Predictors of divorce

Mathematical formula reputedly able to predict likelihood of divorce.

Oxford University professor James Murray said his formula successfully predicted whether a couple would divorce 94 percent of the time, in a study of 700 newly-married couples.

"Some couples might as well get divorced right away," said Murray, who was to present his findings to the Royal Society in London on Thursday, after receiving one of its oldest awards.

As part of the research Murray and his team filmed the newlyweds discussing contentious issues such as money or sex for 15 minutes, and graded each statement made during their respective turns of speech.

Statements with humour or affection were given positive scores, while those with defensiveness or anger were given negative ones. The resulting scores were used to identify whether the relationship was likely to stand the test of time.

The couples were then contacted over one to two year intervals over a period of 12 years, with Murray's formula correctly predicting the divorce rate with an accuracy of 94 percent.

"What astonished me was that a discussion, sometimes highly charged and emotional, could so easily and usefully be encapsulated in what is actually a simple mathematical model of a couple's interaction," Murray said.

This is at least partially consistent with John Gottman's "four horsemen" of failed marriages: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. Very bad for a relationship.

Most recent posts here.

Excellent question

At what point do people revolt?

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It’s not a partisan issue. There is bipartisan angst at out of control government made worse by dumb bans like this and unintended consequences like AIG’s bonus problems.

You get the gist. Read the rest for the context and 2010 predictions.

Most recent posts here.

Very clever

Some word-play from Daniel Hannan's blog:

Anagram of the Week:
I AM GORDON BROWN = MAD ON BORROWING

Most recent posts here.

Steyn: Embracing the 'death-cult narcissism' of Euro-socialism

I can't force you to read Mark Steyn but I would if I could. And if life were fair, Steyn would have accumulated five or six Pulitzers by now. His content is critically important and his style is a prime example of the vitality that socialism has all but killed in Europe and will kill here if the Obama administration has its way.

This current article is a manifesto against European socialism. If you've ever heard anyone wonder aloud, "What's wrong with Europe, anyway?" this article is for them.

Here are a few excerpts but they aren't meant to imply that you needn't read the whole thing.

The Europeanization of America
(alternate link: Prime Minister Obama)

Most Americans don’t yet grasp the scale of the Obama project. The naysayers complain, oh, it’s another Jimmy Carter, or it’s the new New Deal, or it’s LBJ’s Great Society applied to health care… You should be so lucky. Forget these parochial nickel’n’dime comparisons. It’s all those multiplied a gazillionfold and nuclearized – or Europeanized, which is less dramatic but ultimately more lethal. . . . You’ve probably heard academics talking about “the Swedish model”, and carelessly assumed they were referring to the Britt Ekland retrospective on AMC. If only. And, incidentally, fond though I am of Britt, the fact that I can think of no Swedish dolly bird of the last 30 years with which to update that gag is itself a telling part of the problem

. . . But, even so, if Scandinavia really is the natural condition of an advanced democracy, then we’re all doomed. And by “doomed” I’m not merely making the usual overheated rhetorical flourish in an attempt to persuade you to stick through the rather dry statistics in the next paragraph, but rather projecting total societal collapse and global conflagration, and all sooner than you think.

There are two basic objections to the wholesale Europeanization of America. The easy one is the economic argument. The short version of late 20th century history is that Continental Europe entirely missed out on the Eighties boom and its Nineties echo. . . . Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe in the Sixties and Seventies, is now a country whose annual growth rate has averaged 1.1 per cent since the mid-Nineties; where every indicator – home ownership, new car registrations – is heading down; and in which government agencies have to budget for such novel expenditures as narrowing the sewer lines in economically moribund, fast depopulating municipalities because the existing pipes are too wide to, ah, expedite the reduced flow. Even flushing yourself down the toilet of history is trickier than it looks.

But here's what ought to really scare you:

That’s the second and most critical objection to Europeanization: It corrodes self-reliance very quickly, to the point where even basic survival instincts can be bred out of society in a generation or two.

And the world needs us to retain our vitality:

An America that attempts Euro-scale social programs would have to reel in its military expenditures. After all, Europe could only introduce socialized health care and all the rest because the despised cowboy across the ocean was picking up the tab for the continent’s defense. So for America to follow the EU down the same social path would have huge strategic implications for everyone else, not least Europe.

Bingo. This just in.

Most recent posts here.

Steyn on America Alone (2006 interview)

Found this older interview (October '06) linked on the Corner.

Kathryn Lopez speaks to Mark Steyn on what was then his new book. Late-to-catch-on Steyn fans like me (all those wasted years!) will enjoy it. And it's handy to send to friends who don't yet realize that they must read America Alone.

As usual he's deadly serious and funny at the same time. A couple of excerpts:

Lopez: The press materials for your book announce that “Not since Samuel P. Huntington’s 1996 release The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order has there been a book this compelling and this important.” All that?

Steyn: Actually, I never saw that press release. And now you mention it I’m furious they didn’t say the most compelling and important book since Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire at least. What kind of cheeseparing publicity department damns their own author with faint praise about the most compelling book merely of the last decade? It’s hardly my place to do the big butch “If you only read one book this year” commercial, and if I did I’d probably make do with “If you only read one book this year make it …the new Harry Potter. But if you read three a week you might consider getting to this one round about the eighth month.” But, all fake modesty on my part aside and with whatever caveats are necessary to avoid class-action suits from disappointed readers, I don’t think there are many books that consider demography in geopolitical terms.

Lopez: You also write in a list of ways we can help Muslims reform Islam — that we should “Support women’s rights — real rights, not feminist pieties — in the Muslim world.” Are American feminist lefties mature enough to do that — and work with Mark Steyn on that endeavor?

Steyn: No. The trivia of identity-group politics in America is beyond parody: Women are now so dominant at, say, U.S. law schools that feminist groups are reduced to complaining about the lack of female pipe-fitters. If this keeps up, circa 2015 NOW will be complaining that there are too few female wait staff. And circa 2020 that there are too few female prostitutes. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan women were prevented by law from feeling sunlight on their faces and the only guy who did anything about it was George W Bush. We have “honor killings” now not just in Jordan and Pakistan, but in Britain and Germany and Scandinavia. Where are the feminists on that? This is the biggest lever we have in the Muslim world — the fact that half their populations are chattels. They don’t want to be navel-pierced Britneyized slatterns but a lot of them want something other. That’s a huge opportunity.

Bonus: Mark's latest column here. Song of the Week here. HG on that here.


Most recent posts here.

Obama is everyone's boss now

*Scroll down for update on how Congress wants to control salaries.

Krauthammer:

But you have got to ask yourself as a constitutional aside where in Articles II of the constitution is the president allowed to unilaterally guarantee auto warranties? I mean, tomorrow it will end up — we started with bank deposits, money markets, auto warranties, and tomorrow it's toasters.

Lowry: CEO President

It used to be that what was good for GM was good for the country; now, the country is going to decide what’s good for GM. It used to be that presidents could only fire chiefs of staff and Cabinet members; now, Obama can fire any of the corporate officials who effectively work for him. It used to be that the country had clearly delineated public and private sectors; now, they are mashed together in an arrangement vastly increasing governmental power. . . .

. . . if politicians and bureaucrats knew how to run car companies, they’d probably be working for Toyota or Ford. Obama’s automotive task force has almost no experience in automobiles and includes no fewer than three experts on climate change (presumably on the off chance that GM and Chrysler revive enough to begin despoiling the planet again).

Kudlow: A 'truly breathtaking' departure

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) . . . calls the Wagoner firing “a major power-grab by the White House on the heels of another power-grab from Secretary Geithner, who asked last week for the freedom to decide on his own which companies are ‘systemically’ important to our country and worthy of taxpayer investment, and which are not.” Corker calls this “a marked departure from the past,” “truly breathtaking,” and something that “should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise."

Charles Hurt: Would you buy a used car from this man?

What America really needs in these tough times is a new Used Car Dealer-in-Chief!

And that's just what we got from the Grand Foyer of the White House yesterday as Obama explained all the great new features of owning the world's second-largest automaker.

"Just in case there's still nagging doubts," Obama said, as if to a skeptical buyer.

"Let me say it as plainly as I can: If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always."

All that was missing was the sharkskin suit, giant pinky ring and slicked-back 'do.

Doug Ross: Doubletalk: Obama's hostile takeover

I've examined the complete transcript of President Obama's statement today regarding General Motors. And I've concluded that this is the worst example of Presidential double-talk since Bill Clinton explained the meaning of the word "is".

Read on.

*Updated to add this from Dana Milbank, who has discovered a rich vein for satire in our new president.

*Update: And now they'll be controlling salaries, too.

From Byron York:

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

Read the rest.
h/t: Rush

Most recent posts here.

'Cynics might call this tendency a death wish.'

We are so screwed.

Where this road is leading, RS McCain
'The Road to Serfdom' revisited, Scott Powell

Read them, follow links, and weep. But only briefly. Then read this. And this. And this. Excerpts:

The difference between success and failure, between defeat and victory, between a winner and a loser is this: A winner does everything he can do, and then says to himself, "I haven't done enough. I need to do more." He makes victory his goal and, by relentless effort, he makes victory his habit. He goes all-out, he gives it 110 percent, and even if his team doesn't win, at least he knows he's done his best.

"One of the basic principles of military strategy is to reinforce success. If you see a man who fights and wins, give him reinforcements, and bid others to emulate his success."

A winner emulates success, a winner exemplifies success, and a winner encourages success. A winner is not a whiner. A winner does not envy or derogate the success of others. He does not demoralize others by a defeatist attitude. He does not take counsel of his fears. He is not a crapweasel. He gives his comrades faith for the fight.

Figure out how this applies to you.

Most recent posts here.

Gala Tribute to Women

Our First Lady celebrated Women's History Month by collecting such female role models as Fran Drescher and Kerry Washington and sending them forth as inspiration to school girls. I'm getting in just under the wire with my Women's History Month Gala Tribute to Women. Let's finish this special month out in style.

I Enjoy Being a Girl


Beautiful Girl


More Ann-Margret: How Lovely to be a Woman


(I could embed this, too, but it would be wrong.)

Most recent posts here.

Culture of death update

In Turkey, men seek to avoid prison by convincing women to commit DIY honor killings:

When Elif's father told her she had to kill herself in order to spare him from a prison sentence for her murder, she considered it long and hard. "I loved my father so much, I was ready to commit suicide for him even though I hadn't done anything wrong," the 18-year-old said. "But I just couldn't go through with it. I love life too much."

Read the rest.

Most recent posts here.

'10 terms not to use with Muslims'

From Jihad Watch:

"10 terms not to use with Muslims," by Chris Seiple in the Christian Science Monitor, March 28 (thanks to Kathy Shaidle):

1. "The Clash of Civilizations."
2. "Secular."
3. "Assimilation."
4. "Reformation."
5. "Jihadi."
6. "Moderate."
7. "Interfaith."
8. "Freedom."
9. "Religious Freedom."
10. "Tolerance."

Click on one of the links above for the long form, complete with explanations of why these terms may offend.

Most recent posts here.

NYT killed incriminating Obama/ACORN story last October

The story was feared to be "a game changer."

NYT spikes ACORN/Obama story

A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.”

Heather Heidelbaugh, who represented the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in the lawsuit against the group, recounted for the committee what she had been told by a former ACORN worker who had worked in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. The former worker, Anita Moncrief, told Ms. Heidelbaugh last October, during the state committee’s litigation against ACORN, she had been a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”

Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORN’s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”

Ms. Heidelbaugh then told the congressional panel:

“Upon learning this information and receiving the list of donors from the Obama campaign, Ms. Strom reported to Ms. Moncrief that her editors at The New York Times wanted her to kill the story because, and I quote, “it was a game changer.”’

h/t: Hannity, Pundit, Media Blog

Most recent posts here.

VDH on Obama's ego-speak

First-person Socialism Victor Davis Hanson

I think our president needs to invest more in the use of the third-person "government," since his speeches more and more center on the narcissistic "I" and "me." Even the car-takeover speech was "I-ed" to death. E.g.

My Auto Task Force

And so today, I am announcing that my administration will...

In this context, my administration will offer General Motors adequate working capital over the next 60 days. During this time, my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan.

I am committed to doing all I can to see if a deal can be struck...

Now, I know that when people even hear the word "bankruptcy" it can be a bit unsettling, so let me explain what I mean. What I am talking about is..

What I am not talking about is a process where a company is broken up, sold off, and no longer exists. And what I am not talking about is having a company stuck in court for years...

It is my hope that the steps I am announcing...

let me say it as plainly as I can ...

I'm directing my team to take several steps.

I want to work with Congress to identify parts of the Recovery Act..

I am designating a new Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers...

And on and on . . .

Most recent posts here.

De-baptism movement

Methinks they doth protest too much.

Latest trend: renouncing your baptism

John Hunt, a 58-year-old from London and one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old.

The male nurse said he approached the Church of England to ask it to remove his name. "They said they had sought legal advice and that I should place an announcement in the London Gazette," said Hunt, referring to one of the official journals of record of the British government.

Michael Evans, 66, branded baptising children as "a form of child abuse" -- and said that when he complained to the church where he was christened he was told to contact the European Court of Human Rights.

Perhaps Mr. Evans would like to sue his abusive parents for pain and suffering.











Most recent posts here.

Mr. Definitely meets Mr. Hitchens

Highly recommended viewing:



Once upon a time, when I was about 16 years old, I too held to the belief that "no one can know what's true." Thanks be to God I outgrew that absurd point of view. Mr. Definitely's problem is not necessarily a lack of intelligence, perhaps. It's his fears and biases that prevent him from using his reason as God intended.

h/t: the Corner

Most recent posts here.

Angie Harmon: Not an Obama supporter, not a racist

I couldn't care less what celebrities think. But Angie, though she's not telling us anything we didn't already know, is speaking real sense here. The sheeple fear being branded a racist. We'll never know to what extent this fear helped Obama get elected.













From Fox via HotAir:

Angie Harmon is not afraid to come out and say she doesn’t like how President Obama is handling the job — but she’s sick of having to defend herself from being deemed a racist.

"Here's my problem with this, I'm just going to come out and say it. If I have anything to say against Obama it's not because I'm a racist, it's because I don't like what he's doing as President and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against him you're called a racist," Harmon told Tarts at Thursday’s Los Angeles launch of the new eyelash-growing formula, Latisse. "But it has nothing to do with it, I don’t care what color he is. I’m just not crazy about what he's doing and I heard all about this, and he’s gonna do that and change and change, so okay … I'm still dressing for a recession over here buddy and we've got unemployment at an all-time high and that was his number one thing and that's the thing I really don't appreciate. If I'm going to disagree with my President, that doesn't make me a racist. If I was to disagree with W, that doesn't make me racist. It has nothing to do with it, it is ridiculous."

Speaking of dislikes, the starlet has also had enough of the double-standards in the media.

"I do think McCain would have done a better job, only because I think he has more experience. I also think if W or John McCain or Reagan would have gone and done a talk show, the backlash would have been so huge and in his face, and ‘What is our president doing? How unclassy!’ But Obama does it and no one says anything," Harmon said.

She admires Sarah Palin, finds her smearers "disgusting" and believes that they're afraid of her.

"I admire any kind of woman like her. My whole motto is to know what I stand for and know what I don't stand for and have the courage to live my life accordingly and she does exactly that. The fact that this woman has made the decisions she's made and literally lived her life according to that and takes heat for it is absolutely disgusting to me," she added. "People cannot look at this woman. I really think they're afraid of her and her morals, ethics and values and the fact that she hangs on them. Is she the most experienced person in the world? But she was running to be the Vice President, so we then put the most inexperienced person as the President. That didn't make any sense to me." [emphasis added]

Most recent posts here.

They're willing to fight dirty and we aren't

Two must reads, because it's critical to know your enemy.

First, Breitbart: Online activists on the right, unite!

Uninvited Democratic activists are on a mission to demoralize the enemy - us. They want to ensure that President Obama is not subject to the same coordinated, facts-be-damned, multimedia takedown they employed over eight long years to destroy the presidency - and the humanity - of George W. Bush.

Political leftists play for keeps. They are willing to lie, perform deceptive acts in a coordinated fashion and do so in a wicked way - all in the pursuit of victory. Moral relativism is alive and well in the land of Hope and Change and its Web-savvy youth brigade expresses its "idealism" in a most cynical fashion.

The ends justify the means for them - now more than ever. . . .

So now that the right is vanquished and thoroughly out of power, why doesn't it learn from its conquerors and employ similar tactics?

The answer is obvious. The right, for the most part, embraces basic Judeo-Christian ideals and would not promote nor defend the propaganda techniques that were perfected in godless communist and socialist regimes. The current political and media environment crafted by supposedly idealistic Mr. Obama resembles Hugo Chavez's Venezuela more than John F. Kennedy's America.

Continuing with RS McCain:

Some of you newbies may not realize it, but these troll tricks are merely updated online versions of the tactics the Communist Party used in its decades-long subversion campaign. Breitbart and most other conservatives won't say this in so many words, because it sounds like McCarthyesque conspiracy theory, but it's nonetheless true: If you want to understand how the American Left operates, you need to spend time studying how the old CPUSA operated.

Even more so than Marxist ideology itself, Ronald Reagan said, it was the dishonesty of CPUSA tactics, which he encountered as the leader of the Screen Actors Guild in the '40, that turned him from a "bleeding heart" liberal into a fierce anti-Communist. Honorable causes do not routinely resort to dishonorable tactics, and the despicable ends-justify-the-means behavior of the Reds convinced Reagan that their ends -- their supposedly "idealistic" objectives -- were anything but honorable.

Solutions? Here are a couple from me: We need to use our smarts, and we need to keep faith with each other. Readers, any thoughts? Pundit?

Read all of both.

Most recent posts here.

Will: Is the stimulus unconstitutional?

*A kind commenter has pointed out a rather glaring error. It's the bank bailout, not the stimulus bill, that Will is discussing in his column. Mea culpa.

Good ole George Will, still quaintly preoccupied with that antiquated piece of paper.

It is high time Americans heard an argument that might turn a vague national uneasiness into a vivid awareness of something going very wrong. The argument is that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is unconstitutional.

By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."

Read it all.

Most recent posts here.

Twitter makes a monkey out of Olbermann

Rather, he be-monkeys himself. Read the saga at Redstate and this below from Instapundit:

Any day now we might see Olbermann’s Worst Person be: ‘… the gentleman from Nigeria. You, sir, have failed to return my emails. Indeed, not only have you and the Prime Minister you so recently worked for refused to deposit my 100,000 euros, you have withdrawn a great deal of my own money!’”

Most recent posts here.

Letterman on Teleprompter

Either Dave just can't keep up with the news or he's a shameless partisan stooge posing as an entertainer.



Dave's defense of Obama is embarrassingly earnest. I was going to suggest he shut up and do comedy but on second thought, just shut up.

Most recent posts here.

Vivaldi violin concerto in A minor

Sorry about the space hippies. Pundit can't believe I did that. Here's an antidote, inspired by this and this.


Most recent posts here.

Space hippies

Most recent posts here.

A call to arms: Be there on April 15th

Happy warriors needed to attend April 15th Tea Parties!

If you feel anything like I do about where our 'leaders' are taking our country right now, you're in need of a pep talk. That's what you'll get from R.S. McCain as he shows American-style leadership, answering the question, "But what can we do?" (and shaming us into not giving up).

(If there's anyone out there who's still unfamiliar with Mr. McCain's style, be warned that it's, uh, colorful.)

Most recent posts here.

Drain-circling accelerates

From Mark Steyn:

The upside-down family tree

Four grandparents have two children have one grandchild.

When I was a wee lad, only children were a rarity, and, from the snippets one caught of adult chit-chat on the subject, not something particularly to be encouraged. Now they're the norm - at least in the United Kingdom. Your Demographic Deathwatch story of the day:

Britain is become a nation of only-children with nearly half of parents choosing to have only one child.

Latest figures show homes with just one child now make up 46 per cent of all families and could soon be in the majority of the current trend continues...

"The only people who can afford large families are the small numbers of the wealthy, to whom cost doesn't matter and the larger number of those who depend on welfare to whom the cost doesn't matter because the state provides."

As to who might be included in that "larger number", see this story.

Spoiler alert: "The Muslim population in Britain has grown by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years, according to official research collated for The Times."

I belong to a subculture (traditional Catholicism) in which large families are common. Their incomes vary. I've never known any parents to have a large family because they have extra money lying around: "Listen, Madge. I notice we have a $6593.52 surplus this year. How about having another child?" Au contraire; most of them are somewhere in the middle or lower middle, making sacrifices to support their large families. My point is that something other than a couple's income goes into the decision to have children.

Related post: Anti-people people

"Babys is great stuff Al and if I was you I would not wait no longer but would hurry up and adopt 1 somewheres."
Ring Lardner, You Know Me Al

Most recent posts here.

Diversion: Ann-Margret

I shouldn't admit this but I had a crush on Bobby Rydell when I was seven years old. Not so much anymore, though I still like his version of Volare. Ann-Margret, though -- she's fabulous. Here she is at age 22:



Trivia: She made a memorable tv appearance the same year. And she's been married to the same man (Roger Smith) since 1967. What a woman.

Linked here.

Most recent posts here.

Appalling: ACORN to receive billions from GIVE Act

These people are criminals. If anyone was not quite clear on the fact that the Obama administration and this congress are intent on implementing a radical agenda and perpetrating the most massive government power grab in U.S. history, this bill, including its provision to shunt billions of taxpayer dollars to ACORN -- ACORN! -- ought to resolve any lingering doubts.

The Senate has killed an amendment to GIVE that would prevent ACORN from receiving $5.7 billion from this terrible bill. And changes have been made to worsen this obscenity. From Doug Ross:

The GIVE Act was stealthily modified during the House debate -- not in substance, but in terminology. Even so, the nomenclature is Orwellian and ominous. Given President Obama's bizarre promise to create a "civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military," the GIVE act appears to be a precursor to that type of internal security force.

GIVE creates a "National Civilian Community Corps" and establishes a "Permanent Cadre" which will "give consideration to retired, discharged, and other inactive members and former members of the Armed Forces."

Furthermore, "The Director shall give priority to projects utilizing retired military and emergency professionals for programs to improve public safety, emergency and disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery, search and rescue, and homeland security efforts."

Specifically mentioned are programs "that strengthen community efforts in support of homeland security"; in other words, ACORN. Thus, both the House and Senate bills are designed to funnel money to a semi-militarized wing of the Democrat Party. ACORN appears to be at the center of this wing.

And some of us have had enough:

My emotions are running the gambit. Obama is incompetent? But, what does that make us? Trusting, foolish, powerless and obviously standing in muck so deep we are not moving to respond. They count on no outrage, no violence, no gatherings that would clash with authority. On a weekend at night..sneaking the scoundrels into the pantry. Disgusting abuse of power. Americans Wake Up!

I'm afraid we're losing our country.

This hasn't passed yet. We need to flood our so-called representatives with calls, emails, and faxes and let them know that Americans are opposed to this. Click here for House emails and here for Senate.

Please read Doug Ross, Gateway Pundit, and 2theAdvocate for the facts. How your senators voted here.

Most recent posts here.

Video: Daniel Hannan speaks

More on the intrepid Mr. Hannan here (including Sean Hannity audio).

Transcript of his remarks:

Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate. You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that. Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child. Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt. We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in. Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.

Absolutely awesome. (And complete with naval references. Sigh.)

Most recent posts here.

In praise of 'chaotic and unforgiving capitalism'

Mark Steyn on Obama's anti-capitalist power grab:

Barack Obama, even when he's not yukking it up on "60 Minutes," barely disguises his indifference to economic matters. He is not an economist, a political philosopher, a geopolitical strategist. He is the President as social engineer, the Community-Organizer-in-Chief. His plan to reduce tax deductions for charitable giving, for example, is not intended primarily to raise revenue, but to advance government as the distributor of largesse and diminish alternative sources of societal organization, such as civic groups. Likewise, his big plans for socialized health care, a green economy, universal college education: they're about extending the reach of the state. . . .

In their first two months, Obama and Geithner have done nothing but vaporize your wealth, and your children's future. What began as an economic crisis is now principally a political usurpation. And, to return to the president's "false choice," that "chaotic and unforgiving capitalism" is exactly what we need right now. It's the quickest, cheapest, fairest, most efficient route to economic stabilization and renewal. A regimented and eternally forgiving global command economy with no moral hazard will destroy us all.

Read it all.

Most recent posts here.

Hillary strikes again

Awkward! Hillary Clinton asks who painted the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma.

Moral of the story: Do your homework!

This is getting very embarrassing. Would someone kindly hit the reset button on this administration, please?








Update: And just a day later Mrs. Clinton accepted the Margaret Sanger Award from PP:

This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization's founder, a noted eugenicist. The award will be presented at a gala event in Houston, Texas.

Margaret Sanger links:
Jonah Goldberg
Patrick Madrid
Jill Stanek

Most recent posts here.

Saturday Link-fest 3/28

Some links to my BFF's. Due to an embarrassment of riches I can't link to them all. But there's always next week.

Inspiration
Heroes: Honoring Medal of Honor recipients, and a video interview of Marcus Luttrell.

Diversions
Amusing: Please follow the links till you get to the photo.
Classical: Vivaldi
Slapped: Wrestler fails to show proper respect to El Supremo.

The ongoing Obama fraud
Exposed: GIVE Act is a scam.
Thin air: Those 'created or saved' job numbers are based on . . . nothing.
Liar: Obama's bait and switch.
Orwellian: Government tentacles trying to reach into our computers.
Willful blindness: Pay no attention to the Teleprompter behind the curtain.

The ongoing congressional fraud
Dishonorable: Harry Reid calls Justice Roberts a liar.
Overdue: ACORN needs to be investigated.

Corruption and cultural declilne
Horrifying: 60 people in Oakland hold march in support of man who kills 4 police officers.
Toxic: The corruption and collapse of Jefferson County, AL

Fighting back
Back to basics: Background on the culture of death.
More instruction: The Other McCain once again enlightens on the nuts-and-bolts of the manipulation of thought through the manipulation of language. He explains the 'ransom-note method' employed by the Left to distort and smear conservatives.
Pitbull: Palin opposes weakening of parental consent law.
Defiance: Bobby Jindal encourages us to defy the president.
Puzzling: Trying to solve the Obama enigma.
Rebellious: Walter Williams on states' revolts.

Most recent posts here.

Do not fear salt

I love Junkfood Science. The writer exposes non-science like this:

Imagine if Mr. Greenjeans* decided to write a recommendation that every adult who was over 5 feet tall needed to take one of his green pills every day to be healthy. He then conducted a study in which he totaled the number of adults in the United States who was over 5 feet tall and found that his recommendation would apply to nearly all adults.

● Did Mr. Greenjeans just prove that most everyone “should” be taking his green pills?

● Did he just prove that his green pills are effective in making people healthy?

● Did he just prove that most adults are deficient in green pills?

LOL! Of course not. No one would fall for this fallacy of logic, right? Mr. Greenjeans didn’t do any science, nor a lick of research to test his green pills. Yet, incredibly, this is exactly what every mainstream publication today is reporting.

Salt is not our enemy and it has never been proven that it's bad for us. Americans have lost the ability to think critically. (This explains a lot of things.)

Not only has the soundest science for nearly half a century— including the government’s own findings on examinations reflecting 99 million Americans; more than 17,000 studies published since 1966; and even a recent Cochrane systematic review of the clinical trial evidence — failed to support salt reductions for offering health benefits for the general public, but Cochrane’s reviewers specifically concluded that such interventions are inappropriate for population prevention programs. They could hurt people, raising risks for heart disease and premature death.

The media, however, is reporting that this CDC study illustrates the need for stronger salt restrictive guidelines. New federal dietary guidelines are coming out next year.

This is called advance marketing.

Read the whole thing.

Most recent posts here.

Facing the reality of Obama

The folks at the Economist are becoming disenchanted with their fella but they're still in denial about what's wrong with this relationship.

Jennifer Rubin in Commentary:

Yes, there is an element of managerial incompetence, but the real issue is that the Right was correct about Obama: he’s an ultra-liberal at least on domestic policy, not a pragmatic centrist either on policy or in style. His mode of governance — denigrate the opposition, engage in ad hominem attacks, refuse to compromise on substantive policy, disguise radical policy intentions with a haze of meaningless rhetoric — bespeaks someone supremely confident in his ideological views and undaunted by fears (which are slowly creeping up on his Red state colleagues) of having overshot his mandate.

It is therefore unlikely that Obama will change course unless forced by electoral realities or external events. If the next several bond auctions are a bust perhaps then the spend-a-thon will slow. If unemployment rises and his poll numbers fall, perhaps he’ll hold off on burdening employers for just a bit. If he loses 30 or 40 House seats in 2010 he won’t have the legislative latitude to throw up whatever legislation he wants (or to defer to Nancy Pelosi).

But barring these developments it appears we are in for more of the same for the remainder of his term. It’s not what the Economist expected, but it is pretty much what most conservatives did. [emphasis added]

In other words, we are so screwed.

Infatuation clouds judgment. And when the cold gray light of morning reveals that Prince Charming isn't at all what he seemed at the ball and it turns out it was just one of those things, infatuation may be followed by a self-justifying and wholly unreliable analysis of the relationship. It's possible that more honesty will emerge when the disenchantment progresses into disgust and revulsion.

Mark Steyn would like the Obamacons to face reality at some point:

The nuancey boys were wrong on Obama, and the knuckledragging morons were right. There is no post-partisan centrist "grappling" with the economy, only a transformative radical willing to make Americans poorer in the cause of massive government expansion. At some point, The Economist, Messrs Brooks, Buckley & Co are going to have to acknowledge this. If they're planning on spending the rest of his term tutting that his management style is obstructing the effective implementation of his centrist agenda, it's going to be a long four years.

"I told you so" gives no satisfaction in this case.

Most recent posts here.

Duets

Most recent posts here.

Video: Bill Maher is not a fan of the disabled

Got this from Jill Stanek. The hooting laughter at the mere name of Sarah Palin and the implication that she's a moron is bad enough. But Maher wants to make sure we all know where he stands with disabled people. He reads Palin's remarks -- that the disabled are "the world's most precious and unique people," -- and adds, "Not."



Most recent posts here.

Threat against the dollar

Thanks to Donald Douglas for writing about this here and here. I've read a bit about it but am totally out of my depth.

Rep. Bachmann is being called a crazy by the left and (arguably) dismissed by the right. You can listen to her remarks at American Power or read the text of her resolution here.

Excerpts from AP:

Bachmann's proposed resolution to protect the dollar as the country's sovereign unit of exchange is perfectly justified in light of monetary history and the outlandish comments from Secretary Geithner. Advanced economies are not inoculated from supranational pressures toward monetary homogenization or unification, as the case of the European Union indicates. Once Ms. Bachmann refers to "One World Currency," the only logical reference point is to a national currency unit that would replace current dollar hegemony worldwide. There is no alternative for circulation within borders for everday tendered transactions. More abstract currency units, for example, the IMF's "SDRs", do not circulate as legal tender within nations - they are accounting units for central bank transactions. For something to displace an indigenous legal tender as a means of domestic exchange, an international reserve currency would be introduced into local markets for stability and confidence. This is not unusual, as the dollar now routinely serves as the local unit of exchange in transitioning economies. If anything is outlandish in all of this, it's the idea that Americans should take seriously the notion that China has the economic power to replace U.S. as the world's leading economic power. This is the administration's stupidity, not Representative Bachmann's. She's simply putting in place legislative protections against this administration's transnationalists, those who are willing to consider the replacement of the dollar of the world's reserve currency. See the disussion, for example, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Chinese Yuan: The Next World Currency?"

There's nothing stupid about Michele Bachmann's concern for American sovereignty or her distrust of the Democratic financial mandarins in Washington. What is stupid is how conservatives, at least as demonstrated by the lack of response to the left's "currency trutherism" against Ms. Bachmann, aren't taking these attacks seriously.

Most recent posts here.

Drinking hot tea a high-risk behavior?

If hot tea is a carcinogen then not only am I doomed. So is Western civilization. And China. And the country of Iran to boot.

Study: Hot Tea May Increase Risk of Throat Cancer

March 26, 2009 -- Drinking hot or very hot tea may make a certain type of esophageal cancer more likely.

That news appears in the advance online edition of BMJ, formerly called the British Medical Journal.

Researchers studied tea drinkers in northern Iran's Golestan province, which has a high rate of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

That's the world's most common type of esophageal cancer. But it's not the type of esophageal cancer that's been rising in Western countries (that's adenocarcinoma of the esophagus).

Why study tea drinkers in northern Iran? Because just about everyone there drinks tea daily, and some esophageal cancer risk factors, like smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, aren't common.

Hot Tea, Higher Risk

The Iranian tea study comes from researchers including Farhad Islami, a research fellow at Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

They interviewed 300 people with confirmed cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, as well as 571 healthy people of similar backgrounds.

Participants answered questions about their tea-drinking habits, including how hot they usually drank their tea (very hot, hot, warm, or lukewarm) and how long they let the tea brew before drinking it.

Nearly all participants -- 98% -- said they drank black tea daily.

Esophageal cancer was eight times as common among people who drank "very hot" tea, compared to warm or lukewarm tea drinkers. By the same comparison, hot tea drinkers were twice as likely as warm or lukewarm tea drinkers to have esophageal cancer.

The findings held regardless of other risk factors. But what's "hot" to one person may be "lukewarm" to someone else.

So Islami's team checked data from more than 48,000 local people who were served tea and indicated their preferred tea temperature, which was checked by a digital thermometer.

The findings: 39% drank their tea at temperatures less than 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit), 39% drank their tea at 60-64 degrees Celsius (140-147 degrees Fahrenheit), and 22% drank their tea at 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher.

Dear reader, I've got some bad news. I hope you're sitting down. I just measured the temperature of my tea and it was 150 degrees. This is tea made with boiling water (a must), left to steep for 3 minutes, a bit of milk added, and left to cool for 2 more minutes (or maybe 4 minutes - can't remember if I did that part twice - so much for science). It was by no means scalding but I suppose that's subjective and probably indicates that my throat is lined with desensitized cancerous squamous cells.

Cooling Off Period

Observational studies, like this one, don't prove cause and effect. So it's not certain that hot or very hot tea caused esophageal cancer, or whether all hot drinks might have the same effect.

The possible link between hot drinks and esophageal cancer risk isn't new.

"In South America, especially Argentina, there is a well established relationship between esophageal cancer and drinking very hot mate, a kind of tea which is usually consumed when it is almost boiling and is sipped through a metal spoon. The problem is not the tea but the chronic inflammation from drinking it hot," Michael Thun, MD, the American Cancer Society's vice president emeritus of epidemiology, tells WebMD via email.

Islami's team notes that too-hot liquid could injure esophageal cells, paving the way for esophageal cancer.

Islami's study is "the most compelling test to date" of that theory and even though the study was conducted in a unique setting, "the findings are relevant to clinicians and researchers in many settings," states an editorial published with the study.

The findings should be replicated, but letting hot drinks cool off for several minutes is a good idea, notes editorialist David Whiteman, PhD, of Australia's Queensland Institute of Medical Research.

"It is difficult to imagine any adverse consequences of waiting at least four minutes before drinking a cup of freshly boiled tea, or more generally allowing foods and beverages to cool from 'scalding' to 'tolerable' before swallowing," Whitehead writes.

Whitehead also says Islami's findings "are not cause for alarm ... and should not reduce public enthusiasm for the time-honored ritual of drinking tea."

Oh. Never mind.

Most recent posts here.

Emboldened

First the execrable Barney Frank calls Justice Scalia a 'homophobe.' Now Harry Reid calls Chief Justice Roberts a liar. Nancy, I think it's your turn.

Most recent posts here.

Putting out the welcome mat for Gitmo detainees

The world has gone mad. From Gateway Pundit re another U.S. toxic asset:

Blair said the former prisoners would have [to] get some sort of assistance to start their new lives in the United States.

“We can't put them out on the street,” he said.

GP comments:

Isn't there some way we can make sure they are released in DC?

As a matter of fact, many terrorists in Europe live on welfare. This allows them to devote their time to building bombs and planning mass murders.

Most recent posts here.

Shales takes a shot at Elizabeth Hasselbeck

I caught Tom Shales' review of In the Motherhood yesterday. It's a new sitcom about three women, or 'mothers' for the sake of the show's premise, who get caught up in the various zany hijinx and crudities typical of the modern mom: faked pregnancy, sex in the office, etc. Okay, it's just comedy and it doesn't pretend to be realistic. (But I watched most of it, and it's bad.)

But not only does Shales give this program a positive review; he writes the following:

But there's one more funny mother involved: Jessica St. Clair as Emily, blond and, well, witchy. This character comes across as less likable than the other two, perhaps because she's depicted as adhering mindlessly to political correctness and also throws nasty tantrums when something ticks her off.

She looks and acts a little like Elizabeth Hasselbeck of "The View."

Good grief. If you're looking for witchiness on The View you have to close your eyes to some pretty obvious and juicy specimens before focusing your gaze on Elizabeth Hasselback, don't you? But no surprise here. Just a couple of days ago Shales revealed his absolute enthrallment with Barack Obama. He ought to be embarrassed.

Most recent posts here.

Noteworthy

Some thumb-pricking news reported by Michelle Malkin. The graphics are graphic.
The coming G20 riots and the spread of mob rule

More bits and pieces:
British MP Daniel Hannan: "It's common sense that when you are in debt you spend less. Anyone but a politician can see that."

Weird rant from Brazil's Lula:

Gordon Brown’s efforts to broker an £80billion bailout for world trade on a trip to Brazil hit a stumbling block tonight when the country’s president lashed out at ‘white, blue-eyed’ bankers for bringing the world economy to its knees.

Teleprompter gets serious for a change and reveals his inner patriot.

Most recent posts here.

David Horowitz on indoctrination and terrorism

RS McCain reports on David Horowitz's talk last night at GWU. Horowitz was there to promote his new book, One Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy.

Parents and kids considering college might want to upgrade their IQ's on this subject before signing up to pay through the nose for four years of mental abuse which, Horowitz contends, sets our society up to accept tyranny.

Calling leftists "totalitarians," Horowitz told the GWU students: "You are losing your country as we speak.

There are many ways to make a living that don't require years of indoctrination or hemorrhaging family budgets. We just talked about this yesterday and implore you, if you are a parent or young adult in search of a vocation, to read this post and the Anchoress's on the elitist war on honest work.

Just for emphasis, I'll re-post these links to some heretical thinking on the desirability of a four year degree:

From John Derbyshire:
Learn a Trade
The Next Bubble to Burst?
The College Racket
Is College Necessary?
Down with College!
From Charles Murray:
What's Wrong with Vocational School?
From Kathy Kristof:
The Great College Hoax















Last but far from least, Horowitz believes a terrorist attack on the U.S. is a sure thing:

There is a "100% chance that there will be . . . an attack on U.S. soil," conservative author David Horowitz said Thursday.

In the event of such a terror attack against the American homeland, Horowitz predicted, there will be widespread public outrage against U.S. liberals.

"I don't think leftists will be found hanging from lamp-posts . . . but close. . . ."

I wonder. 9/11 only temporarily roused America from its somnambulism. And now, less than a decade later, with the barbarians still at the gate, we've elected a socialist government that is quite deft at manipulating and diverting outrage.

Most recent posts here.

America obsessed with marijuana?

Not really.

Pot-related questions deluge White House

The more than 92,000 people who responded either have Cheech and Chong senses of humor or there is a deep concern in America — undetected by the media — about the decriminalization of marijuana, its possible use for medicinal purposes and its potential as a new source of tax revenue.

Explanation: Obama's high-tech town meeting was hijacked by NORML:

It seems part of the popularity of marijuana questions was fueled by NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which was urging its members to vote for questions supporting the legalization of cannabis.

But from what I've read, the pot questions were actually the most interesting part of this event, hyped as revolutionary but, judging from the clips, a snooze. Michael Wolff was right: Barack Obama is a terrible bore.


Most recent posts here.

Debate: 'Did Obama allow human cloning?'

Pundit sent the following:

Did Obama Allow Human Cloning? Part 1 of an Email Debate

If you feel like tearing your hair out you can wade through this George vs. Kmiec debate...

I don't, at least not right now. But maybe you do. Robert George is awesome.

Most recent posts here.

Help wanted: More people to do 'Dirty Jobs'

Below is an absolutely fascinating video I swiped from The Anchoress. Visit her and read her commentary on the validity of the vocation of the tradesman: carpenters, electricians, plumbers.

Watch the video below, and you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about sheep ranching (!!!) but it will be worth it.

We were visited by a plumber the other day and as I'm wont to do with X-ray technicians, auto mechanics, and roofers, I asked him how he had acquired his training. Pundit and I aren't pushing our children toward the obligatory four years of college. Their vocational plans might require a four year degree, or not.

I'm all in favor of knowledge for its own sake and believe in the value of a liberal arts education. But there are a couple of problems with that: 1) it's not for everyone; 2) the cost has to be considered; 3) what the vast majority of colleges and universities provide to their students is a far cry from a liberal arts education.

We all know about the indoctrination that takes place in most colleges so I won't belabor that, though someday I'll ask #1 son to recount for you his community college horror story about the English prof who spoke regularly and at length to his class about the evils of Bush, and how the US government brought down the World Trade Center. This man also called Helen Keller 'a monkey.' Then there was the math instructor who sent her students to the computer lab so that she could retreat to her office for a nap. What a rip-off for our son, who is paying for this with his own hard-earned money.

But back to the video. It's a twenty minute talk by Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. He advocates a PR campaign for hands-on vocations which are denigrated by our culture (and which he says make for the happiest people he knows). I know it's a bit long but you won't regret it.



*The Anchoress has updated her post with Mr. Rowe's take on the AIG bonuses. Bottom line: "A deal is a deal" and "My deal was with AIG, not you [i.e., the government]."

I asked Pundit (have I mentioned he's a genius?) if he could find an article he once sent me about opting out of college. He sent the following:

From John Derbyshire:
Learn a Trade
The Next Bubble to Burst?
The College Racket
Is College Necessary?
Down with College!

From Charles Murray:
What's Wrong with Vocational School?

From Kathy Kristof:
The Great College Hoax


Most recent posts here.

Sarah Palin: 24th most beautiful female politician

Couldn't agree more with the Hyacinth Girl:

Oh, and by the way, the chillbilly from Wasilla beat out Hillary on the top 100 list of SuperHot Lady Politicians. I think Sarah’s gorgeous in a particularly American way–assured, strong, tough and yet decidedly feminine. She’s got strong cheekbones, and an open smile, lovely eyes and a pleasing mouth. She’s everything American women should be.

It's not the least bit surprising that Sarah was on this list of 'most beautiful female politicians.' What is intriguing is that there are 23 women ahead of her. I've looked at the pictures and the #1 is certainly lovely. But I suspect that European voters were biased against Americans. Especially conservative Americans who've been reduced to cartoon village idiots by the msm.

And then there's this shocker from C4P: A community college professor in California is lecturing about Sarah Palin during Women's History Month:

Palin was the subject of Professor Mark Cauble’s presentation, where the history and humanities professor talked about the governor’s rise in local politics and showed a portion of Palin’s nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Sept. 2008. Cauble said he picked Palin, hoping that BCC students could relate to her humble beginnings.

“She’s like them — she’s from a small town,” he said.

He'll never get away with this.

Related post at C4P.
*Update: Here's a post on same subject, but with photos!

Most recent posts here.