40 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. George Soros-funded Think Progress says: It’s so darn hot because of global warming that the street lights in Oklahoma are melting!
    Turns out it was a dumpster fire.
    h/t Tom Nelson

  3. Obama campaign sues to restrict MILITARY voting.
    “On July 17th, the Obama for America Campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party filed suit in OH to strike down part of that state’s law governing voting by members of the military. Their suit said that part of the law is ‘arbitrary’ with ‘no discernible rational basis.’ ”
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/08/02/obama-campaign-sues-to-restrict-military-voting

  4. Remember Louise Lucas, the Democrat State Senator who said Mitt Romney speaks for “a fringe who do not want to see anybody other than a white person in a leadership position”? Well…

    In 2008, Lucas sued the city of Portsmouth for not providing two construction companies she owned with low cost loans. The $100 million lawsuit claimed “the [city] council denied the money because the proposed project was led mostly by blacks.”

    In 2001, Lucas said a Republican’s get-out-the-vote appeal smacked of racism.
    h/t Weasel Zippers

  6. Hoooollly hannah @chutz – that article has > 31000 facebook recommendations…
    Oh how far the Yankees have fallen. Heinlein was right, military are the ONLY people on the government payroll that should be allowed to vote.

  7. Fred, I’ve got no ill will towards the guy and I kinda hope he learns from this.
    He was a real douche, but there’s “not a gay” in him, so at least he’s got that.

  10. Donald Sensing, “The American Totalist Party“:
    “In essence, (Democrats) are telling Chick-fil-A to cower before the authority of the State and support its political ideology if they want to do business.
    “It is time for plain speaking: true to its Leftist, ‘progressive’ nature, the Democrat party is the American proto-fascist party, pure and simple, on this as on most every other public matter.
    “An apt description of fascism is that is it one variant of what psychiatrist and historian Robert Lifton called ‘totalism.’ Professor Anna Geifman explains the Totalist political world view:

    … Its devotees — anarchists, Marxists, or Islamists — want to impose a new order based on an “all-or-nothing claim to truth.” They operate within distinctive parameters of a “theology of Armageddon — a final battle between good and evil” – in which the stakes are nothing less than universal salvation. As outlined in Eric Hoffer’s classic, The True Believer, such movements have mastered the art of “religiofication,” that is, converting political grievances into messianic aspirations and “practical purposes into holy causes.”

    […]
    “The beating heart of Totalism in all its forms is power and control over others. This has become the raison d’etre of the Democrat party.”
    h/t

  11. Dan Mitchell has some valid issues with the inconsistency of Tom Coburn.
    I was most disappointed he didn’t ask “How can you think you intelligently discuss policy issues when you don’t know what Congress is allowed to do?”

  15. No one has commented on the four-man interpretative dance thing. I was hoping for a slag-fest. I’m guessing it must be a prank link.
    Right. I’m going to watch it and report back if it does involve men bravely dancing about.

  17. @Black Mamba
    The “residue” of nerve agent neutralization is called VX hydrolysate. Although neutralized, hydrolysate is still a toxic chemical and can easily be converted back into nerve agent. It takes sophisticated technology to incinerate the residue safely, and Iraq never had that capability.
    When UNMOVIC declared Iraq in substantial non-compliance with the inspection regime, Iraq had still not surrendered this residue to prove that they had destroyed their WMD.
    In the Sixth Report to the UN, UNSCOM laid out a clear statement of Iraq’s noncompliance including Iraq’s attempt to shift the burden of proof onto UNSCOM in paragraph 69. Paragraph 29 details the unaccounted for WMD including VX. They also specifically mention VX in paragraph 73.
    The seventh report mentions Iraq’s cessation of cooperation with UNSCOM in October 1998.
    http://www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/s/index.html

  19. Black Mamba, 10:04 p.m. —
    This link is encouraging, both from an historical perspective and what it possibly portends.
    Obviously, for Iraq to require assistance means that something dangerous and technically-advanced existed — and evidently still does nine years after the invasion. As you point out, this information clearly supports the Bush-Blair position on the existence of WMD.
    I would say, though, that this evidence is not critical to the justification for the invasion: the burden of proof on WMD always rested with Saddam Hussein, not Bush and Blair (a point that Saddam and the true-believing left never got). In addition, the WMD/terrorist/failed state confluence argument is only a half-way point in the full understanding of the importance for western security of the Bush Doctrine (another point of cluelessness on the part of the left, although, fortunately, it needn’t bother Saddam needed anymore…)
    In addition, that Iraq would seek such assistance from one of the principals behind, and participants in, Operation Iraqi Freedom — and do so openly and in such complimentary terms, particularly given the centrally controversial nature of the issue involved — is a great thing that hopefully says something about the future of Iraq and the Middle East.
    As a follow on, have a look at http://news.yahoo.com/did-syria-receive-chemical-weapons-saddam-195128195.html?_esi=1. Now that Kofi Annan has exited the scene and quit his usual schtick of covering for the bad guy, we’ll get closer to the truth on this question.

  20. chutzpahticular, 10:14p.m. —
    Well, well, well. We’re headed for another Florida recount, are we? In Ohio to be sure, but I’d bet that these guys have checked all the relevant statutes from all of the states in play to see if they can do the same elsewhere. I guess Ohio seems to be the logical place to start, given the stunt the two Johns tried to pull on election night in 2004.
    At least this time, having started so early, they won’t be able to resort to the fiction that the Republicans put the election result into the courts.

  21. Fun with numbers: a couple of comments on the information at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_romney_vs_obama-1171.html
    If I exclude the Democracy Corps, NBC/WSJ, and Pew Research polls, I put Obama’s adjusted average lead at 1.2%. We know that the NBC/WSJ poll is skewed (NBC admitted it). The Pew Research poll, with a ridiculous 10-point lead for Obama, is also skewed to the same extent (22% of respondents identified themselves as Republicans, while 33% identified themselves as Democrats).
    The more interesting one, though, is the Democracy Corps poll, which is Democrat-affiliated. The poll still has a 38-33 identification advantage for the Democrats, but notes that, of those surveyed, 50% voted for Obama and 41% voted for John McCain in 2008. So Obama at 50% and Romney at 46% represents a much closer race (the actual results last time were 52.9% vs. 45.6% — a 7.3% difference). Making the adjustment (1.7%), that would put Obama up by about 2.3% in this poll.

  23. More cuts to the left-liberal arts: “auto-da-fé”.
    Easy does it: “he gently transfers the flame to the painting.”
    H/T Margy Artwood.
    …-
    “For the Love of Art”
    “Destroying paintings in order to save them”
    “Antonio Manfredi, director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Casoria, stands outside the doorway of his exhibition space. In one hand, he holds a torch made from a wad of white cloth tied to a piece of wood. Next to him, on a square stand of bent rebar, he has hung a painting. The clouds are low. The air holds a hint of rain. With a bottle of lighter fluid, Manfredi wets first the torch and then the painting. He passes the stream across the front of the canvas, over its back, and three times along the bottom of the frame. He uses a cigarette lighter to set the torch on fire. And then he gently transfers the flame to the painting.
    At first, the canvas doesn’t burn. Painted in 2007 by a German artist named Astrid Stöfhas, it depicts four women from the Bayern Munich female soccer team embracing in celebration of a goal. The style is expressionist. A mass of soccer uniforms—red slashed with white—dominates the foreground. Above, the players’ faces are blurs of brushwork. The auto-da-fé has attracted three television crews and a handful of photographers, and for several seconds the only sound is the clicking of cameras. Smoke ripples across the painting’s surface like mist on a lake.
    Manfredi inaugurated the museum in 2005, at the request of the then mayor of Casoria, a Mob-infested suburb in the Neapolitan hinterland, one of those all-too-typical zones of Italian degradation where garbage casually piles up on the sidewalk, and lost tourists wonder if they haven’t stepped into the Third World. The promised funding never arrived.”
    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/for-the-love-of-art/9004/

  25. O’Vorwarts with TOTUS.
    The Call of the TOTUS National Socialist Bird: Hurry! Hurry! Forward Into The Future.
    O’TOTUS Narcissist:
    http://cdn.washingtonexaminer.biz/cache/r620-f2f5f3d5ab76e7d4d7a973bb005871a6.jpg
    …-
    “Back on the trail, Obama clings to the teleprompter”
    “President Obama spoke to supporters in Florida this afternoon, but was careful to stick to his script, relying heavily on his teleprompters.
    The president campaigned without teleprompters last month, when he made his controversial “you didn’t build that” remark about business owners.
    A campaign aide insisted last week that Obama’s slip up wouldn’t change the campaign’s teleprompter strategy.
    “The attempts by the Romney campaign to make this into their rallying cry haven’t changed anything,” said a senior campaign official to the Hill, adding that Obama “has done events without a teleprompter since then.””
    http://washingtonexaminer.com/back-on-the-trail-obama-clings-to-the-teleprompter/article/2503841

  28. I would say, though, that this evidence is not critical to the justification for the invasion: the burden of proof on WMD always rested with Saddam Hussein, not Bush and Blair (a point that Saddam and the true-believing left never got).
    – David Southam
    That’s NUTS! A burden to prove a negative!?
    Suck it up: the Iraq invasion (which in all humility I must fess up to initially supporting … G-d please forgive me!) was an unmitigated disaster.

  31. The natural end result of socialism.
    “The province does list its wind farms, but they are represented by a single dot on a map. They don’t list each turbine. That information isn’t always easy to find, as Wayne Gulden of Wind Farm Realities found.”
    …-
    “Ont. compared to cash-strapped Calif.
    Per capita debt is higher”
    “A new study that compares Ontario’s crushing deficit to California’s paints a bleak picture for the economic future of the province.
    Both jurisdictions face deficits of about $16 billion, but when you compare population and economic output, Ontario’s fiscal mess is worse, says the report by Fair Pensions for All, a citizens’ group that studied the issue.
    Ontario has approximately a third of California’s population of nearly 38 million people and a third ($638 million) of its GDP, and that means the per capita debt is far higher: $16,638 per Ontarian versus $10,463 for Golden State residents.
    California’s problems have been grabbing headlines, including this week when the city of San Bernardino filed for bankruptcy.”
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2012/08/03/20062966.html
    …-
    “Wind oppoents ask province: Where are the turbines?
    Opponents want map to show density of turbines, Energy Minister says information is available”
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2012/08/01/wdr-wind-turbine-map-locations.html

  33. me no dhimmi – I think that the Iraq invasion was the correct action. Remember, it was supported by over 30 nations, by the UN, and by Congress.
    I’ll claim that it was the tipping point for the domino effect that we are seeing in the Middle East, where the old tribal dictatorships are falling.
    Now, don’t get uptight that democracy, ie individual freedom, isn’t instantly emerging – you don’t implode a tribal infrastructure that has lasted for centuries and instantly move into a totally different – and I mean totally different – new infrastructure. It takes time, but the people will not replace one dictatorship for another; such a a replacement couldn’t last.
    As for WMD, Hussein had them and used them (chemical) and was reported to have moved them into Syria, which now has them (where from?).
    I agree that you can’t prove a negative, but, his use of chemicals against the Kurds wasn’t a negative.

  35. Socialism picks losers. Every time. Watch John* Charest.
    …-
    “Charest vows to protect Rona as Quebec election looms
    Globe and Mail”
    …-
    “Two articles, one from the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the other from Reason, illustrate what can happen when government tries to pick winners and losers. The unintended consequences spare neither Republican nor Democratic administrations. In the first case the Commonwealth of Massachusetts gave the film industry so much free cheese they ended up selling most of it to other industries.
    When is a market not a real market? When it trades in fake goods — products or services that could not exist if government didn’t bring them into being. A case in point is transferable targeted tax credits, which state and local governments routinely offer to attract businesses.”
    “Paine’s Island”
    http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/08/03/paines-island/#more-23676
    *Baptism name.

  36. Me Do Dhimmi, 12:26 p.m. —
    That’s NUTS! A burden to prove a negative!?
    Suck it up: the Iraq invasion (which in all humility I must fess up to initially supporting … G-d please forgive me!) was an unmitigated disaster.
    With all due respect, I’d suggest acquainting yourself with the facts of the matter, rather than following the mainstream media interpretation of these events. You might want to review the requirements of the cease-fire agreement that ended the first Gulf War, the subsequent dozen and a half UNSC resolutions, and Saddam’s track record of obsfucation, non-co-operation and defiance. What the heck, you might even want to read Bush’s and Blair’s memoirs on the subject, which are pretty detailed and compelling (especially Blair’s). Without question, the burden of proof of compliance was always on Saddam Hussein: his failure to show compliance led to the resumption of hostilities twice — briefly in 1998 and conclusively in 2003.
    I don’t see how anyone can claim that the invasion was a disaster — it certainly wasn’t a disaster from a military point of view or an economic point of view. Whether it leads to the kind of sustained political outcomes originally intended remains to be seen.

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