The Other McCain

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

Guns Better Than Gold?

Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 16 Comments

In response to my constant reminders about rising gold prices — You Should Have Listened To Glenn Beck! — Steve in Tennessee sent me a link to this story by Bill Gunderson at Seeking Alpha:

Scared investors have been flocking to gold as our economy, political system, and financial system continue in turmoil. It seems that every other commercial these days on TV or radio is a gold commercial. Gold is not the only investment that is currently seeing panic-like buying, however. Sturm, Ruger (RGR) has been hitting new highs for the last several years. This guns and ammunition stock has outperformed gold by a wide margin, and it currently is not as crowded and as highly publicized as the gold trade.
Consider the following facts. Sturm, Ruger has outperformed Gold over the last 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, and 5 years! . . .
It is also important to note that Sturm, Ruger was even up in 2008, when the market was down 38.5%.

Read the whole thing — he’s got charts and stuff.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Category: Gold

A: He Couldn’t Lead Two Nuns In One Minute Of Silent Prayer?

Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 9 Comments

by Smitty

Da Tech Guy poses the question:

So how can we account for the president[‘s] poor polling within the military when the single most loyal group of supporters (Black Americans) are over-represented by almost 60% vs the general population?

Category: Barack Obama, Da Tech Guy

StormWatch 2011: Mass Hysteria!

Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 13 Comments

Hurricane Irene has inspired non-stop TV fear-mongering. The cable news networks are giving us around-the-clock disaster and 24/7 catastrophe — apocalyptic forecasts worthy of Dr. Peter Venkman:

This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

Question: If this hurricane hits New York City, will liberals blame Bush or global warming, or both?

UPDATE: “New York Hurricane Could Be Multibillion-Dollar Catastrophe” — or it “could be” basically some heavy thunderstorms. But why miss a perfectly good opportunity to fear-monger, eh?

Category: Video

‘Operation Destroy Romney’ in Action

Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 21 Comments

Let me remind you of this Aug. 9 article in Politico:

Obama plan: Destroy Romney
Barack Obama’s aides and advisers are preparing to center the president’s reelection campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early-stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee. . . .
[T]he candidate who ran on “hope” in 2008 has little choice four years later but to run a slashing, personal campaign aimed at disqualifying his likeliest opponent. . . .
Obama’s high command has even studied former President George W. Bush’s 2004 takedown of Sen. John Kerry, a senior campaign adviser told POLITICO, for clues on how a president with middling approval ratings can defeat a challenger.
“Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney,” said a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House. . . .

So the entire political world was warned, more than two weeks ago, that Team Obama was going to go negative, specifically targeting Romney. You would therefore think that when these orchestrated attacks were made, the news media would identify them as such. But look at this disingenuous headline on a Tommy Christopher article at Mediaite:

‘Angry’ Mitt Romney ‘Loses His Cool’
With Voter At New Hampshire Town Hall

Didn’t Tommy Christopher read that Politico story two weeks ago? Or is Tommy Christopher so profoundly stupid as not to realize that the “voter” hectoring Romney at the town hall is a Democrat participating in “Operation Destroy Romney”?

OK, so let’s go to the video and watch as this woman goes on for nearly a minute, using the word “shameful” to describe Romney’s rhetoric, which she characterizes as “platitudes,” not “speaking to the truth.” And it is only after she has lectured him at great length that Romney attempts to have his say:

Like most conservatives this year, I oppose Romney in the GOP primaries, but it is ridiculous to pretend that this is a spontaneous expression by a typical “voter” when, in actuality, this “voter” is a Democrat doing her part in Operation Destroy Romney. And I’m glad to see Romney pushing back against such tactics. Ace of Spades:

I don’t know for sure this woman is a liberal, but her question seems to be Kos-like, in claiming that government spending of all types must be defended at any cost to keep… emergency services during hurricanes.
And she does what the previous hecklers did — she won’t let Romney answer her alleged question.
If it’s a question, why isn’t Romney permitted to speak three words before she begins to re-harangue him again?

What she is doing is filibustering, and there are ways to deal with such tactics, one of which Ace suggests: “People really need to turn on their cell phones and cameras and [get] pictures of these people. Would be fun to ID them as plants.”

A robust public exchange of views is certainly to be encouraged. However, it is not a “robust public exchange” when operatives of the incumbent President of the United States orchestrate the personal destruction of the leading opponent to his re-election and employ, as one of their weapons, partisan stooges assigned to hijack and disrupt that opponent’s campaign events.

We ought to be calling this what it is — Alinsky tactics straight out of Rules for Radicals — and we must further insist that news organizations correctly identify such efforts as part of Operation Destroy Romney.

UPDATE: Linked by Bill Quick at Daily Pundit — thanks!

Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney

LIVE AT FIVE – 08.26.11

Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 4 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
East Coast Scrambles To Prepare For Irene

The Ramirez brothers board up windows at their home in Ortley Beach, NJ

Coastal evacuations and emergency plans readied from the Carolinas to Cape Cod

Buffett’s BofA Stake Nets $1.3 Bn In First Day
Mr. B gets immediate return on his $5 billion

US Distances Itself & NATO From Gaddafi Manhunt
Neither NATO nor US forces involved in hunt for fugitive Libyan leader



POLITICS
Rick Perry: Washington Is A “Seedy Place”

Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks at a "Politics And Eggs" breakfast in New Hampshire

“I call it like I see it,” Perry said on yesterday’s Laura Ingraham show

Senator Inhofe (R-OK) Calls Out Romney On Climate

Arizona Challenges Feds On Voter Rights Law

GOP Senators Seek Probe Of NRC Head

New Photos Show Damage To Washington Monument

New Hampshire GOP Chair, Tea Party Activist, Resists Calls To Resign

Starbucks CEO Says 100+ Businesses Withholding Campaign Contributions Over Debt



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Asia Stocks Swing Between Gains, Losses Ahead Of Bernanke Speech
Groupon CEO Fires Back At Critics In Feisty Memo
Europe Short Selling Bans Extended
Nouriel Roubini Says QE3 Is Coming
Pandora Posts Loss As Revenue Increases 117%
Governor Brown Unveils Jobs Plan That Includes Tax Code Revisions
Samsung Banned From Selling iPad Rival In Germany
Bloody Thursday: Google Kills Off All Slide Products But One
LG, Government Motors To Team Up On Electric Cars
Nokia Launches Latest (Last>) Symbian Phones



SPORTS
Three Grand Slams Erase Poor Start In Record Fashion

Cano, Martin & Granderson: grand slammers

Yankees hit record three grand slams in 22-9 mauling of A’s
It’s Probably Not As “Record-Breaking” If Strikes Are Called Balls




Miami Hurricanes  Scandal  For Real Now

Jim Thome Returns To The Tribe

Danica Patrick Commits To Full-Time NASCAR Schedule For Next Year

Flanagan’s Death Ruled A Suicide

Red Sox Retribution: Rangers Shut Out 6-0

Wade Miley Gets First Major League Win As Snakes Pound Nationals 8-1



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Sarah Michelle Gellar Talks “Ringer” , “Buffy”, And Motherhood

Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover of EW

The Entertainment Weekly interview.

David Arquette Gets Ready To Rumba

“The Talk” Adds Kris Jenner As Host

How Rose MacGowan Survived & Escaped A Cult (Not Scientology)

Chef, Famous Brothers Get Fired Up Over Wahlburgers

Rapper Pitbull Was Trying To Keep Lindsay Lohan Relevant

Jaime Pressly Avoids Jail After Major DUI Bust

Lindsay Lohan Magic Mike Drama Heats Up

Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame: Reality Stars Need Not Apply

Jamie Lee Curtis To Share “Sparks” With Gibbs In November NCIS Sweeps Arc

Watch Johnny Depp Breathe Fire, Undress Amber Heard In “The Rum Diary” Trailer



FOREIGNERS
Documents Show Khadafy Tried To Keep NATO Out
At Least 53 Killed In Mexico Casino
Southern Israel Pounded By Rockets, Prepares For More Violence
Lokpal Debate In Indian Parliament Today: Will Anna End Fast?
Few African Leaders Show Up For Famine Summit
Kan’s Terms For Resignation Met With Bills In Japanese Diet
Sri Lanka Emergency Laws To End After 30 Years



BLOGS & STUFF
Michelle Malkin: Faith And The Fishwrap Of Record
Verum Serum: For Bill Keller, A Score Of Religious Questions For President Obama
Hot Air: Archbishop Chaput Says MSM Can’t Be Trusted On Matters Of Faith
Fausta’s Blog: Where’s Muammar?
Weasel Zippers: AFL-CIO’s Trumka Accuses Obama Of “Working With The Tea Party”
Troglopundit: Beverage Warning – Kinky For Perry
Legal Insurrection: No Charges Against Prosser; Time For Bradley To Step Down
Gateway Pundit: Plurality Of NJ Voters, Majority Of Flordia Voters Say Obama Doesn’t Deserve Re-election
Marginal Revolution: How Bad Is It In Japan?
Lonely Conservative: Obama Rakes In The Cash From Hollywood, Bankers, And Lawyers
Matt Welch: Anne-Marie Slaughter’s End Zone Dancing And Situational Constitutionalism


SOTD: Freedom Of Choice

Category: Live at Five

The Plural of ‘Anecdote’ …

Posted on | August 25, 2011 | 27 Comments

. . . is “data,” and the data regarding our demographic apocalypse are varied and interesting, if often pathetic. Consider this confessional article from the London Daily Mail by journalist Rachael Lloyd:

When I was younger, I always expected to become a mum. I even played with names over the years — Robert for a boy, and Caitlin or Daisy for a girl. As far as I was concerned, the day I became a mum was just out there waiting for me to reach out and embrace it.
But I’ve just turned 39. I’m fit, healthy, with lots of friends and an enjoyable job in the family firm. I own my own flat, albeit a humble one. I’m close to my extended family and I’m reasonably attractive on a good hair day.
Yet, at times, I feel like an utter failure. I have failed to do the one thing that even the most uneducated, unimaginative woman, sane or insane, can accomplish. I’ve failed to have a child.
Having a child is so easy, isn’t it? Anyone can do it. So how did I manage to miss the boat? How did I mess up so spectacularly?
During my 20s, I put in long days as an aspiring journalist, and at night I partied with the best of them. In my mid-30s I battled an addiction to alcohol but have come out the other side smiling and sober.
Like a lot of women my age, I’d thought 30 was probably an ideal age to settle down. But once I hit 30, it’s was if I hit an oil patch and the years just slipped away. The men I dated either weren’t at the same life stage as me, or simply didn’t have the money to commit to a baby.
Having children is expensive, and I dreaded ending up broke and abandoned with a wailing newborn in my arms.
So to my dismay, like too many of my generation, I’ve become one of the ‘circumstantially infertile’ — a woman unable to have children because I don’t have a suitable partner with whom to conceive.
And I’m not alone. According to a recent study, 48 per cent of university educated women born in the late Sixties and early Seventies are childless. . . .

You can read the whole thing, and try not to ask yourself, “Is there maybe more to it than that?” Like, you should resist the temptation to think that maybe the circumstances of Lloyd’s “circumstantially infertile” situation were the result of her own unwise choices. Meanwhile, via WeSmirch, we have this shocking headline:

Charlize Theron Wants A Baby NOW & She’ll
Adopt If She Can’t Find A Man To Help Her!

That’s somewhat hyped-up but still, the fact is, Theron is now 36. Last year, she ended a nine-year relationship with Stuart Townsend and — strange as it might seem for such a famous beauty — she doesn’t seem to have any marital prospects.

Marital prospects are somewhat more encouraging for 27-year-old Hilaria Thomas, if by “encouraging” you mean shacking up with a middle-aged asshole:

Alec Baldwin is settling down as he advances his political ambitions.
The 53-year-old perennial bachelor, who has his eye on a mayoral run, also seems to have his heart set on marriage with 27-year-old yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas. . . .
Baldwin has sold his 300 Central Park West apartment at the famed Art Deco Eldorado to move in with his girlfriend downtown. . . .
“He’s really in love,” a source said. “He’s even met her parents. He sees marriage in the near future.”

 And now we come to the final data point, involving this young lady:

That’s 22-year-old actress Emma Stone. If you’ve never heard of her, don’t worry. Neither had I until I saw (via Ace of Spades) that Miss Stone was the object of a rather bizarre online video proposal:

I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re all the way beautiful. Not just pretty, but, you know, smart and kindhearted. And if I were a lot younger, I would marry you, and we would have chubby little freckled faced kids.

That proposal was made by 49-year-old Jim Carrey:

The plural of “anecdote” is “data,” and perhaps you see the faint outline of a trend here: While 30-something women like Rachael Lloyd and Charlize Theron are withering on the vine, divorced middle-aged guys like Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey are chasing after 20-somethings. There is some sort of mismatch in the romantic interests or lifestyles of modern singles, a mismatch that tends to prevent the development of durable pair-bonds. Without opportunities for lasting marriage, many women avoid child-bearing. The particular cases cited here may be exceptional, but they are nonetheless representative of a larger trend.

And aren’t stories more interesting than statistics?

Category: Celebrities, Culture

‘Ed Schultz With a Smaller Rack’

Posted on | August 25, 2011 | 39 Comments

The title quote is how Ace of Spades describes Contessa Brewer, whose eight-year career at MSNBC has come to an inglorious end. Ace reminds us of one of her highlights:

BREWER: “Joining me now to talk about this and the nation’s real problem of joblessness, the Reverend Al Sharpton. What’s your reaction to hearing someone say, you know, when it comes to income inequality, all’s well, a rising tide floats all boats?”
JESSE JACKSON: “Uh, I’m Reverend Jesse Jackson.”
BREWER: “Right. You know, I’m so sorry. The, uh, script in front of me said Reverend Al Sharpton. I’m looking at your face. I know who you are, Reverend Jackson. We all do. I’m sorry.”

But wait, I’ve got one even better, courtesy of Mark Finklestein at Newsbusters:

REP. MO BROOKS (R-ALA.): During the six years [Obama has] been in Washington, our accumulated national debt has increased by more than 50 percent. And what has President Obama’s response been now, and as a senator? To increase spending even more — not to cut it, but to increase spending even more. Two years as a freshman senator, the debt goes up $400 billion because of deficits. Two years when he’s in the majority of the United States Senate, it goes up $1.8 trillion dollars –”
BREWER: “But congressman –”
BROOKS: “– and now it’s $2.8 trillion while he’s president.”
BREWER: “You’re simplifying the issues that were on the plate of the nation at that point. I mean, we were looking at going . . . reverting into a depression at that point. Everyone, the Fed chairman –”
BROOKS: “Oh, I disagree that we were going into a depression, but go ahead.”
BREWER: “Do you have a degree in economics?”
BROOKS: “Yes, ma’am, I do — highest honors.”

BTW, Mo Brooks didn’t get his economics degree from some third-rate school. He graduated summa cum laude with a double major in economics and political science from Duke University. Contessa Brewer, who got her degree in broadcast journalism at Syracuse, was four years old in 1978 when Brooks added a University of Alabama law degree to his credentials.

So now Mo’s still a member of Congress and Contessa’s just gotten the boot from the world’s least-watched cable news network.

Economics, y’know.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II: Amid the comments at AOSHQ, a link to this clip from the Stephanie Miller Show (via Scared Monkeys and Radio Equalizer) in which Brewer expresses her disappointment upon learning that the May 2010 Times Square bomber was a Muslim:

Category: MSNBC

A. Probably Worse Than You Think

Posted on | August 25, 2011 | 12 Comments

Q. How bad is the economy right now?

Warren Buffet reportedly bought $5 billion — that’s billion, with a “b” — of Bank of America stock, and yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average still lost 170.89 points. That broke a 3-day streak of gains, and now we notice that mortgage rates are rising, an indicator of bond-market worries, and here’s a scary sentence for you:

A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.

Monty’s got more DOOM, if you want it. (And you know you want it.) Now, our  periodical “You Should Have Listen to Glenn Beck” Update:

Gold prices rebounded Thursday as more U.S. workers sought unemployment benefits and concerns about Europe’s debt problems took back the spotlight.
Gold rose $5.90 to finish at $1,763.20 an ounce after falling $134.60 in the past two days. . . . The price of gold is up 8.7 percent this month.

An 8.7% gain in a single month, despite the recent slide. Look at your investment portfolio and see if anything else you’ve got has done as well.

UPDATE: Banks in U.S. Face Main Street Squeeze as Sputtering Economy Saps Earnings. And to remind you what I wrote yesterday: If you buy gold now, and the price goes to $2,100 an ounce within six months — an entirely plausible scenario — that’s a sweet 20% profit.


Category: Economics, Gold
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