Society/Culture

2nd Amendment - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Guns - Liberals - Media - Newspapers - Rights - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama The Pro-Gun President?

February 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is President Obama a surprising gun rights supporter? He might be if the Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman is correct. And Chapman isn’t the only one. It seems to be shaping up to be the lefty complaint du jour this week. Reality, however, might say something different.

Chapman makes a classic mistake that many people make when discussing matters political. He mistakes Washington’s inaction on an issue as some sort of statement on the ideology on that issue. While there are times when this is true, inaction is not necessarily a statement of support or opposition to an issue, but often just a matter of merely not having gotten to it yet or even not being able to.

In this case Chapman is talking about guns. Is Obama for them, against them, indifferent to them? Chapman has a sneaking suspicion that President Obama is for our rights and only supports modest gun control measures. This is because the president hasn’t launched into all sorts of left-wing attempts to curtail our Second Amendment rights in his one year in office. But I think Chapman is reading too much into Obama’s inaction.
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Obama The Pro-Gun President?”

Book Reviews - Books - Education - France - History - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Intellectuals What Ain’t

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no better example of how low intellectuals have fallen than the case of Bernard-Henri Lévy, intellectual, provocateur, member of the well-regarded French nouveaux philosophes and, it seems, all around gullible fool.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, better known to those in the know as BHL, has become a laughing stock of modern inteleckshoouls everywhere with the publication of his much anticipated book on philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Oh, there’s sharp criticism in Lévy’s new Kantallope, there’s bomb thrown name calling, and nose-up-turning galore. Kant, according to Lévy, is a “raving lunatic” and a “fake.” And to prove his case Lévy uses the anti-Kanti words of the famous 20th-century philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul — known as the father of the philosophical school of Botulism.

Yeah. Big problem for BHL, though. Jean-Baptiste Botul is a fictional character made up as a joke in 1999 by a journalist. I mean, come on, if you didn’t see the joke in “the school of Botulism” what sort of bat do you need upside your head to see the truth?
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The Intellectuals What Ain’t”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Nancy Pelosi - President - Republicans - Society/Culture - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Some Letters Beating Me Up Over My Tea Party Articles

February 9, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well I’ve now written six — this makes seven — articles criticizing certain failures of the Tea Party movement thus far. They are all meant to be constructive criticisms, though, not dismissive nor derogatory of them. It’s measured introspection I employ in each of these articles. No name calling, no laughing, no hate. There is just no logical way to construe what I’ve written thus far as hate against the Tea Party movement. But this whole Tea Party thing reveals several things to me. First of all it shows that there is still a lot of passion for them and that is a very good thing. I want the Tea Party groups to succeed and I want them to become a force that can teach the GOP a lesson. The other main thing it shows me is that too many people can’t read for comprehension these days.

The sad thing is that these days even the slightest criticism of a thing is seen by too many as outright hostility. Everyone is so hypersensitive that even a mild criticism meant as an exercise in introspection is seen as an over-the-top attack. It doesn’t just happen on the right, either. Look at what happened to all those Hillary Clinton supporters during the run up to the 2008 presidential elections. The constructive criticism that Hillary fans offered the Democrats was pounded down so hard by the left that many Hillary supporters found themselves aligned — and some permanently — with the side they thought they opposed; the Republicans.

Naturally there’s the name callers and nay sayers always floating around out there. I had one guy, for instance, say, “who asked you for your opinion” of the Tea Parties? This same guy then went on to give me HIS opinion of them evoking the obvious rejoinder of just who the hell asked him for his opinion, anyway? Obviously he wasn’t bright enough to “get” that concept!
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Some Letters Beating Me Up Over My Tea Party Articles”

Books - Children - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Culture in the Rye

February 8, 2010 by

-By Selwyn Duke

Many years ago, I was told a story by a woman I knew whose son had been diagnosed with “A.D.D.” She said that she finally had to take from her boy a book a therapist had given him about how an A.D.D. child acts. The problem? Her son was reading it and then imitating the behavior of the child in it!

Then I remember when someone I know well told me about her 13-year-old’s reaction to being confronted about his misbehavior. He said something to the effect of, “Well, mom, you know, I’m at that age.” But how did he know he was at “that age”?

There is also all the anxiety adolescents are supposed to feel over the “changes in their body,” and we’re told about how tough it is to be a teenager. I don’t know, but I remember my teen years well, and I experienced no such thing. I knew I was moving toward manhood and was happy about it. And whenever the topic might have arisen, it was apparent that my friends were happy about it, too. Why wouldn’t we have been? If you think it’s tough becoming bigger, stronger, faster and better each and every day, try the other side of that hill, when you have to trade in the rollerblades for a Rascal scooter.
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Culture in the Rye”

Children - Education - Entertainment - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree

February 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, Christopher Hitchens has finally written something with which I can whole heartedly sign on. In his latest Newsweek piece Hitchens decries the sham that is sports — especially international soccer tournies. He slams the supposed benefits of sports and rightly pinpoints the singular truth that sports brings out the worst in everyone.

Hitchens eviscerates the lie that sports “brings people together,” lays low the lie that sports is good in schools, and obliterates the idiotic babble that sports are in any way filled with good role models — or that they even could present good role models.

I loved this delicious paragraph, delivered after delineating the “shock” that one sports dolt had when another dissed him:
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Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - John Armor - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

Obama: ‘I am not an ideologue’

February 6, 2010 by

-By John Armor

Last week, I wrote about 11 factually false statements in President Obama’s State of the Union address. Normally, one should not repeat the same subject next week. But, did you see the appearance of Obama before the Republicans meeting in Baltimore? I know that a few hundred of you are political junkies like me, and you saw that live.

I’m going to ask you a question. Don’t think. Don’t pause. Answer with the first thing that comes to mind. What occurred to you, when you heard Obama say, “I am not an ideologue.”?

I thought of Richard Nixon, toe to toe with Dan Rather (back when Rather was actually a reporter), Nixon answering, “I am not a crook.” Did you think the same thing? If so, here’s why.

When people have their backs to the wall, they will tell an obvious lie, perhaps just to fool themselves. Is Obama an ideologue? Here’s some of the evidence.

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Obama: ‘I am not an ideologue’”

Chicago - Congress - Conservatives - Cook County - Cook County Board - Economy/Finances - Elections - Freedom - GOP - Illinois - Republicans - Senate - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Shows Limitations of Tea Party Movement

February 3, 2010 by 14 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Tea Party folks keep getting mad at me for saying that in the end they might prove ineffective in races at levels higher than local because they aren’t organized enough. They puff up their chests proudly proclaiming that they intend to resist being organized and they claim that being organized is precisely what they are fighting against. I understand the feeling, even sympathize quite a lot, but there is a problem with this obstinacy. It means they won’t win on a statewide ballot very often. The Illinois primary just proved me correct, too.

Let’s take the race for Senate in Illinois as exhibit “A.” Of course the good old boys in the state party went with Mark Kirk, the center left candidate from a northern suburb of Chicago. He was the he-can-win candidate and the establishment choice. Not one Tea Party group, though, wants Kirk and for good reason — and I heartily concur with them, as it happens. So who was the “Tea Party candidate,” the one meant to beat out Kirk, the one backed by the newly found power of the Tea Party movement? There wasn’t one. There was three.

Sadly, the Tea Partiers in Illinois split their vote all up. Some Tea Party Groups went with Don Lowery and some went with Patrick Hughes. A few even went with John Arrington. Hughes, of course, was the only one that had even a remote chance as far as voter polls were concerned. Hughes at least registered in the polls, Lowery and Arrington barely showed up at all.
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Illinois Shows Limitations of Tea Party Movement”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Freedom - Germany - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Tennessee - The Law - Thomas Brewton - Western Civilization

Not Just In Germany

February 2, 2010 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

In Germany and California the secular, socialist political state is attempting to crush parents who teach Judeo-Christian moral principles to their children.

Shades of Bismarck’s kulturkampf and Hitler’s pogrom to impose Aryan purity.

Germany has criminalized home schooling, demanding that parents place their children in state schools, where they will be suitably indoctrinated in the religion of socialism.
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Not Just In Germany”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Rights - SEIU - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise

January 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Sherk has a very good post over at the Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog about how unions have hurt us all by fighting for tax increases.

Unions almost never go on strike anymore. Instead, they fight to get more for their members by lobbying for tax increases. Unions spent tens of millions of dollars last year campaigning for higher taxes across the country: Illinois. California. Minnesota. Washington State. Arizona. In many cases they have succeeded.

Nearly every day now we are visited with more proof of how public employees unions are a danger to this country and Sherk has shown us yet another example.

Sherk reports that in Oregon the public employees unions spent $700 million dollars to increase taxes on the people of Oregon. The unions wanted higher taxes to protect their undeservedly high salaries and rich benefits while the regular folks of the Beaver State lost jobs, had their pay cut, and were generally finding hard times — like the rest of normal, non-government worker America.

Not only are unions working against the best interests of the voters, but they are also working to allow out-of-control spending and irresponsibility in government to grow.

Unions are not only antithetical to good government, they are dangerous to our individual prosperity.
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Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise”

Computers - Crime - Democracy - Elections - Freedom - Government - Inernet - Journalism - Media Bias - Radio - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Technology - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Warning on Electronic Voting

January 31, 2010 by

(Publius Editor’s note: This is a fairly old report on the troubles with electronic voting so some of the links are no longer valid, but the work was pretty comprehensive so I thought some of it might be of interest to those worried about electronic voting. I had this sent to me by a reader and I told him I’d post it but I have been waiting to post this until we were close to the primary. Since it is only a few days away now, so here it is…)

Pandora’s Black Box, Did it Really Count Your Vote?
Relevance – November 1996 – Vol. III- No. V

Editor: Philip M. O’Halloran

[Editor’s Note: When we began researching the integrity of the election process, we wanted to believe that the talk of “votescam” was just overblown hype. However, we have since discovered that the computer voting system in this country is a veritable can of worms, so open to tampering that if there is no organized election fraud going on, the criminals are falling down on the job.]

ELECTRONIC VOTING ON TRIAL

On November 5, 1996, millions of Americans voted by secret ballot for thousands of elected officials from the Presidency to the local dog catcher. What few realized is that a key aspect of the vote-counting was also done in secret. What’s more, they have been legally denied the right to find out precisely how their vote is counted.

How can this be? After all, everybody knows that each aspect of the vote-count is officially conducted by “the government under the microscopic scrutiny of thousands of party officials, anxious candidates, poll workers, curious voters and the media, right?
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A Warning on Electronic Voting”

Afghanistan - Children - Family - Gays - History - Islam - Morals/Sex - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Another Example of Backwards Islamic ‘Culture’

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

U.S. troops in Afghanistan are having a hard time understanding what is a strange Afghan cultural practice to them. The practice can be summed up in the ages old Afghan phrase, “women are for children, boys are for pleasure.”

Yes, that phrase means what you think it means. It has been well known for a long time that some parts of Afghanistan have an odd sexual practice ensconced in its culture. Men have sex for pleasure with boys often eschewing women. Sometimes these men even claim to be disgusted by the idea of sex for pleasure with a woman. Yet none of these Afghani men think of themselves as homosexual because they don’t “love” their male sex partners. They just love the sex.
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Another Example of Backwards Islamic ‘Culture’”

Ann "Babe" Huggett - Britain - Business - Society/Culture

Supermarket bans PJs and bare feet

January 29, 2010 by

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

On the Culture Wars front, the British supermarket chain, Tescos, struck a blow for sartorial dignity in its St. Mellons in Cardiff, Wales branch by posting a “Customer Dress Code Policy” banning shoppers coming in clad in pajamas, barefoot and/or both.

Signs saying, “To avoid causing offense or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted).” have been placed at the entrance to the store in what Americans will recognize as a variation on our “No Shoes, no shirt, no service.” domestic stores policy although here in open-carry Arizona, “No weapons allowed” signs give a regional variation that must make the Nervous Nellie crowd feel better.

Back at the St. Mellons Tescos, outraged customer, Elaine Carmody, was actually turned away when she tried to buy cigarettes because of her sloppy and routine PJ bottoms and slippers wear.
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Supermarket bans PJs and bare feet”

Democracy - Education - Europe - France - Freedom - Germany - Journalism - Media Bias - The Law - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Homeschooling German Family Awarded Political Asylum in U.S., Where is U.S. Media?

January 28, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A federal immigration judge in Tennessee has awarded political asylum to a German couple who were threatened by the German government with having their children forcibly removed from their home because the couple chose homeschooling instead of sending them to state approved schools.

Uwe Romeike may now stay as a legal resident in Morrisstown, Tennessee, where the family moved in 2008 after being threatened by German authorities.

The Associated Press was one of the few Old Media outlets covering this story. Of the Romeike’s plight, the AP reported:

The Romeikes took their three oldest children out of school in Bietigheim-Bissingen in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2006. Romeike said the couple was fined the equivalent of about $10,000 over a two-year period.

Mr. Romeike told reporters that, “I think it’s important for parents to have the freedom to chose the way their children can be taught.” (yes, the AP spelled it “chose”)
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Homeschooling German Family Awarded Political Asylum in U.S., Where is U.S. Media?”

Chicago - Cook County - Elections - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Republicans - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Republican Dirk Beveridge Soars to the Top of the List

January 25, 2010 by

From the Dirk Beveridge for Congress campaign…

The 8th Congressional Candidate Scores a New Endorsement

(Barrington, Ill.) January 25, 2010…This weekend, 8th Congressional District Republican candidate Dirk Beveridge further differentiated himself as the leader. On Sunday, Dirk Beveridge earned the endorsement of the Daily Herald and significantly over-achieved the Republican field in fundraising as revealed in federal Election Commission financial reporting.
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Republican Dirk Beveridge Soars to the Top of the List”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Founders - Frank Salvato - Freedom - Government - Liberals - President - Republicans - Rights - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Western Civilization

The Time Is Ripe for Divide & Conquer

January 25, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the Obama Administration is doing everything they can to place the blame for Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senatorial Special Election on Martha Coakley. It is their modus operandi. When someone or some organization becomes a political liability, the Obama team throws it under the bus. They did it to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. They did it to Bill Ayers. They did it to ACORN. And now they are doing it to Martha Coakley. No, we shouldn’t be surprised. In Chicago Democrat politics, political liabilities are “dealt with,” and Barack Obama is a Chicago Machine Progressive-Democrat.

Martha Coakley wasn’t always a “liability,” though. In her defense it should be pointed out that as recently as 2006, Coakley won election as the Massachusetts Attorney’s General by a decisive margin, garnering 73% of the vote. By any standard, a statewide election victory tallying 73% of the vote is impressive. Coming off that kind of power victory, we can discern that Coakley knows how to execute a political campaign. Further, with such a lopsided victory achieved, it would have been logical that she would have been a strong candidate, against all comers, to safely retain the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat…if left to her own devices.
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The Time Is Ripe for Divide & Conquer”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Is This The President’s Fake Letter to the Editor

January 24, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper happened upon a curious letter to the editor in support of President Obama that seems to have suddenly popped up in nearly 40 newspapers across the country all at once. Every letter claims to be written by an “Ellie Light” and all claim to be from a resident local to the newspaper’s audience — different hometowns used in each case. All are identical whether they’ve been printed in the Washington Times or the Los Banos Enterprise, a small newspaper in California.

The letter jumps to the support of President Obama saying in part that President Obama never promised that “our problems would wash off in the morning.”

But today, the president is being attacked as if he were a salesman who promised us that our problems would wash off in the morning. He never made such a promise. It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything.

The odd thing is that this letter has appeared all on the same day, all across the country, and all claiming to be from a local letter writer interested in drumming up sympathy for President Obama. The whole thing stinks of an astroturf effort — an effort to carpet the news with a fake grass-roots styled letter.

Who had the power to get this letter placed in so many papers all on the same day? Who had the reach to do this? It certainly smacks of a coordinated effort either by the President’s staff or the national party.
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Is This The President’s Fake Letter to the Editor”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Greenhut has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public unions employees that “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Illinois - Illinois Alliance For Growth - Illinois Policy Institute - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dueling Illinois Policy Groups: IAFG Smacks Around the IPI

January 22, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Illinois Policy Institute recently released its recommendations for how Illinois could fix its pension mess. Titled the Pension Funding and Fairness Act, the IPI assures the state that this is the answer to its pension problems. Despite that assurance, another Illinois policy group begs to differ. In an Illinois policy group head-to-head smack-down the Illinois Alliance for Growth* has published a critique of the IPI proposal resulting.

One of the proposals in the IPI plan is for Illinois to borrow $20 billion to tide the pensions over while the state legislature makes the needed adjustments to the pension laws. IPI Director Jim Tillman is saying that his plan is a case of “responsible borrowing” a claim that the IAFG finds risible.
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Dueling Illinois Policy Groups: IAFG Smacks Around the IPI”

Ann "Babe" Huggett - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Free Trade - House of Representatives - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes

A Sneak Peek At Barry Obama’s Year End Grade School Report Card

January 22, 2010 by

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

Punahou School Report Card – 1979
Name: Barry Obama

Performance

Effort
Reading: Daydreams in class and affects strange cadence when reading out loud.

D

D-
English: Absolutely hopeless as a writer and needs constant help in stringing together even the most basic of sentences. Failed the Public Speaking section for being too dependent on notes, refusing to make eye contact or to engage the audience in a genuine and meaningful way.

D-

F
Mathematics: Good on basic concepts but hopelessly uninterested in applying that information to real world economics or budgetary principles.

C-

D-
Geography: Interested in anywhere but the United States of America.

C-

D
History: Has regrettable tendency to rewrite American and English history to reflect personal bias but shows remarkable grasp of the French and Russian Revolutions.

D

D-
Civics: Shows little interest in US Constitution or understanding of the 3 branches of government.

F

F
Sports: Excels at basketball and is very aggressive on the court.

A

A
Social Skills: Although outwardly friendly, is secretive, oddly manipulative and does not let people know the ìrealî Barry Obama. Has a tendency to run from problems. Expects other people to clean up after him.

D-

D-
Secondary Language: Excels in Indonesian.

A

A
Elective Language: Excels in Arabic

A

A
Grade Average

D

D

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A Sneak Peek At Barry Obama’s Year End Grade School Report Card”

Anti-Americanism - Anti-Semitism - Communism - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Europe - George W. Bush - Illinois - Liberals - Patriotism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Terrorism - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Left-Wing Prof Uses State Funded University To Launch Attack on U.S.

January 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every once in a while I like to blow off some steam and deliver a good rant. So get ready for my rant du jour…

It’s like a bad parody of the worst propensity of the American professoriate to be, well, as un-American as one can get. But here we have another prosaic example of yet another half-wit, left-wing professor — this one a prof of “international law” — using his perch in a state sponsored school, with his taxpayer’s supported (and obviously undeserved) salary to help foreigners launch an attack on his own county… if this particular pinko even bothers to claim he IS a U.S. citizen, that is. With these university pinheads it isn’t a safe bet to assume that they even consider themselves Americans.

Anyway, this particular pointy-headed geek is named Francis A. Boyle (no not boil, that is only what he is, not what he’s named) and he is a professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Mr. Boil… uh, I mean Boyle… has filed with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, The Netherlands, a “complaint” against George W. Bush and his whole administration. What is this little complaint whining about? Two guesses and the first one doesn’t count.

Yeah, you guessed correctly. This commie prof is trying to get Bush, et al, brought up on faux war crimes charges. Get a load of this child’s ranting.
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Left-Wing Prof Uses State Funded University To Launch Attack on U.S.”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Frederick Meekins - Free Trade - Freedom - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Security/Safety - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

Environmentalism Not About the Earth But About Control, Part 1

January 21, 2010 by

-By Frederick Meekins

For decades, American motorists have been subjected to propaganda insisting that they either need to drive less or give up safe, comfortable automobiles in favor of what amount to motorized coffins in order to preserve natural resources and environmental quality. Now that this policy goal is pretty much on the road to being implemented, the elites running our lives are not content to sit back in the glow of their accomplishment but are rather laying the groundwork for the next phase in their grand dream of limiting the free movement of the American people.

One would think the increasing popularity of electric and hybrid automobiles would please transportation planners and social engineers. However, as most realize somewhere along life’s journey, getting what you want is not always what you expected.

For while hybrid cars might cut back on emissions and fuel consumption, they also take a bite out of gas tax revenues. But instead of tightening their belts and learning to make due with less as they counsel you when you complain about rising fuel costs, government planners are now conniving to pass the hardship on to you by altering the way transportation taxes are assessed.
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Environmentalism Not About the Earth But About Control, Part 1″

Chicago - Cook County - Elections - GOP - Illinois - Republicans - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Jim Dodge for Comptroller: Topinka’s ‘Business as Usual’ Won’t Cut It‏

January 20, 2010 by

From the Jim Dodge for Comptroller campaign…

Voters No Longer Putting Up With Business as Usual and that includes Topinka

Jim Dodge, Republican Candidate for Illinois Comptroller issued a statement today saying Senator-elect Brown’s Massachusetts victory along with the wins in New Jersey and Virginia explicitly show that voters no longer want “political insiders” or individuals who will conduct business as usual. And that includes Illinois voters who will be going to the polls for the February 2 primary. Dodge directly mentioned voter reaction to his opponent, three-time Treasurer and failed gubernatorial candidate, Judy Baar Topinka.
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Jim Dodge for Comptroller: Topinka’s ‘Business as Usual’ Won’t Cut It‏”

Anti-Americanism - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Journalism - Liberals - Massachusetts - Media Bias - Republicans - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

NBC’s Viera Scolding Scott Brown on Today Show

January 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Meridith Viera seemed a bit annoyed that she was interviewing the newly elected Republican Scott Brown instead of Democrat Martha Coakley now that Massachusetts voters made their choice in the Tuesday special election for the open Senate seat there.

Viera did her level best to phrase the results of the election in an agenda driven way but Scott Brown wasn’t taking the bait. In fact, he proved exactly why he was elected over the bumbling Coakley. He refused to accept Viera’s lefty narrative and restated the day’s events with his own, positive message.

Viera started out trying to get Brown to admit that the only reason he won is because Martha Coakley made so many mistakes in her campaign. This was an effort to make less of Brown’s win by saying that the voters didn’t really vote for him at all. Viera asked, “… do you think that your victory was a result of missteps by your opponent or did you tap into something that the Democrats didn’t get about the voters?”
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NBC’s Viera Scolding Scott Brown on Today Show”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Louisiana - President - Republicans - Rights - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State

January 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe (R, Slidell) is introducing a bill for the 2010 legislative session in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state laws, effectively making Obamacare null and void in the Pelican State.

Senator Crowe states that his bill “provides that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance.”

Crowe’s proposed Senate Bill (download .pdf file) begins as follows:

HEALTH CARE. Prohibits state or local governmental coercion of any Louisiana employer, health care provider, or individual to compel participation in any health care system or health insurance plan.

Crowe insists that Obamacare violates Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and “is therefore unconstitutional.” He also feels that the president’s plans violates the 10th Amendment among others.
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Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Christianity - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Race - Religion - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

What is More Troubling than Pat Robertson’s Remarks?

January 20, 2010 by

-By Selwyn Duke

Of all the responses to the devastation in Haiti, the most copy-worthy is televangelist Pat Robertson’s claim that the earthquake was divine retribution. In making his case, he told a story about how Haitian leaders long ago made a pact with Satan, promising to serve him if he would help vanquish their French oppressors. The Devil delivered, said Robertson, but the consequence is that the nation has ever since been cursed, with one disaster befalling it after another. It was reminiscent of when the late Jerry Falwell said — and Robertson agreed — that those who have authored America’s descent into sin were partially responsible for 9/11.

Not surprisingly, the response today is much as it was back then. Robertson has been roundly criticized in media, by the left, right and center. Yet there’s something more troubling than his remarks.

Just for the record, I don’t share Robertson’s theology. While I do believe there can be such a thing as the wrath of God, I also know that God has both ordained will and permissive will. The former, of course, is when God intervenes and makes something happen; miracles, in the typical sense, fall into this category. And many have believed in divine intercession. For instance, Ben Franklin once said, “the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men.”
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What is More Troubling than Pat Robertson’s Remarks?”

Constitution - Education - Founders - History - Patriotism - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Be Part of This Online ‘Reviving the Constitution’ Event

January 19, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is an interesting event being put on by that famous bastion of conservative thought Hillsdale College that you might find interesting to become a part of…

An Online Town Hall
January 30, 2010
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM – (online or in person)

The Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship of Hillsdale College cordially invites you to participate in an online town hall on Saturday, January 30, 2010.

There are two ways to participate in this event–in person or by viewing a live video stream (“webcast”). Advance registration is required for both forms of participation.

Please spread the word to friends and family about this day-long town hall, which will feature presentations and interactive Q&A sessions led by Kirby Center faculty and Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry P. Arnn. The event will run from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and will be broadcast from the offices of TVWorldwide.com in Chantilly , VA.

More info – http://www.hillsdale.edu/KirbyCenter/programs/townhall/default.asp
Registration – http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/hillsdale/100130/
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Be Part of This Online ‘Reviving the Constitution’ Event”

History - John Armor - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Earthquakes and other Human Disasters

January 19, 2010 by

-By John Armor

I have been to Haiti, once. It was in 1972. I remember it vividly. The sad thing is that Haiti has not changed materially since then. As a result of that continuing history of human failure, people are dying in the tens of thousands from easily avoidable consequences of the earthquake that centered on Port au Prince last week.

Haiti’s successful revolution to gain its freedom from being a colony of France, was only a few years after our own Revolution against England. But since then, Haiti has had a constant series of governments composed of thieves, torturers, murderers.

When I was in Port au Prince in 1972, I took a taxi to go to the Iron Market in the center of that city. As we drove into the market, I noticed that there was one, new brick building on the outskirts of the Market. In my college French, I asked the driver what that building was. He replied that it was “an agricultural warehouse.” But as we passed the building, the door opened and a man came out. On the wall behind him I saw a long rack filled with dozens of machine guns.

I knew right away that the brick building was the headquarters of the Ton-Ton Macoute. They were the murderous thugs who kept “Papa Doc” Duvalier in power, and later his son, “Baby Doc.” Whether the current thugs are as well organized, or bear the same name, I do not know. I do know that Haiti still does not have a competent government, and thugs are still loose in the streets.
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Earthquakes and other Human Disasters”

Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - Society/Culture - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties

January 18, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Neil Cavuto of Fox News had a visit with former Vice President Dan Qualyle on Jan 13. Ostensibly the interview was about the earthquake in Haiti and the efforts that Quayle was saying needed to be made for the victims there, but Cavuto also asked the former veep about his feelings about the Tea Party movement. Quayle’s reply was revealing in that he proved that he really didn’t know how to think about the Tea Partiers. I think that Quayle is in exactly the same confused state that most of the old guard GOP is. They just don’t get it.

Cavuto asked what Quayle thought of the Tea Party movement and what it portended for the Republican Party and Quayle’s reply was that the GOP had to “co-opt” the Tea Partiers back into the GOP.

Sorry, Dan old pal, but that is wrong, wrong, wrong. The GOP had better understand that it is the Tea Partiers that have the upper hand here and the party also better understand that THEY must be the ones to become “co-opted.” It ain’t the other way ’round, Danny!
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Old GOP Doesn’t ‘Get’ Tea Parties”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes

Obama’s Tax On The Banks

January 18, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Dan Scott

President Obama and his advisors announced they were asking Congress to pass a tax on banks to loosely as he put it, pay back every dime of TARP funds used to save them. His condescending announcement blaming the banks was laughable ignorance at best and deceitful at worst. He further went on to imply that the banks should desist from sending lawyers and lobbyists to Washington and just do the responsible thing as though the banks have been shirking this financial obligation. This is great populist sloganeering, however, like most liberal assertions; they are falsehoods just waiting to be exposed. So is this a simple case of ignorance on President Obama’s part or was he lying for some ulterior motive?

The facts are: all the banks except Citicorp and Wells Fargo have paid back every dime of TARP money they in some cases were forced to accept from the government lest CEOs be removed from their positions. Both of these two banks are working diligently to pay this money back. Why? Self-interest, they don’t want to be under the government’s control. Which begs the question, didn’t Obama appoint a czar to “regulate” the salary and bonus issue of TARP borrowers that he is railing about? It wasn’t until the banks publicly complained and the Taxpayers (Tea Party Protesters) demonstrating in the streets against spend thrift behavior that the government relented to allow these institutions to pay back the TARP funds. In the liberal world apparently this was all done for the benefit of these institutions when many of them didn’t want a dime of government money in the first place, then the banks had the audacity of still turning a profit and paying bonuses to employees who’s activities made that profit possible. You see, since the banks are turning a profit and paying bonuses during the very same period they received TARP funds, then clearly they never needed the money in the first place thus conflicting with the liberal narrative, “it was a crisis, they had to do something.” The reality was, what they did wasn’t necessary much less proper, most Americans already knew this intuitively, the banks just proved it in black and white on their financial statements. Liberals really hate those pesky facts.

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Obama’s Tax On The Banks”