The Other McCain

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

Phrases Without Intellectual Content

Posted on | October 6, 2011 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

Williamson at The Corner, emphasis original:

Those who talk about the horror of putting profits over people make no sense at all. The phrase is without intellectual content. Perhaps you do not think that Apple, or Goldman Sachs, or a professional sports enterprise, or an internet pornographer actually creates much social value; but markets are very democratic — everybody gets to decide for himself what he values. That is not the final answer to every question, because economic answers can only satisfy economic questions. But the range of questions requiring economic answers is very broad.

‘Putting profits over people’ is like ‘getting back to nature’. When, exactly, were you not in nature? Is there something unnatural about this keyboard? Does its matter not matter? Is it anti-matter? These physical objects are all derived, ultimately, from the Periodic Table of Elements, no?

The real grip about arguments such as these is that they are first and foremost emotional appeals. People are as inclined to put emotion over intellect when trying to persuade as they are to focus on separating cash from a mark more than delivering a product. Sure, it goes on. But is a myopic, transient game. That would be as stupid as Weyerhaeuser thrashing all the forests in the Pacific Northwest and not re-planting. Which they do not do. Because they are not flipping morons that put wood over sustainability. Yes, there is a quarterly report. And another. And another.

I think its actually rather brilliant, in a spitefully amputating one’s nose sort of way, that the anti-capitalist Left has managed to convince a cadre of useful idiots that businesses take the money and run on day 91, after submitting the quarterly report.

Other than explaining Solyndra and ilk, ‘putting profits over people’ is pure idiocy.

Category: Progressivism

LIVE AT FIVE – 10.06.11

Posted on | October 6, 2011 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Steve Jobs, 1955-2011, RIP

Steve Jobs at the opening of the SoHo Apple Store

Former Apple CEO dies of pancreatic cancer; created many pioneering computers, devices

Sarah Palin Says She’s Not Running In 2012
Cites family as main reason behind decision

Senate Dems Propose 5.6% Millionaire Surtax
McConnell Accuses Democrats Of Political Maneuvering



POLITICS
Latest Fundraising Puts Perry Far Ahead Of Romney, Ron Paul

Texas Governor Rick Perry

He’s got the cash, if not the poll numbers

Civil Rights Leader Fred Shuttlesworth Dies, 89

Supremes Weigh How Far Government Can Intrude In Church Dispute



Breyer, Scalia Testify At Senate Judiciary Hearing

Obama Appoints Shakira To Advisory Board

ATF’s New Director Shakes Up Agency

Dozens Arrested During “Occupy Wall Street” March



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Microsoft Considers Bid For Yahoo
US Stocks Rise On Hopes For European Banks
Asian Stocks Jump On Signs Of Hope For Debt Crisis
ADP Estimates Employers Added 91,000 Jobs In September
Apartment Vacancies Drop To Five-Year Low
Samsung Pays Tribute To Steve Jobs; CEO Expresses Condolences
Ellison Unveils New Cloud, Trashes Salesforce.com
India Unveils $50 Android Tablet
Amazon Allows Kindle Users To Opt Out Of Ads – For A Price
New York Public Library Looking At Loaning Not Just E-books but E-Readers



SPORTS
Freese Knocks In Four Runs To Force Game 5 Against Phillies

Matt Holliday congratulates David Freese after Freese hits a two-run dinger in the sixth

Phillies’ Oswalt coughs up four runs, game, unbeaten streak in post-season

NBA To Cancel Games If No Deal By Monday

Nova Faces Fister In Game 5 Of ALDS

Edwards Itching To Win At Kansas

Texas Announces QB Garrett Gilbert Will Transfer

It’s Hockey Night In Canada – Oh Yeah, In US Too

Vick Says “Dream Team” Nickname Is Dead

Michael Oher Would Appreciate Somebody Telling Him Who This Steve Jobs Guy Was



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Ashton Kutcher Kicks Off Sixth Wedding Anniversary In Hot Tub With Two Women

Homewrecking slut Sara Leal

Neither one being Demi Moore

Courtney Love On Kurt Cobain: “For What He Did To Us, I’d F***ing Kill Him”

Jenifer Aniston: “There’s No Desperation To Have A Baby”

Johnny Depp Apologizes For Controversial Rape Comment

Kristin Cavallari: “DWTS Is Clearly Not A Dance Competition”
u mad?

Buzz Over Eddie Murphy and SNL


“Glee” Casts Love Interest For Coach Beiste

Fox’s “New Girl” Enlists Lizzie Caplan

Snoop Dogg To Star In NBC Family Sitcom



FOREIGNERS
Greek Public Sector Shuts Down Over Debt Crisis Cuts
Pakistan Reacts Cautiously To Afghan-India Pact
Afghan Intel Uncovers Paki-Backed Assassination Plot Against President Karzai
Clinton Warns UNESCO Of Consequences For Palestinian Admission
ANC In Crisis After Dalai Lama Visa Botch
Spokesman Says No Presidential Candidate From Military



BLOGS & STUFF
American Power: Wall Street’s 99% Took Out Too Much Student Loan Debt
Michelle Malkin: From “I, Pencil” To iPhone
Kevin Williamson: A [Steve] Jobs Agenda
The Lonely Conservative: Demands Of “Occupy Wall Street”
Outside The Beltway: #Occupy Wall Street – A Protest, Or A Temper Tantrum?
PJ Tatler: Labor Department IG Says Obama’s Green Jobs Training Is A Flop
Don Surber: NYC Needs Hunters
Atlas Shrugs: Ohio Caves to Demands Of Muslim Honor Killer On Death Row
Hit & Run: Colorado Farmers Hire Locals For Farm Labor, But They Quit After Six Hours
American Spectator: Jackson Pulls A Freeman, West Irate
Neo-Neocon: Unintentional Humor From MoDo


SOTD: Catgroove

Category: Live at Five

Scott Ott With A News Shot

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

While it’s still barely Wednesday, here is one of Pennsylvania’s finest sons:

Ott is a wonderful Christian fellow with a delightfully dry twist on the humor. He may not beat Jodi Miller over on NewsBusted in a beauty contest,

but that’s a state with which I can empathize.

Category: humor, Video

SARAH PALIN WILL NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT, SHE TELLS MARK LEVIN

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 62 Comments

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin broke the news that she will not be a candidate in 2012 on Mark Levin’s nationally syndicated radio show, Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator reports:

Palin acknowledged the disappointment of her supporters (Matt Drudge  e-mailed to say it was a “sad day”) but said the decision had been reached “prayerfully.”

UPDATE: Her e-mail at Mark Levin’s Web site:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
– Sarah Palin

UPDATE II: Memeorandum thread.

UPDATE III: Allahpundit’s happy. But you expected that, right?

Just got off the phone with Michelle McCormick of Organize4Palin, who is in a bar in Clive, Iowa, working up a big bar tab. McCormick says she has “no regrets” about spending months trying to build a grassroots campaign for Palin, and says she will “always have respect for Governor Palin.”

Meanwhile, I just got deadline assignment . . .

UPDATE IV: Lonely Con: “Nicolle Wallace must be so disappointed.” Yeah, and now there’s nothing to stop Palin from suing Joe McGinniss.

UPDATE V (Smitty) 20:09: Here I go,

Veering in the direction of Allahpundit, we can all start working on concession speech suggestions for this year’s Dole/McCain stand-in.

Less snarkily, remember people: it’s the platform, not the candidate. Let’s not go all reverse-Alinsky and overly personalize things. Even His Newtness would be an improvement over the current POTUS, were Gingrich to secure the nomination. Enthusiasm is a fine luxury, but if you’re into politics merely for the hormonal rush, your attention is drawn to a Lady GaGa concert.

UPDATE VI (Smitty) 20:18: Bob Belvedere has a reasonable take:

Needless to say, I’m very disappointed…and very worried because none of the other announced candidates fully understands what bad shape we are in.

Well, maybe, but then the task falls to the Tea Parties to inform them.

UPDATE VII (Smitty) 20:53: A Point of View lists 67 pundits who are not, like me, eating crow.

Category: Election 2012, Mark Levin, Sarah Palin

I’m Thinking About Writing a Novel Called ‘Two-Faced Backstabbing RINO Bitch’

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 43 Comments

While I’ve never tried my hand at fiction, maybe all I needed to become a best-selling novelist was the right inspiration.

UPDATE: After consultation with the legal department, the publisher just approved the cover design for my forthcoming novel:

UPDATE II: “Sarah didn’t like her. Sarah didn’t trust her. Sarah has good instincts.”

At NRO, Robert Costa and Katrina Trinko have comments from top McCain campaign officials disputing the Two-Faced Backstabbing RINO Bitch.

UPDATE III: Bob Belvedere at Camp of the Saints:

Stacy McCain calls Nicolle Wallace a Two-Faced Backstabbing RINO Bitch . . .

What? Me? Call somebody names?

I merely said that I had been inspired to write a novel — a work of fiction — after learning that Nicolle Wallace had written her own novel.

When I get through writing Two-Faced Backstabbing RINO Bitch, my agent has suggested I try my hand as a playwright and composer, writing a Broadway musical about an annoying bimbo who gains fame because her father lost an election.

My working title is Completely Not About Meghan McCain.

Category: Vicious Backstabbing Crapweasels

RINO-Lanche: Three ‘Evil State’ Republicans Endorse Mitt Romney

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 34 Comments

And by “Evil State,” of course, I mean Florida:

As Mitt Romney continues his Florida swing today with a visit to Tallahassee, his campaign is announcing endorsements from three Republican state House members who are in line to become speaker in coming years: Reps. Will Weatherford, Chris Dorworth and Richard Corcoran.
All three were backers of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty before Pawlenty dropped out and endorsed Romney.
Another key Pawlenty supporter, former Jeb Bush campaign chairman Phil Handy, also signed on with the Romney campaign this week as a co-chairman of Romney’s Florida advisory council.

Remember when T-Paw sold out to Romney? Well, these are the sellouts who supported the sellout, and we should not be surprised that the sellout’s sellouts sold out, too.

So, if you’re a Florida Tea Party activist, now you have a list of three RINO backstabbers who need to face primary challengers in 2012.

Question 1: Did Weatherford, Dorworth and Corcoran all support moving up the Florida primary to Jan. 31? I think they did.

Question 2: Do we now know why they supported moving up the Florida primary to Jan. 31? I think we do.

Question 3: Will you spit on the ground the next time you hear the names Weatherford, Dorworth and Corcoran? I think you should.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Florida, Mitt Romney

Why Dan Balz Is Wrong

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 43 Comments

Two words: “Conventional wisdom.”

With New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie forgoing a run for the Republican presidential nomination, two questions hold the key to the future of the GOP race: Can Mitt Romney finally expand his support within the party, and can Rick Perry bounce back?

Just for the sake of argument, let’s take Dan’s “two questions” seriously, in which case the answers are:

1. Who cares?

and

2. Not bloody likely.

As to Dan Balz Question One, if Mitt Romney manages to win the nomination, all the conservative spokesmen currently denouncing Romney as a worthless RINO will take a deep breath, put their integrity in a lockbox, and spent the months leading up to Nov. 6, 2012, proclaiming that Mitt is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. So it doesn’t matter, at this point in time, whether Romney can “finally expand his support.” What matters is whether any of the other candidates can put together enough mojo to beat Romney for the nomination.

We won’t know the answer to that before next April, so we’ll leave the cart of analysis behind the horse of electoral facts, and not borrow tomorrow’s troubles with premature worries about where to find the best price on an Integrity Lockbox™.

To fully explain why Dan Balz Question Two is utterly wrongheaded would require more words than I’d care to write today, so I’ll just quote myself:

“There have been a few little things … that lead me to think Perry is a lot less certain ultimately to win the nomination than some people seem to think. What I fear will happen is that Perry will spend several months sucking up media oxygen and burning through GOP donor cash, only to collapse early next year. This will have the effect of suffocating other conservative candidates, and thereby lead to … Romney 2012.”
— Aug. 9

“Dude. When your “conservative” candidate makes Mitt Romney look like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it’s over.”
— Oct. 1

There are some issues a Republican can afford to be wrong about, but immigration isn’t one of them, and Perry’s unforced error — telling conservatives “you don’t have a heart” — is also a fatal error. Seventeen million dollars won’t be enough to buy back the credibility he lost with that one phrase.

All my friends who bought that Texas pig-in-a-poke and jumped on the Perry bandwagon with both feet — you know who you are — are currently doing their Kübler-Ross thing because they don’t want to speak those four fateful words: “Stacy McCain was right.”

But while my friends continue to deny or defend their own wrongness, thereby depriving me of timely credit for my rightness, I must look forward to try to discern what comes next. As I explained last night, there are reasons to think Rick Santorum could be on the verge of a breakthrough: The wheels are falling off Bachmann’s campaign, and she was previously considered the pre-emptive favorite in Iowa. So if Santorum can show strong in the next two debates (Oct. 11 at Dartmouth and Oct. 18 in Las Vegas), he might be the “flavor of the week” by Oct. 19.

That’s all the more reason to write off Perry’s chances of recovery. Santorum is a brutal counter-puncher in debates, and Perry’s got a glass jaw. As I noted the day after the Orlando debate, several observers had especial praise for Santorum’s performance there.

And what the hell, right? Santorum’s got nothing to lose by an all-out kamikaze attack on Perry: If Santorum gets hurt by the blowback, so what? He’s already in single digits nationally, and his hard-core base of Christian conservatives in Iowa isn’t going to abandon him for being “too mean” to Perry. Furthermore, the guy who does a savage debate takedown on Perry is going to buy himself some MSM coverage, and even if the liberals on MSNBC despise everything Santorum stands for, they’ll cheer him for dismantling Perry.

Dan Baltz may not have noticed, as I did, that Santorum just made another three-day trip to Iowa. With Bachmann hurting and Perry melting down, the Hawkeye State is wide open for a Republican who refuses to apologize for being a pro-life Catholic.

Of course, I’m the conductor calling “all aboard the Cain Train,” but I don’t want anyone to be blindsided if, two weeks from now, the talking heads on TV are all about Rick Santorum. Even though he’s not my horse in the race, I’ve felt he was overdue for some respect ever since I covered his barn party in Roland, Iowa.

Should my prophecy prove correct, don’t look for this front-page headline in the Washington Post: “Stacy McCain Proven Right — Again.” My point is that you’re never going to see these things ahead of time if you let Conventional Wisdom peddlers like Dan Balz prejudice your thinking.

Category: Election 2012, Media Bias, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Rick Santorum

You Can’t Have Your Cow And Milk It, Too

Posted on | October 5, 2011 | 37 Comments

by Smitty (via Protein Wisdom)

The bog-like decay of a legal system run amok produces another horrible result in Wisconsin:

On September 9, Judge Fiedler issued his decision on the motion, stating that the court’s August 12 denial of plaintiffs’ motion for judgment meant the following:

  1. Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to own and use a dairy cow or a dairy herd;
  2. Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;
  3. Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to board their cow at the farm of a farmer;
  4. The Zinniker Plaintiffs’ private contract does not fall outside the scope of the States’ police power;
  5. Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice;
  6. DATCP [Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection] . . . had jurisdiction to regulate the Zinniker Plaintiffs’ conduct.

With this sweeping denial of basic rights, the judge refused to recognize any distinction between public and private activity; moreover, he was holding that the government had the power to regulate people’s efforts to grow and raise their own food.

In a hypothetical case, if you took a maniac judge fifteen or twenty miles from shore and threw the judge in Lake Michigan, would the judge have standing?

Category: Progressivism, Wisconsin
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