1 Sorry Gabe, this is a little O/T, but I couldn't resist.

Any morons or moronettes living in or around North Versailles, PA know this guy?

Check out his signs.

2 Damnit - I meant Monty, not Gabe.

3 Sorry to go O/T here, but if anyone wants to keep up with the Wonkette fiasco, Dana Loesch has done a marvelous job of keeping readers up-to-date over at Big Journalism.

4 NRO: "The Road to IPAB"

5 Greider epitomizes the left's ability to deny reality. "What? We can't afford national health care? That's impossible!"

6 Speaking of Atlas Shrugged, a friend told me a story yesterday that reminded me of the book.  This friend was a teaching assistant at our university, and decided, on his own, to hold an extra weekly review session for his students to help them study for exams.  To his surprise, this got him in big trouble with his department - it's not fair, they told him, for your students get this extra help.  You have to stop, it gives them an advantage over other students.  Even more ironically, my friend was up for a teaching award from the department, which he lost because of his actions here - that's right, he was denied a teaching award because he was doing extra teaching to help his students.  Unbelievable.

7 The urine must flow.

8 That Greider column is EXACTLY the narrative that the SEIU thug that Beck had on tape talking about how to bring down Wall Street and destroy the American economy was promoting. 1. The US is not broke. 2. The bad guys are the banks repossessing houses. 3. We need to take the rich guys' money.

9 How about those Caps? Shoosh, I am in a bar and the score is Caps 0 -Rangers 3. I go have a smoke outside (don't want to kill anyone don't ya know) and return in three minutes and its Caps 2 - Rangers 3. Before we leave its tied and going into overtime. Get home and its Caps 4 - Rangers 3. It must really suck to be a NY Rangers fan. Crappy arena and all. God I love prevent defenses. They do nothing but prevent the team playing them to win.

10 creation....did they put him on double secret probation? and send him to re-education class as well? imagine, a teacher (assistant) trying to teach.....

11 From Rep. West: "The hypocrisy of Pres Obama and libs over Medicare is pathetic. Obamacare cuts Medicare now & has a 15 member board managing its spending."

12 The dollar continues to sink:

Dollar tumbles to 3-year low

13 I`m starting to really like teh doom. It`s an aquired taste but it`s the only bottle left in Dad`s liquor cabinet.

14

I saw that Boeing article in the WSJ this morning. Unfreakingbelievable.

 

It's amazing to me. how controlling out government is .

15 How about those Caps?

It was funny to hear the Ranger fans mocking Boudreau's comments that they weren't that loud for two periods ("Can You Hear Us"), only to see their team choke on a 3-goal lead. Hahaha.

16 Irony in the fact that the heroine of Atlas Shrugged is a railroad executive?

She risked her own fortune and raised private money to build a rail line that could turn a profit moving valuable goods from the place they're produced to the place where they could be profitably used.

BidenRail pisses tax dollars down an empty hole, running mostly empty passenger trains between Jip Jibbip and Middle of Nowheresburg.

Explain to me again how many millions of people are lined up to travel between the drought-ridden Central Valley of California and the shuttered NUMMI auto factory?

Full employment is just around the corner when jobless folks in one ghost town can get a subsidized commute to another ghost town!

17 George Will plagiarized that anti-train sentiment from P.J. O'Rourke; Will may have adorned it with polysyllabic pomposity, but PJ brought the funneh (as always).   

18 Apologies if this VDH piece has already been posted:

Make the Rich Pay!

19 There's some irony in the fact that the heroine of Atlas Shrugged is a railroad executive.

Emphasis on "executive."

Rand learned about business from commie propaganda and the movies, the only two places where corporate execs are capitalists (in the Randian sense). So her idealization of them as the only people capable of achieving humanity/love/freedom/etc. is accidentally fascist, because that's what the real-life counterparts to her characters are.

Accidentally super-fascist, actually. Like Goebbels would be all, "Whoah there lady. Down a notch. No one's going to buy that."

20 >>Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make. Just as I said yesterday, no matter the topic, energy, healthcare, travel, with liberals it's always about control. The hive mentality of the left is anti everything America stands for. Or did.

21 This is a repost from me from last night --
 
add this to the 'CA is boned' as grist to the Monty Doom mill:
 
We now can hope that he is finally content, having delivered a huge blow to CaliforniaÂ’s competitiveness by signing a bill mandating that 33 percent of the stateÂ’s electricity be obtained from wind and solar sources by 2020.

By then, Governor Brown will be safely out of office. The rest of us will have to deal with the high costs, low reliability, and environmental degradation attendant upon this latest exercise in the fantasies of renewable power.
 
Delightful.

22 Well guess that answers the questions posted in headline thread, doesn't it?  LINK

23 Can anyone believe a Barack Obama promise?  The only ones who can believe are those who regularly hear unicorn farts in the forest.  The rest of us--not so much.

24 There's some irony in the fact that the heroine of Atlas Shrugged is a railroad executive. But then Ayn Rand's protege proved to be a corrupt fraud: Alan Greenspan. The DOOM! It burns! Overcharge! Reset! We worked hard to get it right to get it wrong.

25 too funny

26 The Left Warns: "We Must End Our Addiction to Economic Growth"

27 WTF?  What do you mean "who cares?"

28 We now can hope that he is finally content, having delivered a huge blow to CaliforniaÂ’s competitiveness by signing a bill mandating that 33 percent of the stateÂ’s electricity be obtained from wind and solar sources by 2020.

Are they serious? Holy shit. Wind and solar run at less than 25% of rated capacity. That means Cali has to add solar and wind power plants equivalent to more than its entire current power generation capability to achieve this plan. If they actually want generated power to be 33% of the total, that is. If they just want "installed capacity" to be 33% of the total, and just want to be able to point to wind farms and solar plants but don't actually care if they deliver a single watt of power, then they've got a chance at achieving their nightmare.

Innumeracy!

29 People who use the word "fascist" to descibe Ayn Rand's characters don't really know what "fascist" means. It is impossible for an individual person to be a fascist, no matter how tyrannical, because "fascism" is a doctrine of state power, of sovereign control in collusion with business interests. In fact, Rand's characters are antithetical to fascists in another dimension: they not only abjure control over others, they insist that others take control over their own lives (or suffer the consequences). Jonah Goldberg did the world a favor by writing Liberal Fascism, because among other things he clarifies what fascism means and what it does not mean. "Fasicsm" is an artifact of left-wing, not conservative, political thought.

30

Japan just got rocked by a 6.3 earthquake.

And Texas is apparently all on fire.

Where's President Bush Obama?  President Bush Obama should be visiting Texas to show that FEMA is working.  Why does President Bush Obama hate black people Texans!?

31 That 1979 movie Americathon doesn't seem that ridiculous now.

32 The Left Warns: "We Must End Our Addiction to Economic Growth"

Posted by: V the K at April 21, 2011 10:06 AM (PLvLS)

No words...

33

People who use the word "fascist" to descibe Ayn Rand's characters don't really know what "fascist" means. It is impossible for an individual person to be a fascist, no matter how tyrannical, because "fascism" is a doctrine of state power, of sovereign control in collusion with business interests.

In fact, Rand's characters are antithetical to fascists in another dimension: they not only abjure control over others, they insist that others take control over their own lives (or suffer the consequences).

Jonah Goldberg did the world a favor by writing Liberal Fascism, because among other things he clarifies what fascism means and what it does not mean. "Fasicsm" is an artifact of left-wing, not conservative, political thought.

That's sounds a lot like facist talk to me Monty.

34

Posted by: Truman North's cervix at April 21, 2011 10:15 AM (8ay4x)

The better question is, why do you hate Texans? Why do you want The JFE to come down here? Good god man, have you no decency?

35 No words...

Well, "stupid, inept, spoiled, inane, fucking gits" sufficed for me,

36

General Santa Anna met his DOOM! on this day 175 years ago.

Happy San Jacinto Day! I'm having a taco.

37 VDH: Castor Oil Triangulation

38
George Will:  Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates.




As long as people don't choose to wear blue jeans, that is.

39 "I doubt we'll see gold dip below $1000/oz for a long, long time -- maybe never, depending on what happens to the USD."

Before long, I doubt that anybody will selling gold for dollars of any amount.

40 fucking gits" sufficed for me,

Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at April 21, 2011 10:22 AM (9hSKh)

"Gits". Always liked that one.

41 the beck build.

42

@43, why would anyone want to take on Stephen Colbert?

His show is a 5 year long  comedy skit that became unfunny after about 5 episodes

43 If they just want "installed capacity" to be 33% of the total, and just want to be able to point to wind farms and solar plants but don't actually care if they deliver a single watt of power, then they've got a chance at achieving their nightmare. One of the reasons I miss Stephen Den Beste's USS Clueless blog is because he was so good at eviscerating the outlandish claims of the alt-energy folks. He'd lay out, in painstaking terms, the engineering case for why solar/wind/geothermal/methane-from-chickenshit power is inferior to fossil fuels on most use cases. Here's a sample of the good stuff. Den Beste still occasionally blogs at Chizumatic, but it's mostly anime stuff. And I think he occasionally posts over at HotAir in the Green Room.

44 Damn, that George Will column seems unfit for Newsweak. They must really be hurting.

45 Patterico notes that Ken Layne can't even count the number of children he's fathered. But remember, Sarah Palin is the shitbag parent.

46

TumblesÂ… oooooh!  BroadlyÂ…. Yeah, thatÂ’s it!  Work it!

Sounds...  sexy.

47

Posted by: V the K at April 21, 2011 10:06 AM (PLvLS)

What we need to do is to put an end to the Left. I'm so sick of their insanity I find myself wishing for a civil war like a gut shot man wishing for death.

48 45 Den Beste still occasionally blogs at Chizumatic, but it's mostly anime stuff.
______

You say that as if it were a bad thing.

49 Oh my!

50

 "I doubt we'll see gold dip below $1000/oz for a long, long time -- maybe never, depending on what happens to the USD."

I remember seeing one gold analyst on television several months back saying that he eventually expects to see gold at 50% of the Dow Jones. I took him to mean that if the Dow was at 6000, gold would be at $3000 / ounce. He said he was 80% invested in gold but wouldn't advise that for anyone who isn't really knowledgable about gold. The 80% is what made him memorable to me.

Time to work. Everyone have a great day.

51 Historically, Unicorns accompany the destruction of the earth. The DOOM! It burns!

Isaiah 34

 ¹Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.

 ²For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

 ³Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

 ⁴And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

 ⁵For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

 ⁶The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

 ⁷And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

 ⁸For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

 ⁹And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

 ¹⁰It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

 ¹¹But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

 ¹²They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

 ¹³And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof

52 People who use the word "fascist" to descibe Ayn Rand's characters don't really know what "fascist" means. It is impossible for an individual person to be a fascist, no matter how tyrannical, because "fascism" is a doctrine of state power, of sovereign control in collusion with business interests. In fact, Rand's characters are antithetical to fascists in another dimension: they not only abjure control over others, they insist that others take control over their own lives (or suffer the consequences). Jonah Goldberg did the world a favor by writing Liberal Fascism, because among other things he clarifies what fascism means and what it does not mean. "Fasicsm" is an artifact of left-wing, not conservative, political thought. Yeah. That's exactly what a fascist would say. Fascistsayswhat?

53 curious @ 10:30

"Being pro-Israel and pro-Jew aren't the same."
-- Dana Milbank v. Glenn Beck

54 Obama should be visiting Texas to show that FEMA is working.

Please no.  We have a nice drizzle falling and the fires are on the way to being under control.  We don't need FEMA and or Obama to screw it up now.

55 It's not all bad news today -- no linky to the NYT but:
 
The New York Times Company reported a sharp drop in net income in the first quarter as the print advertising market remained stubbornly depressed for newspapers.

The company said net income fell 57.6 percent to $5.4 million, compared with $12.8 million in the quarter a year ago.
 
Ahhhh. I feel better now.

56 Thanks for the Den Beste link, Monty. That was pretty damn good. The locals` protestations against wind power around here are more about eminent domain issues. Power companies clear lines through private property and people feel helpless. Giant windmills greatly redue property values, are way fugly and sound like boots in a clothes dryer if you live within a mile of them. Beste actually explains the folly from an engineer`s perspective.

57 Obama should be visiting Texas to show that FEMA is working.

Obama and Perry in common.

 

58 Jonah Goldberg did the world a favor by writing Liberal Fascism, because among other things he clarifies what fascism means and what it does not mean.

Yes and No. Goldberg reiterates the point that the "meaning" of fascism vacillates depending upon whom one asks and when one asks. And since the book's publication, Goldberg himself evades the word like a plague.

59 56 curious @ 10:30 "Being pro-Israel and pro-Jew aren't the same." -- Dana Milbank v. Glenn Beck<<< Dana Milbank is a fucking idiot. "Conservative Christians support Israel because they think it will bring about the Second Coming." He's a MORMON, asshole.

60 BidenRail pisses tax dollars down an empty hole, running mostly empty passenger trains between Jip Jibbip and Middle of Nowheresburg.

I like to call money that is used on shit like this "dead-end-dollars".  Regular dollars are the ones you spend and get something in return for; like me giving the guy at the mini-mart $1.00 and he gives me 2 donuts.  When the bum waiting outside the door of the mini-mart bums $0.50 off of me I get nothing out of that. 

A lot (maybe most) of our tax money is dead-end-dollars because the government spends your money on shit you never wanted or don't need (not to mention that they usually over pay for everything too).  The best way to keep the economy strong is to minimize the dead-end-dollars.  The money will circulate better if there is value every time it is exchanged.  Why? because the owner of that dollar has an incentive to spend because he gets something in return.  The government takes perfectly good, useful dollars and diverts them to high speed rail, ethanol subsides, solar projects....things that are of no value to the people the money was stolen from.

61 Goldberg himself evades the word like a plague. He doesn't "evade" it. He simply uses it when it is proper and doesn't when it's not. Words mean things, as Rush so often says. It's a liberal tenet to plasticize and warp the meaning of words, not a conservative one -- or at least this should be the case.

62

"The New York Times Company reported a sharp drop in net income in the first quarter as the print advertising market remained stubbornly depressed for newspapers."

 

Fortunately they have me here to straighten out their little micro-economy . After I convince the NYT to take on massively massive debt to stimulate sales, everything will be fine. If this plan doesn`t work, they simply need to borrow more...problem solved, you simple-minded neanderthal biznitches!

63 Speaking of fascism, not the fake kind that a liberal throws out because some union guy lost 1 of his 10 weeks of vacation, but this executive order which is a very thinly veiled attempt to prevent contributions to republicans by threatening govt contractors is the most fascist thing this administration has done to date.

64

Gold, like other commodities prices are stable... its the Dollar that is hosed...

The Gold market in particular, is a fairly long term investment market... people do not buy gold (like stocks) to turnover tommorow... and the market is making its judgement on what the Dollar (with this current Fed, and QE2) is doing to the dollar.

65 Raise taxes on wealthy liberal demacrats like AL GORE and the kenndys

66 Paul Krugman is a genius.

67

Posted by: iknowtheleft at April 21, 2011 11:05 AM (G/MYk)

BP lawsuit was filed yesterday... they are taking the folks who designed and built the saftey systems to court, as every one of them failed.

That company will then, in its own defense, point out how the Government signed off on the designs and plans... and how by fighting an OIL FIRE WITH WATER (vice AFFF or another foam agent), the Government (in charge of the fire fighting once on scene, by Fed Law), were the onces who sunk the rig, which is what caused the leak to get as bad as it did (the rig sinking caused much of the shearing)...

Given a reasonable Judge??? This is gonna get good....

68 Re the Dodgers, it was the federal death tax that really killed them. The O'Malleys could not pass on the franchise to their many kids because the federal inheritance tax would have decimated the club.  But hey, that solved all our revenue problems, didn't it?
/sarc

So, they sold, and the rest is sad, sad history.

69 The O'Malleys could not pass on the franchise to their many kids because the federal inheritance tax would have decimated the club. 

Posted by: PJ at April 21, 2011 11:18 AM (erPX9)

This is the vital element the Libtards and others always overlook when preaching the need for punitive death tax.  Most of the time, junior doesn't inherit much cash.  Junior inherits a productive asset.  He must then pay tax equal to some portion of the capital value in cash, that year, immediately.  It's a business killer. 

Warren Buffett loves that tax.  He made most of his initial fortune buying companies out from under heirs who couldn't pay the inheritance tax.  Better to sell and live off  than to face a tax forfiture.  Buffett is a predator of opportunity - he smells blood in the water and moves in.  Never believe one word he says that purports to be altruistic.

Of course, part of it is stupidity on the part of the owners.  When they get old they should sell the enterprise to their kid(s) for 1 dollar, with the stipulation that they be paid X percent of the profits until they die.  That way the inheritance tax is avoided totally.

Of course, the other thing that offends me deeply is that I should work hard all my life, just to make the state richer.  That the state should inherit any of my goods, already taxed once or more in my life, is so deeply offensive I can't stand it. 

 

70

Better to sell and live off  than to face a tax forfiture. 

Posted by: Reactionary at April 21, 2011 11:29 AM (xUM1Q)

Oops.

I meant to say "Better to sell and live off the proceeds than to face a tax forfeiture."

71 Warren Buffett also sheltered billions of his fortune by "donating" it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a PERPETUAL tax-exempt trust. A trust that can appoint his children or anyone they designate as directors, allowing them to continue living in luxury while only paying their bracket rate on earned income. Which is perfectly fine and legal. What pisses me off is the hypocritical finger-wagging after this cocksmoke has puposefully avoided the very taxes he champions - for all you little people.

72 I'm beginning to think this DOOM thingy, is going to just keep chugging along.  FORever! Yes it's a house of card, but they are super-gluing the edges together.  There isn't a solid currency on the planet that can, or will replace the dollar.  Unless the meteors finally show up, this will just drag on and on and on.

73 More on Tax Redistribution

74 There isn't a solid currency on the planet that can, or will replace the dollar.  Unless the meteors finally show up, this will just drag on and on and on.

Posted by: Paladin at April 21, 2011 11:37 AM (nmc9V)

Yup.  People tend to overlook the fact that the Chinese blew up their money supply by 25% last year.  Even the Chinese communist party doesn't pretend that their economy grew that much.  Russia's still a mobster dominated basket case.  Latin America - the less said the better.  Africa - do they even have money there??  Europe is about to face a reconing - Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain will (I believe) all default.  See what happened in Iceland and you'll have a good preview of what's coming.  Australia and NZ are even more commie than the US has become.  At least in the US we have huge, vast productive potential if only the fools in government would get out of the way.  Natural resources alone are magnificent here, and once the thorium reactor concept gains traction our electricity concerns (maybe all our power worries) are over.  If we had an intelligent administration and a friendly congress, this nation could be totally turned around in 8 years or less. 

Alas, that's prolly a pipe dream. 

75 Airdrop a gross of Tampax and Midol to William Greider, stat!

76 What pisses me off is the hypocritical finger-wagging after this cocksmoke has puposefully avoided the very taxes he champions - for all you little people.

Posted by: Empire of Jeff at April 21, 2011 11:35 AM (OW0nw)

Amen.  Like all Libtards, he's a greedy, lying, hypocrite.  I've never met an upper middle class Lib that gave any significant time or cash to charity.  But they're keen to criticise me, and make me pay more tax to help the so-called downtrodden milk the system yet more.  And those abortion lovers are quick to preach to me when I advocate means of cutting back on the conception of new welfare babies.  At least in my "cruel" system there are no murders.

77 Grieder's -never- been making sandwiches with bread. He and P.J. O'Rourke used to write regular columns for Rolling Stone back before it turned into an advertisement rag. He was pretentious even by progressive standards, and I'm guessing that even its trendy Democrat readers (by far the majority) preferred O'Rourke to him, because eventually he tried his hand at becoming a leftist version of him. It was one of the most pathetic things I've ever had the displeasure of seeing, (You're not going to bring the funny when you lack a sense of humor) and I'd almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

78 At least in my "cruel" system there are no murders. I'd like to introduce you to my system. There will be fucking murders.

79 Great article on Zero Hedge entitled "It's Game Over for the U.S."

'If the US were a company, itÂ’d be spending more in salaries than it makes in sales. Aside from being unprofitable, itÂ’s also got a MASSIVE debt load. And itÂ’s current policy of paying out more than it makes only increases this debt loadÂ… which begs the questionÂ… whoÂ’s going to pay the interest payments on the debt.

 

Now, about those paymentsÂ…

 

More than half of all Americans (59%) receive a Government payout in one form or another.  This is not a sliver of the populationÂ… it is endemic to the system. So those who complain endlessly about Government spending need to consider they as well as half of everyone they know, likely gets some kind of assistance in the form of social security, Medicare, food stamps or what have you.

 

HereÂ’s another zinger: Government payouts account for 79% of household growth since 2007. In other words, the only thing that has kept the US consumer afloat in the last four years is payouts from Uncle Sam.'

80

I am also tired of Warren Buffett's shit talk. In addition to his predatory estate tax driven acquisitions, he engages in other behaviors at odds with his populist tax schtick.

His insurance outfits take tax advantage of loss reserve exemptions. In other words, the insurance company gets to estimate what claims it will pay and the money set aside is not taxable.

I laughed when he said he was going to give away the bulk of his fortune when he dies. Why wait? What's stoppin' you buddy? 

Then like Gates, rather than write a check to the government and let the omni-competent government decide what to spend it on, he puts bucks in a foundation where he can direct its application and deduct it as a charitable donation. Epic!

I propose that every State enact a Warren Buffett Tax. This tax would equal 10% of his gross income or 2.5% of his net worth, whichever is higher. And non-payment should be a felony and subject to wealth forfeiture. Warren, the waiver of extradition is ready for your signature.

81

I believe that this price spike is "fear buying" by investors who don't know where else to put their money. Still, I don't know that gold is in a "bubble"

Most investors that I talk too about buying gold respond .. until they make it illegal and confiscate it

They leave you with a vision of a world straight out of "Mad Max" except these "nanny bureaucrats" run around taking things from all the poor rubes while backed up by the 82nd Airborne

82 It is not the DOOM™ that gets me down so much as it is the kitteh mockery.  You just can't hoard enough cute kittehs to get through the Mayan "end-times celebrations".