Medary.com

They did it! They finally did it! Damn them all to HELL!!!!

Sorry the Whip is so long, and so late today. Damn Congresscritters.

The neverending struggle for liberty:
UK Press Gives Obama an “F” for His Historically Low Approval Rating
Nazis, Commies, and Death Panels
California Bailout – Not Only “No”, But “Hell No”
An Open Letter to Sarah Palin – By Patricia Melton and the Mineral City Coffee Club
AMERICA NEEDS SARAH PALIN MORE THAN EVER
USA Today Best Seller List: Going Rogue at #1 for Fifth-Straight Week
Congress back to finding ways to fund ACORN
Lucky for us, an under-performing president
Oh my: McCain working on getting another Democrat to switch?
Red, red meat: Gingrich rallies the base to take back Congress
IRS Has 70% Error Rate in Issuance of Taxpayer ID Numbers, Resulting in Fraudulent Tax Refunds
Lessons from John Galt
Sarah Palin: Democrats Will Awaken Sleeping Giant With Health Care Takeover

Health care "change" (called by some "reform"):
Markets, Not Mandates
A Bill of Goods, Maybe
A Surprise in the Health Care Bill
Obama's Truthiness
The Senate needs Martian gold, unicorns, and alien slaves to make the Healthcare Rationing bill work financially
Could the Senate Bill Eliminate Private Insurance?
It’s time to start over on ObamaCare, says … top House Democrat
Fund: Dems will probably bypass conference committee for ping-pong
Jake Tapper fact-checks Obama assertion on public option campaigning
Beyond the Constitution: The Healthcare Bill Violates the Rule of Law
CBO: You can’t spend the same dollars twice
Justin Raimondo is cool
Palin's Continued Popularity and Relevance
Christmas Back On! Build-A-Bear Surrenders, Pulls Videos
AGW: The Greens’ Tet Offensive
When legerdemain is used to pass an unpopular bill
For Their Next Trick . . .
The Fierce Urgency of February: White House To Put Health Care on Back Burner Until After He Offers Some Glib, Empty Rhetoric About the Economy?
Arrogance, corruption, stupidity
John McCormack from the Weekly Standard Slaps Dave Weigel and Others Over "Death Panels"
Coal for Christmas from the Senate
“Health Care Reform” Passes The Senate, Lady Liberty Passes Out
And, the bottom line:
If You Like Your Health Plan, You Will NOT Be Able to Keep It

Travel and cruising:
Crystal vs. Regent -- On-Board Communication
United, Continental, ANA seek antitrust immunity
NEW Cruise Reviews: Two Antarctica Expeditions
USA TODAY report: Safety of food at airports spotty
Been away from the airport? A lot has changed
Don't Blame the Airlines

"Global warming" aka "Climate change" -- or should that be "Climate Reform?":
The Climategate Timeline: 30 years visualized
Von Storch op-ed in the WSJ: ‘Climategate reveals a concerted effort to emphasize scientific results useful to a political agenda’
A Cycle of Cathay
Nothing Voluntary About Obamacare’s Mandate
Ping Pong: Dems to Avoid Conference in Favor of (Please Sit Down) Shady Back-Room Deal

The Economy:
The Deficit is Mind Boggling
Tempting the Tipping Point

miscellany:
VIDEO: Peter Jackson talks 'Hobbit'
Blizzard forms in U.S. Midwest, Plains
Holiday Movies
Reward offered after 6 colts killed

Sports:
Depressing Royals Story of the Day
SDSU men fall to Gophers
Foreign policy:
The ending year
The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat?

UPDATE: I'm informed that the date of the State of the Union address has not yet been set. So, I now advocate going with plan B--go on strike Jan. 20.

From somebody called the Westwood Tea Party, via The Other McCain.

Calling all red blooded, Patriotic Americans!

It’s time for another march on Washington DC.

On the date of the State of the Union address, January 20, 2010.

On this day, a joint session of Congress, the President of the United States, his entire cabinet, the Supreme Court and the Joint Chiefs of Staff...plus distinguished guests will be in attendance.

You want media coverage? All major broadcast and cable networks will be there to broadcast the event.

This is the most strategically advantageous opportunity for Patriotic Americans to hold a demonstraion against an out of control government that's trashing our Constituion.

This march needs to dwarf the size of the crowd that showed up on 9/12/2009. We need to surround the Capitol Building.

Who’s sick and tired of being ignored?

It’s time for a second Declaration of Independence!

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

It’s time for us to tell these Marxist bastards that we don’t consent to what they’re doing, and we therefore no longer recognize them as the legitimate government of We the People!

Personally, I'm not quite ready to go as far as "we therefore no longer recognize them as the legitimate government," but unless we, the people explain in detail to these out-of-control yahoos in Washington that they are REPRESENTATIVES, not RULERS, then things could really get out of hand, in ways that I very much do not want to contemplate on Christmas Eve.

I'm quite sure that they either don't understand how very, very angry a lot of people in this country are, or they simply don't care.

They would be wise to start caring.

Make January 20, 2010 a National Day of Protest. Close your business. Call in sick to work. Don't go to school.

Go on strike.

If you can, go to Washington. Make yourself heard.

While you still can. If now now, when?

Politics and applied philosophy:
TEA Party Patriots: Don’t Go Home, Fight!
Unhinged update: Left-wing hate-crime hoaxer pleads guilty in Denver
Worst Decade Evah? Nick Gillespie on NPR Discussing Same
Crowdsourcing The Contract With America 2.0
The Health-Care Backlash
New Poll: Health Care Approval Down To 36%
Our Coming Medicare Debacle
Change… Obama Now More Loathed Than Bush at End of His Second Term
Of Course… Obama’s White House Christmas Tree Includes Mao Tse-Tung Ornaments
New Missouri Polling Data Shows McCaskill Tanking
Beer Is Cheaper Than Water—When You Compare Really Cheap Beer to Expensive Water
Libertarianism in Ancient China
Congressional Democrats Already Preparing to Lose Control of Congress
Why the 'Angry Mob' Is Angry
A Republican's Airing of Grievances
Repeal the 17th Amendment. Nuke the Federal Reserve
Palin as litmus test
Old GOP message: “We’re going to fight to the finish line;” New GOP message: “Let’s go home”
Palin: I told you so!
White House: We didn’t know Mao was on our Christmas ornaments
Rasmussen: Strong disapproval outstrips overall approval for first time
Top Ten Foreign Policy Blunders of 2009 -- hmm. Should I have a separate "foreign policy" Whip sub-heading?
The Dems' political payoff
University of Michigan Study Confirms Link Between Financial Bailout and Corruption
Tea Parties, Third Parties and the Republican Party

Health care "change" (called by some "reform"):
Birthers, fanatics, and right-wing militias
Tyranny in the Senate
A Free-Market Guide to Healthcare
Biggest Defection of The Day (That You Never Heard About)
Health Care: The Pig in the Road
Can Obama Open His Mouth Without Lying About Health Care?
The Singapore Alternative
Pay Your Own Bill
DeMint to force vote on constitutionality of mandate
The list of payoffs that got Reid his cloture vote
Why is the AMA Supporting a 20% Pay Cut for Their Members?
Obamacare’s Constitutional Problems Proliferating
Alan Reynolds: Death Panels? Sarah Palin Was Right
Midnight Votes, Backroom Deals, and a Death Panel -- from the 'Cuda herself.
Big PhRMA Payoff: Hidden Tax on Pedialyte, Prenatal Vitamins, and Pain Relievers

Travel and cruising:
DOT Mandates Passenger Bill of Rights and I’m Not Happy
Q&A: "Cruise Confidential" Author on the Life of a Crewmember

"Global warming" aka "Climate change" -- or should that be "Climate Reform?":
Climate Plan B
Build-A-Climate-Scare: Why You Should Boycott Build-A-Bear
Unbearable Global Warming Hype Threatens the North Pole at Christmas
Met Office and CRU bow to public pressure: publish data subset and code
Texas State Climatologist: “IPCC AR4 was flat out wrong” – relied on flawed WWF report
A story of conversion: Global Warming Believer To Skeptic
The Cultural Contradictions of Anti-Nuke Environmentalists

The Economy:
The Financial Villain of the Decade
Shoppers were online, not at malls, last weekend --WARNING: plays a video without your consent! Bad Reuters! BAD!
Job distress for Generation X
After ‘fat cat’ comment, Obama changes tone with small-time bankers
Geithner: U.S. job growth unlikely before spring
Obama says he has unemployed relatives -- yeah. Mostly in Kenya.
“If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse.”
How Government "Reforms" Prolong The Great Recession

Simians:
Wild chimps have near human understanding of fire, says study by ISU's Pruetz

Miscellania:
Man jailed for eating rare tiger
Dog Meat Supplier
Michelle Obama’s Most Hideous Outfits of 2009

Tech:
Microsoft loses Word appeal, will adjust program
Power goes out twice at Alaska air traffic control

Sports:
Circling the Summit
SDSU women falter at Iowa

Do I read all of these articles? No. But I want to.

UPDATE: The chimps were sooo wild that they had spread to the Tech and Sports sub-headings.

UPDATE 2:Miscellany, not Miscellania which isn't even a real word. I make them up sometimes.

This is how ice ages begin. One really cold winter.

Via WUWT.

Oh, yeah, winter started just yesterday.

I'm not saying that this little global cold snap/snow storm is the start of an ice age. But if we're talking about how cold next April, May, and June are, it may be time to start burning every hydrocarbon we can get our hands on.

I'm just sayin'.

Yes, the Whip returns. Who knows how long it will stay?

Travel and cruising:
New Cruise Ships for 2010
Staying Safe in Port
A Christmas Message for American Samoa
Boeing says second 787 will fly on Tuesday
Carl's Cruise Capers and Travel Tips -- Our friend Carl has some new posts up on his blog.

Technology:
China to require Internet domain name registration
The ghost of Christmases past -- The continuing corruption of history via Wikopedia.

Writing:
Thoughts On 2009
The March Toward Publication (or What Happens Next, Part Two)
Guest Post: Books on Writing

"Global Warming"-er-"Climate Change"-er-Fleecing The Developed World
Hansen on the surface temperature record, Climategate, solar, and El Nino
Other Consequences of Climategate
Truth Is Victim When The Left Abuses Science --pay attention to this one. It's by Thomas Sowell.

Health Care "Change" (called by some "reform")
The States’ Failed Experiments
In Pursuit of Death
Health Care Debate Reveals Prejudices of Liberal Elites
Obama's Latest Health Care Lie
The Six Key Issues the House Must Cave On Before Obamacare Becomes Law

Politics and applied philosophy
Mr. Obama: Tear Down Your Wall of Secrecy (ok, it's a "birther" piece. Yeah, I'm a bad person. shrug)
Returning to the Moon
St. Cloud Times: Precocious girl pens Palin
Obama: A Republican Plant?

The Economy
The Deflation Threat
A Christmas message for America
Q3 GDP revised sharply downward — again

This is the front page for our dispatches from our "Bollywood to South Beach" cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, from October 29-December 18, 2009.

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 . . .)

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-seven

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

December 17 (Thursday, Day 50, Crossing the Tropic of Cancer) -

Doughnut

We both woke up around 9:30 and hurried upstairs for our last leisurely breakfast. Christiaan saw Snookums coming and immediately found her a chocolate doughnut and ordered Filbert’s two pots of hot water. There wasn’t much of a breeze and we were mostly in the shade but it was still quite warm so our breakfast wasn’t too long.

More after the jump . . .

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirty-six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

December 16 (Wednesday, Day 49, Cruising the Atlantic Ocean) -

Snookums woke up and worked out and when she came back to the cabin Filbert was ready for breakfast. We emerged from the cabin to find the lower decks decorated for Christmas. The crew only had time to do part of the ship during the night.

Atrium holiday trim

More after the jump . . .

First, let us observe the Congressional health care lemmings a-leaping:
How Many Americans Will Choose to be Uninsured Even if Insurance is Mandatory?
The illusion of design--on the folly of believing that anything coming from Congress could possibly be a "carefully designed system."
The Health Care Fight Has Just Begun.
When liberal dreams collide with public opinion by the ever-insightful Michael Barone.
Will people comply with health-insurance mandate?
Washington Post: Obamacare “Unsustainable”
Left Now Admitting Obamacare Full of Budget Gimmicks.
Impermissible Ratemaking in Health-Insurance Reform: Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional--WARNING: serious Constitutional law scholarship here.
Who's responsible for the Senate's middle-of-the-night vote?
Who's Meaner, Insurance Bureaucrats or Government Bureaucrats? And the answer . . .
Shocker: Medicare Has A Higher Claim Denial Rate Than Private Sector Employers.
What Happened To The Mandates?
Senate: This Is About Life & Death ... and Pork.
Cry Havoc, And Let Slip The Dogs Of Unintended Consequences!
Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries --hark! I hear the oinking of pigs at the trough! Too bad they're feasting on US!

Now, let us meditate upon the cliff which the lemmings screeched to a halt in front of just before leaping off:
Guardian Headline – Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure.
Climategate: The Perils of Global Warming Models.
Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

General political/public interest/miscellaneous links:
Balance Blocks News Info--why the vain quest for journalistic "fairness" is really a bad idea.
Code TEA: Tea Parties, Go Home! All Politics Is Local.
Voter angst: Nation might see third party rising.
Who is more respected: Sarah Palin or Al Gore?
There'll be nowhere to run from the new world government--from the Telegraph in the UK, who have already been down the road that we in the U.S. are in the process of joining arm in arm with the rest of the world's governments. They have seen our future and it does not work.
Study Shows Partisan Influence On Stimulus Spending--yeah, I know, knock you over with a feather.
The Problem is Spending, not Deficits--hey, here's a plan! Spend less money to balance the budget. Hmm. A crazy plan, but it just--might--work!

Brown Fat Revelations May Lead to New Weight Loss Drugs--health news that doesn't involve Congress. What a relief.

And, finally, something of a public service announcement as we enter the heart of the holiday season:
Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers

UPDATE: 3:58 p.m. minor editing for clarification and spelling. 4:01 p.m.--Fix broken html.