes only when a Democrat President can claim credit for their success, (5) support the very concept of public protest except when the protesters are against higher taxes, (6) arrange public protests to honor cop killers while smearing anti-tax protesters, (7) decry Hitler comparisons when a Democrat occupies the White House after supporting such comparisons during a Republican administration, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Eugene Lyons summarized these rapidly changing public positions during the 1930's:

In the same speech, on the same page, people defended executions and concentration camps in Russia and went purple denouncing the same phenomena in Germany. They condemned the burning of books in Hitlerland and hurrahed for the burning of authors in Stalinland. Hundreds among them denied vehemently that they were communists, though they were members under false names. Lying and cheating for the cause seemed to them noble and self-sacrificing. And in all this there was no contradiction and no trickery, since it was all on a plane way beyond logic.
Red Decade, p. 184

In the 1930's, the leftists had the excuse that they were taking orders from Stalin. Today, what possible excuse can the leftists claim? What lunatic could possibly order, benefit from or even conceive of the contradictions listed above?

When we are faced with leftist contradictions, it is right that we point them out at every opportunity. But we must do more. We must remember and discuss the history, context and goals of the leftist movement. The leftists are not simply forgetful. They know that they are lying and switching positions solely for political reasons. We must do more than simply point out the "hypocrisy." We must question their motives.

Sandi Vito; Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's nominee for labor secretary; "Public Drunkenness"

2009-03-13T11:52:00.004-04:00

Obama's appointees at the federal level are not the only Democrat appointees with legal trouble. Democrat appointees at the state level are in plenty of legal hot water of their own. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Governor Ed Rendell has appointed Sandi Vito as Pennsylvania Labor Secretary.

PA Labor Secretary - nominee Sandi Vito

On Wednesday night (March 11, 2009), Ms. Vito was charged with public drunkenness at a downtown Harrisburg hotel:

A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says the charge wasn't work-related and that it's too early to say what, if any, discipline may result.

Vito is awaiting Senate confirmation of her nomination to serve as labor secretary on a permanent basis.

She was previously chief of staff to a Democratic state senator and political director of the state Democratic Party.

Ms. Vito is currently the Acting Secretary:

As Acting Secretary, Vito heads the fifth-largest agency of Pennsylvania state government, overseeing more than 6,000 employees in 200 offices statewide that serve the worker and business interests of the commonwealth. Through the administration of programs such as workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, job retraining and vocational rehabilitation, along with its numerous enforcement and regulatory responsibilities, the Department directly affects the daily lives of millions of workers and the more than 250,000 employers in Pennsylvania.

While this photo is not of Ms. Vito, it brings to mind an interesting point. I would rather that the Democrat cabinet officials be drunk and passed out than have them alert and meddling with our economy. We are better off with the Democrats looking like this than devising new ways to burn our childrens' money. I propose that instead of hosting tea parties, we begin hosting whiskey parties, in which we collect as much alcohol as we can for delivery to the White House, Congress and various cabinet offices. Maybe then they will leave us alone for a while.
not Sandi Vito

----------------------------------------

update (afternoon 3-13-09) - Ms. Vito has announced that she will enter into a treatment program. Governor Rendell still wants her for the job. I guess that Ms. Vito, like Tim Giethner, is the only one that can do the job.
---------------------
update - The Centre Daily Times has more. Republicans in the Senate are at least demanding more information before rolling over on her nomination.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - Madrid bombings anniversary

2009-03-12T13:03:00.001-04:00

The only fighting that there is going to be in Europe in the foreseeable future is civil war, and when that happens American infantrymen will want to be somewhere safer. Like Iraq.

Mark Steyn - 3-16-2004

Eugene Lyons - Red Decade - socialized medicine in the Soviet Union

2009-03-12T10:09:00.001-04:00

In 1941, Eugene Lyons wrote Red Decade - a chronicle of pro-Soviet activities among the American left during the 1930's. He described the willful blindness of visitors to the Soviet Union, who would avoid the painful reality at all costs and come home to America to spread pro-Soviet spin:

A number of American physicians looked at hospitals which, in their own country, would have been condemned as a menace - hospitals without cleanliness, order or elementary competence - and went home to sing hymns of praise to Soviet medicine. It was enough for them that the mess was labeled "socialized medicine." They never bothered to see the confusion underneath. One honest Russian physician, if he had dared talk and the visitors had dared to listen, could have set them right.
p. 94 [1971 edition]

The administration will, no doubt, parade a stream of "doctors" before Congress who will sing the praises of socialized medicine (although they won't call it by that name). When you see that dog-and-pony show, remember how a few "doctors" represented Soviet medicine to the American people during the Stalin era.

Quote of the day - Dick Morris - Obama War on Prosperity

2009-03-03T11:15:00.002-05:00

President Lyndon Johnson’s administration was known for his War on Poverty. President Obama’s will become notable for his War on Prosperity.

Dick Morris - 3/3/09

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2009-03-02T14:58:00.001-05:00

If the United States government got out of the way, things might get worse before they get better. With the government in the way, we have only the certainty of worse. Washington is engaged in the doomed project of attempting to re-inflate a credit bubble. Can't be done. But, in attempting it, they're massively expanding government spending and further distorting the rules of the market in the same ways that worked out so well for American home owners.

Mark Steyn [emphasis added] March 2, 2009

Rick Santelli; Chicago Tea Party; CNBC

2009-02-24T15:14:00.001-05:00

Here is the video from CNBC last week when Rick Santelli started what may turn out to be the next phase in the conservative revolution. I saved the video here because Youtube videos have a habit of disappearing. Bookmark this page and save this video, if you have the technology.

The MSM/DNC has spent the past few days trying to repudiate Santelli and trying to force Santelli to recant in a fashion reminiscent of the Stalinist show trials of the 1930's. The MSM/DNC does not realize that most Americans already know what Santelli is talking about. Santelli has merely given voice to the silent majority.

Ronald Reagan; 1961; socialized medicine; gradual approach

2009-02-22T20:37:00.000-05:00

Here is a 3 part (ten minute total) recording of a speech from Ronald Reagan in 1961, in which he warned of the gradual approach to socialism and national health care.

part I

part II

part III

I include this here in case these disappear from Youtube.

Tim Geithner tax cheat stamp

2009-02-18T13:01:00.003-05:00

h/t Where's the Change

Check out "Where's the Change" for an idea on how to register our displeasure at Tim Geithner's hypocrisy.

Yahoo predictions for 15 companies

2009-02-15T14:10:00.003-05:00

Yahoo Finance predicts that 15 companies might not survive 2009:

Rite Aid - RAD

Clair's Stores

Chrysler

Dollar Thrifty Automative Group - DTG

Realogy

Station Casinos

Loehmann's Capital Corp.

Sbarro

Six Flags - SIX

Blockbuster - BBI

Krispy Kreme - KKD

Landry's Restaurants - LNY

Sirius Satellite Radio - SIRI

Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings - TRMP

BearingPoint - BGPT

I have no knowledge of these companies aside from what the article says, but it will be interesting to see whether the predictions turn out to be true.

Porkulus bill; What was the hurry?

2009-02-14T13:29:00.007-05:00

There is a reason that the administration was in such a hurry to pass the 787 billion dollar porkulus bill (aside from the fact that Democrats don't know the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion), even though no congressman had time to read the actual bill. I think Thomas Sowell got it right this week:

The great sense of urgency of the Obama administration to get legislation to authorize slow-moving spending projects may seem inconsistent. But the urgency is real, even if the reasons given are not. The worst case scenario for the administration would be to have the economy begin to recover on its own before this massive spending bill is passed, reducing their chances of creating the kind of politically directed economy they want.

Note that retail sales and jobless numbers this week showed slight improvement and began to present a more ambiguous picture of the economy, despite MSM/DNC spin regarding those numbers.

In the world of the MSM/DNC, the economy is all about the numbers. If the numbers are good, then the economy is good, even if the U.S. destroys its own industrial base in order to placate union demands or environmentalist religious doctrine [e.g. 1970's through 2008]. At some point, the numbers will turn around so that the economy will once again appear strong. If that turnaround occurs before Obama can impose one party rule and censor his critics, then he will be unable to accomplish these goals. If the numbers turn around after Obama signs Porkulus legislation, then Obama will take credit for something that was happening anyway.
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update - Sunday - 2-15-09

My theory here has been supported by Obama's weekend vacation, after which he will sign the bill on Tuesday:

The push to get the bill through before the holiday weekend was so frantic, members of Congress didn't have a chance to read all 1,071 pages of the document before they could vote.
NY Post 2-15-09

If the bill is so urgently needed, Obama would have signed the bill on Friday night and started printing money right away to pay for it. But Obama has what he wanted. What he wanted was not "stimulus" for the economy, but the tools to impose tyranny. He can take his time now.

Quote of the day - Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer

2009-02-12T08:37:00.002-05:00

If all goes as scheduled -- and barring an exquisitely timed meteor strike on Washington, D.C., it will -- on a holiday formerly dedicated exclusively to the president who saved the union in hopes of "a new birth of freedom," the president we have today will sign freedom's death warrant.

............

The deeper problem is two-fold: This bill will do almost nothing to ease the current financial crisis and, far worse than that, it tightens the federal government's fist on the future of education, energy research, industrial policy and especially health care. And all without so much consideration as a congressional committee hearing.

Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer - 2-12-09

Quote of the day - Steve Czaban

2009-02-09T14:02:00.002-05:00

If we need to spend 1 trillion dollars to rescue the economy, wouldn't spending 2 trillion dollars work even better?

sportscaster and radio host Steve Czaban - 2-9-09

Phony criticism of Obama; whitewash journalism; Red Decade

2009-02-08T12:54:00.007-05:00

Now that the luster has started to wear off of the Obama cult of personality (at least temporarily), we can expect "journalists" from the MSM/DNC to pretend to criticize the administration so as to appear fair. I wrote of this tactic in the list of bias categories in 2005:

14. Whitewash/Softball criticism of leftist public figures. Whenever the MSM/DNC is forced to acknowledge some scandal that reflects badly on one of their own, MSM/DNC pretends to investigate and criticize for all of the wrong reasons. The CBS/Rathergate report criticized CBS for trying to be first instead of for biased reporting. Some MSM/DNC spokesman eventually were forced to criticize Bill Clinton for committing adultery and lying instead of for trading high tech ICMB delivery systems to China. MSM/DNC hacks grudgingly admitted that Jimmy Carter was "naive" "inexperienced" or "lacked savvy" instead of pointing out his real fault - nearly losing the cold war. These softball whitewashes provide cover for the real crimes/faults of those on the left. They are the equivalent of the getaway driver throwing some of the robbery loot out the window to distract the pursuing police. We should rarely expect a real investigation from the MSM/DNC about one of their own. And we should never let the MSM/DNC investigation cause us to hold back our own criticism.

This tactic is as old as the leftists' support for Stalin during the 1930's. As Eugene Lyons wrote (of leftist Louis Fischer) in 1941:

If occasionally he [Fischer] implied that there were stains on Soviet perfection, it only served to fortify his standing as a neutral commentator. Once he suggested cautiously in an article that Joseph Stalin could be wrong. For months thereafter he boasted of that feat of daring, while waiting for the lightning to strike.
Red Decade, p. 116 (1971 edition)

Today's "journalists" have not yet reached the level of bravery of Louis Fischer.

250,000

2009-02-08T12:44:00.003-05:00

I finally received my 250,000th visit today. The quarter millionth visitor is from Kernersville, North Carolina. I can't tell what referred him to this site, but he reviewed the CNBC prediction for U.S. hyperinflation.

Obama cabinet nominee tax issues; Tom Daschle; Tim Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis; Porkulus

2009-02-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

I have lost count of the number of Obama nominees that have been caught failing to report and/or pay taxes. Daschle, Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis are the names I remember. [Commerce secretary designate Bill Richardson withdrew because of a Blagojevich-like problem in New Mexico.] Upon the nomination being made public, all of these people suddenly paid their taxes.

Powerline commented on a supposedly positive result from these scandals:

Still, there is always a silver lining. One good thing about electing a Democrat as President is that, as he nominates fellow Democrats to senior positions in the Executive Branch, millions of dollars in unpaid tax liabilities come to light and are belatedly paid to the IRS, with interest. It is, perhaps, the most tangible advantage of electing Democrats to office.

Michelle Malkin posts more details.

I am not sure that I agree that the payment of these taxes is a good thing. We have seen how the federal government will spend the money. Free market principles would tell us that it is better for the Democrat cabinet nominees to keep the money and spend it themselves according to their own desires.

Would you rather that that the money be spent on (1) alchohol, adultery, prostitutes, illegal drugs, pornography, illegal campaign activities, etc. or on (2) honey insurance, fish barriers, green schools, walking trails, STD's and ACORN? While some of these categories are overlapping, your choice of where the money should be spent will determine whether you think it is best that Obama's cabinet nominees have finally paid their taxes.

Mark Steyn made a valid point yesterday:

The bloated nonstimulus and the undertaxed nominees are part of the same story. I'm with Tom Daschle: I understand why he had no desire to toss another six-figure sum into the great sucking maw of the federal Treasury. Who knows better than a senator who's voted for every tax increase to cross his desk that all this dough is entirely wasted? Tom and Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel and all the rest are right: They can do more good with the money than the United States government can. I only wish they followed the logic of their behavior and recognized that what works for them would also work for every other citizen. Instead, they insist that the sole solution to our woes is a record-setting wasteful government spending spree.

Even though it is good to point out the hypocrisy of the Democrat nominees, we should not forget that we are opposed to taxation on principle. The Porkulus bill is a perfect example of why we are opposed to taxation.

Runaway inflation; Marc Faber; porkulus

2009-02-07T13:29:00.004-05:00

Click on this CNBC item to see how the porkulus bill could trigger rampant inflation:

The US risks being hit by Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation and there are signs that the world's biggest economy risks turning into a banana republic, Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Doom & Boom report, told CNBC's "Asia Squawk Box."

The risk of inflation is caused by Federal spending and the resulting squeeze on credit markets:

Asked whether the US risked being faced with 200 percent inflation, Faber answered: "Well, not yet. Not yet. But I think eventually. If I look at government debt in the US, and debt in general, I think the only way they will not default physically on their debt is to inflate."
The Federal Reserve's policy of printing money and the government's intervention in the economy might undermine the US's economic and political clout, Faber warned.
"Well, I wrote two years ago a report entitled 'Is America becoming a banana republic?' And there are some features that characterize banana republics- totalitarian states, very strong government intervention into the economy, and the polarization of wealth," he said.

The predictions I have repeated on this site have an unhappy habit of coming true, so it might be a good idea to do a little preparation.

See previous - April 2007 - the bubble is about to burst.
March 2007 - real estate bubble - equity.
May 2007 - Boomsday

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - Obama porkulus bill

2009-02-07T13:26:00.002-05:00

Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic Party interest groups.

Mark Steyn - February 6, 2009

The cult of Obama worship; The Red Decade; Eugene Lyons

2009-02-01T10:14:00.002-05:00

In 1941, Eugene Lyons wrote The Red Decade, a description of American liberal Soviet worship during the 1930's. American leftists would travel to Russia, ignore the mass oppression and starvation that appeared plainly before their eyes and report back to the U.S. in glowing terms about conditions in Stalin's Russia. The Soviet government could do no wrong in their eyes:

I do not believe I am exaggerating the element of self-delusion in the process. I lived in Russia, close to its grim realities, precisely in the years when the strange Russia-worship overcame so many Americans. At the height of the tourist invasion, in the early 'thirties, as many as 85 per cent of the foreign hordes were from the United States. I watched literally thousands of my countrymen prostate themselves at the shrines of their new inspiration.

. . . . I heard them exclaim in hushed wonder over marvels that existed only in their quivering imaginations. I saw them stiffen in desperate resistance at the first contact with doubt. I watched them move like somnambulists among the food queues and horrors of a throttled and policed population, clapping their hands in glee over the lovely "sacrifices."
The Red Decade, p. 93 [1971 printing]

If this sounds familiar, it should. There is little difference between the dupes of the 1930's and today's "journalists," in whose eyes Obama can do no wrong.

Ahmadinejad proves Mark Steyn's point; Gholam Hossein Elham; Barack Hussein Obama

2009-01-31T15:22:00.006-05:00

On December 30, 2008, Mark Steyn wrote the following:

The electors have made a bet that we can return to that happy capering playground at the Summit of the Americas where all the great questions have been settled and indulgent governments can subsidize their own anarchists. If 9/11 ultimately revealed America’s self-imposed constraints, November 4th [2008] is already understood as a comprehensive repudiation even of that qualified resolve. Like I said: for America's enemies, that’s useful to know.

For "centrists" who are still struggling to understand that quote, I will give you the bottom line. By electing Obama, we voted to repudiate even the half-hearted wartime actions of the Bush administration. America's enemies, smarter than the average Obama voter, understand this point and will take advantage of our renewed weakness.

Today, as if to prove this point, Iran and Ahmadinejad renewed their verbal hostility:

After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".

In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its "crimes" against Iran and saying he expected "deep and fundamental" change from Obama.

"This request [Obama's request for talks] means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham [Iranian spokesman] was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Obama is not offended by these attacks, as leftists view foreign enemies as allies against their real enemy.

Previous - Obama: Iran IS NOT a threat, Iran IS a threat.

Bread and Circuses; Pittsburgh Steelers; Super Bowl 43; Dan Rooney

2009-01-30T11:33:00.001-05:00

The Pittsburgh Steelers' participation in this weekend's Super Bowl 43 gives me an opportunity to post an item I started to write four years ago. Just before the Steelers faced the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game in January 2005, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a story in which it repeated worn out cliches about the Steelers' success helping to compensate for the city's problems. The point was that the Steelers need to win in order to help the city residents forget the problems resulting from the loss of the steel industry.

Steelers owner Dan Rooney was quoted on the effect the game would have on the City's "psyche":

There was a piece in the paper ... about what the Steelers and this game mean to the economy, which I guess was in the high 20 millions or something," he said. "But what it didn't say and what I think is more important is what the Steelers' success really means to the city's psyche.

The newspaper summed up the City's problems and why the win would be a needed distraction:

In an era when the city's only real growth industries seem to be strip clubs, towing, and Steelers analysis, Pittsburgh's overall mood is not terribly hopeful. Since the last time the Steelers won a Super Bowl [1979], the city has gone from America's most liveable city to one of its most leaveable. Manufacturing and industrial jobs have all but dried up. US Airways, one of the region's biggest employers, is in its second bankruptcy. The Steelers' aging, blue-collar fan base today worries as much about prescription drug prices as about New England's pass defense.

If there's a place that could use the two-weeks-long jolt of adrenalin that a win today would trigger, maybe this is that place.
January 23, 2005

The newspaper and Dan Rooney missed the point. Pittsburgh's problems are far deeper than those listed above. Since the 1970's Pittsburgh has seen its steel manufacturing base mostly disappear. This disappearance has had far reaching consequences for Pittsburgh and the nation. The loss of any nation's industrial base is a grave matter. Most articles and films about the Steelers of the 1970's make a point of stating that the Steelers' success at that time was necessary to restore civic pride, unify the city, compensate for the loss of steel jobs, boost local morale and many other meaningless cliches.

But these cliches and stories have gotten the story backward. In fact, the success of sports teams in our culture has distracted us from the loss of our civilization. Industry, including steel, was a cornerstone of the United States. The loss of such a vital part of our nation should have been greeted with long lasting alarm and resolve to address and reverse the problem. Instead, those most immediately affected were given "bread and circuses" at which to celebrate, while their livelihoods disappeared before their eyes. In any decaying society, bread and circuses serve the purpose of distracting the public while economic and other conditions deteriorate. Our leaders cannot handle the crises that destroy our civilization, but they can pacify the great mass of people with games.

In ancient Rome, gladitorial and other games continued up to the very end of the empire, even as the barbarians conquered Rome's provinces one-by-one:

In fourth-century Rome there were 175 holidays in the year; ten with gladitorial contests; sixy-four with circus performances; the rest with shows in the theaters. The barbarians took advantage of this passion for vicarious battle by attacking Carthage, Antioch, and Trier [provinces of Rome] while the people were absorbed at the amphitheater or the circus.
Will Durant, Age of Faith, p. 31

In our own age, we "tailgate" and play fantasy football while we bask in second hand glory everytime our NFL team wins. Meanwhile, a 900 billion dollar "stimulus" package is passed by Congress, thus eroding our credit and guaranteeing the permanent insolvency of our nation and the inevitable crash of what is left of our economy. Boomsday approaches, while our factories remain idle. The nails are being hammered into the coffin of our civilization while we celebrate another Super Bowl. The games serve the same purpose they served in the 4th and 5th century A.D. They pacify us into accepting the policies that destroy the real source of power, glory and prosperity in any civilization. Never forget that Super Bowl trophies and end zone celebrations are no substitute for factories in this regard.

The Steelers entered the decade of the 1970's never having enjoyed success in their entire 40 year history. At the same time, Pittsburgh was the steel capital of the world. By the end of the 1970's, the roles had been reversed. The Pittsburgh Steelers enjoyed a sports dynasty - having won four super bowls - while the steel industry lay in ruins. The success of the Steelers helped us accept the simultaneous loss of our nation's backbone industry. That emblem on the Steeler helmets [once the symbol of the company that Andrew Carnegie built] is now nothing but a grim reminder of a dead past. The symbol mocks us while we fool ourselves with the fantasy that we root for a "blue collar team from a blue collar town."

Quote of the day - Dan Aykroyd

2009-01-30T11:00:00.001-05:00

"One place you don't want to get sick is Quebec...It's all socialized. Believe me, you don't want to go to a hospital there."

Dan Aykroyd

William Buckley; 1968; centralized government

2009-01-25T15:42:00.004-05:00

William Buckley speaks in 1968 about the plans of the central government for every detail of our lives.

As it turns out, he was underestimating the reach of big government. The above video was part of a larger segment broadcast on ABC on election eve, 1968.

Compilation of "cult of personality" links

2009-01-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

By now we are all aware of the cult of personality that has taken hold in the MSM/DNC. It helped propel Obama into the White House and has gone into overdrive this week. On Monday, I compared the words of George Orwell to the situation that has developed in the national media:

It had become usual to give Napolean the credit for every succesful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napolean, I have laid five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napolean, how excellent this water tastes!"
from Animal Farm

Almost as if to parody Orwell, the MSM/DNC has lived down to our worst expectations. It has gushed over the same elements of Obama's inauguration that it attacked in Republican inaugurations. The coverage has been unprecedented. The cult has overtaken public broadcasting and, of course, Hollywood. MSM/DNC has become a parody of itself.

But the parody has a purpose. The purpose is to bully the rest of us into obedience as a far left government takes more control of our lives than ever before.

Cult of Personality, Obama, Animal Farm, George Orwell, Napolean

2009-01-19T00:04:00.004-05:00

The cult of personality that has emerged around Barack Obama can be better understood with reference to the events depicted in George Orwell's classic work, Animal Farm. Animal Farm tells the story of a farm in which the animals seize power and attempt to establish a utopia for themselves without human control. After the animals kick out the humans, the leading pig, Napolean, establishes control for himself over the other animals. The story is a thinly disguised depiction of events in Soviet Russia from the time of the Bolshevik revolution through World War II. Napolean is a thinly disguised caricature of Stalin.

Animal Farm

The following passage takes place shortly after Napolean's seizure of power:

It had become usual to give Napolean the credit for every succesful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napolean, I have laid five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napolean, how excellent this water tastes!"
[page 90, Signet paperback edition]

It has been almost 20 years since I read this book, but I think of this passage as I hear the "news" personalities gush over Obama.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

2008-12-31T12:15:00.001-05:00

The electors have made a bet that we can return to that happy capering playground at the Summit of the Americas where all the great questions have been settled and indulgent governments can subsidize their own anarchists. If 9/11 ultimately revealed America’s self-imposed constraints, November 4th [2008] is already understood as a comprehensive repudiation even of that qualified resolve. Like I said: for America's enemies, that’s useful to know.

Mark Steyn 12-30-08

Dying man ignored for 6 hours in UK socialized medicine hospital

2008-12-31T11:40:00.003-05:00

For those who may be in a hurry to see 2008 end, keep in mind that 2008 might be the last year that we ever enjoyed some semblance of a free health care system. The future is described in this article in the UK Sun about a 37 year old UK man that died while waiting in line to be seen by Great Britain's famous socialized health care system:

He was not admitted until six hours after arriving at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, by which time it was too late.

An infection had taken hold of his heart, liver and kidneys and specialists were unable to treat the disease.

He did not simply die - he died after tremendous, prolonged suffering:

But the railway signalman, 37, was left to die as a deadly virus ravaged his body and one by one his organs collapsed.

The Democrats have been trying to make this nightmare a reality in the U.S. for decades. They will now finally get their chance.

Jim Jones 30th anniversary; Jonestown; American Thinker; Orwell's Children; Bruce Walker

2008-11-18T13:22:00.003-05:00

Bruce Walker commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown cult suicides in American Thinker:

Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism. These were Orwell's Children.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.

Jim Jones was not simply "another religious preacher" as the left has (and will) undoubtedly repeat. He was a leftist who used leftist tactics and methods:

Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.

In other words, Jonestown was like a DNC convention or editorial board meeting at the New York Times.

Read all of Walker's article.

Also, read my post from 2007, in which I detail some of the connections between Jones and the San Francisco Democrat machine. Jones was as responsible as any other single individual for the Democrat takeover of San Francisco city politics. The politicians of the San Francisco Democrat party (including some famous names) rewarded him well.

Praetorian Guard; Augustus; Obama

2008-11-17T16:22:00.003-05:00

Augustus

Ever since Obama's proposal to create a civilian national defense force and his creation of the shadowy tax free foundation, the term "praetorian guard" (and worse) has been used to describe what is really going on. Here is one historian's discussion of the Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome.

Caesar Augustus was Rome's first permament emporer, succeeding Julius Caesar who was assassinated after a brief reign. Julius Caesar did not institutionalize the empire. But Augustus (taking total power circa 30 B.C.) undertook many steps to make the empire permanent. One of these steps was the insertion of the military in a permament way in Roman politics:

Further to assure order of the desired kind, and support his own power, Augustus, seriously violating precedent, kept six cohorts of a thousand soldiers each near Rome and three cohorts within it. These nine cohorts became the Praetorian Guard - i.e., guard of the praetorium, or headquarters of the commander in chief. It was this body that in A.D. 41 made Claudius emporer and began the subjection of the government to the army.
Durant, Caesar and Christ, p. 216

While Obama's proposals are a far cry from military dictatorship, all such transitions begin slowly. Neither Obama nor any of his successors will someday announce that they are imposing a dictatorship. It will happen gradually. The Roman transition was much more obvious and identifiable.

For Obama to institutionalize his election year supporters into a permanent force, using taxpayer and tax-free dollars, that will work to keep Obama or his successors in power is a subtle, yet distinctive move in the direction of empire and away from constitutional government.

Obama to tamper with 401(k)'s, IRA's.

2008-11-15T22:10:00.005-05:00

My Obama 401(k)prediction is found here.

This item has appeared in Commentary:

It’s still more than two months before the Obama administration takes office, and we are already seeing signs of just how the Democrats intend to govern.

One proposal being floated by Congressional Democrats aims to abolish the tax incentives for individual 401(k) retirement plans. With the recent financial meltdown having hit a lot of people’s funds heavily, those lawmakers think that the time would be ripe to end the private system and fold it into an expansion of Social Security.

The current plan, crafted by Professor Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School of Social Research in New York City, would eliminate tax breaks for these retirement plans. This would be coupled to an increase in Social Security taxes to fund an expanded retirement plan for workers.

Any plan to tinker with IRA's or 401(k)'s would not only constitute theft of the life savings of American workers, but also would cripple new investment in the stock market. For years, a major selling point for continued investment in the stock market has been the projected future influx of additional 401(k) money. Because so much 401(k) money would be available, the argument went, stocks could not help but increase in value regardless of the fundamentals. While that argument has proven to be flawed, any government plan to undermine retirement programs would destroy one of the last good things the stock market has going for it.

Any such action would also make Social Security even more precarious, as retirees would not have their own retirement plans to rely on, but would be more dependant on Social Security.

It looks like Boomsday is turning out to be worse that predicted.

2 Trillion dollar bailout; $700 billion bailout; Fractional Reserve Banking; Fulton Bank; Lancaster, PA

2008-11-10T17:24:00.005-05:00

The Federal Reserve bailout plan is causing predictable consequences, as spending is out of control:

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
H/T Bloomberg

This item from Lancaster, PA provides some insight into how the money is being spent and a brief mention of the real cause of the meltdown (and the business cycles we have endured for 100 years):

The Treasury Department's $700 billion rescue plan is best known for propping up wobbly financial institutions.

But the plan also has a provision for healthy ones, figuring they can help guide the economy back on track.

Fulton Financial Corp. said Thursday it has applied to get $375 million in capital under that government-investment initiative, the Capital Purchase Program.

"If we get it, our intention is to use it to provide additional loans," Fulton Financial's Charles J. Nugent said today.

Since banks generally loan 10 times their amount of capital, an extra $375 million in capital potentially could lead to an extra $3.75 billion in loans, he explained.
emphasis added

I did not know that the multiplier was as high as ten, but I knew that this process exists. Ask yourself, how does a bank loan "10 times their amount of capital. . . "? Where do they get the money to make such loans, if such loans do not represent actual capital? In the above example, where does the other $3.4 billion come from?

The answer is found in our system of fractional reserve banking. The system (and its consequences) are described (in layman's terms) in "The Bubble that Broke the World" and "America's Great Depression." Knowing how a bank can take $375 Million and create $3.75 billion in loans would be a tremendous step in understanding how our financial system collapsed this year.