Leading the most unpopular congress in history, Nancy Pelosi takes the only logical step: Having a custom handbag designed for her by German royalty.
After all, nothing says “I care about the little people” like a Diane von Furstenberg handbag…
Pelosi: Taking the Country to Hell in a Designer Handbasket
July 23rd, 2010Journalists Against the First Amendment
July 21st, 2010Journalists used to say things like “I disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say them.” In fact, they still do. The problem is that they no longer believe them.
Daily Caller has put up more JournoList posts, and they show that a significant number of liberal journalists would be happy to see the government shut down Fox News. Jonathan Zasloff asks “is their any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit when it expires?”
Who knew that, despite all their posturing, liberal journalists cared as little about the first amendment (or at least letting their ideological opponents exercise it) than the second? How dare anyone have a different view of consensus reality than them?
Free speech for me, but not for thee.
LinkSwarm for July 19, 2010
July 19th, 2010A few random links to kick off your week:
- Wondering how congressional candidates are doing in the fundraising sweepstakes? This handy chart provides the lowdown.
- If you wanted to make conservatives and libertarians paranoid, how would you go about it? How about sneaking a provision into ObamaCare requiring dealers to report all gold and silver purchases? But what’s the big deal? It’s not like a Democratic President ever ordered the seizure of American’s gold before. Oh wait, yes he did.
- Europe is even more screwed than most of us think.
- For a look at where ObamaCare is leading us, take a look at Massachusetts.
- This story is about a guy’s horrible experience buying a used Saturn. I’m linking to it here because along the way it provides a pretty sobering look at the parts of the Hope and Change Economy that the usual media sources don’t cover:
I immediately began looking for work, but by this point the recession was in full swing and over half the yards on our street had ‘For Sale’ signs up. In fact, the town of Marion, SC has lost nearly 30% of its residential population since January, 2009. There were no jobs within two hours of the town and any jobs that were available were swamped with applications. The high school put up a notice that they were looking for two custodians. They had over 600 people show up for applications. The unemployment rate was over 50%, but people like myself, who didn’t qualify for unemployment benefits, and people on welfare, don’t go on the national unemployment statistic. It’s only for people receiving unemployment checks. Those who didn’t comprised such a huge chunk of that ratio, that the official statistic only stated a 19% unemployment rate for the PeeDee region of South Carolina. Yeah, MSNBC didn’t mention the fine points of that statistic, did they?
(Hat tips: Instapundit, Real Clear Politics, Fark)
Ridiculous Tactical Gear
July 16th, 2010Thirteen mostly silly items your probably don’t need. However, is it wrong that I kind of want the Tactical Toiletries Bag? At $36.99 it’s not hideously expensive. On the other hand, none of the internal compartments seem suited for a Sonicare Toothbrush, so it probably wouldn’t work for me anyway…
(Hat Tip: Say Uncle, which has also been added to the Gun Blog Roll…)
“Mom, can I be propagandized? Please? PLEASE???”
July 14th, 2010From the Houston Chronicle comes word that some area developers are planning a huge ecology theme park off north I-59 in Montgomery County, just north of Houston. “Like Disney, the unique underpinning will be the story that we’re telling — the whole issue of how to sustain our planet.”
Yeah, because there’s nothing kids love more than spending their vacation getting the same propaganda lectures they get in school.
The article says the park, still in the planning stage, is two years behind schedule and having problems getting financing, and I can see why: the entire project has “money-losing rathole” written all over it. Still, if they could get it done entirely on private funding, more power to them. Nothing wrong with liberals suffering staggering financial losses from their own pockets while propping up the local economy.
However, it’s obvious they can’t, since they were able to wrangle special taxing powers from the state government. I’m sure the residents of Conroe and The Woodlands are thrilled at the prospects of their tax dollars being used to propagandize them.
The strange thing is, that it probably wouldn’t even be the weirdest (or least successful) theme park in the Greater Houston area, since that would be the the park featuring 1/20th scale replica of China’s Forbidden Kingdom.
Regular Blogging Will Resume Shortly
July 14th, 2010Sorry for the sparse blogging as of late, but I’ve been dealing with two problems (fleas and a leaking window) that, while minor in the overall scheme of things, still needed fairly immediate and time-consuming remediation.
Expect more regular blogging to resume shortly.
LinkSwarm for Saturday, July 3, 2010
July 3rd, 2010A few tidbits to tide you over the Independence Day weekend:
- Dwight over at Whipped Cream Difficulties has a very interesting post up on Maywood, California closing their police department down. Summary: It has less to do with the budget crunch than with the entire department acting like corrupt, out-of-control thugs running roughshod over innocent people. Dwight and I both though of the similar situation in the (now thankfully dissolved) township of New Rome, Ohio.
- “I don’t know whether the Tea Party movement will die out. But I sure hope it hangs on long enough to take down Lindsey Graham.” (Yeah, this was already on Fark, with that exact headline, but since I was the submitter…)
- Former leftist, opponent of jihad, devout atheist and relapsed smoker Christopher Hitchens has suspended his book tour to be treated for esophageal cancer. Hitchens intellectual journey from being a (mostly) far-leftist to being a (mostly) neo-conservative has been deeply gratifying to those of us on the right, and as a voice sounding the alarm against radical Islam he’s probably only second (at least in the U.S.) to Mark Steyn. (So yes, the two most powerful voices against jihad in the U.S. are a Brit and a Canadian.) As an agnostic, I have no particular stance on the metaphysical certitude of Hitchens’ atheism, but I do believe he’s underestimated the vital role religion plays as a binding agent in a free society, as those societies which made atheism a central tenant (the Soviet Union and its ilk) don’t seem to have profited by it. (To paraphrase the late Octavia Butler, “I don’t believe in God, but the people growing up today don’t seem to believe in anything at all, and it’s scary.”) I always thought it would be interesting to debate Hitchens on the issue from the viewpoint of the social utility of religion rather than its metaphysical truth. BattleSwarm Blog wishes him a speedy recovery.
(Hat tips: Whipped Cream Difficulties, the Bookfinder Insider Mailing List)