The Lasso of Truth

Just sayin'

Presumably, because "Dumb-Ass" was already taken.

It's not all boy stuff here

Every once in a while, my "girl" gene makes an appearance on these pages - or the catty bitch, depending on your perspective.

And if this doesn't inspire a snotty comment from a gal who tends to let a lot of things pass, I don't know what will.

Can someone please tell the first lady that she isn't 12 anymore, and to stop letting Malia and Sasha dress her like one of their paper dolls?

Seriously.  This dress looks like something I saw and didn't buy for my 9-year-old, at Costco.

Knee-length bell skirt, crop jacket and sling backs are not a flattering or mature look, when you're built like Chewbacca.

Handwringing

To kill or capture?  To publish the death shots or not to publish?  Jeepers.  I even hear it took the supposed leader of the free world 17 hours to decide if he even wanted them to go in at all!

But now that the deed is done, I've been hard pressed to find an opinion on the whole brouhaha that sounds right to me.  Until now.

It started last night, when I heard one of the administration apparatchiks detailing the information that was being gathered from the site, and the various agencies sifting through it, and how much of the information was useful, etc.  I though to myself, if I was in charge, I'd probably want to keep the enemy guessing about whether I got anything useful, and how much of it there was.  Make them have to scramble and worry.

This morning though, that instinct went one step further when as a rare treat I heard Oliver North on my daily morning show, opining that the best approach would have been to keep the whole business under wraps.  And he's right.

Keeping the enemy in the dark that their leader is dead, even holing up in his safe house for a few days, to gather more information from live sources (possibly) would have been a much better strategy.

Unfortunately, that is not how Obama and his pep squad roll.  Oliver North was right about that too...this president is all about the victory laps.

Whole interview here...

11_0506_oliver_north

 

"lack of experience" was on Obama's resume, too

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Kagan had a "sterling reputation" and was "unquestionably qualified" to serve on the Supreme Court, calling her lack of judicial experience "refreshing."

Lack of judicial experience...because that's what you want on the nation's highest court.

Narcissist In Chief

Nevermind the sludge-covered birds and the oily coastline, it was Father's Day.  Where were Malia and Sasha..?

"I think that a little time to himself on Father’s Day weekend probably does us all good as American citizens that our president is taking that time,”

At least Tony Hayward was spending the time with his son.

Homer Simpson for President!

Savvy...

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said.

Isn't he the one who gave an iPod -- apparently the scourge of civilization as we know it -- to the Queen of England, as an official state gift?

Obviously someone else loaded it for him, then.  Good grief.

h/t

If it walks like a Muslim and talks like a Muslim...

"There is no reason to suspect ties to terrorism" is all I've heard for the last couple of days, in response to a bombing attempt in the middle of New York -- again.  Each time they said it, what I really heard was the Obama administration and lackeys saying, to each other, "we can not have a terrorist incident on American soil during this administration".  Because, of course, it would put lie to the claim that the elevation of The Great Uniter to the highest office, spontaneously spawned a global love-in toward America and it's interests.

And thanks to a dude named Faisal, we have confirmation that another Obamanated canard is worth little more than the steaming turd it smells like...

Is it possible - just possible - that maybe people like Bloomberg and Janet Napolitano have an inherent bias against middle America? So much to that they’ve spent the last three days praying to Gaia that some fat white Viet Nam vet from Iowa was responsible for this?

And where was John Murtha that day, anyway..?

Obamacare

Through a science fiction prism...

We've heard a lot of hype, on both sides, about the healthcare reform bill President Obama signed today. But how will it really affect our future? Here are five dystopias it may save us from, and one it could cause.

[..]

Could the new healthcare reform law eventually lead to the government taking over the healthcare industry completely? Sure, it's possible. A lot of people are not so secretly hoping that will happen. We could find ourselves living in 1984, or Brazil, or any of a number of other statist dystopias where the government controls everything.

Just a matter of time..?

I read this book once, where the government passed sweeping regulations, to redistribute from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

When the new laws came into place, many of the educated and hard-working started abandoning their places, or withdrawing their talents. 

In order to stem the bleed of talent, the government made more laws forbidding people from leaving their jobs, restricting their choices and movements, enslaving them, and all for the greater good.

Thank gawd it was only a book.

The New World Order

While I seriously doubt that any active politician in America has the stones to repeal the gigantic millstone which was just foisted around the necks of the American public, I'm also not wholly convinced by this piece of cynicism...

All this talk about backlash and Republican landslides is very premature. The Democrats just purchased 30,000,000 new votes. In November, the Democrat machine will drive through the low income neighborhoods in buses with loudspeakers warning people to get on board and vote against the evil Republicans promising to “steal” their “right” to free healthcare. And it just might work.

The flaw here is that it relies on that same 30,000,000 people -- the ones who couldn't be bothered to make any provisions for their own personal health care -- to get off their LaZboys and actually vote...assuming they can survive the queue at Emerg.

I won't hold my breath.

de-Arabised: Like delousing, but far more expensive

In my books, if you're ticking off both the missile-lobbing, Semtex crowd and the sympathetic Marxist squish taking their side, it's a fine day's work...

A defiant Mr Netanyahu appeared to be digging in despite clear indications that the Obama administration is now demanding the scrapping of plans for 1,600 new Jewish homes, whose announcement overshadowed last week's visit to Israel by the US Vice-President Joe Biden. Mr Netanyahu's stance appeared to guarantee, after a highly charged week, the protraction of a stand-off in which a full-scale diplomatic row blew up at the start of Mr Biden's visit and appeared to abate at the end of it. But it was then reignited by demands from Hillary Clinton and an angry White House that Israel make amends for the "insulting" announcement just as indirect negotiations with the Palestinians had finally been arranged.

Still awaiting word on when Obama will "run out of patience" with the kidnappings, suicide bombings and constant threats being waged from the other side of that border.

How about suggestions then?

Sayeth the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism...

Terrorists are not 100-feet tall.

'Tis true.  But they are invariably Muslim.  how about we just start with that for now, hmmm?

What kept you?

It's nice to see the MSM finally catching up with me.

h/t

Stars fade - wouldn't you rather have a rock?

Barack Obama's presidency, distilled down to a few words...

"the biggest celebrity on the planet"

Like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton.

And a picture of Mao in every living room...

But what I want to know is, are there any of these on the walls?

Because that would be alarming.

"To the Moon, Alice!"

Or not, as it would seem.

Glenn Reynolds muses...

But will Obama back other means of promoting space exploration? My own guess is that he’s actually hostile too space, regardless of budget priorities, but who knows?

It's not that hard to know, actually.

The left has always been hostile to the space program, mostly for one overlying reason -- because it represents the height of human endeavor and is the starkest repudiation of the denialists who prefer to conceive of humans as nothing more than the brutes at the top of the food chain.

Obama may be making all the noises of wanting to shift the focus of space exploration, onto the private sector, but how long before that shift gets paired with a raft of new and stifling regulations, making commercial space flight too onerous and too expensive to bother with?  Because stifling it is the point, you see...

Speaking softly, without the big stick

Every Wednesday morning, John Oakley has John Bolton on his morning show to discuss world events.  My son and I try to never miss it, and it is a highlight of our morning drive to school.

When a 15-year-old emo kid can understand and appreciate your knowledge and eloquence on foreign policy, you’ve achieved a minor miracle.  I can tell you.

Due to this regular contact, I was marginally oblivious to the fact that he was no longer the US ambassador to the UN, or who his replacement was.  I don’t feel so bad though, realizing now that the latest ambassador leaves an impression slightly more memorable than a stump of wood.

Do you get the impression that her colleagues regularly refer to her as wazzername?

While Rice, like all Democrat-appointed US Ambassadors to the UN, also serves in the President’s cabinet, she has nevertheless been absent at many crucial Security Council meetings in New York during some of the world body’s most turbulent times.  Rice was even missing from this week’s Security Council debate and vote to add new Peacekeepers to a beleaguered UN operation in Haiti.  According to several UN veteran reporters and some US Mission staff, Rice has been missing from crucial negotiations on Iran too.  They say that when Rice does attend UN negotiations, she is all too willing to avoid confrontation.  The Permanent Members of the Security Council – the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and China – rely on American leadership to drive issues to a close and force votes.  While the Permanent Members historically complain publicly about being forced to vote or meet on certain issues, without one country driving issues to completion the UN Members will keep talking or find ways to continue fruitless discussions.  After spending 8 years inside the UN and watching the Security Council debate a plethora of issues, I can personally attest to the fact that an effective American Ambassador cannot worry about being the most popular person in the room.  Forcing an end to a UN debate and calling for the Security Council to vote on an issue is never popular.

Over the last year, Rice has avoided tough negotiations and public feuds at the UN and has subsequently produced very few UN resolutions on America’s priority issues.  While other foreign Ambassadors speak fondly of Rice and her ability to make nice at the UN, she has been a weak negotiator for the American people.  Many UN veterans have indicated that Rice’s lack of leadership on the Iranian issue in particular has forced the French Ambassador to pick up the slack in trying to forge a new Security Council resolution to increase sanctions.  The irony that the French are tougher than the Americans on the Iran issue has not been lost on career State Department officials.

What mystery?

A celestial blue light, hovering over Norway yesterday?

There can only be one explanation.

Obama's "push, not pull" moment

Remember when they said Obama would restore dignity to the office of the President, after the fiasco of the swaggering moron previously in residence..?

Monday night, Obama mistakenly left a White House ceremony honouring two activists' work in Zimbabwe. After finishing his remarks in the East Room, he walked with first lady Michelle Obama into the grand hallway across the main floor of the Executive Mansion. He returned a moment later, a bit sheepishly.

He said with a laugh, "I'm allowed to stay." Then he added, "I never know what I'm allowed to do."

Ya, me too.

Palin vs. Winfrey 2012

...Is the first thing I thought of, when I heard the news.

She's the "most influential woman in America".  Does anyone doubt she has the stones to make a bit for the White House?  And after the affirmative-action win of the Big O, does anyone doubt the distinct possibility that she could actually win?

Prepare for the next Big Black O campaign...

Obama hates soldiers

The big, gaping O's "my pet goat moment" inspires my own Kanye West moment.

Can you imagine the outrage if George W. had been yucking it up at a partisan luncheon while the levies were bursting?

Mommy Marxist Barbie

No doubt it comes with pump-action finger wagging tsk action.

And all I got was this stinking t-shirt

A comparative look at all things Obama...times two.

It's a bad sign for the Big O...

When even TIME magazine begins to mock him...

TIME imagines in photo-illustrations what would happen if award academies around the world adopted the Nobel set of standards for winning

The joke is on us

I woke up this morning to the distinct feeling it was suddenly April.

It's not funny.  Not even in the way that home movies of hapless baseball dads getting beaned in the nads is funny.  But it hurts to watch, just as much.

Too bad Arafat's dead.  They could throw a party.

Wearing your crazy on your sleeve

Maureen Dowd hears voices...

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

Perhaps it was just the echo of her own inner condescending racist she heard.  Are we to indict people on the telepathic interpretation of stupid twits now?

Just giving Americans more choice

Isn't that what he said..?

The plan from Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana would make health insurance mandatory, just like auto coverage. It would provide tax credits to help cover the cost for people making up to three times the federal poverty level. That's about $66,000 for a family of four, and $32,000 for an individual.

But those who still don't sign up would face hefty fines, starting at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. The maximum penalty on individuals would be $950.

Change you'd better believe in!

h/t

Manufactured Crisis

Obama and the Cloward-Piven strategy...

The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis.The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Just more of that "in their faces" diplomacy so cherished by the party of The Great Uniter^(TM).

I don't know whether to laugh or cry

But it would seem as though I may have to rethink my fiery hatred for all things Whole Food...

Like many of his fellow health food fanatics, Joshua said he will no longer patronize the store after learning about Whole Foods Market Inc.'s CEO John Mackey's views on health care reform, which were made public this week in an op-ed piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.

[..]

The op-ed piece, which begins with a Margaret Thatcher quote, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money," has left some Whole Foods loyalists enraged. Many say Mackey was out of line to opine against the liberal base that has made his fortune possible.

Christine Taylor, a 34-year-old New Jersey shopper, vowed never to step foot in another Whole Foods again.

"I will no longer be shopping at Whole Foods," Taylor told ABCNews.com. "I think a CEO should take care that if he speaks about politics, that his beliefs reflect at least the majority of his clients."

The entire op-ed can be read here and offers red meat for the individualist in a level of variety unheard-of on Whole Foods grocery shelves.  Including this unpleasant little truth...

At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.

Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.

No wonder the lettuce eaters are pissed.  This may actually turn them back into carnivores.

"Vicious, or just plain stupid?"...I say both

An unqualified candidate, with some questionable associations, got elected to high office on a campaign that traded on his skin color so the Democrats could "make history", but Michael Steele who, arguably, has a not dissimilar resume, is nothing more than a "token black". 

Is it because he's Republican or because he disagrees with King Obama about pulling the plug on Grandma? (via)

And can somebody tell me why this article appears in Psychology Today?  Is this a demonstration of abnormal psychology?  Projection, perhaps..?