Saturday, July 30, 2011

Funny, Mark

From Mark Steyn's latest column on NRO.

...the Lockerbie bomber has been appearing at delirious pro-Qaddafi rallies. Remember the Lockerbie bomber? He was returned to Libya because he was terminally ill and only had three months to live. That was two years ago. It’s amazing what getting out of the care of the Scottish National Health Service can do for your life expectancy.

Friday, July 29, 2011

The Democrats' Two-Minute Hate

Jay Nordlinger posted the following on NRO.

I realize I’m a partisan, and getting worse, I’m afraid. I’ve long wanted to be a nice, above-the-fray neutralist. But life has not allowed that.
Anyway, I’m going to make a point about the Democratic party. Nancy Pelosi said the following about Republicans: “They don’t just want to make cuts. They want to destroy. They want to destroy food safety, clean air, clean water, the Department of Education. They want to destroy your rights.”
I want to ask you: How do you do business with someone like that? How do you do business with a party like that? “They want to destroy”? (I’ll grant that we think the Department of Education a total boondoggle.) “They want to destroy your rights”?
I’m reminded of why I revolted against the Democratic party long ago: They all talked like this. They all regarded their opponents as monstrous or subhuman. And I knew it was bunk.
One more thing: Nancy Pelosi is not some street-corner lunatic. She’s not yet another columnist, or “commenter,” at the Huffington Post. She is the leader of the Democratic party in the House! If that’s not representative — what is?

A couple of other points about Pelosi's rant. It's funny how - and Nordlinger touches on this - she equates worthy, fundamental goals like clean air and water with worthless, bureaucratic extravagances like the Department of Education. (Pelosi writing the Declaration of Independence - "...they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Public Television and High Speed Rail.")

Also - What is Pelosi's intended audience?
Her base, who curse and scream, as in an Orwellian two-minute hate, as she basks in the glory of their approval?,
Or - does she think she's actually making a persuasive argument to enlist the support of independents and undecideds.
Either way, it's quite pathetic.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Two Of A Kind

Humberto Fontova, forceful advocate for the liberation of Cuba, juxtaposes the philosophies and methods of Anders Breivik and Che Guevara.

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2011/07/26/anders_breivik_t-shirts,_anyone/page/full/

Monday, July 25, 2011

"Fair Share"



The Tax Foundation reports that between 1986 and 2008, the share of federal income taxes paid by the top 5% of earners has risen to 59% from 43%. Between 1986 and 2009, the percentage of Americans who pay zero or negative federal income taxes has increased to 51% from 18.5%.

- From a column by Arthur C. Brooks in the WSJ today. Cartoon by Chip Bok.


This after Bush's "tax cuts for the very rich".

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Climate Change Comes To Saturn

Those wasteful, decadent, climate change denying Saturnians really need to cut back on their carbon emissions.

http://news.yahoo.com/tempest-hell-seen-saturn-190517740.html

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Cut Taxes, Raise Revenues

Oblivious as they are to the immorality and danger of saddling future generations with our excesses, Democrats aren't really interested in eliminating the deficit or reducing our debt burden. When feeling political pressure to address the problem, the solution proposed is invariably "revenue increases". In the language of President Obama and Democrats, "revenue increases" means tax hikes.
As Thomas Sowell so clearly explains in his book "Basic Economics", tax increases and revenue increases are two separate, though not necessarily unrelated, issues. This was nicely illustrated by the following factoid which appeared in a recent WSJ editorial (6/30).

After the Bush investment tax cuts of 2003, tax revenues were $786 billion higher in 2007 ($2.568 trillion) than they were in 2003 ($1.782 trillion), the biggest four-year increase in U.S. history.

(My emphasis).

Revenue began falling after 2007 as Government interference in the housing market crashed the economy. The deficit, (which was actually decreasing from 2004 to 2007), was caused by spending increases which accelerated under Bush (and the Democratic Congress) and went ballistic under Obama.

Steyn Returns

Mark Steyn recently took an extended hiatus from his column-writing duties to do...what? Well, in his absence I speculated that a) he had a serious illness, b) he was fighting yet another legal battle against Canadian authorities trying to censor him, or, c) he was writing a book. Happily, it was c). Lights Out, Steyn's look at the lawsuit brought by the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's magazine for publishing excerpts from his book, America Alone, will soon appear in bookstores (both real and virtual). Can't wait. In the meantime, Steyn is in top form in three recent columns in NRO.

I particularly enjoyed the first one, a series of hilarious zingers seamlessly linked into an organic whole. Ah, to be able to write like this.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/269969/libzgetreal-mark-steyn

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270460/speechworld-vs-realworld-mark-steyn

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270993/obama-s-declaration-dependence-mark-steyn?page=1

And, as we are about to get hit by the Obamacare tsunami, here also is Steyn's review of The Barbarian Invasions, the devastating portrait of Canada-style Government controlled healthcare. (Steyn broke into journalism as an arts critic).

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/4221/28/