The Other McCain

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

Thank God: The 111th Congress Is Over

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 12 Comments

Worst. Congress. EVAH!

The House on Wednesday evening passed a motion to adjourn the 111th Congress “Sine Die”, bringing to a close Democrats four-year reign in the lower chamber. . . .
Democrats touted the busy lame duck as a fitting end to what they are touting as one of the most productive Congresses in recent history.
“This was, by far, the most productive Congress in American history,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor Wednesday evening. “And the lame-duck session we’re finishing was the most productive of its kind. Why? Because we heard the message the American people sent us last month: They don’t want us to sit around and waste their time. They want us to work together and work for them.”

Yeah. “Working together” = “Ramming through the Democrats’ agenda with the cooperation of RINOs.”

That’s really popular, Harry.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! And I’d like to add a shout-out to my colleague Smitty who as regular readers know (a) was recently deployed by Uncle Sam to a landlocked country ending with “-stan,” and (b) despised the 111th Congress with every fiber of his being. You may want to send Smitty an e-mail to wish him a Merry Christmas and thank him for his service.


Category: Congress

Bad News, America: Teen Births Plummet

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 11 Comments

Teen birth rate hits record low
As the nation continued to struggle in the recession in 2009, the rate at which U.S. women are having babies continued to fall, pushing the teen birth rate to a record low, federal officials reported Tuesday. . . .
The overall drop pushed the fertility rate to about 2.01, a 4 percent drop from 2008. That is the largest decline since 1973 and put the total fertility rate below the level needed to sustain the size of the population for the second year after being above the replacement rate in 2006 and 2007 for the first time in 35 years.

That last part explains why this is bad news: The United States is one of the few industrialized democracies in the world that is near “replacement level” fertility (average 2.1 lifetime births per woman). Fertility in the rest of the developed world is deep into a disastrous demographic implosion — Portugal, Spain, Germany, Greece, Italy and Japan are among the nations with total fertility rates below 1.5. This is a long-term trend that has continued so long that, in most of those nations, it is likely irreversible. (Mark Steyn wrote about the economic and geopolitical consequences of this in his book, America Alone.)

The U.S. total fertility rate fell below “replacement level” for the first time in 1972 and reached an all-time low (1.74 births per woman) in 1976. The rate gradually increased from there but did not again reach replacement level until 2006. This demographic recovery was mainly due to a large influx of Hispanic immigrants with higher birth rates — and, most notably, with higher teen birth rates.

The two phenomena are inseparable. Any population group that demonstrates higher overall fertility will also tend to have higher teen birth rates and, by the obverse principle, policies aimed at reducing teen births will suppress overall fertility. Meanwhile, however, the same idiots who think that the record-low teen birth rate is good news are unable to explain why unmarried births are increasing.

Rachel Sheffield of the Heritage Foundation examines this seeming paradox of declining teen births and rising unwed births:

How can this be if teen moms are fewer in number? Because the large majority of single moms are well beyond their high school years. In reality, high-school-age girls are responsible for fewer than 10 percent of births occurring to single mothers, while women between 18 and 29 years of age are responsible for roughly 75 percent of out-of-wedlock births.
Yet most of the talk heard from policymakers regarding this matter centers around the need to throw increasing amounts of money at teen pregnancy prevention programs, mostly those that get birth control into the hands of high school students.

Read the whole thing.

Category: Census, Family

The Year ‘Global Warming’ Died

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 28 Comments

 Even the New York Times is forced to admit that the alarmists are fighting a losing battle:

The Obama administration, which came into office pledging to limit emissions in the United States, scaled back its ambitions after climate and energy legislation died in the Senate this year.
Challengers have mounted a vigorous assault on the science of climate change. Polls indicate that the public has grown more doubtful about that science.

Science! Science! And if you disagree, you’re anti-Science!

The problem, of course, is that Science keeps running head-on into those stubborn little things called “facts.” Despite all these “Trust Us We’re Scientists” arguments, people still refuse to believe that global warming causes record snowfall:

With the East Coast gripped by bitter cold, Paris paralyzed by snow and a headline in the UK’s Daily Express exclaiming, “Britain is Freezing to Death,” global warming alarmists will again have to fall back on their “climate change” sleight of hand to explain away the cold.

That’s just one of the “Top 10 Bad Developments for Global Warming Alarmists.”


Category: Global Warming

And This Was Not Even Voted the Worst Keith Olbermann Rant of 2010

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 4 Comments

This was only good enough for second runner-up in the Media Research Center’s “Dumb and Dumber Award” category of its 23rd annual Notable Quotables competition:

“[The Tea Party-backed Republicans are] a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the ’30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons. . . . It is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy, to buy America wholesale and pave over the freedoms and the care we take of one another, which have combined to keep us the envy of the world. . . . If you sit there tomorrow, and the rest of this week, and you let this cataclysm unfold, you have enabled this. It is one thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from without. It is a worse thing to be attacked by those who would destroy America from within.”

Of course, picking the absolute nadir of Olbermann’s unhinged crackpot demagoguery is a very difficult task, because there is always so much irresponsible moonbat lunacy from which to choose. Frankly, I don’t even think that MRC video clip even captured the worst of that particular rant about Tea Party-backed Republicans:

They see the future of America not in progress, but in revolution to establish a theocracy for white males, with dissent caged and individuality suppressed.
They see America not for what is, nor what it can be. They see delusions, specters, fantasies; they see communists under every bed and a gun in every hand.

What made that rant so outstanding was that it was delivered on October 27 — the Thursday before Election Day. Here was Olbermann warning America that a vote for the GOP was a vote for a white male theocracy instituted by delusional enemies of progress.

Five days later? The biggest GOP landslide since 1938.

Evidently voters listened to Olbermann’s description of Republican candidates and decided, “Yeah. That’s what we want!”

So now I guess John Boehner knows what his mandate means.

Thanks, Keith!

Category: Election, MSNBC, Tea Party

Christmas Cheesecake

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 11 Comments

“In an effort to boost my traffic, I am writing about breasts today. Small breasts. But breasts nonetheless.”
— NeoNeoCon, “On Small Breasts”

Donald Douglas is once again bemoaning the blogger’s plight during Holiday Traffic Suckage Season, when it seems that nothing can get the SiteMeter excited.

Lady Gaga getting groped? Man, that’s a genuinely desperate cry for help.

Times are tough all over. My previous post about the NSFW linkage in “Rule 5 Sunday” has raised the alarm. Soylent Green fears I’ve surrendered to the Net Neutrality Nazis.

Meanwhile, Dan Collins is worried about the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism efforts. But we know how to cheer up the blogosphere’s most famous chubby chaser, don’t we? Read more

Category: American Power, Christmas, Piece of Work in Progress, Rule 5

START II: Another GOP Cave-In?

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

The Lonely Conservative:

Yesterday the Senate moved one step closer to approving the New START treaty President Obama has been pushing for. It is expected that full approval will pass the Senate today and the deal with the Russians will be ratified shortly. . . .
Why don’t I feel any safer? . . .

Read the whole thing. My basic impression is that (a) this is yet another controversial issue that the Democrats intentionally punted past Election Day; and (b) if Democrats are in favor of it, Republicans should vote “no.”

Category: Russia, Senate

LIVE AT FIVE – 12.22.10

Posted on | December 22, 2010 | 1 Comment

TOP NEWS
Illegal Immigrants Factor Into 2010 Census, Congressional Apportionment

Census Director Robert Groves

Steven Camarota: “Literally we’ll have districts like we have right now where half the adult population can’t vote.”

Senate Votes 67-28 To Hold Vote On START Treaty
11 Republicans break ranks

FCC Votes On Party Lines To Impose “Net Neutrality” Rules
GOP minority predicts rules will die in court or be overruled by Congress



POLITICS
Ivies Eager To Welcome Back ROTC After DADT Repeal?

AFJROTC cadet Kwamika Jones salutes before conducting drill practice with her squad at Baltimore Polytechnical Institute

Harvard, Columbia, Yale indicate readiness to reopen ROTC programs; Pentagon has no comment

Continuing Resolution Passes

Food “Safety” Bill Passes Congress

Mohamud’s Defense Lawyers To AG Holder: STFU

Soon, Your Government Check Won’t Be In The Mail



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
TD Bank Buys Chrysler Financial As European Banks Retreat
New York Sues Ernst & Young Over Lehman Bros. Collapse
Oil Industry Challenge To Biofuel Mandate Rejected By Court
1.5 Million Windows 7 Phones Shipped: A Good Start
HP To Unveil PalmPad In January
“Call of Duty: Black Ops” Hits $1 Billion In Sales



SPORTS
Preakness Endangered By Maryland Racing Commission Vote

Rachel Alexandra noses out Mine That Bird to win the 2009 Preakness

Track owners, thoroughbred owners/breeders/trainers unable to agree on a schedule for 2010

Yankees, Red Sox Pay Luxury Tax
Tony Romo On IR For Rest Of The Season

UConn Women Take NCAA Division I Record With 89th Win

Utah WR Twitters “Boise State Or Should I Say Girlse State”

A’s Sign RHP  Rich Harden For One Year, $1.5 Million


San Diego State’s Football Team Makes Comeback, Will Face Navy In Poinsettia Bowl



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Scream Real Loud: “Pee-Wee Herman Show” Coming Back To HBO

Paul Reubens as Pee-Wee Herman

Probably no Cowboy Curtis this time around, though. 🙁

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska” Season Two Likely

Jermaine Jackson – Foreclosure Victim

Anna Chapman Nude Pix To Appear In January Playboy

Academy Nixes Four Score Contenders

Ryan Reynolds: Scarlett Treated Me Badly

Heidi Montag Reveals Her Scars

Another Royal Wedding In The Offing



FOREIGNERS
Iraqi Parliament Finally Approves New Government
NATO Denies That Ground Ops In Pakistan Planned
Vatican Clarifies Pope’s Condom Statement: Still Not For Contraception
Police Looking For Answers After Nairobi Explosion



BLOGS & STUFF
AmSpecBlog: Van Jones – The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Riehl World View: If Reid Ate The GOP’s Lunch, Graham & Company Packed It For Him
Neo-neocon: Haley Barbour And Racism
Hit & Run: FCC Votes Itself Judge Dredd Of The Internet
Blackfive: DADT Repealed? We’re Doomed!
Left Coast Rebel: Larry David Is An Idiotic, Self-Loathing Leftist Hollywood Tool
Pat Dollard: Lisa Murkowski Becomes A Major Obama Ally
Gateway Pundit: “Harry Potter” Actress Beaten By Brother, Flees Home After Family Threatens To Kill Her For Dating A Hindu Boy


— compiled by Wombat-socho

Category: Live at Five

Why Ed Schultz Became a Liberal

Posted on | December 21, 2010 | 13 Comments

Big hat-tip to the AOSHQ Headlines on this one. You sometimes hear conservative guys joke that liberal guys are liberal just because they want to score with liberal chicks. MSNBC’s firebrand “populist” is the punchline to that joke:

He savors his skewering of the right, but there was a time when he was one of them—a television sportscaster (after briefly making the roster of the Oakland Raiders) who became a talk-radio conservative, boosting Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. That began to change in 1992 after Schultz had his first date with the woman who ran the homeless shelter in Fargo. She had him grab a tray and wait on line for the Salvation Army lunch served to the downtrodden.
“Ed was in his suit, dressed to the nines, surrounded by homeless people. He was mortified,” says Wendy Schultz, now his wife and the producer of his three-hour radio show, broadcast down the hall at Manhattan’s 30 Rock. “He had a very tender heart and was very easy to tip over.” . . .
Schultz soon morphed into a left-wing prairie populist. “Some people believe it’s a made-up story, that it was about money, that he saw an opportunity as a liberal talk-show host,” says Schultz’s friend Don Haney, a reporter at KFGO radio. “But his conversion was genuine.”

Which is kinda ironic. Me, I was a Democrat my whole life and didn’t have to change my politics to marry a nice Republican girl from Ohio. (Crawl through broken glass and beg, yes; change my politics, no.)

It wasn’t until after I was married — with three kids and a mortgage — that I started to wise up to the fact that the Democrats’ class-warfare rhetoric wasn’t anything but a lie to get Democrats elected on their bogus promises of helping “the little guy.”

Ed Schultz reminds me of every mean drunk I ever knew. He’s a natural-born bully, which undoubtedly accounts for his popularity with MSNBC’s audience.

Category: MSNBC
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