"General, that's a hell of an act"*

Actor Peter Falk, known to most people as Columbo, died today.  While Columbo was great, I remember him best as CIA agent Vince in the movie The In Laws.


"Serpentine, Shel, Serpentine!"




*This is what Vince says to General Garcia upon seeing the general's "Señor Pepe" act:

Now I'm reassured about Social Security

Jack Coffee, professor of law and securities law expert at Columbia University, quoted in a story in USA Today:  "Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme because it wasn't an intentional fraud."

"A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going." -- Wikipedia

"Good intentions" seems to be a common excuse for disastrous Liberal Democrat policies.

Everything Great About YouTube

Note: NSFW (language)

Milton Friedman on Greed

Economist Milton Friedman, in a 1979 interview with Phil Donahue: "There is no alternative way, yet discovered, for improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system." Donahue does his best to argue against capitalism, and extol the virtues of socialism -- and Friedman absolutely crushes him.

Pledges of Allegiance Across America

Obama vs Obama

The results of Barack Obama's actions are the worst enemy of Barack Obama's words. In the latest incarnation, last week Obama cited a Columbus, Ohio restaurant near an auto plant as a beneficiary of the auto bailout.  The restaurant, New Chet's, will close its doors for good on Sunday.   Here's the story.

As if that weren't good enough, the story cites a voter-imposed smoking ban imposed in 2006 as a major reason for the 31-year-old restaurant's decline in business. 

Remember this:
February 11, 2009: Barack Obama, trying to win support for the Democrat trillion dollar stimulus legislation, claims that heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar will rehire thousands of workers it laid off.
February 12, 2009: Caterpillar CEO Owens, asked if the stimulus would cause them to rehire workers, said, "Realistically, no. The truth is we're going to have more layoffs before we start rehiring again."

or this:
February 9, 2009: Obama, once again stumping for his stimulus plan, touts thousands of "shovel ready" jobs that will benefit from the legislation.
October 13, 2010:  In a magazine interview, Obama admits that "there's no such thing as a shovel ready project."

Obama's caught-with-his-hand-in-the-cookie-jar moments would be funny if the consequences weren't so serious.

One of my greatest fears...

...is that I'll wake up some morning and think I'm Ringo Starr.

Obama in trouble in '12?

The UK Telegraph published an article by foreign affairs analyst and political commentator Nile Gardiner with the title "Why Barack Obama may be heading for electoral disaster in 2012."  Gardiner reflects on the problems caused by Obama's policies, and how in our current economy -- growth sluggish, if not non-existent; house prices down 33% since 2006; the stock market just took a huge tumble; people feel terrible about the economy and about Obama's performance -- the "hope and change" promises of Obama now taste bitter.


The biggest electoral problem for Obama, however, is the political makeup of Americans.  A Gallup poll showed that most Americans are Conservative. As Gardiner puts it:   "America is unquestionably a conservative country ideologically, but one that is ironically led by the most left-wing president in the nation’s history."

Indeed

"The unemployment rate in 2009 was 7.8% it is now 9.0%. The [national] debt was $10.7 trillion, it's now $14.3 trillion. Gas was $1.80 a gallon, it's now $3.80. Why should the American people continue a Democrat in the White House with that kind of record?"
Good question.

Term Limits redefined

A commenter to a recent column by John Ransom made a pithy observation:  "Politicians should be limited to two terms -- the first in office, the second in prison."

Interesting O-care waiver facts

The most recent count on "waivers" from Obamacare is 1,372.  That is, 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers have been exempted by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius from the requirements mandated by Obamacare for at least one year.

These 1,372 entities cover 3,095,593 individuals.  More than half of those individuals are in plans issued by labor unions, the Democrat party’s biggest political ally.   Union members make up just 12 percent of all employees but have received 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers. 

Recently, Obama’s HHS Secretary granted 38 waivers to higher-end restaurants, nightclubs, spas and hotels in former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco congressional district. 

Apparently, in Obama’s administration how much you suffer under the federal government’s mandates depends on who you know.

"Michelle, let's not come to the UK again any time soon!"

First there was Obama's "Stuck in the Middle with You" moment in Ireland.
Then there was Obama's "That was the best year of my life" snafu at Westminster Abbey.

And the UK police (Scotland Yard) gave Obama the code name "Smart Aleck." *


Finally, Barack "At last we have a President with great speaking skills" Obama bungled his toast to the Queen of England. 

So way to go, Obama!  Way to represent!

*Turns out the code name was for the entire visit, not specifically Obama. Still appropriate.

Doctor My Eyes

Haven't thought of this song in years, but this morning I woke up with it in my head.  A classic.

Now that's ironic, or symbolic, or something

Obama's huge armored limousine, nicknamed "the Beast," got stuck on a ramp in Ireland.
This could, of course, with a bit of imagination, serve as an analogy for what he's done to the American economy.  He's weighted it down with so much junk that it can't get going.

Hope for the future?

Headline from the Daily Caller:  "Recent college grads sour on Obama, surveys say."

"A very large proportion of recent university graduates have soured on President Barack Obama, and many will vote GOP or stay at home in the 2012 election, according to two new surveys of younger voters...83 percent voted for Obama in 2008. But only 27 percent are committed to voting for Obama again, and 80 percent said they would consider voting for a Republican..."

Of all things for me to say, this has to be the one of the oddest: the Daily Kos was right about Obama way back in 2008.  "Obama is an empty suit into which people pour their dreams." Now that his supporters have had a chance to see the empty suit in action, many of them realize they chose a poor vessel for their dreams.

America the Dictatorship

John Ransom wrote a column recently, one in which he brings up an enormously important point.


     "On issue after issue, Americans are fed up with the fact that they feel they can’t trust Washington. It doesn’t matter what new laws they pass; they either pass the wrong ones or won’t enforce the ones they do pass.
     I always use illegal immigration and the tax code as twin examples of what’s wrong. These two areas of the law present the gravest threat to our liberty. And here’s why:
     The easiest way to create a dictatorship is to pass laws that you don’t enforce. That way, everyone becomes a criminal and the government gets to decide who get prosecuted and who gets to skate. We are at a point in our history where the government will not enforce immigration laws and has made the tax code so complex that it’s impossible to follow.
     We’ve created a permanent under-class of criminals in this country, completely at the leave of the federal government."


An example of the selective enforcement of laws is Tim Geithner, Obama's Secretary of the Treasury. During his nomination hearings, we learned that Geithner had neglected to pay income taxes for several years. It was only after he learned that he had been nominated to the Treasury job that he paid the past-due taxes.  The IRS charged him interest, but no penalties -- a most unusual decision.  As Secretary of the Treasury, he heads the Treasury Department, one part of which is the IRS.  


Thus begins dictatorship.

Other People Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XXX (Special Edition)

Recent headline: "Taliban Break at least 480 Out of Afghan Prison."


Best comment regarding that story: "I'm amazed the screws at the Kandahar prison didn't recognize something was afoot when inmate Akbar Dufresne asked for that Rita Hayworth poster."

Like the light bill, groceries, clothes...

In his speech about the budget today, Barack Obama said that we couldn't "afford" tax breaks (for the wealthy, of course -- to him, they get all the tax "breaks.")


A tax "break," a tax "cut" -- whatever you want to call it -- means that people get to keep more of their own money.  To most of us, that translates to "take-home pay."  So his point of view is that letting Americans keep more of their own money is an expense.  To him, to Democrats, to the government.  


Your paycheck is a bill the government has to pay, a bill Obama thinks the government can't afford..

A guy's movie - in the form of a BMW commercial

Tony Scott's Beat the Devil, a 2002 commercial for German carmaker BMW.

How slavery really ended in America

A fantastic New York Times article -- yes, I said it -- adapted from Adam Goodheart's book 1861: The Civil War Awakening.  The article details how a northern military commander, Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, forced Abraham Lincoln to actually confront the issue of slavery and compelled the Emancipation Proclamation.


The article is timely in that it shows how decisions made by small, relatively (and previously) unknown citizens, clerks and bureaucrats can determine the fate of the larger world.  A clerical error and an East German commander who couldn't get anyone on the phone brought down the Berlin Wall.  A Tunisian fruit vendor who refused to pay a bribe sets off the revolution currently rocking the Arab world. And a fort's commander who couldn't get a straight answer from politicians -- sound familiar? -- formed the philosophy and established the practice that freed slaves in America.