A discourse & letter from Senator Lindsay Graham

From Iowahawk, one of the funniest columns  I've ever read.

Best part:  The letter of apology, addressed to the Right Reverend Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Cave 37-B, Kandahar Arms.

A Belated Navy Cross For a Real Public Servant.

Read this article--in it's entirely, if you please--then reflect on the public union people that are whining about their collective bargaining "privileges" (note that I use that term in the place of  collective bargaining "rights") while ostensibly in the service of the taxpayers.

Not to belittle the public servants' contributions to society--in the interest of full disclosure, I personally have been employed in the government at the state and county level at different times for around 20 years, and trust me, I've sacrificed what at times seemed like a considerable amount--but in retrospect it has been a tiny fraction of what others like this fellow have put on the line.  I think that a modicum of perspective is in order when observing the hyperventilated rhetoric that has been emanating from the legacy media coverage of the public unions in Wisconsin and Ohio.

There are heroes in all walks of life, but the degree of heroism and selflessness needs to be kept in mind as a measure of true selflessness.

Keep in mind that this guy was doing this on a helluva lot less than these other folks, at generally a far greater risk, and the implications of his actions arguably had a much more dramatic influence on the course of human history. 

This is also true for countless others that are currently in harm's way on our behalf, all over the world.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer a heartfelt thanks to all of you true heroes who serve and have served in the military, past and present.

Quote of the day.

Churchill: "We will fight them on the beaches,..."

Reagan: "Tear down this wall!"

Obama: "Follow me on twitter."

(spotted on People's Cube)

Nice guys really do finish last.

At least in some cases.This explains a heck of a lot of my younger years. Sure wish I'da seen this when I was in high school...Ah, coulda/shoulda/woulda. Hopefully my wife won't see this and start second guessing herself. (via instapundit)

If you can't control the message...

...then attack the messengers.

(from Politico): Media Matter's war against Fox. 

These folks can't compete in the marketplace of ideas, and with the new media's insistence on doing the job that other networks are supposed to be doing, they never will be able to compete.

So...the new strategy is:  ignore the stories, but try to destroy the people reporting them.  Nice.

Media Matters at least provides a glimpse into thugocracies like Venezuela, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Iran...

In fact, they'd feel right at home there.

Laws are for conservatives...you,know, the little people

Wisconsin GOP Investigates Illegal Political Activity, Makes the Left Angry.

Because laws, like taxes, are for the little people.

(From Red State)

England's Socialist-Anarchist Problems

The Human Right To Suspend Reality, as Mark Steyn puts it. The best line I've heard about these layabouts in revolt:

"Nobody in the Socialist Workers’ Party actually works, which is one reason why it’s Mitteleuropeans frothing your coffee rather than any of the natives."

Which to me seems to be all too true:  the folks that are bitching the loudest about not getting their handouts are the ones that don't actually need handouts. It seems like the proletariats are not actually the ones stirring controversy; it's the bourgeoisie feeling smug enough to tell everybody else what they ought to be doing, thinking, or getting, at everyone elses' expense. Once again, the proletariats end up being pawns to ease the guilt of the loud-mouthed punks raising mayhem for purposes that are muddled at best, and shockingly dangerous to freedom, democracy, and individual rights in a just civilization.

SEIU--a.k.a. Purple-People-Beaters--hit with RICO lawsuit

I just had to post this story on Big Government because I wanted to preserve for posterity the phrase "Purple People Beaters" on this blog. Now that's funny stuff! (Although it can't rise to the level of being really hilarious because it is so true.)  (via Instapundit)

Fashion Tips For That Cosmopolitan Burka-Babe Jihadist

For the "You're not going to believe this" category: A fashion magazine--for suicide bomber chicks.

No, honest, it's not a parody.  In the Daily Mail online, this story (via Barcepundit). Because, you know, a girl needs to look her best before she paints the town red--er, literally. I mean, what lip gloss shade goes best with intestinal grey? That is apparently a weighty question for these hirsute hotties.

These are the folks we're fighting against.  If they can keep their people religiously oppressed long enough to make them miserable, then turning them into your personal army of suicide zombies by promising a paradise won't be that hard.  This is stone-age brutality attempting to control the 21st century. In their eyes, you don't belong in it if you believe in freedom or liberty or justice of any sort.

How can we NOT fight against that?

On a side note:  Have you ever noticed that Bin Laden hasn't personally stepped up to the plate and detonated his TNT cummerbund in a crowd of kids yet? Or Ahmadinejad?  Or Qaddafi?

Why bother when Palestinian chicks are so willing and available?

Incredible.

Union Thugs Destroy Recall Petitions

via RedState, this video and accompanying article:

Why is it that the words "Union" and "Thug" seem to always appear next to each other? I think that they've become synonymous.

Yet another story that will be buried by the legacy media because it doesn't fit their narrative.

GM & GE, aka Government Motors & Government Electric.

Interesting article at Forbes.com exposing some effects of government takeovers of corporations--and how we're being lied to on many different levels. I might suggest that the Volt, which had been hyped as an all-electric vehicle before the truth came out (it is really a hybrid, just like the Prius) be rolled out again in a new P.R. campaign to make over its image.  They can call by its new name: the Chevy "Re-Volt".

On page two of this article we see how the sales numbers for the product from one government-owned company are being propped up by purchases by another government-owned company, thereby cutting those pesky consumers out of the process and doing an end around on free market capitalism.  You and I still get to pay the bill, though.

Now these are some ugly birds.

There is something to be said for anything that flies.  That being said, some are more graceful (or, in a few cases, graceless) than others.  Here is one author's list, from historynet.com.

I've got a couple that I'd like to add, however.

The Short Seamew:

Let me just say here that the Short company seems to have had a love affair with ugly airplanes--their boxcar-like cargo birds, for example--but the Seamew has to take the cake. And this was from 1951, when folks should've known better. I don't know if it really flew, or if the ground just rejected it.

Another candidate: The Blom und Voss 141 recon bird. I've always been convinced that this one was designed and built on a dare.

And who can forget the Super Guppy?

Poetry in motion.  Poetry, as in: "I once knew a man from Nantucket..."

Paul Krugman spouts bilge about education, gets schooled by Iowahawk

Here's the link:

And here's an update:

This is some quality Iowahawk analysis, with only a smattering of his normally effuse sarcastic wit thrown in to keep your mind from buzzing too much.  There is some coarse (but appropriate, in my view) language included, so if you're offended by that, close your eyes as they pass over them.

Facts like these are the type that should be covered by the legacy media, but since that would be in direct conflict with their pre-conceived narrative, it's up to folks like us to make sure that they have the broadest distribution as possible.

These guys have a surplus of gonadal fortitude.

The only thing that anyone can say is...Wow. Over and over again.

I had to find this and post this after seeing this in an email years ago, and recently describing a team of stunt pilots flying AT-6 Texans(World War II era advanced trainers)dragging their tires on the water to someone who (understandably) had a hard time swallowing my story. Well, here it is--seeing is believing:

The troubles in Mad City have less to do with teacher's rights...

...than they do with labor unions holding on to money and power. Read this WSJ article by John Fund and then contemplate what the legacy media will say about these provisions of the Walker-endorsed legislation on the six o'clock news. From what I've seen and heard, most of the legacy media reporting has been about "cutting benefits" and "curtailing rights"--but almost nothing about Big Labor's involvement or the DNC's role in stirring up this protest.

Like they say:  Follow the money.

They also haven't really mentioned that this bill was introduced essentially in lieu of more than 5000 layoffs and mandatory public worker furloughs.  In a time when 10% unemployment is the new norm (Hope & Change!), doesn't it seem a little weak to whine so vociferously about contributing 5.8% more into your retirement? 

I suspect that when all the layers of  faux-romantic rhetoric and demagoguery about the nobility and selfless sacrifice of the teachers and public workers fighting for their inalienable rights are pulled aside, the real roots that are driving the protests will be revealed as top-down, fat-cat-union-organizer-brand  power lust and greed.

 Now all we need is Big Media to pull aside the layers and actually seek the truth for once instead of pushing the leftist narrative.  Any takers out there, MSNBC?  CBS?  ABC? AP? CNN?  Um, why is everybody sitting on their hands?

Here's a direct quote from Fund's article that says it all:

Labor historian Fred Siegel offers further reasons why unions are manning the barricades. Mr. Walker would require that public-employee unions be recertified annually by a majority vote of all their members, not merely by a majority of those that choose to cast ballots. In addition, he would end the government's practice of automatically deducting union dues from employee paychecks. For Wisconsin teachers, union dues total between $700 and $1,000 a year.

"Ending dues deductions breaks the political cycle in which government collects dues, gives them to the unions, who then use the dues to back their favorite candidates and also lobby for bigger government and more pay and benefits," Mr. Siegel told me.

The union organizers' grip on power, financed by taxpayers via public sector unions and the democratic party, is in danger and must be protected at all costs. We shall see if that includes subverting democracy by refusing to face the consequences of the last election and refusing to honor the will of the people.

Exactly who is working for democracy here?

Union organizers pushing "Card Check" legislation against secret balloting, Wisconsin democratic house members running from their responsibilities...and, as usual, personal threats and thug tactics. It all seems to be standard operating procedure for the left. It's their '60s playbook, retrieved from the shelf and dusted off.  Only this time it's not the '60s, and Walter Cronkite isn't controlling the media narrative.

This excellent article at Powerline, by John Hindraker, points out the rank hypocrisy on display as these folks speak platitudes and rhetoric while supporting that which is fundamentally undemocratic.

Signs you will NEVER see in the legacy-media newscasts.

These are the signs the legacy media was looking for at all those Tea Party rallies this last year.  Now that these hateful,  reprehensible signs promoting violence have been spotted (again) at yet another leftist, union driven rent-a-mob rally, what do you suppose their reaction will be?

If your answer is "absolutely nothing", then congratulations; you've won the $64 prize.

Time for another "Gedankenexperiment".  Imagine that the media caught all of these signs at a Tea Party rally last year. For the bonus round: how many times do you think the video footage would run per hour for the next three weeks?

Journalism of the legacy media is dead.  The narrative now determines the news that is reported, instead of the other way around, which was the way it is supposed to work.

Free advice from a music teacher:

Got this from an email from a music teacher I know very well, and thought it absolutely appropriate (h/t to Sierra Mike):

"So, with all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event:

Save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts.

Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten —

straight up, no styling. Sing it with the constant awareness that

there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines watching you

from bases and outposts all over the world.

Don’t make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification.

Sing it as if you are standing before a row of 86-year-old WWII vets

wearing their Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and flag pins on their cardigans

and you want them to be proud of you for honoring them and the country they love —

not because you want them to think you are a superstar musician.

They could see that from the costumes, the makeup and the entourages. 

Sing “The Star Spangled Banner” with the courtesy and
humility that tells the audience that it is about America , NOT you."

Interesting analysis of JFK's PT-109 adventures.

One of the most straight forward and unbiased description of events that I've read, from historynet.com. (link here).

It also reinforces to me what a jerk Joe Kennedy Sr. was, and shows how the media has always had a narrative they needed to sell, even back in the post war 40's and 50's.

Remember when they were oh-so-condescending in the Clinton years?

(via Drudge): The march on Berlusconi.

Apparently they have a leader with the same problem of  keeping their ego...and other regions...out of the spotlight, so to speak, as the U.S. did during the 90's. 

As I recall, the legacy media narrative at the time was that 1) those women were just trailer trash, so 2) they certainly weren't that important, and 3) anyway, lying about things like rape or sexual harassment under oath just shouldn't rise to the level of criminality, if the perpetrator was a liberal politician in power. 

I also recall that most of Europe was amused that many people in the U.S. would not overlook the lapse of ethics and decorum--and law--that would have gotten anyone else fired in a heartbeat. The idea of a politician being subject to the same laws as everyone else was the stuff of satire and open derision.

Seems like times have changed in ol' Italy.

Coming soon to a theater near you...

...at least, I hope so. In the 53 years since that book was written we've gone from a place where it was distant, far fetched fiction to a point where it bears a resemblance to current reality that is shocking.

President Erkel "Milli Vanilli" Obama...

Official news from the Onion: Obama Caught Lip-Syncing Speech .



As a side note, Wyoming has apparently seceded from the union. Why am I always the last to know?

Nutritional standards are for the little people.

Juxtapose these headlines in your mind, and extrapolate what these folks think of themselves, and you:

Restaurant Nutrition Draws Focus of First Lady

and

Beer from Super Bowl states heads up Obama's party

Check out the white house menu, with the deep dish pizza, kielbasa, hot wings, and hamburgers, and I think you'll get the picture.  You & I are supposed to be making do with carrot sticks, radishes and lemon water, while they rate the hot wings and beer...because--well, we're the little people, and they're not.

Western Decline. How did this happen?

Oh wait...I know--Hope n' Change, right?  Via instapundit:

The Arab revolution and Western decline

I had really hoped that this presidency wouldn't be "Carter: The Sequel", but I think it's even worse than I had feared.

The most important quote that I saw in this article:

"The West has stopped being a leading and stabilizing force around the world."

It wasn't that long ago (about two years past) that we were the leading stabilizing force...and it was one of the main goals of foreign policy to be so.

This is some bad, bad news for Israel, as if they needed any more.

Actually, it's bad news for freedom everywhere.

Boy, she really made an impression!

Woman Survives 23-Story Fall from Hotel

Sorry.  I had to post this with that headline.  I'd have been up all night if I hadn't.

My sentiments exactly:

I do not want civil discourse.

As Glen Reynolds put it, "...an inspired rant."

I don't for one second believe that "civil discourse" (or discourse of any type)  is what these folks really want anyway.  They want you to shut up and comply.  Period.

The Spectre of Communism hangs over a building in New York City

From moelane.com, via Instapundit:

A reporterette takes a shallow dip into a pool of pseudo-intellectual, self-delusional doublespeak masquerading as rational thought, and comes up short of the obvious conclusion--which is, as Moe Lane put it--"Marxism is intellectualism for stupid people."

These people walk among you.  Okay, not too many out here in the majestic big square red states (although there are a few), but quite a few in those nasty little blue states. Now you know how Obama (and Barney Frank, and Bernie Sanders, and Dennis Kucinich, and...well, you get the idea) got elected--by pandering to these knuckleheads with their deeds while pretending to be centrist in their words.  It's all in those books on the shelves behind the reporters head, folks...

Best comment I saw from the YouTube site:

"There's nothing lamer than a Marxist living in the West, reaping the fruits and benefits of capitalism. He probably has the entire works of Lenin on his iPad."

Best comment I saw on Moe Lane's site:

"...or as Reagan put it, "How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

Yes, at the risk of seeming un-trendy or mean-spirited, I am questioning these people's sense of patriotism.  If you are out to undermine the foundations upon which this country was built, while telling me that it's all because you love your country so much that you want to change it, then yes--I think skepticism of one's level of commitment to the constitution is warranted.

Or as we say out here in those square red states, " Don't pee on my back and tell me it's raining."