Headed out.

Posted by: Ace at 11:17 AM | Comments (148)
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AJ Strata over at the always informative strata-sphere.com sums up just how pathetic the Left's endless groveling for European acceptance truly is.

America has a unique history in the world. It is made up of people who fled tyranny and oppression from cruel, bored and (let’s face it) not so bright elites. The past time of the ‘not so bright’ elite is to pretend to be omnipotent and experiment with humanity into becoming better. Or at least their warped cruel, bored and no so bright version of ‘better’. It is this addiction to tell others what and how to do things that forced the best, brightest and bravest to carve out a new nation in America. We are the anti-elitist nation that broke the hold of elitist on humanity.

It is our independence of the individual that irks the world – especially the Europeans. I have worked with them on many occasions and over many years, and they cannot stand our informal, classless work environment. They still cling to the skirts of the elite leadership concept, running in awe of famous, names, ivy league schools, years spent floating to the top of the pile. They fear decisions, the fear competition, the fear having to act beyond the words. They fear someone standing up and challenging their safe dogma. They cannot abide ingenuity and spirit and drive.

This could be the time when it becomes obvious Obama is not here for the voters who elected him, he is here to change America because he is a liberal who is fawning for world acceptance. He is here for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and the EU elites. That is why they gave him the prize for nothing, that is why our naive young president accepted the price for nothing. That is why the prize is all about nothing...

Read the whole piece here.

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:24 AM | Comments (68)
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As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al Qaida, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy.

Recent U.S. intelligence assessments have found that the Taliban and other Pakistan-based groups that are fighting U.S.-led forces have much closer ties to al Qaida now than they did before 9/11, would allow the terrorist network to re-establish bases in Afghanistan and would help Osama bin Laden export his radical brand of Islam to AfghanistanÂ’s neighbors and beyond, the officials said.

McCain urges Obama to heed McChrystal's counsel, which is dog bites man. But so does Dianne Feinstein:

Also Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said U.S. troops would be put in "jeopardy" if Obama does not listen to McChrystal.

"I don't know how you put somebody in who's as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the president very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you're not going to pull out," the California Democrat said on ABC's "This Week."

Feinstein was one of many members of Congress who discussed the situation in Afghanistan with Obama last week. Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," she called on Obama to make a decision "sooner, rather than later." That's a turnaround from her position two weeks ago when she expressed support for Obama's wait-and-see approach on Afghanistan.

The double-negatives get thick there, but she's saying either pull out or follow McChrystal's recommendations.

For the contrary view, presented by someone with credibility on the right, see Ralph Peters.

Posted by: Ace at 09:08 AM | Comments (46)
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I just realized there were baseball playoffs going on, because they were mentioned on Fox's football pregame show.

Sorry. /Gilly

Posted by: Ace at 08:46 AM | Comments (259)
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It's chilly here in the Northeast but is must be much, much colder in Hell.

Friedman thinks this is what Obama should say when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Let me begin by thanking the Nobel committee for awarding me this prize, the highest award to which any statesman can aspire. As I said on the day it was announced, ‘I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.’ Therefore, upon reflection, I cannot accept this award on my behalf at all.

“But I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century — the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

“I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi fascism. I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers and sailors who fought on the high seas and forlorn islands in the Pacific to free East Asia from Japanese tyranny in the Second World War.

... “Until the words of Isaiah are made true and lasting — and nations never again lift up swords against nations and never learn war anymore — we will need peacekeepers. Lord knows, ours are not perfect, and I have already moved to remedy inexcusable excesses we’ve perpetrated in the war on terrorism.

“But have no doubt, those are the exception. If you want to see the true essence of America, visit any U.S. military outpost in Iraq or Afghanistan. You will meet young men and women of every race and religion who work together as one, far from their families, motivated chiefly by their mission to keep the peace and expand the borders of freedom.

“So for all these reasons — and so you understand that I will never hesitate to call on American soldiers where necessary to take the field against the enemies of peace, tolerance and liberty — I accept this peace prize on behalf of the men and women of the U.S. military: the world’s most important peacekeepers.”

How many spit takes do you think that caused this morning on the Upper East Side of Manhattan?

Ok, the swipe at the so-called "inexcusable excesses" of Bush is annoying but small in the grand scheme of things (and inevitable in an Obama speech) but the rest? Yeah, I'd stand and cheer Obama if he gave a speech recognizing generations of Americans who have sacrificed to make the world a more peaceful place.

Never going to happen but I wouldn't have thought that Friedman would have written this column, so you never know.

And Tom...on behalf of Republicans, conservatives, the Taliban and the rest of us who don't think Obama did anything to deserve this award, welcome to the club.

One other nit...Friedman thinks we should military power against the enemies of "tolerance"? Aside from the leftwing idiocy of divorcing the use of force from national interest, the logical conclusion of that standard is we must invade China and every Muslim nation on the face of the Earth. I'm pretty sure that's not what Friedman wants to see. It's just lazy writing and yet he has multiple Pulitzers.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:48 AM | Comments (115)
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Compare and contrast.

I like that post because it's all pictures. Perfect for you inbred redneck rethuglikan Morons. When you try to sound out the words you just get pudding all over your shirt anyway.

Posted by: LauraW at 05:45 AM | Comments (72)
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Welcome to Saturday. Tonight's theme is gratuitous moron gratification so make yourself a drink and enjoy.

[And yeah it's early for the ONT. But it's been a slow day and seriously what were you going to do with the extra half hour anyway.]

Bullet Impact Porn
Here's some amazing slow-motion video of bullets hitting various things. It's mesmerizing to watch bullets blow apart at 1,000,000 FPS when they hit the steel. So much so that I'm even willing to overlook the annoying techno.

And manufacturer claims are true - hollow points really do open up quickly. Other observations: it sure would suck to have a bullet tumble inside you. There's even some shotgun action at the end.
More video here.

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:10 PM | Comments (606)
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Even-handed he-said-she-said recap of the global warming debate.

The global warming alarmists get their spin in, but it's hard to overcome the central fact reported in the article's open:

This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998.

But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures.

And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

So what on Earth is going on?

The global warming alarmists have a problem: They've claimed for 15 years that there is simply no natural mechanism that could possibly explain a one degree change in global temperatures, so all warming must be man-made.

Now that we have a period of cooling, they're claiming there is a natural mechanism big enough to both cool the earth from its 1998 high and also wipe out the "expected" additional warming that should have occurred since then. (The big cooling year of 2007 wiped out over a degree Farenheit of global warming -- in fact, it erased most of the warming that occurred this whole century.)

So -- um, what? There is no natural mechanism to explain a degree of warming, but there's a big-ass natural mechanism you now concede to conveniently explain away the cooling? Couldn't the 1975-1998 "warming" be explained as simply as the diminishment of the 1940-1975 cooling phase? If a cooling force abates, does not the earth warm?

Oh: And Charlie "ACORN whatsit?" Gibson wants you to know -- the key to defeating the Taliban is stopping global warming.

'Cuz it's causing droughts or something and that helps the Taliban.

So, like, after a 100 year program of de-industrialization of the West, we'll be all ready to finally take the fight to the Taliban who, by the way, Obama now thinks are our buds.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (534)
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The coolness of the season has made it all the way to central Texas. It's a great day for some college football. Here's your thread.

oops. Ok, football cheerleaders.

Games that look good today:

Florida (1) and LSU (4), 8pm EDT. Easily the big one this weekend. No leaks on Tebow's status for the game, but my sources (ok, the guy hanging out at the 7-11 with a handfull of scratchoffs and a quart of Miller) tell me he'll play. LSU looks strong this year, and Florida's win over Tennessee, (they've lost 3), was ok. Just ok.

Alabama (3) at Mississippi (20), 3:30pm EDT. Mississippi is really untested, and dropped one to South Carolina, but it's their house and their defense still looks strong. Still Alabama opened this year with a 10 point win over a very good Va. Tech team, so they have the advantage. Should be a good game.

Enjoy the day morons. Also keep in mind, while most of us have the weekend off, there are some very important American men and women who are working through the weekend. Keep em in your thoughts and prayers. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:41 AM | Comments (166)
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Okay I don't claim to be an economist but this chart seems rather disturbing. I found it in this article by Adam Sharpe of Seeking Alpha. It shows government spending as a percentage of GDP over the last 107 years. (You can make your own chart here.) And here government spending includes federal, state and local spending as well as government transfers.

Now maybe GDP isn't the right comparison variable to use for this but it seems like a reasonable place to start. And apart from peaks during WWI and WWII the trend is unmistakable. I didn't bother running a regression but by my eye-ball extrapolation it looks like we go to a government-run economy with some free enterprise around the year 2025.

Well at least we'll have high literacy rates, free medical care, and social harmony. Just like Cuba.

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:53 AM | Comments (94)
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