Archive for December, 2010

Brett Noel

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Dan Calabrese

I just got finished dealing with yet another person who tried to defend himself against charges of slackerism because he can’t find work. He said: “You’re not a slacker if there’s no work to be found.”

Oh yes you are.

You think you're going to find opportunity here?

This guy’s thinking is emblematic of a notion our culture has drilled into people’s heads. You hear it from politicians, journalists, social worker types, celebrities . . . it is the notion that a crucial responsibility of society is to “create jobs,” so that you can have one. If you’re putting in applications all over the place and no one has hired you, so goes the thinking, that must mean there is no work to be found.

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Herman Cain

Don’t forget what President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress did in 2010 – and tell everybody who will listen! And if they do not get outraged, then they are sleeping under a rock and they can’t get out.

Pure politicians have for years depended on voters to forget their misdeeds leading up to the next election. But things are different! Voters are not as stupid and uninformed as they used to be. People are more informed and aware of the arrogance of the current administration and Congress than ever before.

Their brains are only this big, so they can't remember what we did to them.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said they needed to pass the health care deform bill first, so they can then tell us what’s in the bill. They passed it and we now know what’s in the bill: An assault on our liberties, increased taxes through fines and an unprecedented expansion of government bureaucracy in our lives. Don’t forget!

The president’s insistence on passing the Health Care deform bill against the will of the majority of the American people was a historic presidential slap in the face of the people. Poll after poll had confirmed that the people did not like this government takeover of our health care system, but the president and the Democrat-controlled Congress did it anyway. Don’t forget!

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Dan Calabrese

It’s hard to imagine they will actually do it, as they surely understand what the long-term consequences would be, but whiny Democrats like Carl Levin (Michigan apologizes, America) are already talking about getting rid of the filibuster now that they no longer have the 60 Senate seats that empowered them in 2009 to do anything they freaking wanted.

And if they actually did it, it would rock. But not in the way they think.

Save America, Carl.

Before the election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown, who occasionally votes like a Republican, it was party on Wayne, party on Garth, all the time for Democrats. They socialized American health care, spent America to the brink of bankruptcy and regulated the hell out of everything from Wall Street to school lunches.

Good times, good times.

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Dan Calabrese

Reading news about economics as reported by the Associated Press is not entirely useless. It is nearly so, and there is certainly no information in the AP’s “reports” that is actually useful to anyone. But reading the slipshod work of AP economics writers at least gives us a little insight as to why the Beltway crowd (and I include the legacy media in this) rally around such bad economic policy most of the time.

Not a clue.

It’s because they don’t understand basic principles of economics and business. The reason they don’t understand them is that they are too busy clinging to notions that are tangentially related to economics, but are really about politics. First among these is the notion that any policy designed to create a more positive environment for business should result in the creation of jobs. If that doesn’t happen, the AP and politicians think, the policy didn’t work.

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Brett Noel

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Dan Calabrese

It turns out Nina Totenberg was actually tweaking the anti-Christmas crowd with her “pardon the expression” comment about attending a Christmas party at the Pentagon. Even NPR Nina thinks this has all gotten pretty silly, and has no interest in enlisting to fight the War on Christmas.

That’s OK. If she won’t, I will. I think we would all be better off if Christmas never happened again. I’m serious.

When did he ask for a birthday party?

First, my credentials. I am not some card-carrying ACLU member. I’m an evangelical Christian who could probably be categorized as Pentecostal as much as anything. I’ve taught adult Bible fellowship classes in one form or another for nearly 20 years. I believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, was born of a virgin, died to pay the price for our sins and will come again when we least expect it. I believe he is the only way anyone can come to the Father and receive eternal life.

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Bob Maistros

New item:  Ignoring the controversy about passing major legislation such as tax-cut and unemployment-insurance extensions, billions of dollars of new stimulus, the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law barring gays from serving openly in the military and a far-reaching strategic arms treaty during a lame duck session that followed a complete repudiation by voters, President Obama calls the last few weeks “the most productive post-election period we’ve had in decades.”

(Sung to the tune of “I Get a Kick Out of You,” with apologies to Cole Porter)

How do you spell, "In your face?"

I get no kick from campaigns
The voters’ call doesn’t move me at all
If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should get stuck
Then I’ll get a kick from lame ducks.

Some get a kick from vote gains
I’m sure that if my agenda should slip
We’d have no quid pro quo from tax cuts.
So I get a kick from lame ducks.

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Dan Calabrese

Via the Economic Collapse Blog, with a hat tip to Facebook friend Greg Halvorson, here is one take on the 20 most idiotic things the government funds.

It’s hard to say which is the most outlandish. Paying researchers to play video games is a good one, and the overnight “haycations” at some guy’s farm? Classic.

No salamander left behind.

I suppose the Department of Veterans Affairs spending $175 million to maintain buildings it doesn’t use has to be the winner just because the amount is so much more than any of the others. But the point here is not so much the amounts. Is it OK that Washington paid for a library in Tennessee to host video game parties, just because the tab was only $5,000?

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Bob Maistros

Yesterday, I explored the comment of a Facebook friend and former colleague that I am a “Neanderthal” based on my opposition to repealing bans on gays serving openly in the military.

Seems I'm their modern-day heir.

Today, I was reminded that I am also that “B” word:  a “bigot.”

Actually, this time around I wasn’t the direct target – rather, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen trained his fire on Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos.  You see, Amos – the only member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the spine to stand up to the O-ministration and oppose the rollback of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – has not learned the lesson that “most of the rest” of society has:  “that gays and lesbians were not drooling perverts but human beings with a different – not better and not worse – sexuality.”

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