Author: admin

Whip, December 12, 2012

Site News: I’m contemplating a migration from the current platform (Geeklog) to WordPress. Might start taking that on after the new year. Also, there’s some travel journals that need posting–these should be forthcoming “real soon now.”

Now, on with the whip:

Honest [*1] — A web comic. Truth.
Senator Jeff Sessions: Here’s A Crazy Idea, Maybe We Should Follow Constitutional Procedures And Not Backroom Deals To Handle The Fiscal Cliff [*2] — What? Have our Congressional representatives actually, er, represent us? Have some modest expectation that our representatives will actually follow the rules we set up for them to follow (i.e. the Constitution) in doing so? That’s just crazy talk! You must be a conservative or something. What a nutjob!

Celebrity Cruises Offers Complimentary Drinks Packages [*3] — Because people don’t drink enough on cruise ships as it is.

Ezra Klein: Often Wrong, Never In Doubt — The visceral hatred of freedom of association and freedom of employment by the leftist “progressives” is, or should be, very instructive. Of course, these are the same people who like pointing guns at people and taking their money, so that they can make themselves feel virtuous by giving that money to somebody else.

It is not a virtue to be generous with other people’s money.

Union Goon Who Assaulted Steven Crowder Identified [*4] — If you go around saying you’ll start a civil war over some piece of legislation, don’t be surprised if you eventually get a civil war. “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”

Intelligence Report Challenges Declinist Consensus [*5] — But the good news is that the USA won’t be the world’s only superpower in 2030. That’s a good thing, right? (Actually, judging from the current political leadership, it’s hard to argue that it’s not a good thing.)

Widening the Habitable Zone [*6] — More thorium! More thorium!

Michigan Unions’ “Freeloader” Myth [*7] — Seems like a simple enough concept–if you don’t pay union dues, you don’t get representation from the union (and therefore have to deal with your employer yourself). This is actually good for unions–it keeps them focused on what they’re supposed to be doing–mediating employer-employee relations.

The Seventh Circuit Keeps “Bear” in 2nd Amendment [*8] — I’m perpetually amazed that “progressive” leftists can read the plain words of the Constitution and somehow twist them to mean the exact opposite of what they say. Apparently the Seventh Circuit court, on this day anyway, agrees with me.

http://www.volokh.com/2012/12/11/the-seventh-circuit-keeps-bear-in-2nd-amendment/ [*9] — I’m for ’em. The concept of private property is a fundamental building block of civilization. Strange how “progressive” leftists focus on it as somehow an evil, given how collective ownership always–ALWAYS turns out in the end. Of course, “progressive” leftists aren’t real big on learning from experience or history. Forward!

Costa Cruise Ship Hits Pier; Leaves 24-Foot Gash in Side [*10] — So, ask me why I don’t intend to cruise on Costa any time soon.

Too Much TV: Joel Nielsen [*11] — An interview of Kent State athletic director Joel Nielsen by the irreplacable Terry Vandrovec.

Tyler Summitt takes the family legacy to Marquette [*12] — Son of Pat begins his basketball coaching career.

My Favorite Stories Of 2012 [*13] — From the wildly potty-mouthed but still amusing writer Chuck Wendig.

Noah’s Biblical Flood Actually Happened, Says Famed Archeologist Who Found the Titanic [*14] — Um, yeah. Not sure why I clicked on this one. Although the picture in the article of penguins outside the Noah’s Ark replica is pretty darn funny.

Union Members Covering Selves in Glory Again [*15] — Normally, taking a swing at a comedian while protesting against some government silliness would be news. But if the comedian is also a conservative, well, er, not so much, I guess.

“Better Off On Benefits” [*16] — Here’s the end result of the “progressive” leftist urge to give somebody stuff that belongs to other people. You make the recipients of that giving dependent and unable to support themselves. If you’re goal is power, that’s a good thing, but if you’re actually trying to make people’s lives better, it’s a disaster.

Accuse the Accusers: @scrowder Gets the Left’s ‘Plate Glass Window’ Treatment [*17] — How dare that conservative comedian put his face where my fist could hit it?!? Burn the conservative witch!

Things We Hate About Air Travel [*18] — Just about everything other than the “getting half-way across the country in a couple of hours” thing.

Just to be very clear

I do care somewhat however about what the 2012 election says about the future of the United States, and of the world. And in my humble opinion, what is says is nothing good for either my country or the world.

2012 U.S. Election Analysis In Brief

Same as it ever was.

To my dear, beloved Democrat-voting fellow citizens:

You broke it. You fix it. Everything that’s wrong with this country is either your fault, or you’ve made it worse because of your well-intentioned but naive policies (and I’m offering you the most charitable interpretation possible here). Good luck in the next four years, because you’re gonna need it.

You can’t blame Bush any more. This mess belongs 100% to Obama now–and to the Democratic Party. And since none of you high-minded Democrats know why it’s going wrong in the first place, you won’t be able to fix it. And since your idea of constructive engagement with Republicans and free-enterprisers is to loudly shout “SHUT UP!!!” whenever we have the temerity to say “uh, excuse me, have you really thought through what you’re gonna do?” you have made yourself totally immune to anything but your comfortable, disastrous groupthink.

My prediction for the next four years: It ain’t gonna get a lot better.

It is a comfort to me that I am not always right. Perhaps you know-it-all Democrats could try some humility some time. But I fear that humility is an emotion you have no further use for, in your march to the grand collective “progressive” future.

Done with politics. For a while anyway. It’s all on you now, Democrats. For the love of Gaia, don’t screw up too badly.

Obama and the Constitution

Obama: “Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

The Constitution of the United States, Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

And this guy is supposed to be a “Constitutional scholar?”

The United States, as a nation, respects no faith whatsoever. That is what “religious tolerance” means: you tolerate religions other than your own. You don’t have to “respect” them.

September 11 in recent history

2001: Islamist extremists slaughter nearly 3,000 Americans.

2012: Islamist extremists attack the American embassy in Egypt[*1] and the American consulate in Libya[*2] .

Ah, the “Arab Spring.” It’s a good thing–right?

MNow, I’m a guy . . .

. . . and so, have no right to an opinion on the matter (right, Democrats?) but it seems to me that this ad here is absolutely devestating to the “war-on-women” “narrative” being pushed by . . . well . . . you know.

“Government is the only thing we all belong to.”

This is why the Democratic Party of the United States needs to be destroyed, and the ground it stands on sown with salt.

The only person I can be said to belong to is my wife.

The government belongs to me–and to all of us. This is very, very different from saying that we “belong” to the government.

The concept that the government was subordinate to the people was a revolutionary concept–in fact, back in the day, they called the intellectual revolution surrounding that thought “The Enlightenment.” This was in opposition to the older view, the view reflected in the concept of the “divine right of kings” and the like.

That older, less Enlightened age is the one that the Democratic Party of the United States wants to take us back to. For our own good, of course.

UPDATE: Just like “you didn’t build that” and “what Republicans are saying is harmful to Israel” this has now become yet another of those (many) things that the Democrats never said, despite what your lying ears may tell you by actually listening to their plain words.

In this context, the difficulty the Democrats have in reading the Constitution becomes more understandable.