To the tune of Winter Wonderland

Shift bells ring, are you listening,
In the streets, blood is glistening.
Revolution in sight,
We’re toiling tonight.
Progressing to the workers’ motherland.

Gone away is our history,
Here to stay is equal misery.
We sing labor’s song,
As we go along,
Progressing to the workers’ motherland.

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Chairman Mao.
He’ll say: Are you orphans?
We’ll say: No man,
But we can do the job,
Just show us how.

Later on, we’ll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we’ve made,
Progressing to the workers’ motherland.

In the meadow we can build a gulag,
And pretend that it’s full of the rich.
We’ll starve teabaggers right there in the gulag,
Until the mass graves fill up the new ditch.

When it snows, ain’t it thrilling,
Tracking down bourgeois and killing?
We’ll murder and slay, the Soviet way,
Progressing to the workers’ motherland.

Everybody sing along with the progressive lyrics!

Updated: Replaced “Josef Stalin” in the second line of the third stanza with “Chairman Mao” for better poetic meter. Adjusted rhyme in fourth line to fit.

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What do ‘weather,’ ‘climate,’ and ‘climate change’ mean?

Dictionary.com says that the noun weather has these meanings.

1. the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc.
2. a strong wind or storm or strong winds and storms collectively: We’ve had some real weather this spring.
3. a weathercast: The radio announcer will read the weather right after the commercial.
4. Usually, weathers. changes or vicissitudes in one’s lot or fortunes: She remained a good friend in all weathers.

Climate has these meanings.

1. the composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years.
2. a region or area characterized by a given climate: to move to a warm climate.
3. the prevailing attitudes, standards, or environmental conditions of a group, period, or place: a climate of political unrest.

And climate change? The first meaning of climate gives the game away. Since climate is the composite of weather within and across years and other cycles, weather is by definition the change in climate: climate change.

So when people use the words climate change it is our responsibility as awake and aware sentient human beings to cut through the crap and intentional befuddlement and replace that mealy mouthed phrase with the shorter and clearer word: weather.
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"The science is settled. Karl Marx's tomb is the center about which the sky revolves."

Climate Change is Natural: 100 Reasons Why, by the Daily Express

1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man’s activity.

2) Man-made carbon dioxide emissions throughout human history constitute less than 0.00022 percent of the total naturally emitted from the mantle of the earth during geological history.

3) Warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in CO2 levels.

4) After World War II, there was a huge surge in recorded CO2 emissions but global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940.

5) Throughout the Earth’s history, temperatures have often been warmer than now and CO2 levels have often been higher – more than ten times as high.

Yes, there is Santa, by Michael Graham

I’ve never understood the discomfort Massachusetts liberals have with public celebrations of Christmas. After all, it’s the season of believing, and let’s face it: Liberals will believe anything.

If you thought the “fire never melted steel” crowd was nuts, check out the new study from the bipartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They find that liberals and Democrats are far more likely to believe in ghosts, psychic powers and astrology than their conservative/Republican counterparts. About 50 percent more Democrats than Republicans say they have spoken to the dead.

Or as it’s known at Democratic Party headquarters, “voter outreach.”

Taking Over the GOP Consists of Only One Step, by Vassar Bushmills

For you one-issue conservatives, whether your cause is school prayer, abortion, immigration, low taxes, without the Constitution you’re skating on thin ice. You only have a political issue. You have no universal high ground. You have no territory.

Split hairs later. Make the Constitution your universal watchword. Your ralling cry. Your standard. Your battle cry.

Do that one thing, and you will regain the Republican Party.

Civility and the Rules of Engagement, by Bernie Chumm

The Left uses the internet as a tool, as ammunition. The Right seems to use it as sanctum sanctorum, an escape from the rudities and crudities of the political world. I can’t help but believe this latter condition is caused from a nearsightedness that is damned near narcissistic in nature.

So, we like trolls, opposite minded people sneaking into a site and stirring up a ruckus…inasmuch as we think our side would be better at trolling than the Left. If armed with the facts, a keener wit, etc why not invade the bastions of Mordor under the shadow of darkness?

You see, our purposes would be different than the Left’s.

Massachussetts teacher confirms Jennings controlled material at “fisting” conference, by Ed Morrissey

I’m repeatedly struck by the childish presentation of this material, which shows that it’s obviously intended for adolescents by its presenters.  “How safe is dat“?  “Hooking up”?  The repeatedly dropped “g” on the gerunds?  The 1950s style cartoons of the doctors?  It’s almost embarrassingly patronizing for an age set that should be more focused on learning the basics, rather than getting indoctrinated into the outliers of sexual activities by cartoon characters.

Anyone who thought this material was appropriate for 14-year-olds shouldn’t be within 500 yards of a school, and as a choice for “safe schools” czar is as much a cartoon as the doctor on this handout.

Update: Shorter Media Matters — “Yes, Jennings was there, yes he gave the keynote speech, and yes, he was in charge of the group that staged this conference — but how dare you insinuate that he approved of it!” Noted.

Bill of Rights Day, by Tim Lynch

Since today is Bill of Rights Day, it seems like an appropriate time to pause and consider the condition of the safeguards set forth in our fundamental legal charter.

Let’s consider each amendment in turn.

The First Amendment says that Congress “shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” Government officials, however, insist that they can make it a crime to mention the name of a political candidate in an ad in the weeks preceding an election. They also insist upon gag orders in thousands of federal investigations.

Civis Romanus Sum, by Richard Fernandez

Protection (and my understanding of the term is doubtless imperfect as a layman) is apparently a legal theory in which the legal rights of the defendant vary according to the degree of his allegiance to the country he sets himself against. Professor Hamburger writes:

This Article explains the principle of protection and its implications for terrorism. Under the principle of protection, as understood in early American law, allegiance and protection were reciprocal. As a result, a person without allegiance was without protection, including the protection of the law. Not owing allegiance, such a person had no obligation to obey American law; moreover, not having protection, he had no rights under such law. This was the principle on which early American law dealt with enemy aliens and other persons who did not owe allegiance, including those who today would be called “terrorists.”

The early Americans had to solve actual problems involving foreign nationals “privately at war” with the United Status. Hamburger explains:

Imagine that Middle Easterners of dubious intent turned up in Virginia in 1785: What would the Founders have done? Would they have detained them without trial? Would they have interrogated them without allowing them access to lawyers? Would they have denied them habeas corpus? Would they have denied them habeas even if they were held within the United States? Would they have taken these measures against them even if they were acting on behalf of a nonsovereign power? And on what principle could the Founders have done all of this without violating the law? Astonishingly, the answers need not be hypothetical, for “Algerians” were in Virginia in 1785.

Its an interesting thesis, which runs counter to the modern tendency to diminish the difference between citizens and noncitizens before the law.

Iranian official says 70 percent of university students against Ahmadinejad, by Asia News

Even before last 7 December celebration of Student Day, Ahmadinejad supporters were unable to hold rallies on campuses. Their speeches were drowned out by other students shouting.In order to put a stop to the unrest, Mohammad Mohammadian wants “firmer confrontation” against professors and students guilty of weakening the regime.

Speaking at the 62nd annual conference of university chiefs, he sounded the alarm bell. According to the existing data, “70 per cent of students would vote against Ahmadinejad,” he said.

Recent protests are thus but the tip of the iceberg of widespread dissatisfaction. Government officials have lost control on many campuses; universities in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan and Hamedan, just to name a few, have been hit by the “green tsunami”, the protest movement that is close to the opposition.

Worthwhile Analogy, by David Foster

Imagine that some of our Congresspeople–Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, and Robert Byrd, for example–formed a professional sports team. Baseball, basketball, football–take your pick.

Would anyone invest money in such a team? Would anyone go to watch it, for any purposes other than mockery? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Well, the average Congressperson probably knows far more about sports than he knows about business. Almost certainly, he watches sports on TV…he may well have played himself in his younger days…whereas the typical Congressional knowledge of business is comparable to a baseball-watcher who doesn’t understand the difference between balls and strikes. Yet this Congress, with the encouragement of the Administration, is arrogating to itself the power to micromanage every business in the country in excruciating detail.

Lebanon’s Legacy in Afghanistan, by Caroline Glick

Instead of asking what was required for victory, like Olmert before him, Obama asked two questions. First, he asked what he needed to do to placate a public that views him as soft on defense. And second, just as Olmert did in Lebanon, (and later in Gaza), Obama asked what policy he should adopt in Afghanistan that would not hurt him too much with his anti-war political base.

And so he arrived at Tuesday’s announcement at West Point. The US will not pursue victory. It won’t even do much to strengthen the Afghan government’s ability to fight the Taliban on its own. Indeed, it views the Taliban as a legitimate force in Afghanistan.

What Obama agreed to do was lend his commander on the ground, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, 30,000 troops for 18 months. But the message he sent US forces is far from resolute. With the forces’ rules of engagement constrained by the Obama Justice Department’s penchant for prosecuting US servicemen and intelligence officials for aggressively pursuing their enemies, it isn’t clear how many risks those forces will be willing to take. Moreover, it is hard to imagine fighting with decisiveness under a commander-in-chief whose vocabulary does not include the word victory.

Then there is the message he sent the Afghans. Just as Barak and Olmert discouraged the Lebanese from cooperating with IDF operations against Hizbullah when they declared that the IDF would not remain in Lebanon, so by announcing a timeline for withdrawal at the same time he announced his force build-up, Obama told the Afghan people that they have no reason to collaborate with US and NATO forces on the ground.

For Obama personally, this is a win-win situation. If McChrystal is able to make headway, Obama will take the credit. If not, Obama will blame McChrystal, and the Afghans, and NATO, and the Republicans, and George W. Bush for his failure. Then he will withdraw all US forces from the country, and watch as a disinterested observer as the Taliban retake control of Afghanistan – all to the rousing applause of his anti-war political base.

The Gardener’s Perspective, by IraqPundit

Iraqis love their gardens. The patch in front of the house is so special that people lovingly plant fruit trees and brightly coloured flowers in designs. People love to sit in the yard on a cool evening and admire the sight. The relationship between an Iraqi man and his yard is really different. Years ago, a guy told me: “It’s in our soul.” I have visited several Middle Eastern countries, but I have yet to see this connection in other places. One guy I know who went to work in Dubai missed his garden so much that his family emailed him photos of it. He’s back now and works in his yard each day. For this reason, I talked with a couple of gardeners today.

These men who look after people’s gardens are among the most modest imaginable. They know their trees, they know their flowers, but they have had no formal education. The ones I met today told me life is much better than it was before.

I hope you enjoyed some of these articles. I thought they were all terrific and very insightful.

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This is a letter that has been going around the Internet. It is an Indianapolis doctor’s letter to Sen. Bayh about the Bill (probably HR 3200)

Note: Dr. Stephen E. Frazer, MD practices as an anesthesiologist in Indianapolis , IN

Here is a letter I sent to Senator Bayh. Feel free to copy it and send it around to all other representatives. — Stephen Fraser

July 23, 2009
Senator Bayh,

As a practicing physician I have major concerns with the health care bill before Congress. I actually have read the bill and am shocked by the brazenness of the government’s proposed involvement in the patient-physician relationship. The very idea that the government will dictate and ration patient care is dangerous and certainly not helpful in designing a health care system that works for all. Every physician I work with agrees that we need to fix our health care system, but the proposed bills currently making their way through congress will be a disaster if passed.

I ask you respectfully and as a patriotic American to look at the following troubling lines that I have read in the bill. You cannot possibly believe that these proposals are in the best interests of the country and our fellow citizens.

Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the Govt will audit books of all employers that self-insure!!

Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.

Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!

Page 42 of HC Bill: The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC benefits for you. You have no choice!

Page 50 Section 152 in HC bill: HC will be provided to ALL non-US citizens, illegal or otherwise.

Page 58 HC Bill: Govt will have real-time access to individuals’ finances & a ‘National ID Health card’ will be issued!

Page 59 HC Bill lines 21-24: Govt will have direct access to your bank accounts for elective funds transfer.

Page 65 Sec 164: Is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in unions & community organizations: (ACORN).

Page 84 Sec 203 HC bill: Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the ‘Exchange.’

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications of Benefit Levels for Plans — The Govt will ration your health care!

Page 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill: Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services. (Translation: illegal aliens.)

Page 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18: The Govt will use groups (i.e. ACORN & Americorps to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan.

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications of Benefit Levels for Plans. (AARP members – your health care WILL be rationed!)
Page 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill: Medicaid eligible individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. (No choice.)

Page 12 4 lines 24-25 HC: No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt monopoly.

Page 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill: Doctors/ American Medical Association – The Govt will tell YOU what salary you can make.

Page 145 Line 15-17: An Employer MUST auto-enroll employees into public option plan. (NO choice!)

Page 126 Lines 22-25: Employers MUST pay for HC for part-time employees AND their families. (Employees shouldn’t get excited about this as employers will be forced to reduce its work force, benefits, and wages/salaries to cover such a huge expense.)

Page 149 Lines 16-24: ANY Employer with payroll 401k & above who does not provide public option will pay 8% tax on all payroll! (See the last comment in parenthesis.)
Page 150 Lines 9-13: A business with payroll between $251K & $401K who doesn’t provide public option will pay 2-6% tax on all payroll.

Page 167 Lines 18-23: ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Page 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill: Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)

Page 195 HC Bill: Officers & employees of the GOVT HC Admin.. will have access to ALL Americans’ finances and personal records.

Page 203 Line 14-15 HC: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” (Yes, it really says that!)
Page 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill: Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid Seniors. (Low-income and the poor are affected.)

Page 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill: Doctors: It doesn’t matter what specialty you have trained yourself in — you will all be paid the same! (Just TRY to tell me that’s not Socialism!)

Page 253 Line 10-18: The Govt sets the value of a doctor’s time, profession, judgment, etc. (Literally– the value of humans.)

Page 265 Sec 1131: The Govt mandates and controls productivity for “private” HC industries.

Page 268 Sec 1141: The federal Govt regulates the rental and purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

Page 272 SEC. 1145: TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151: The Govt will penalize hospitals for whatever the Govt deems preventable (i.e…re-admissions).

Page 298 Lines 9-11: Doctors: If you treat a patient during initial admission that results in a re-admission — the Govt will penalize you.

Page 317 L 13-20: PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. (The Govt tells doctors what and how much they can own!)

Page 317-318 lines 21-25, 1-3: PROHIBITION on expansion. (The Govt is mandating that hospitals cannot expand.)
Page 321 2-13: Hospitals have the opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input is required. (Can you say ACORN?)

Page 335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339: The Govt mandates establishment of=2 outcome-based measures. (HC the way they want — rationing.)
Page 341 Lines 3-9: The Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advance Plans, HMOs, etc. (Forcing people into the Govt plan)

Page 354 Sec 1177: The Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of ’special needs people!’ Unbelievable!

Page 379 Sec 1191: The Govt creates more bureaucracy via a “Tele-Health Advisory Committee.” (Can you say HC by phone?)

Page 425 Lines 4-12: The Govt mandates “Advance-Care Planning Consult.” (Think senior citizens end-of-life patients.)

Page 425 Lines 17-19: The Govt will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. (And it’s mandatory!)
Page 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3: The Govt provides an “approved” list of end-of-life resources; & nbsp;guiding you in death. (Also called ‘assisted suicide.’)

Page 427 Lines 15-24: The Govt mandates a program for orders on “end-of-life.” (The Govt has a say in how your life ends!)

Page 429 Lines 1-9: An “advanced-care planning consultant” will be used frequently as a patient’s health deteriorates.

Page 429 Lines 10-12: An “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. (AN ORDER TO DIE FROM THE GOVERNMENT?!?)

Page 429 Lines 13-25: The GOVT will specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order. (I wouldn’t want to stand before God after getting paid for THAT job!)

Page 430 Lines 11-15: The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end-of-life! (Again — no choice!)

Page 469: Community-Based Home Medical Services = Non-Profit Organizations. (Hello? ACORN Medical Services here!?!)

Page 489 Sec 1308: The Govt will cover marriage and family therapy. (Which means Govt will insert itself into your marriage even.)

Page 494-498: Govt will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, and rationing those services.

Senator, I guarantee that I personally will do everything possible to inform patients and my fellow physicians about the dangers of the proposed bills you and your colleagues are debating.

Furthermore, if you vote for a bill that enforces socialized medicine on the country and destroys the doctor-patient relationship, I will do everything in my power to make sure you lose your job in the next election.

Respectfully,

Stephen E. Fraser, MD

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Mary Landrieu was last seen taking a $300 Million Bribe in order to pass a bill to spend 2 or 3 Trillion dollars (exact numbers are hazy) in spending of money that nobody has in order to force everyone in the US to drop their health insurance and accept Universal Medicaid. Freezers no longer being safe to hide illegally obtained money, she is believed to have put it in a big cookie jar.

Seriously, isn’t BRIBERY supposed to be illegal? Why isn’t Landrieu being clapped in chains along with Reid, who offered her the bribe?

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This parable has been making the rounds on the Internet. Even if the numbers aren’t exactly right, they are just an illustration of the problem, not a description of it down to the penny.

You have two families: “Juan Legal-Immigrant” and “Jose Illegal-Immigrant”. Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California.

Juan Legal-Immigrant works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash “under the table”.

Ready? Now pay attention…

Juan Legal-Immigrant: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Juan Legal-Immigrant now has $31,231.00.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200.00 per year. Jose Illegal-Immigrant pays no taxes. Jose Illegal-Immigrant now has $31,200.00.

Juan Legal-Immigrant pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Juan Legal-Immigrant now has $24,031.00.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant has full medical and dental coverage through the state and local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose Illegal-Immigrant still has $31,200.00.

Juan Legal-Immigrant makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Juan Legal-Immigrant pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Juan Legal-Immigrant now has $18,031.00.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps and welfare. Jose Illegal-Immigrant still has $31,200.00.

Juan Legal-Immigrant pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Juan Legal-Immigrant now has $9,631.00.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose Illegal-Immigrant pays $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Jose Illegal-Immigrant still has $ 31,200.00.

Juan Legal-Immigrant pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance. Juan Legal-Immigrant now has $7,231.00.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant says, “We don’t need no stinkin’ insurance!” and still has $31,200.00.d

Juan Legal-Immigrant has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month.

Juan Legal-Immigrant now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.

Jose Illegal-Immigrant has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

Juan Legal-Immigrant’s and Jose Illegal-Immigrant’s children both attend the same school. Juan Legal-Immigrant pays for his children’s lunches while Jose Illegal-Immigrant’s children get a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal-Immigrant’s children have an after school ESL program. Juan Legal-Immigrant’s children go home.

Juan Legal-Immigrant and Jose Illegal-Immigrant both enjoy the same police and fire services, but Juan paid for them and Jose did not.

Commentary

Jose Illegal-Immigrant gets all the benefits of being a US citizen but doesn’t pay any of the costs. He did not obey the laws and paid criminals to smuggle himself and his family across the line, enriching the same coyotes and drug criminals who prey on his community. By his actions he is a parasite on the United States and damages other Americans who are legal residents and citizens. Worst of all to self-reliant Americans of all sorts, he is not self-reliant. He and his family are free-loaders. Everyone else has to pull their weight because he declines to.

Isn’t this the exact same reason why Democrats want to take away the private market healthcare insurance enjoyed by 87% of Americans and put everyone on universal Medicaid? Because there are a few who don’t buy insurance themselves?

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  1. Buzzmachine asks and answers the question: Should the news media be government sponsored, like Pravda?
    http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/10/19/giving-up-on-the-news-business/
  2. Mika Brzezinski: Every producer, anchor, reporter, and editor at CBS over ten years was pro-gun-control, pro-abortion, anti-military, and anti-Bush, except one
    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/10/19/mika-one-exception-every-cbs-reporter-director-anchor-liberal
  3. White House and Congressional Democrats make war on the US Chamber of Commerce
    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28445.html
  4. Comparing Austrian with Keynesian stimulus packages, by Wladimir Kraus
    http://blog.mises.org/archives/010853.asp
  5. An Interview with Peter Godwin, about COIN and the politico-socio-economic collapse of Nigeria
    http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/306-noonan.pdf
  6. Another anti-Limbaugh racial smear
    http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/10/chicago-sun-times-runs-rush-as-klansman-cartoon/
  7. Yes, Virginia, Donovan McNabb really is an overrated QB
    http://newsrealblog.com/2009/10/18/newsreal-sunday-rush-was-right-mcnabb-was-over-rated-and-still-is/
  8. Complete video of Lord Moncton’s speech on Obama at Copenhagen is online
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/18/video-of-moncktons-speech-on-obama-poised-to-cede-us-sovereignty-in-copenhagen/
  9. Bill Whittle’s modest proposal on how to treat Congress. Pay them to do jack and squat
    http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bwhittle/2009/10/19/a-modest-proposal-to-reform-the-congress/
  10. Stimulus? Are you sure that word means what you think it means?
    http://www.insideronline.org/blogarchive.cfm?blogid=5DD80286-03E8-85BA-68F25C62909A89EA

Enough to watch this all the way through.

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where-the-wild-things-are-spike-jonze-gandolfini-review-sendakjpg-7461d8aa6f517189_largeThis review will not take long. Darling wife and I took our three young children and a neighbor kid from across the street to a movie followed by Five Guys for burgers.

We saw Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze’s tragically flawed adaptation of the Maurice Sendak classic. Perhaps you like watching depressing movies about relationship problems between people who refuse, idiotic, to change. Then you might like this movie. Perhaps you like watching a movie with the message that your friends are waiting until you slip up, at which time they will eat you up, cannibal-like. Then you might like this movie. Perhaps you like movies that speak the unselfconscious symbolic language of children while carrying a lesson that relationships cannot last, that marriage ends in divorce and mutual alienation, that only relationships between simpletons like Ira and Judith can last, and that on a more basic level relationships are just a bummer. Then you might like this movie. Or perhaps, like me, you recognize the seductive beauty of the movie, and hate it for the psychic poison it delivers to the defenseless minds of kids.

We will not be buying it on DVD.

Did I mention that while rushing to the bathroom to pee, our 4 year old Sugarlump vomited her popcorn all the way down the carpeted hallway behind the theater? And that after cleaning up and returning to our seats she curled up in her daddy’s lap and went to sleep? That made the rest of the movie more bearable.

We finished the evening at Five Guys with the best burgers and fries the kids ever ate. That’s what they said. Evening saved.

Other reviews: NYT, Tech Banyan, Entertainment Weekly, HuffPo, NRO

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All hands alert!

I don’t have anything to add because this is so shattering there is nothing that can be added. If this extract scares you then you have to read the whole thing. And then we all shall have to do something.

At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.

I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfaction of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who founded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.

[laughter]

And the trouble is this; if that treaty is signed, if your Constitution says that it takes precedence over your Constitution (sic), and you can’t resign from that treaty unless you get agreement from all the other state parties – And because you’ll be the biggest paying country, they’re not going to let you out of it.

Read the treaty. Read the rest of Lord Moncton’s remarks. If this is signed and passed, it will be the greatest act of BETRAYAL that has ever been committed on the American people. We all must act, every one of us, doing whatever we can.

This must not stand!

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