Independence Day

It's easy to sit back this 4th of July and just kick back with your beer and brat and enjoy life as an American.

But take a moment and jump on the time machine dated 1776 and think of how life was "in the day".

First, your life was almost totally a function of what European aristocracy you were born in to.

Second, there was no free speech as we know it today. In fact, free speech and self determination is still foreign to most of the world 233 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Third, if you pissed off a monarch, your punishment would be a lot harsher than spending time at Guantanamo.

Nothing annoys me more than the dolts and douche bags who hide behind "freedom of speech" when they have never paid, nor are willing to pay, a price for the freedom they enjoy. In fact, many of these people refuse to even provide the proper respect to those who did pay the price for our freedom's.

If you've ever read that email that circulates regarding the futures of the Declaration signers, you get misleading and some out rights falsehoods about what became of the signers (see snopes). But here is one thing that is true. Many of the signers were made men from the kingdom. It took incredible courage and vision to challenge a paradigm of monarch rule which was the only structure of government humanity HAD EVER KNOWN.

Democracy and self determination would have been late night, Saturday, science fiction TV viewing if the colonists would have had TV and Bruce Boxleitner . And for much of the world, it still is.

Most of the signers could have retreated back to their plantations and shipping businesses and had a great life on easy street for their remaining days.

But all put their fortunes and titles on the line for a paradigm of rule so foreign to the world many ruling monarchs probably thought it was a practical joke.

Have a great Fourth and consider what God and men of considerable courage and vision blessed this nation with.

The United States of Europe

As we spend our 4th of July celebrating our independence from the aristocrats of Europe, just remember, it may be our last.

The obamunists have done an excellent job of making sure that our economy is right in line with the EU.

"Tyrannosaurus Debt" ~ Schoolhouse Rock

As seen on Instapundit

It's a good thing Obama whipped out the stimulus

Otherwise, more people would actually be working.........

Bloodhounds

Is America Exceptional?

Now that we're heading towards the 4th of July, a question. Is America exceptional?

American exceptionalism is grounded in the founding of the United States upon an idea, rather than upon the ambitions of men. Indeed, it was designed to be a nation of laws and specifically not of men, built on the concept of individual liberty and equal justice before the law, with freedoms ranging from speech to worship, and rights from gun ownership to assembly.

The Founding Fathers institutionalized these freedoms so we would be safe from the overweening burdens and capricious claims of a too-powerful state. These freedoms would allow individuals to do as they pleased within the confines of the law and to achieve, in ways big and small, to the benefit of the country as a whole.

Even in extremely difficult times, American exceptionalism survived. Faced with the darkest days of civil and foreign wars; economic depression and recessions; weak leadership at home or aggressive, hostile leadership from abroad; the American people kept faith in the uniqueness of our democratic experiment. Liberty provides opportunity, which is why in our 233 short years, we have produced (even with its flaws and flawed representatives) the greatest democracy in the world, the most productive engine of economic growth, the most influential culture and the most far-reaching effects of innovation.

President Obama's reference to British or Greek exceptionalism suggests a belief that the United States doesn't stand alone with a particular greatness but that every nation is great in its own way and America is simply one of many nations with something cool to offer.

Here's how I know America is exceptional. Just look at the net inflow of immigrants to this country. Just in my little "Redville" accounting practice I have clients from Kuwait, Pakistan, Columbia, Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, England, Canada & France just to think of the one's that come to mind.

How many American's have left here to establish permanent residency in another country. Not too damn many.

But tell that to a lefty who thinks that Europe is exceptional. "Isn't it amazing how sophisticated the Euro's are. Well even in France, the kids speak French!"

So as we head into this Independence Day weekend, think about how exceptional the US is.

More.....

Senator, meet hypocrisy

You know how senators have come down hard on Bernie Madoff while they run a Ponzi scheme 100 times the size of Bernie's?

You know? Those senators who bashed corporate executives for taking private planes while their businesses were losing money?

Yeah, those senators, who have no problem taking private jets on exotic trips while their country is 50 trillion in the hole................

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as "codels," has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

Cause we all know the significance of the Galapagos Islands as a trade partner........

More

Why the traditional media outlets swirl down the drain

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

The offer—which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters—is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

Yeah why should they pay for what they've been getting for free all these years?


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html#ixzz0K6ZnJgHc&C

What's in the water in Texas?

My eternal mantra, I'll never pretend to be the smartest guy in the room, but I'll always do what the smartest guys are doing.

So when I read this I have to question, what is it that Texas is doing that Ohio can't seem to get their arms around...........

In a time when many states are experiencing fiscal crises and economic decline, one state stands out above all others as a success story: Texas. I recently heard Governor Tim Pawlenty say that during the year or so before job growth turned negative and the country as a whole was still adding payroll jobs, 53% of all of the jobs created in the U.S. were created in one state: Texas. No wonder that Texas' government is running a surplus and its economy remains strong despite trying times

read the rest

A Branch Gorevidian mocks the Gordon

Yesterday, a Branch Gorevidian, mocked my global warming challenge.

Like most idiots on the left, they made comments without actually reading what the challenge was and my previous comments on the challenge.

So let me take their criticisms and spell it out really slooooow so that even a moron can understand it.

Gordie over at Taxmanblog uses an absurd argument that monthly temperatures from this year somehow debunk global warming science.

First, the challenge is for an entire year. My scoring system is done monthly because I don't have the time to assign points daily as I did last year. At the end of the year, we'll go back an do an average of all the highs and lows for the entire year.

Of course, when you're looking at warming trends you need to look at a much larger picture. To better understand the absurdity of looking at temps from one year, take a look at the graph below & see how the average global temperature is unmistakably rising.

Yeah, let's look at that graph.



Now, if you believe in this graph you see that this graph has a large spike at the end of the axis which means averages on this would tend to be low since we have roughly 80 years of low temperatures with a spike at the end. (by the way, there was no source assigned to this clown's graph so it probably came out of the Gorical Bible - Book of Al, chapter 13, verse 74)

Think of it in these elementary terms. This is how the above graph lays out in basic numbers.




So if you believe that we are in one of these spikes, then these averages work in your favor since the numbers are actually skewed on the low side because of so many years of low temperatures.

Obviously, I'm taking in one reading from one site. But the last I could tell the Greater Cincinnati Airport was still on planet earth so I would have to think that if we have global warming on the globe, it should include parts if not all of Cincinnati.

My challenge has never been set out to prove or disprove global warming. As I said last January, the cool side won last year but it was a fifty fifty probability. I get that.

But if you are a Branch Gorvidian, this is a can't lose. I've set up a scenario that's actually stacked in your favor. And wouldn't it be great to steal some money from the great Gordon Gekko.

If you have the guts.

As an aside, as I've gone through and calculated the score every month, I find it kind of wild that there have been very few high temperature records set in the 2000's. Now if global warming were occurring, don't you think that we'd have more than a statistical average number of record temperatures set in the last decade?

Reporters Hammer Gibbs

A belated congratulations

A belated congratulations to David Payne, a former University of Cincinnati hurdler, for winning the 110 meter high hurdles at the National Track and Field Championships last weekend.

His victory, following his Olympic Silver medal last year, makes him the US's preeminent hurdler.

Nice job David. As a former UC Track athlete, you did us proud.

The settled science

The science is settled?

Someone call Steve Driehaus.

Global Warming Challenge Update

Updated scores for the global warming challenge.

For the month of June, the average high temperature was 82.1 versus a historical high average of 82.4 degrees.

The average low temperature was 63.3 degrees v. a historical average of 61.6 degrees.

That give both sides a point and puts the score halfway through the year

Warm 8
Cool 4

Related to this global warming scam is an article by Jeff Jacoby...........

The president doesn’t describe the legislation in those terms now, but he made no bones about it last year. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008, he calmly explained how cap-and-trade - the carbon-dioxide rationing scheme that is at the heart of Waxman-Markey - would work:

“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket . . . because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas, you name it . . . Whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money, and they will pass that [cost] on to consumers.’’

In the same interview, Obama suggested that his energy policy would require the ruin of the coal industry. “If somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can,’’ he told the Chronicle. “It’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.’’

The justification for inflicting this financial misery, of course, is the onrushing catastrophe of human-induced global warming - a catastrophe that can be prevented only if we abandon the carbon-based fuels on which most of the prosperity and productivity of modern life depend. But what if that looming catastrophe isn’t real? What if climate change has little or nothing to do with human activity? What if enacting cap-and-trade means incurring excruciating costs in exchange for infinitesimal benefits?

Hush, says Obama. Don’t ask such questions. “There is no longer a debate about whether carbon pollution is placing our planet in jeopardy,’’ he declared Saturday. “It’s happening.’’

No debate? The debate over global warming is more robust than it has been in years, and not only in America. “In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming,’’ Kimberly Strassel noted in The Wall Street Journal the other day. “In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the country’s new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted . . . Norway’s Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the ‘new religion.’ ’’

Once again, will liberals apologize for being on the wrong side of history...... AGAIN!

Read the rest

Matthew Vadum Challenges ACORN on Foreclosure Issue on Fox News June 30 2009

Watch this before you eat

These guys are going to run health care?

The Social Security Administration has continued to pay millions of dollars in benefits to dead Americans, and other elderly U.S. residents are at risk of losing badly needed aid because they're improperly recorded as deceased, federal investigators warn in a new report.

The consequences of either bureaucratic error can be severe.

"The addition of erroneous death entries can lead to benefit termination, cause severe financial hardship and distress to affected individuals," investigators with the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General noted in the report, which was quietly released on Sunday.

The mistakes cost taxpayers and individual beneficiaries in different ways. Taxpayers are losing money when benefits are paid to the deceased. Individuals get into trouble when they're prematurely pronounced dead.

In Southern California and elsewhere last year, investigators analyzed 305 Social Security beneficiaries who were recorded as deceased in their Social Security Administration files. At least 140 of them were still alive.

All told, investigators say, more than 6,000 current Social Security beneficiaries are recorded as being deceased. An untold number of them are still, in fact, alive.

More.......

Life in "Progress" City

From the city of Detroit, who hasn't had a republican run the city since man invented time.

Seven teenagers were wounded — three critically — after they were sprayed with gunfire this afternoon by two masked men at a bus stop near Cody 9th Grade Academy on the city’s west side.

Police later recovered a green minivan about a mile away that they believed the gunmen used to flee.

Five of the seven victims were taking classes at Cody. Two boys, ages 14 and 16, and a girl, 17, were in critical condition at Sinai-Grace Hospital.

Four other victims were taken to Henry Ford Hospital. A 17-year-old boy was in serious condition, a 17-year-old girl was in temporary serious condition, and a 15-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl were in stable condition, Detroit police said.

It was the second shooting in as many weeks near a Detroit Public school offering free summer school classes.

Bria Wilson, 15, said she never saw a green minivan, or even the gunmen who fired the shots. But the sound of gunshots meant it was time to run.

What's so "progressive" about genocide?

More....

Jimmy Kimmel Live Monologue From 6/26/2009

Get your Driehaus widget

To the side I have a Steve Driehaus widget put together by Doug Ross.

If you want it for your blog click here.

Funny Tuesday

A joke from reader Bernie.......

Heaven

Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama go to heaven, God addresses Al

first. ''Al, what do you believe in?''

Al replies: "Well, I believe that I won that election, but that it was

your will that I did not serve. And I've come to understand that now.''

God thinks for a second and says:

"Very good. Come and sit at my left.''

God then addresses Bill. "Bill, what do you believe in?''

Bill replies: "I believe in forgiveness.

I've sinned, but I've never held a grudge against my fellow man, and I

hope no grudges are held against me. '' ; God thinks for a second and

says: "You are forgiven, my son. Come and sit at my right.''

Then God addresses Barack. "Barrack, what do you believe in?''

He replies: "I believe you're in my chair.

The new Smart Cars No. 2

A Smorsche....

Tha scam known as Global Warming

Congress has taken its first step toward an energy revolution in the U.S., with the prospect of profound change for every household, business, industry and farm in the decades ahead.

It was late Friday when the House passed legislation that would, for the first time, require limits on pollution blamed for global warming — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. Now the Senate has the chance to change the way Americans produce and use energy.

What would the country look like a decade from now if the House-passed bill — or, more likely, a watered-down version — were to become the law of the land?

"It will open the door to a clean energy economy and a better future for America," President Obama said Saturday.

Let me ask this question. Historically, how much money has been spent worldwide, both private and public, on new cleaner energy alternatives?

I would guess in excess of $100 billion.

How close are we to having solar panels on top of our roofs? About the same distance as 1980.

Let's get a few things straight about this investment in alternative fuels. Just because you spend money on it doesn't mean it will result in results.

If Warren Buffett spend his entire fortune on a time machine, it doesn't mean that one will be built. Nor does it mean that we need to spend billions more in order to assure its success.

The same will be true of all these dollars wasted in the search for new energy and it doesn't matter what The Messiah says....

More.....

Deep Thoughts

Deep Thoughts by Gordon Gekko

For the past few days I seen many people on the news claiming they were Michael Jackson's "friend". Did it ever occur to one of his "friends" to ask "Yo Mike what is it with your face falling off?"

.

Obama speaks up

Kind of interesting how Obama was virtually silent about democracy in Iran but he's sure got his panites in a bunch over democracy in Honduras; along with friends Chavez, Castro, Ortega et al........

President Barack Obama on Monday declared that the United States still considers Manuel Zelaya to be the president of Honduras and assailed the coup that forced him into exile as "not legal," widening the chasm between the Central American nation and much of the rest of the world.

"It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections," Obama said in the Oval Office after meeting with Colombian President Alviro Uribe. "The region has made enormous progress over the last 20 years in establishing democratic traditions in Central America and Latin America. We don't want to go back to a dark past."

Leaders from across the Western Hemisphere and beyond called for return to power of Zelaya, who was arrested Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and forced him into exile. The country now has another president appointed by its Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who insisted that Zelaya was removed legally by the courts and Congress for violating Honduras' constitution and attempting to extend his own rule.

Now I can see why Obama digs this guy so much; with all that violating the constitution and all.

More here.

Thanks Reader Jeremy

So how is that Canadian Healthcare

About as good as those Yugos still on the road.............

A critically-ill premature-born baby from Hamilton is all alone in a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital after she was turned away for treatment at local facility and transferred across the border without her parents, who don’t have passports.

Ava Stinson was born Thursday at St. Joseph’s Hospital, 14 weeks premature.

A provincewide search for an open neonatal intensive care unit bed came up empty, leaving no choice but to send the two pound, four ounce baby to Buffalo.

Her parents Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson couldn’t follow their child because as of June 1, a passport is required to cross the border into the United States.

They’re having to approve medical procedures over the phone and are terrified something will happen to their baby before they get there.

Read the rest here.

Thanks to reader Jeremy for the link.

Life in "Progress" City

From the city of Seattle who hasn't had a republican mayor since passengers on the Titanic got a little too much ice with their martini's.............

The city should conduct a thorough environmental review before letting thousands of people watch fireworks from the partially remediated toxic waste site that is Gas Works Park, an environmental activist says.

A Lake City man has sued to stop Fourth of July events at the park at the north end of Lake Union until the state shows that gathering to watch fireworks there is safe for viewers, the park and surrounding wildlife.

Benjamin Schroeter, who is not an attorney, filed the suit, arguing that the city failed to conduct a review in accordance with the State Environmental Policy Act before permitting the annual event.

Maybe the city can trade some of its carbon offsets to pull off the event.

What's so "progressive" about being a weenie?

More........

Life in "progress" City

From the wonderful city of Chicago, who hasn't had a republican run the city since Napoleon acted out his little man syndrome......

Shootings claimed the lives of six men in the city in a bloody and violent 24 hours over the weekend.

The first shooting happened around 8:20 p.m. Friday, when Tijuan Edwards, 18, was talking to a 25-year-old man in the street at 1916 S. Trumbull Ave. when multiple gunmen approached on foot and shot both men. Edwards was dead on the scene, and the 25-year-old was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with gunshot wounds to the left arm, chin and thigh, police said.

About 11:20 p.m. Friday, Jovon Lee, 24, was fatally shot at 5928 S. Maplewood Ave., and was dead on the scene, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said. Police found Lee shot in the neck.

About 2 a.m. Saturday, a man was fatally shot across the street from his Northwest Side home. Melvin Vallejo, 29, of 6100 W. Diversey Ave., was shot at 6105 W. Diversey Ave. and was dead on the scene, the medical examiner's office said. Police said Vallejo was involved in an argument that became violent and he was shot in the head.

About 2:20 a.m. Saturday, a man was fatally shot on the South Side. Rodrick Scott, 21, of an unidentified home address, was pronounced dead about an hour later at 3:34 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, after he was found shot on the 1000 block of West 60th Street.

Streets were quiet until Saturday night, when Ricardo Valdez, 20, was shot at 5924 S. Whipple St. and later pronounced dead. Police responded to the shooting at 8:18 p.m., according to police, who said the man was confronted on the street by six Hispanic men who fled south from Whipple Street after firing shots.

Also Saturday evening, Willie Short, 38, was shot and killed as he drove and ultimately crashed into a fence Saturday night at 4103 W. Madison St. in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.

Others were wounded in shootings over the weekend, including a 9-year-old boy who was walking home with his family when was wounded during a Friday night shooting at 6758 N. Ashland Ave. in the Rogers Park neighborhood, police said. Nobody else was wounded. The boy was taken in good condition to Children's Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound to the thigh, police said.

A 19-year-old man was also shot and wounded by police when he allegedly pointed a gun at them at 6400 S. Wood St. in the Englewood neighborhood. Tactical officers were working nearby when they attempted to approach the man, who first fled, then pointed a gun at an officer, prompting him to shoot, police said.

Violence with other weapons also sent a few people to the hospital over the weekend.

How is it that out here in "Redville", me and my fellow red necks aren't out in our driveways shootin' each other to death?

What's so "Progressive" about genocide?

More...

Smart Cars are here

From reader Mike...


With the cap and trade bug upon us, GM has decided to use smart car technology in it's Corvettes.

Here is the new Smorvette......

The Duke rape case you'll never hear about.....

Mike Adams with the details.............

It looks like Duke University has another rape case on its hands. This one may hurt the university nearly as much as the one that rocked its campus back in 2006. Unlike the previous case, this one appears to involve a credible confession of sexual abuse. Like the previous case, crucial facts are already being filtered through the prism of identity politics.

Frank Lombard is the associate director of Duke’s Center for Health Policy. The university administrator was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. I tried to contact Frank Lombard over the weekend to probe his expertise regarding the health benefits of raping small children. So far, he’s declined to comment.

University administrator Lombard is accused of logging on to a chat room online and describing himself as a “perv dad for fun.” The detective who wisely looked into the suspicious screen name says that Lombard admitted to molesting his own adopted son. All this was before allegedly inviting a stranger to travel to North Carolina from another state to statutorily rape his already-molested adopted son.

Read the rest on an empty stomach here..........