Eurozone shrinks for sixth consecutive quarter and no one knows what to do about it. Well, that’s not true. I know what to do about it: Cut all budgets until they match receipts, reform the welfare state, and abandon the Euro. But I suspect Eurocrats would prefer another six quarters of shrinkage (at a minimum) before they’re willing to contemplate such heresy…
Republican in charge of Hispanic outreach in Florida switches to the Democratic Party. That’s some mighty fine staffing you’ve got going on there, Lou…
“Clearly, some observers fear ordinary Americans more than they do terrorists; they fret more over how dangerously unintelligent and hateful Yanks will respond to bombings than they do over the bombings themselves. But where is this Islamophobic mob? Where are these marauding Muslim-haters undergoing a post-Boston freakout? They are a figment of liberal observers’ imaginations.”
Finally catching up on work Andrew Breitbart and Lee Stranahan were doing three years ago, The New York Times finally discovered that there was massive fraud in the Pigford “black farmer settlement, namely hundred of millions of dollars going to people who had never farmed in their life for “discrimination” by the Department of Agriculture.
Walter Russell Mead on the Wreck of the Euro. “Meanwhile everything in Europe gets worse. As we’ve said before, with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s. Politicians in Europe thought they were living in a post-historical period in which mistakes didn’t really matter all that much. They were horribly wrong, and the wreck of the euro is blighting lives and embittering spirits on a truly staggering scale.” Quibble: $500,000 won’t just buy you “a pretty nice house;” in most of the country, it will buy you mansion.
Denmark rethinks welfare. “Denmark’s long-term outlook is troubling. The population is aging, and in many regions of the country people without jobs now outnumber those with them.”
“If Maureen Dowd’s evisceration manqué of President Obama’s gun control strategy in the New York Times is any indication, Ms. Dowd is in the wrong line of work. She doesn’t understand American politics. She doesn’t know how votes are gained and lost, she doesn’t know what presidents do or understand what powers they have, and above all she doesn’t understand how politicians think.” On the plus side, Dowd did say that Obama “still has not learned how to govern.”
Max Baucus to retire. “Mr. Baucus is the sixth Democrat since the start of the year to opt not to run for re-election in 2014, following Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.”
Funny what 4+ years of Obama has done for Bush43′s image. “Among registered voters, his approval rating today is equal to President Obama’s, at 47 percent.”
“Kerry possesses neither principle nor expertise, and so the odds of him saying something both daft and morally bankrupt are always high.”
Mother of the Boston bombers: “If they are going to kill him. I don’t care. My oldest son is killed, so I don’t care. I don’t care is my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And, I don’t care if I am going to get killed too. And I will say Allahu Akbar!” Media: Just what is she trying to say? I don’t understand! It’s like she’s speaking in code!
Mark Steyn: “As is now traditional in these stories, we’re now being told that the Brothers Tsarnaev are merely the latest card-carrying members of Local 473 of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves.”
Kurt Schlichter: “’Extraordinary’ is the natural condition of Americans.”
Naturally, clueless apologists set up a #FreeJahar tag on Twitter. As Aaron Gardner noted: “If twitter had been around in the time of Jesus there would have been a #FreeBarabbas tag.” And just imagine the reality show potential! “It’s down to two! No one will want to miss the stunning climax of Survivor: Golgatha!”
To me, Free Jahar sounds like a heartwarming, direct-to-DVD Disney film about a boy and his magic genie trying to free an Islamic whale.
Via Michael Totten comes Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Amazon wish list. Hard to tell from that whether he wanted to become a terrorist, a singer or a Mafia wiseguy…
I’m seeing a report that the Boston Bomber Brothers are members of a Wahabist terrorist cell Problem: That report comes from DEBKA, a site that has a track record only slightly better than Infowars, so take it with a shaker full of salt.
Government spending on bailouts, subsidies, grants, salaries and entitlements commands a much larger share of these economies than it did just a few years ago. European austerity has been focused on the private sector — namely, taxpayers with high incomes.
That is the second thing the PIIGGS have in common. The highest income tax rate was recently increased in every one of the troubled PIIGGS except Italy (where it was already too high at 43%). The top tax rate was hiked from 40 to 46.5% in Portugal, from 41 to 48% in Ireland, from 40 to 45% in Greece, from 40 to 50% in Great Britain, and from 48 to 52% in Spain.
Female Princeton grad tells current Princeton women that maybe they should consider getting married in college. Naturally the Ivy league/feminist/MSM complex threw a fit. (Pro-tip: There are few surer signs of leftwing PC think than the word “hetronormative.”)
Dwight brings up another case of journalistic malpractice. “Meet the Sniper Who Killed 2,200 People in Iraq.” As Dwight notes, anyone with even passing knowledge of snipers should know that this claim is ludicrous from the git go. In sports terms, it’s like someone claiming they threw 20 Major League no hitters, or ran a two minute mile. It reminds me of Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s smears about troops in Iraq in The New Republic. (If you remember the Beauchampo affair, it turns out that he was engaged to Elspeeth reeve, who just happened to be a TNR fact-checker. Somebody should make them read Stolen Valor.
Smart Bomb drug approved. Let me know when they finally approve the Inviso drug, and we can finally finish off those pesky mutants.
China’s “Yellowed Pearls”. “‘Pretty girls do not need a lot of education to marry into a rich and powerful family. But girls with an average or ugly appearance will find it difficult,’ reads an excerpt from an article titled, Leftover Women Do Not Deserve Our Sympathy, posted on the website of the All-China Federation of Women in March 2011. ‘These girls hope to further their education in order to increase their competitiveness. The tragedy is, they don’t realise that as women age, they are worth less and less. So by the time they get their MA or PhD, they are already old – like yellowed pearls.’” And how old is too old in China? 27 years old. 27?!?! What self-respecting man could possibly love the withered, wrinkled, desiccated husk of a woman who’s reached the doddering, shriveled, decrepit age of 27? Why not just marry a mummy and be done with it?.
“Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis.”
ObamaCare exchange costs up 29%…before the first one has even opened.
The Week of Extreme Busyness continues (though the weekend has gotten slightly less busy), but here’s a semi-random LinkSwarm to end your work week with.
Thanks to ObamaCare’s electronic billing provisions, doctors “see fewer patients per shift than they did previously, and spend less time with each one.”
Grad student sues over university giving her a C+ in a class. Oh, and she also attend the university for free. Why not just hang a sign around your neck saying “No employer should ever hire me, I’m a lawsuit waiting to happen”?
BATF tries to run a sting operation. The result? A lost machine gun, lost confidential information, $35,000 in stolen merchandise, and $15,000 unpaid bills.
“Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if the world had exactly zero guns in it? Then your daughter could fistfight her rapist.”
For Black History Month, here are Frederick Douglass quotes Including: “I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.”
Best Twitter quote this week comes, strangely enough, from game show host Chuck Woolery: “The Constitution is not outdated, it is just an inconvenience to progressives. They hate it. I love it. You should too.”
Profile of Jim DeMint’s replacement, new South Carolina Senator Tim Scott: “One of the most threatening places to be in politics is a black conservative…there are so many liberals who want to continue to reinforce a stereotype that doesn’t exist about America. That somehow, some way, if you’re a Republican you’re a racist and if you’re black, there’s no chance for you in society.”
35 years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times exposed the city’s corruption in the Mirage tavern series. Does anyone think Chicago is any less corrupt today? Why don’t they have the balls to do something like that now? (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Ever notice how after every killing spree, liberals are quick to proclaim that no one needs an “assault rifle” for self defense? Well, this guy did, facing three armed assailants breaking in, and is still alive because of it.
There are a number of spree killers who have racked up high death tolls without using a gun. Or using a gun obtained illegally in a country where they’re banned.
Dear Senior Citizens: union jobs are more sacred than your very lives. Signed, a Democratic Judge.
Krauthammer: Republicans would be insane to take the “taxes now with a promise to consider cuts later” non-deal Obama is offering.
Especially since Obama’s tax hike “would have reduced the 2012 deficit from $1.10 trillion to $1.02 trillion.”
The national election was disappointing, but here in Texas Republicans continues to make gains. “Overall we have 796 more Republican elected officials in the State of Texas today than we did in 2008.”
Former Texas Democratic congressman Jack brooks has died.
And in case it got lost in the election night news, Steve Stockman, the Republican who retired Brooks in the 1994 election, is returning to congress representing the 36th district.
Displaying a willingness to perceive reality heretofore unguessed at, the Michigan senate passes right-to work legislation. Tomorrow: David Letterman’s Cold Day in Hell Special.
School goes into lockdown because a student brought…a thermometer.
Save the life of a fellow employee at AutoZone? That’s a firing. (Hat tip (last two): Alphecca.)
Once you find out that PSY once sang “Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives/Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture/Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers/Kill them all slowly and painfully,” suddenly “Gangnam Style” doesn’t seem quite so amusing.
