Useful background information on government shutdowns

Here is every previous government shutdown, why they happened and how they ended: I found that in explaining to my students this morning what was happening in the government budget crisis presently unfolding that I didn't really have all that firm a grasp of the ins-and-outs myself. This is vital background.

Worse than Watergate

IRS scandal means bad news for Obama: Public confidence in government is even lower than it was during Watergate. Quite an achievement for our President.

Sometimes the most important thing a man is telling you is what he is not telling you

Opinion: We need common sense on climate change - CNN.com: Incredibly he fails to mention the most striking fact in the report: that surface temperatures have not risen for 15 years. It is hard to take someone seriously as a scientist if they don't even mention the strongest argument against their theory.

Something from Hollywood a Conservative Could Love

A Tangled Web: Don Jon Highlights Real-life Effects of Internet Porn

False charges of a crime more harmful than the crime

Racism, Inc. | RealClearPolitics: "the noxious activities of Racism, Inc.—from the shake-down tactics of the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world to the academic sport of manufacturing racist incidents on campus—reminds us of a profound observation made by the philosopher Sidney Hook. “As morally offensive as is the expression of racism wherever it is found,” Hook wrote,

a false charge of racism is equally offensive, perhaps even more so, because the consequences of a false charge of racism enable an authentic racist to conceal his racism by exploiting the loose way the term is used to cover up his actions. The same is true of a false charge of sexism or anti-Semitism. This is the lesson we should all have learned from the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Because of his false and irresponsible charges of communism against liberals, socialists, and others among his critics, many communists and agents of communist influence sought to pass themselves off as Jeffersonian democrats or merely idealistic tenured radicals reformers."

'via Blog this'

Deserve to get it good and hard

Cyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation Is Starting All Over The World | Zero Hedge: The generation that elected Obama is going to learn the hard way about trusting their retirement and savings to the government. People put their faith in government funds and obligations because they don't want the responsibility and the trouble of making sound investment decisions themselves and the government is too big to fail. But if everyone acts on the notion that the government is too big to fail no matter how improvident its promises it becomes destined to fail.

So much for freedom of association

KKK wins lawsuit against bakery for discrimination | Tribune Herald: This is why the Civil Rights Law's "Public Accommodations" provisions, though probably necessary, are constitutionally problematic. If freedom of association means anything it means the freedom not to associate.

The Uses of Churchill

Opinion: After talking the talk, Ted Cruz wins - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com: "He is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill’s quip about Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a bull who carries a china shop with him." Hey, anything to work in a Churchill quote.

Civil Rights or Civil Liberties?

Sex-selective abortion: Gendercide in the Caucasus | The Economist: So, using ultra-sounds to determine the sex of a baby and then, if it is a girl, aborting it, would seem to be a clear case of oppressing a minority and thus a civil rights issue. On the other hand, telling women when they can and cannot have an abortion, or telling women what are permissible and impermissible reasons for having an abortion would seem, at least to most liberals, a violation of women's civil liberties. So, which takes precedence?

Are Guns the best protection for Civil Rights?

Lumbee Indians Face the Ku Klux Klan, 1958 | NCpedia: We are so often reminded of how voter identification laws were once used to discriminate against black people, why are we never reminded that gun control was once a favorite tool of racial domination?

Well, there is one place that Obama's policies are working!

Chart of the Day: Median income in DC vs the rest of us « The Greenroom: The government gets richer while the country gets poorer. Government helps insiders, suckers, not you, not the people that it claims to be helping, but the insiders.

Again, from overseas, news the American Media doesn't print

BBC News - Navy Yard shooting: Swat team awaits answers: As in Benghazi, would be rescuers are told to stand-down and then to be quiet.

While we are beating ourselves up...

Miss America, Meet India’s ‘Dark’ Side - The Daily Beast: In our country the bigotry is at least recognized and denounced for what it is. In India is part of accepted common sense.

What they don't tell you

9 Potential Mass Shootings That Were Stopped By Someone With A Personally Owned Firearm: One of them is from Mississippi.

I did notice a greater variety of stores when I was there.

Texas Food Deregulation Helps the Little Guy - Reason.com: The author contrasts Texas with New York.

Help your friends, harm your enemies

If History Is Any Measure, the Clock Is Ticking - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Assad, however, also knows that Mr. Hussein and Colonel Qaddafi were both deposed and ultimately executed years after giving up their weapons."

This is why the legalistic approach does not work: it creates the wrong incentive. We should be showing the world that it is dangerous to be our enemy, but that safety lies in being our friend. Unfortunately, recent events have supported the opposite conclusion.

churchill nods

‘Hello, I Must Be Going’ | The Weekly Standard: "The other Marx had something useful to say about Obama’s vaudeville routine on the world-historical stage: “Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historical facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” As he played his part in making the case for military action, John Kerry referred to this as our century’s Munich moment. He spoke more truly than he meant, for his boss followed the precedent of Munich rather than learning his lesson. But Obama’s Munich moment turned out to be a Marxian version, with Obama doing farcical pratfalls as he followed down Neville Chamberlain’s tragic path."

'via Blog this'

Luddites of the Left

To Enjoy Driverless Cars, First Kill All the Lawyers - Bloomberg: McArdle argues that the main thing standing in the way of driverless cars is the legal liability system. I think she is right and I agree with her that it would be a tragic missed opportunity if the legal system were allowed to prevent this advance. But I am not as pessimistic. As she points out, there are some countries that have abandoned the fault based liability system that stands in the way of driverless cars. As those countries adopt driverless cars and the benefits of such systems become apparent, it may provide the needed impetus for reform.

I believe the word is 'barbarism'

Activists call for end to child brides in Yemen after girl dies - UPI.com: '"Her family and her groom could have waited for some time before having this marriage," wrote on blogger, who goes by the name "Sad." "It was not fair at all and the marriage should not have happened even if some tribes believe that it is a good custom."'

There are some places where democracy is a danger to human rights, not a support.

What our betters think we are unfit to see

The Falling Man - Tom Junod - 9/11 Suicide Photograph - Esquire: the most striking thing about the coverage of 9/11 is what the press decided not to show. They decided not to show the people leaping from the burning towers. They argue that it is too traumatic for the viewers and particularly the families of those who chose this path to death. But what is the rationale for not showing us the scenes of celebration in the Arab world that attended the broadcast of the attacks? Why were the scenes of Palestinians on dancing and handing out candy not shown and rebroadcast? The reason is that our betters, these self-styled intellectuals in the press, had decided that Americans could not handle the truth, that they might be incited to aggressive actions in foreign policy or perhaps acts of violence against Arab citizens here.

I think that one unintended and unfortunate consequence of this infantalized picture of the world is that Americans are likely to overestimate the extent of anti-American feeling and al Qaeda sympathies in the Muslim world. Because the information is suppressed it is vaguely and imperfectly known. The fact is that the Palestinians are unusual in their hatred and in their support of terrorism, they are something of an outlier though the whole Arab world is skewed in that direction to some degree. Since the information is made available only fleetingly, people are likely to form the worst impression and assume that the most lurid scenes of public celebration of enormity are typical of the Arab world. There is nothing to be gained from withholding information from people on the grounds, not that it is untrue, but that they would draw from it the wrong conclusions. The idea that some information should be suppressed or should be treated as if we believed the information was wrong or did not exist, is the essence of political correctness and is always a mistake.

How to advocate for Second Amendment rights

The PJ Tatler » How Women, Hispanics, and Blue Collar Workers Defended Gun Rights In Colorado: "Other women’s groups were the first to run ads against Senator John Morse on the theme of “a woman’s right to choose… how to defend herself” which pushed the narrative." Turn the other side's arguments against them, that is how you when. Gun rights are a civil liberties and a civil rights argument!

If only he were a foreign agent, he would be a genius!

Obama's wing-it diplomacy undermines US credibility | WashingtonExaminer.com: Imagine if Obama were a Manchurian candidate, could he have succeeded better than he has by actually trying to increase security? And all the while, the real menace, the possession of a nuclear weapon by the world's chief sponsor of terrorism and our sworn enemy, Iran, grows apace.

Defense of Obamacare

The shocking truth about Obamacare’s rate shock: Ezra Kline defends Obama care from the rate hike charge, though it seems to me that the person that didn't want to buy the policy when it was 'bare bones' is hardly going to be happy about the price more than doubling because it offers more things he didn't think worth buying in the first place, let alone because it allows him the privilege of subsidizing older and sicker people.

When only the state has guns, the state becomes the criminal

Guns Against Tyranny | National Review Online: The wisdom of the founding Fathers is apparent to this immigrant from Communist China.

Constructivism in action

Obama team thought Iran would not tolerate Bashar Assad's use of WMDs | WashingtonExaminer.com: Only true believers in a particular idea could conceive such fantastic and ridiculous notions. It is naivete of Nevill Chamberlain-like proportions. Of course, this is uncharitable to Chamberlain, who eventually changed his mind and policy once it was clear he was being lied to.

Constructivism in action

Obama team thought Iran would not tolerate Bashar Assad's use of WMDs | WashingtonExaminer.com: Only true believers in a particular idea could conceive such fantastic and ridiculous notions. It is naivete of Nevill Chamberlain-like proportions. Of course, this is uncharitable to Chamberlain, who eventually changed his mind and policy once it was clear he was being lied to.

You go to the world with the President you have

The Right Vote | The Weekly Standard: "The fact is that Obama is the only president we have. We can’t abdicate our position in the world for the next three years. So Republicans will have to resist the temptation to weaken him when the cost is weakening the country."

As bad as Obama's foreign policy has been, the cost of not making good his threats to our credibility is too high--even if he doesn't believe that he made them in the first place.

Churchill always advocated making one consideration, one goal, primary, and subordinating all other objects to it. In my mind, there is one foreign policy objective that towers above others in our times: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. If the president is seen to be unable to back up his threats on this occasion it will be much more difficult if not impossible for his word to be effective in thwarting Iran's designs. I agree with those who argue that Obama has gotten himself in this mess, but we are in it with him, like it or not. We must support him.

You go to the world with the President you have

The Right Vote | The Weekly Standard: "The fact is that Obama is the only president we have. We can’t abdicate our position in the world for the next three years. So Republicans will have to resist the temptation to weaken him when the cost is weakening the country."

As bad as Obama's foreign policy has been, the cost of not making good his threats to our credibility is too high--even if he doesn't believe that he made them in the first place.

Churchill always advocated making one consideration, one goal, primary, and subordinating all other objects to it. In my mind, there is one foreign policy objective that towers above others in our times: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. If the president is seen to be unable to back up his threats on this occasion it will be much more difficult if not impossible for his word to be effective in thwarting Iran's designs. I agree with those who argue that Obama has gotten himself in this mess, but we are in it with him, like it or not. We must support him.

Ivy League Mothers

O, Alma Mater: The stay at home Mom and Princeton graduate explains why she feels defensive about her choice to not enter a high-powered career and why she thinks she has made the right choice for her and her children. She explains how her degree in literature makes her a better mother.

The Welfare State is for the State

Race and Poverty, Fifty Years After the March : The New Yorker: "The trend is unsettling—hard to believe, even—particularly given the progress black Americans have seen on some fronts. In a 1961 poll, forty-one per cent of respondents said they wouldn’t vote for a “generally well-qualified man” from their party if he happened to be black; five years ago, Americans elected a black President. In 1964, white students graduated high school at almost double the rate of their black peers; today, graduation rates for blacks are only a couple of percentage points lower than for whites. Yet black Americans have moved ahead little—and by some measures have fallen behind—with regard to the one standard that matters most to Americans: making money. How did this happen?..."

I have a suggestion. The welfare state does not serve the poor, it serves the employees of the welfare state. The schools have not gotten better, they have gotten worse, but that have kept up employment for a loyal group of the state's supporters: teachers.

From ABC

President Obama Seeks Congressional Approval for Syria Action - ABC News: ""This attack is an assault on human dignity," the president added. "It also presents a serious danger to our national security. It risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. It could lead to escalating use of chemical weapons or their proliferation to terrorist groups who'd do our people harm. In a world with many dangers this menace must be confronted."

Obama then left with Vice President Biden for a golf game."

Even the mainstream media is getting a bit tired of the pompous incompetent in the White House.