Medary.com

In case you had maybe forgotten what real political courage and leadership looks and sounds like:

The Future of Journalism & Washington’s War on Advertising -- If you want a look at the near future, look at the Catholic Church's attempts to keep control of the "narrative" in the 1500's, when printing presses became widespread. Hint: do the words The Reformation mean anything to you? As the saying goes, "the bell can not be un-rung." The Conservative New Media are the New Protestants, rebelling against the catholic belief in "progressivism." And so, ironically, the "progressives" actually are the conservatives, now, and the "conservatives" are now the radicals--the liberals if you will. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Gulf - It Is Worse Than We Thought -- So, tell me again how drilling in ANWR or off the coast of California within sight of the beaches would be worse than this? At least in those places, there would be a better chance of controlling and containing any such disastrous oil leak.

We're not going to be able to snap our fingers and get off of dependency on hydrocarbons for energy in one decade, or even two. The avaliable alternatives (primarily nuclear fission, quite honestly) are inadequate. The proposed "renewable" options are not yet available, AND won't be adequate to meet any foreseeable global energy demand. We're going to burn a lot of oil, gas, and coal before we're able to transition off of them to something else.

That's the cold, hard, inalterable fact that Obama and his ilk absolutely, positively refuse to even concede. That just makes them unreasonable and irrational.

Tennessee Dem on female Republicans: “You have to lift their skirts to find out if they are women” -- With every day, the deeply-held racism and sexism of the average Democrat--not just elected Democrats, but those rank-and-file voters who vote for these racist/sexist mouthpieces--becomes more apparent. To vote for a Democrat is to vote for a racist, a sexist, a socialist, an ultimately a thug. It drags the voter down to that level, if he or she is not there already.

If you are a Democrat voter who is not a racist or a sexist, you really need to open your eyes and ears to what the people you are voting for are saying--because they are speaking for you. Oh, the racism and sexism are most often cloaked in high-sounding words like "fairness" and "rights" and "equality" but the core of all of those concepts, in the mind of a Democrat, is a very, very ugly view of people different from the Privileged Class--the Class for which the Democratic Party truly works to maintain.

Don't like class-based politics? Don't like race-based politics? Don't like sex-based politics? Think that everybody truly should have equal access to law and opportunity? Think that people should progress based on ability, not on race, sex, class, or anything other than their determination and talent (and the usual little bit of luck?) Then you can't vote for a Democrat, because while they say things that sound kinda like they support those things, what they actually do is consistently, profoundly destructive of equality before the law and the concept that "all men are created equal."

Shocker: Government Subsidization of Movies Comes With Editorial Strings Attached -- I'm not sure why people keep putting the word "shocker" in front of post titles. So many outrageous things happen, how can you really be shocked any more? Disgusted, yes. Appalled, yes. Enraged, yes. Shocked?

Media gets low ratings from public -- I'd be OK with "shocker" in front of this title . . . for purposes of ironic humor . . .

The Pillars of Apathy

I refuse to believe government programs launched in the Forties, Sixties, and Seventies are indestructible features of our lives, immune to repeal or reform. I don’t believe a nation with a 234-year history of courage and industry is destined to suffocate in a shallow pool of nanny-state cement, poured only a few generations ago. It will be difficult for the American giant to rise again… but history unfolds in the space between difficult and impossible.

There is no such thing as eternal legislation. Even the Constitution can be amended. It’s only a question of how much willpower it will take for us to cast aside the intolerable acts of our political class. We are descended from men who showed great vigor in resisting intolerable acts.

I don’t believe the American electorate is a hopeless mass of imbeciles and parasites. Of course, we’ll always have plenty of both… along with a breathtaking population of hard workers, visionaries, and heroes. It’s terribly short-sighted to write off a populace that ignores its expensive media apparatus and fills the streets for Tea Party rallies – joining people loudly accused of racism to denounce a supposedly inevitable system of total State control, run by a man they were taught it was sinful to oppose. The allegedly stupid proletariat of the United States just made Friedrich Hayek’s 66-year-old masterpiece, The Road to Serfdom, Number One on the Amazon.com bestseller list. Our fellow citizens are thinking, and questioning. Questions are acid to statism.

Amen, Brother! We, as a nation, need to understand that almost all of "progressive" economic theory (either Marxism of Keynesiansm) is simply, utterly wrong. It doesn't work. It is "unsustainable." It is bankrupting us. The New Deal turns out to be a Bad Deal. Stimulating government spending is NOT the same thing as stimulating the economy.

The government is NOT the economy, and the government is NOT the answer to every social problem we find. Indeed, many of the social problems we have today are made worse--if not actually caused, by the kind of bull-in-a-china-shop government intervention and micromanagement of people's lives which is the hallmark of "progressive" political action.

Democratic Congressman Assaults College Student -- Oh, yeah. This one can't be linked enough. Democrat. Congressman. Assault. College student, the victim. This guy (the Congressman) should spend time in jail. Of course, most Congressmen should, actually.

IDLED OIL RIGS ARE MOVING TO BRAZIL Following Obama’s Drilling Moratorium -- It turns out that all the high-minded environmentalist blather boils down to NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard. We don't care if you drill for oil in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil--just don't do it within sight of an American beach. Because, you know, it's so unsightly to see an oil rig when you're trying to catch a few rays.

Of course, oil-covered pelicans are a bit more unsightly, but then the environmentalists decided that oil wells where they'd be almost impossible to maintain if something went drastically wrong--a mile deep in ocean water--was preferable to oil wells in a couple of hundred feet of water, where crews could still get down and actually work on with human hands of something blew.

Not "green." Just NIMBY.

The Great Democrat Embarrassment Continues -- I know it can't last (can it?) but the whole fiasco for the Democrats over their candidate for U.S. Senate from South Carolina, Alvin Greene, is just too damn entertaining for words . . . in a year where perhaps THE major issue is the demonstrated Democrat incompetence at actually governing (as opposed to just running for office, which Democrats are clearly very good at), the presence of Alvin Greene at the top of a state's Democrat electoral ballot speaks volumes.

The Buckingham Palace Marching Band playing the Imperial March from Star Wars:

Via Ace of Spades HQ which is also in some ways too cool to be Whipped, but which doesn't prevent me from doing it on an all too regular basis.

Rabbi Who Taped Helen Thomas Is Inundated With Hate Mail and Death Threats -- Why do those Tea Party right wing wingnuts . . . oh, wait, it's "progressives" doing the hating here? Ah. Never mind, then.

The left’s strange hostility to Hirsi Ali -- If your first reaction is "Who?" then you really should be ashamed of yourself. You can't afford not to know who Ayann Hirsi Ali is, and what she has had to endure.

Obama fights critics on spill response: report -- Whiner in Chief. If the job is too hard for you, Barry, then you can always do the entire nation a huge service and just quit. Maybe you should try shutting the hell up and doing your f'ing job instead of constantly looking for someone, anyone else to blame for all the problems of the world. Oh, and your job is not to be Head Of The Democratic/Progressive Transformation Of The Entire World To Be A Better Place. Your job is to be the chief executive officer of the Federal Government of the United States of America. Maybe you should have familiarized yourself with the job description. It's here. See especially Article 2. Let me know if you need help with some of the bigger words.

And honest, I wrote that before I saw this article: Too Big Or Too Small?

Mark Steyn suggests that Obama may be the first president for whom the office just isn't good enough

Another Stumble in the Gulf -- Un. Freaking. Believable.

The administration has decreed a six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling in the Gulf, based on a report that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wrote for President Obama. Salazar claimed that a panel of seven experts selected by the National Academy of Engineering had peer reviewed his report. It turns out, though, that the seven experts never saw the recommendation for a moratorium, and in fact oppose it . . .

Just when you think the Obama regime can't get more incompetent . . .

Deficit commission may target mortgage deductions; Update: Take the poll! -- You know, I'm not 100% opposed to eliminating the mortgage deduction . . . IF, IF-IF-IF-IF we stop all of these nonsensical policies of "putting people into houses they can't afford," I say we all take off, and nuke Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.


Is the MFM Really Afraid of Political Violence From the Right, Or Is It Just Another Negative Political Attack? -- No, I'm quite sure they're really afraid. AND it's a negative political attack. The two are not mutually exclusive. They're afraid because it's well established now that liberals and leftists simply don't have the moral framework to adequately understand the motives and actions of people of the right--while the right has a much more balanced moral framework and can understand the leftist view. It's because the Left does not understand the Right that they oppose the policy recommendations of the Right. It's because the Right does understand the Left that they promote policies of freedom, and oppose policies of oppression.

Mitch Daniels: We need a “truce” on social issues to concentrate on our fiscal crisis -- He's not saying anything I haven't said. The Drug War isn't working. Time to try something else. Social Security isn't working (is bankrupt.) Time to try something else. Medicare isn't working (is bankrupt.) Time to try something else.

The whole "progressive" New Deal approach to government isn't working. Time to try something else.

In Their Own Words: A Warning Label on the Constitution -- Actually, publications from Wilder Publications need warning labels:

WARNING: The publisher of this document, Wilder Publications, is composed entirely of deeply stupid people. Read this at your own intellectual risk.

On The Table

The time has indeed come to put many things on the table. All of them are dusty, overpriced relics of discredited statist theories and collectivist ideology. How long has it been since Americans were allowed to tackle any serious problem by enhancing their liberty? Who can remember the last time we approached a situation by reducing the burden of regulation and taxation on our private citizens, unleashing their energy and creativity? When was the last time we were allowed to view a crisis as an opportunity for the private sector, rather than the State?

And don't try using the lies about deregulation causing the oil spill or the housing meltdown. Neither are true. Don't lie to me--or to yourself. Go find the truth, instead. If you have the courage to face the truth, that is. Maybe you don't. Maybe you want Someone To Make It Better. But nobody will. Nobody but you, that is. What are YOU doing?

Looting Taxpayers: Mortgage Interest Deduction Editon -- I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to simply revoke the privilege from the Federal Government of taking money in any way, shape, or form, from any citizen of the United States. Make the Federal Government "tax" the States. Let the States have control of the purse of the Feds. Pass a Consititutional Amendment limiting the Federal budget to some percentage of State budgets.

Don't tell me it can't happen. Don't tell me it's impossible. We're into an age where nothing is impossible, and nothing is off the table.

We need to do something drastic to bring some sense of fiscal discipline to Washington. Simply electing a bunch of fiscal realists (not even "fiscal conservatives"), while a good move, will not be enough.

Somebody needs to bell the cat.

But wait, there's more . . .

It's been a while since the last update--since April 29th, in fact, when I finally cracked the 220 barrier for the first time. Or maybe that should be, hit 220, then bounced.

Here's the tale:
On May 5th, we left for our Panama Canal cruise, returning on May 26th.
On May 27th, I went in for another weigh-in: 228.2. OK, not too bad . . . 8.4 pounds up over a cruise. Not good, but could have been worse.

June 3: 227.9.

And then, today, June 10th: 220.2 pounds, within 0.4 pounds of my all-time low. And what's better, the nutritionist said I could start eating lean meats and low-calorie veggies for supper, instead of the meal replacements. YAY! So I've spent the last hour and a half or so washing and chopping vegetables for a pork stir fry tonight.

This is the front page for our dispatches from our Panama Canal cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator from May 5-26, 2010.

Here are the individual posts, collected all in one handy location for your reading pleasure. As we travel, we'll be adding posts so you can follow our journeys.

(Click the Read More to see all the post links . . .)

Wealthy businesswomen win California Republican races -- "Wealthy?" Well, yes, but note the implicit bias. Why not "Successful?" "Prominent?" Or just "Businesswomen?" Why the qualifier "wealthy?" Why that word, specifically? THAT'S what people mean when they talk about media bias. And I'm quite sure that the headline writer didn't even think about using that word instead of something more neutral. It simply didn't occur to them. That's what bias means--it's not a conscious act, most of the time. It's "just the way things are." Just like "black people just aren't as smart as whites." Nobody actually went around saying that--it's just something that racists simply assumed was true, and built their worldview upon that false assumption.

The problem with bias is that biased people can not see their own biases.