The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Barack Obama’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview Has Me Screaming at My TV Again

Posted on | December 12, 2011 | 85 Comments

Today on Morning Joe, they were playing clips of Steve Kroft’s 60 Minutes interview with President Obama, and I literally started screaming. There is only so much of this bulls–t I can endure without talking back to my TV:

OBAMA: If I can’t get Republicans to move, partly because they’ve made a political, strategic decision that says, “Anything Obama’s for, we’re against, because that’s our best chance of winning an election,” I don’t think the American people would see that as a failure on my part. My preference is that they’d have a different attitude. You know, I’ve been joking with my staff lately that I think in my next speech, I am gonna say, “I am adamantly opposed to investing in education and putting teachers in the classroom. I’m adamantly opposed to rebuilding America and putting construction workers back to work.” And I’m thinking maybe suddenly Republicans might be for it. But, you know, keep in mind, I’m talking about Republican members of Congress. I’m not talking about Republicans around the country.
KROFT: They don’t like you much better. It’s only 7% approval rating.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah, no, I understand. But I think that they like the ideas that we put forward. I mean, the interesting thing is the majority of Republicans actually think we should have a balanced approach to deficit reduction, including tax increases for the wealthy. The majority of Republicans do think that we should make investments in roads and bridges and improving our airports and investing in basic research and medical research.
So if you take my name out of it and just look at the ideas that we’ve been presenting, these are common sense, mainstream ideas that …

THAT WE CAN’T AFFORD! YOU ALREADY BLEW A TRILLION DOLLARS ON THIS STIMULUS CRAP AND WHAT DID IT GET US, HUH? WHERE’S THE F–KING RECOVERY? THE DEFICIT’S OUT OF CONTROL! WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY FOR THIS CRAP! SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT ‘COMMON SENSE’!

 Obama thinks he can just rattle of a laundry list of spending projects, call them “common sense, mainstream ideas” and — POOF! — the money magically appears to pay for this stuff.

And something else: He loves to talk about infrastructure — “investments in road and bridges” — as if that was the majority of what he’s spending money on, when in fact, infrastructure projects were less than 5% of the stimulus bill. It’s like me sprinkling a turd with sugar and asking you to eat it and when you refuse, I accuse you of disliking sugar. Here’s another idiotic assertion:

KROFT: [Republicans] say it’s your insistence on raising the taxes to the wealthiest Americans, that you’re fixated on that. And that there are other ways to raise revenue.
OBAMA: Steve, the math is the math. You can’t lower rates and raise revenue, unless you’re getting revenue from someplace else. Now, either it’s coming from middle-class families or poor families or it’s coming from folks like you and me that can afford to pay a little more. I mean, I think the average American understands that.

ECONOMIC GROWTH, YOU F–KING IDIOT! EVER HEARD OF THE LAFFER CURVE? SUPPLY SIDE? ART LAFFER COULD EXPLAIN IT TO YOU IN 15 MINUTES WITH A COCKTAIL NAPKIN!

Obamanomics is simply ignorance as the basis of policy. The more you know, the less you like it, and his only hope of re-election is to promulgate counterfactual ideas and persuade voters that they must choose between two lies: His dishonest characterizations of his own policies and his dishonest characterizations of Republican policies.

I hope he fails, because my blood-pressure can’t take another four years of listening to this guy lie.

UPDATE: Linked by The Lonely Conservative — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!


Category: Barack Obama, CBS, Economics, Election 2012

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.11.11

Posted on | December 12, 2011 | 2 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
DNC Says Gingrich The Original Tea Partier

Newt Gingrich

LOLWUT? Stop smoking that dope and get serious, Debbie!

Obama Makes His Case For Second Term On “60 Minutes”
Not done destroying economy, basically


Manuel Noriega Extradited To Panama, Will Serve Jail Time
Old enough to serve sentences under house arrest



POLITICS
New England States Cut Low-Income Heating Aid For Poor

What party thinks it's okay to let poor people freeze? Hint: not the GOP

And what party would be running all those states, to say nothing of the Federal Government, Posties? *crickets*

Kansas Tea Party Group Discovers Skunks Now Racist

Ron Paul Won’t Rule Out Third-Party Run

Who’s Protecting Illegals? A State-By-State List

Congress Edges Toward Compromise On Spending

Rick Perry Hears Support, Hecklers At Ames Stop

SCV Files Free Speech Lawsuit To Get Confederate Flag License Plate



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asia Stocks Snap Two-Day Loss On EU Optimism
PRC Marks Decade In WTO Amid EU, US Criticism
Mr. Corzine Goes To Washington
Debt Buyers Brace For Busy Weeks
Filthy Hippies Hope To Block West Coast Ports
Corporate Carve-Out Revolt In Illinois
Oil Fluctuates On Europe Debt Outlook; Iran Urges Production Cuts
WebOS Doomed To Fail…
…Or Did HP Finally Make The Right Move?
Apple’s Hottest New Product Can Be Thrown In The Wash
Google’s Integration Of Google+ Into GMail Is Right Touch
Falcone’s LightSquared Said To Disrupt 75% Of GPS In Tests



SPORTS
Broncos Trample Bears, 13-10, Take First Place

Bears DB Brian Urlacher brings down Tebow

Broncos come back from 10-point deficit in fourth quarter, win in OT on 51-yard field goal
How To Explain Tim Tebow? He Has QB Rating Of 110.2 After Third Quarter

Mavericks Sign Odom From Lakers

Yates Heroics Send Texans To Playoffs

Braun Tests Positive For Drugs – Or Does He?

Redskins Find Failure Again

Sharks Can’t Hold Late Lead, Fall to Blackhawks In OT



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
“Posing Nude Gives Me Confidence”

Lindsay Lohan's Playboy cover

Lindsay Lohan in Playboy

Britney Spears Celebrates 30th Birthday A Week Late

Alec Baldwin Continues To Flout First Rule Of Holes

Hulk Hogan Sues Ex-Wife Over Abuse, Gay Affair Claims

Kirsten Dunst Granted Temporary Restraining Order Against Frenchman

“Jersey Shore”‘sAngelina Pivarnick Sued Over Staten Island Mall Fight

Lowe’s Pulls Ads From “All-American Muslim”

Michael Jackson’s Daughter Paris Gets First Movie Role

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O Is Married!

Katy Perry Talks SNL: “There Were A Lot Of Pitches About My Boobs”



FOREIGNERS
US Military Vacates Pakistani Air Base
Cameron Prepares To Defend EU Veto Amid Deputy PM’s Criticism
Russia’s Middle Class Turns On Putin
ROK Coast Guardsman Killed By PRC Fisherman
Syrian Activists Call For Strike; Violence Ramps Up In Homs
Peruvian President Humala Names Retired Army Officer As PM



BLOGS & STUFF
David Weigel: Newt Wins The Dress Rehearsal
Legal Insurrection: Newt’s Palestinian Comment Was About More Than History
The Lonely Conservative: Santorum Says – We Need This Election To Be About Barack Obama
Gateway Pundit: Obama-endorsed #OWS Goons Ready To Shut Down US Ports Today
NRO Corner: What About National Security?
Israel Matzav: Were The “Palestinians” Invented?
Jawa Report: Watch Out, Jonas Brothers – Obama Was Serious About Using Predator Drones
Via Meadia: The Brits Tune Out The Greens
Jihad Watch: In Maldives, Silent Protest For Religious Tolerance Attacked With Bricks, Stones, Death Threats
Jonah Goldberg: More On Fact-Checking
Weasel Zippers: Obama Says “Everybody Has To Do Their Part” To Redistribute Wealth


SOTD: I Don’t Care (So There)

Category: Live at Five

Reading ‘Trotsky’

Posted on | December 12, 2011 | 21 Comments

For the past few days, my bedtime reading has been Robert Service’s Trotsky: A Biography. It is my boast that I’ve read more Marx than most Marxists and, as an amateur student of Communism, I’ve long been fascinated by Leon Trotsky.

Trotsky was an early comrade of Lenin, but spent more than a dozen years allied with the Menshevik faction of Russian communists after the split at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Trotsky at that time rejected Lenin’s dictatorial tendencies, but later sided with the Bolsheviks on the eve of the Russian revolution, emerging as the leader of the Red Army.

Trotsky was inarguably the most intellectually gifted of the Bolshevik leaders, and his talent as a writer earned him the nickname “The Pen.” Certainly anyone who has read Trotsky’s work appreciates his subtlety as a writer in comparison to the blunt formulations of Lenin. I had often wondered how much of Trotsky’s reputation as a writer in the English-speaking world was due to the talents of his translator Max Eastman, but Service makes clear that Trotsky’s ability won him admiration among Russian radicals long before anyone in the English-speaking world had ever heard of him.

Aware of his gifts, Trotsky was self-confident to the point of arrogance, and insisted on his own intellectual independence. His willingness to criticize Lenin, while at the same time also criticizing the faults of his own Menshevik allies, was an early indication of Trotsky’s distinctive genius — which, of course, ultimately led to his own fatal downfall.

Trotsky’s undeniable superiority made him an object of suspicion and envy. Vera Zasulich was said to have remarked to early Russian Marxist leader Georg Plekhanov, “That young man’s a genius,” to which Plekhanov replied: “That is something I can’t forgive Trotsky.” And indeed, Plekhanov conspired to prevent Trotsky from joining the editorial board of the Russian Marxist journal Iskra.

Trotsky’s personal abilities as a writer, orator and leader made him the odd man out in the succession struggle that followed Lenin’s death in 1924. The brutal and ruthless Stalin could not tolerate the potential rivalry, and Trotsky was purged, exiled and finally assassinated.

Well, “the only good Communist,” et cetera — but Trotsky has always seemed a more sympathetic and humane figure than other Communist leaders, if only because of his denunciations of Stalinism. If there was any socialist alternative to the bloody paranoid police state over which Stalin so viciously ruled, Trotsky symbolized it.

Of course, the search for a humane “true socialism” is a snipe hunt. As Hayek observed in the famous 10th chapter (“Why the Worst Get on Top”) of The Road to Serfdom, any attempt to impose a socialist economy ultimately requires coercive measures, so that socialist movements are always ultimately led by ruthless and immoral men. Thus, the idealists and dreamers who follow such movements must eventually either repudiate socialism or else consent to the rule of murderous dictators.

Trotsky never seemed to see what Hayek saw so plainly. Having been radicalized in his youth, he remained loyal to his radical dream until the day that dream — as embodied in the person of KGB assassin Ramon Mercader — slammed an ice-axe into his head.

There is a lesson to be learned from Trotsky’s life, but some people seem doomed never to learn it.

Category: Books, History

ACORN Returns as ‘Occupy’

Posted on | December 11, 2011 | 15 Comments

When the radical group ACORN was shut down, Jeff Quinton at Quinton Reports reminds us, the state and local chapters of ACORN reconstituted themselves as new non-profits. And guess what they’ve been up to lately?

In more than two dozen cities across the nation Tuesday, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions.
Occupy Our Homes said it’s embarking on a “national day of action” to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off of the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that took advantage of consumers.

One of the groups identified in that story — “Neighborhoods Organizing for Change” — is a spin-off of ACORN, and investigative reporter Matthew Vadum notes that the Working Families Party, an ACORN political front group, was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement “from Day One.”

The tactic of “occupying” foreclosed homes was a high-profile tactic of ACORN in 2009, Quinton notes.

UPDATE: And in other “Occupy” news:

Anti-Wall Street activists
look to block West Coast ports
Anti-Wall Street protesters, hoping to briefly cripple a key supply chain of American commerce and re-energize their movement, plan to attempt to block major West Coast ports on Monday.

Question: What, exactly, is this intended to prove? Whom is supposed to be benefitted by this? Is this some kind of “mainstream” movement on behalf of the middle class — as our friends in the liberal media would have us believe — or is it a tiny fringe of Marxist radicals?

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Category: #Occupy, ACORN

Sex-Change Hormones at Age 11? ‘There Are No Ill Consequences,’ Says Spack

Posted on | December 11, 2011 | 12 Comments

That’s Dr. Norman Spack, M.D.:

The Children’s Hospital Gender Management Services Clinic can, using hormone therapies, halt puberty in transgender children, blocking the development of secondary sexual characteristics — a beard, say, or breasts — that can make the eventual transition to the other gender more difficult, painful, and costly.
Founded in 2007 by endocrinologist Norman Spack and urologist David Diamond, the clinic — known as GeMS and modeled on a Dutch program — is the first pediatric academic program in the Western Hemisphere that evaluates and treats pubescent transgenders. A handful of other pediatric centers in the United States are developing similar programs, some started by former staffers at GeMS.
It was in that clinic, under Spack’s care, that Nicole and her family finally began to have hope for her future. . . .

(“Nicole,” neé Wyatt, who has a twin brother.)

“I have always known I was a girl,’’ says Nicole, now 14. “I think what I’m aiming for is to undergo surgery to get a physical female body that matches up to my image of myself.’’ . . .
When the twins were in the first grade, their parents found a therapist for Wyatt, who was starting to act out. In the third grade, before the GeMS Clinic was even open, Kelly heard about Dr. Spack and made an appointment with him. . . .
Nicole and her parents filed a complaint with the Maine Humans Right Commission over her right to use the girls bathroom. The commission found that she had been discriminated against and, along with the Maines family, filed a lawsuit against the Orono School District. The suit is pending in Penobscot County Superior Court, and the Maines family is represented by lawyers from the Gay & Lesbian Advocates. . . .

(Bathroom rights for transgender sixth-graders? Oh, joy! More business for the trial lawyers!)

[Dr. Spack] believes it is crucial to intervene with such children before adolescent changes begin in earnest. . . .
He adds: “We can do wonders if we can get them early.’’ . . .
“The drugs have a great track record; we already know that these kids do fine,’’ says Spack. “There are no ill consequences.”

(Hat-tip: Da Tech Guy.) Excuse my skepticism here. Maybe I’ve read too much dystopian fiction — Frankenstein, Flowers for Algernon, etc. — about the unintended and tragic consequences of Science Gone Wrong.

It was once considered sophisticated to have a wary attitude toward the claims made on behalf of Scientific Progress, but that sort of skepticism seems to have gone out of style. Once the fashionable experts in any field reach a “consensus” nowadays, everyone starts screaming that The Science Is Settled and anyone who continues to express doubt is labelled “anti-science” and ostracized from polite society.

Suppression of dissent wasn’t part of the scientific method as I was taught it, back in the Dark Ages, but I guess these enlightened experts like Dr. Norman Spack and his colleagues know everything about the diagnosis and treatment of “pubescent transgenders,” and everyone may safely ignore the old-fashioned skeptics.

Your skepticism, of course, will be diagnosed as a “phobia” — perhaps pedotransphobia or transpedophobia — and there will be political lobbying groups organized to clamor for legislation to safeguard the “rights” of these experimental specimens against “discrimination” by hateful bigoted transpedophobes like you.

Clever cable network executives are probably already working on a reality TV series, and “Nicole” will likely defray the costs of surgery by landing a book deal for her memoirs: I Was a Pre-Teen Shemale.

Category: Science, Sex

Rule 5 Sunday: Obsolete

Posted on | December 11, 2011 | 13 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


We begin this wee’s Rule 5 roundup with a PSA from Doug at the Pegu Blog, who warns us of the dangers of mixing booze and Facebook without this reputation-saving product. Don’t go partying without it!

More conventionally, the POH Diaries brings us Kristen Stewart, and the Rio Norte Line gets back to Bond Girls with Denise Richards. Also, Roselyn Sanchez! Randy’s Roundtable demonstrates that there’s no such thing as too much Kate Upton, and follows up with Nicole Williams. Eye of Polyphemus is all about Olivia Munn, while Fishersville Mike demands more Christmas spirit.


El Opinador Compulsivo takes a closer look at our sidebar ad girls, Salma Hayek and proof of God’s existence (a tad redundant, no?), Sparks, more Theo(Spark)logy, and the cute (though occasionally creepy) Daveigh Chase. For the ladies, Steve McQueen, Viggo Mortensen, Anthony Bourdain on sex and omelets, and some soccer player yclept “Chino” Saja.


Bring The Heat, Bring The Stupid returns after a long absence with Minnie Driver. All is forgiven, Art! Reaganite Resistance demonstrates that not everything is a mess in Japan. Jake Finnegan’s Burkalesque Babe is a group this week: the Jacksonville Jaguars’ cheerleaders. Teresamerica chips in with Marion Cotillard, while Maggie’s Notebook directs our attention to ESPN’s Bonnie Jill Laflin.
Dustbury has Maria Sharapova and Felicity Jones, while at the Camp of the Saints, it’s Tanit Phoenix, the Rule 5 News, and Emma Frain. Pirate’s Cove has the Sunday Pinup and more Lohan.


A View From The Beach answers the question, “What happened to Lucy Liu?” Also, Brigitte Bardot protesting, Kirsten Dunst looking for a baby daddy, and a PSA on how to revive your drowned smartphone.


Soylent Green’s Monday Motivationer this week was Veronica Saint, followed by Humpday’s Ingeborg Sorensen, a shampoo reminder, Feral Fur Friday, some Vargas for your Saturday, and finally, Lilo doing her Marilyn impression for Playboy.


American Power likewise links to Lindsay, adds one of Maxim’s 2011 Hometown Hotties, Barbara Palvin, Kelly Brook’s official calendar, and finishes up with some Victoria’s Secret.


Proof Positive checks in with Danielle Bux, Catherine Oxenburg, the ubiquitous 49er cheerleader, Sex In Advertising, and Behind Rule Five.


The DaleyGator’s DaleyBabes this week are Ali Landry, random hotties, Asian Babe Friday, Tamala Jones, Cali Logan, January Jones, Brandi Alexis, and of course, Lindsay Lohan.


Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! To be included in next week’s Rule 5 Sunday, have your links in to Rule 5 Wombat by Saturday, December 17.

Category: Rule 5

What Does ‘Best Days Are Behind’ Mean?

Posted on | December 11, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

It’s easy to get hacked off about irrelevant things. The power cord somehow got caught in my sandal, my temper flared, and I managed to pull the whole power strip out of the wall. But that was a tangible thing. Abstractions are a bit harder to get at (emphasis mine):

Most worrisome is the fact that a majority of Americans, 52 percent, told pollster Scott Rasmussen this week that they believe the country’s best days are behind it, the first time a majority has so responded.

What is ‘the country’ if not the people therein, today? ‘The country’s best days are behind it’, you say? Is this one of those obsequious glances at The Greatest Generation? As if, by bestowing the superlative, we know that our culture reached a point of inflection, peaked, and now it’s OK to dive for the gutter? Are we staging our excuses for why we can’t deal with the deficit, entitlements, and the national debt? “If only we were The Greatest Generation, we could have so kicked butt on those problems, but we’re not, so failure is more acceptable.”

Up that noise.

Peoples are slow-changing. The standard deviation amongst generations isn’t that great. That is, if Generation X (my media-packaged cohort) were dumped back in time and given WWII, I contend that we would do as fine there as has been done in the GWOT. Even the #Occupy weenies would likely toughen up and do well, albeit with initially higher attrition.

Too, there is no denying that Postmodernism has been to our societal mettle what osteoporosis is to your bones. Therein lies the rub: the bones belong to the individuals, not the society. The damage is only as permanent as we permit. The spell of malaise is more an intellectual illusion than an objective fact. Our country is no more doomed by some Best Days Past Myth than it is by the Overpopulation Myth or the Anthropogenic Global Warming Myth.

Let us chuckle at these Myths and ignore those peddling them.

via Instapudit

Category: Culture

Santorum: Election ‘About Obama’

Posted on | December 11, 2011 | 19 Comments

“I think we need — and I think the Tea Party people are going to realize we need a clean, clear contrast. We need this race to be about Barack Obama and his record, not with Republicans agreeing with that record. I mean, that would be the last thing we should be nominating is someone who has a bad record on some of the most important issues that we’re going to be dealing with, like bailing out Wall Street, like climate change, like the Obamacare. . . . Three years into [Newt Gingrich’s] speakership there was a conservative revolution to try to get rid of him as speaker. . . . I think that should tell you something.”
— Rick Santorum, on CNN’s “State of the Union“

If you watch the whole video — The Lonely Conservative has posted the full transcript — notice how Candy Crowley begins by dissing her guest:

“Let me talk to you about the topic of the day and get your take on why you think at this point Newt Gingrich is doing so well.”

Translation: “We couldn’t get Newt himself on the show, but we want to talk about Newt anyway, because we all know he’s going to win, right?”

Why “the topic of the day”? Why not come up with your own topics? Why allow yourself to be hemmed in by other people’s conceptions of what’s important and/or interesting? This media herd instinct is annoying.

Via Memeorandum.

 

Category: CNN, Election 2012, Rick Santorum
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