New Breed of Republicans Resists Fiscal Deal

The title above almost needs a question mark. A WTF? kinda question mark. That's because to understand this piece at the New York Times you have to understand the paper's agenda. There's never any questioning the idea that government today has to expand, that government must grow. Look at the spin on the fiscal cliff deal. Oh, we saved people thousands of dollars by not going over the cliff. Why isn't that enough for you Republicans? It's been ten years since the Bush tax cuts passed, but for NYT's reporters they're still temporary, so it's the Democrats who should get credit for them, right? For making them permanent. And Republicans should just STFU and get with the program on more spending because Obama decided to let you have your little play toy.

See, "Lines of Resistance on Fiscal Deal":

WASHINGTON — Just a few years ago, the tax deal pushed through Congress on Tuesday would have been a Republican fiscal fantasy, a sweeping bill that locks in virtually all of the Bush-era tax cuts, exempts almost all estates from taxation, and enshrines the former president’s credo that dividends and capital gains should be taxed equally and gently.

But times have changed, President George W. Bush is gone, and before the bill’s final passage late Tuesday, House Republican leaders struggled all day to quell a revolt among caucus members who threatened to blow up a hard-fought compromise that they could have easily framed as a victory. Many House Republicans seemed determined to put themselves in a position to be blamed for sending the nation’s economy into a potential tailspin under the weight of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

The latest internal party struggle on Capitol Hill surprised even Senate Republicans, who had voted overwhelmingly for a deal largely hashed out by their leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The bill passed the Senate, 89 to 8, at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, with only 5 of the chamber’s 47 Republicans voting no.

Twenty-one hours later, the same measure was opposed by 151 of the 236 Republicans voting in the House. It was further proof that House Republicans are a new breed, less enamored of tax cuts per se than they are driven to shrink government through steep spending cuts. Protecting nearly 99 percent of the nation’s households from an income tax increase was not enough if taxes rose on some and government spending was untouched.

And that's supposed to be bad? We'll soon be pushing $20 trillion in national debt and these idiots question why Republicans might be worried about a little bit more than voting to keep something first passed ten years ago. You want to hit these numbskulls up side the head. This is Democrat media framing at its finest, courtesy of the newspaper of Walter Duranty.

More at the link.

And then read Erick Erickson, "The McConnell Tax Hike":

The McConnell Tax Hike raises taxes on people making over $400,000.00, but it also raises taxes on the middle class. “More than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes.”

Not only does the McConnell Tax Hike stick it to the middle class, it raises taxes $41 for every $1 in spending cuts. Those spending cuts are ephemeral as there is $330 billion in new spending and a $4 trillion price tag over the next ten years.

Both Hollywood and NASCAR get carve outs. So too do wind energy companies.

The Republican Establishment in Washington, DC should be burned to the ground and salt spread on the remains. Republicans who saw Mitch McConnell and John Boehner destroy the last plank of the Republican Party are going to need to look elsewhere for a savior for their party. Boehner and McConnell have declared they will survive. Their party? They don’t really care.

Conservatives must look elsewhere. I do not advocate a third party. I advocate bring fresh blood into the GOP.

And also, "A New Agenda."

Keith Morris Recounts the Origins of the Los Angeles Punk Scene

I'm just clicking around on YouTube looking for a different version of "Nervous Breakdown" and I come across this Keith Morris interview. I start listening thinking I'm just going to check it out for a couple of minutes but Morris sucks you in. There's no one like him. From his accent and mannerisms, to his encyclopedic revelations of the early punk movement, you can't not be riveted to this man talking. At times it seems he's having a brain malfunction, like he's lost his train of thought, only to blast out a fascinating recollection using the most colorful examples and analogies. You gotta love this guy. (And if you're able to stay with it until the end, Morris regales the story of Chuck Berry, during a concert in St. Louis, coming up on stage to jam with the Circle Jerks and then later telling the club manager how much he loved Morris' music.)

House Republicans Refuse Vote on Hurricane Sandy Relief

Chris Christie is pissed. And whatever the justifications in the House, the PR won't be good for the GOP. The Democrat Media Complex will make sure of that.

At the New York Times, "House Ignores Storm Relief, to Fury of Local Republicans."

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "House leaders opt not to act now on Sandy aid."

Rose Bowl: Stanford 20, Wisconsin 14

I was rooting for the Badgers, actually. But they weren't playing well at all.

At the New York Times, "Stanford Wears Out Wisconsin on Ground":

PASADENA, Calif. — The view was a sight to behold, the sun setting on the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance. Down below, the teams looked vintage as the 99th Rose Bowl devolved into something familiar for Barry Alvarez: brawn, bruises and punts. A lot of punts.

But Alvarez’s 16 seasons as Wisconsin’s coach, a College Football Hall of Fame induction, a previously perfect 3-0 Rose Bowl record, his vintage red sweater vest and his timeless sunglasses did not count for much on Tuesday. Not against Stanford, a program that flexed its staying power, slowly wearing out the Badgers, 20-14.

It was Stanford’s first Rose Bowl win since 1972 and Wisconsin’s third Rose Bowl loss in three years.

In his final game, Wisconsin’s Montee Ball, the N.C.A.A. record-holder for career touchdowns (83), rushed for 100 yards on 24 carries and scored on an 11-yard run.

The second half was a tug of war between Ball and his Stanford counterpart Stepfan Taylor. Back and forth Ball and Taylor went, disappearing in a mosh pit of red and white bodies, out of sight to gain their yards. Taylor gained 88 yards on 20 carries and scored on a 3-yard run that gave Stanford a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.

Trailing, 20-14, Wisconsin mounted a final drive, but quarterback Curt Phillips’s pass was tipped and intercepted by Usua Amanam near midfield with 2 minutes 3 seconds remaining.

Wisconsin seniors had pleaded for Alvarez, the athletic director, to step in for Bret Bielema, who had left for Arkansas. Alvarez hired the Utah State coach Gary Andersen, but decided to take Bielema’s place in the Rose Bowl. Six assistants who will have new jobs stayed to assist Alvarez.

Stanford (12-2), ranked eighth, opened the game with two touchdown drives, balanced and impressive, as it had looked with Andrew Luck at quarterback a year ago. Taylor pushed forward and wiggled for extra yards. Kevin Hogan, who is often likened to Luck, looked as if this were not his fifth career start, marching the Cardinal 80 and 79 yards.

Bill Plaschke wasn't thrilled:

At this point, I can think of, oh, 98 Rose Bowls that were more exciting than this one...somebody please do something besides punt..
— Bill Plaschke (@BillPlaschke) January 2, 2013

Well, Stanford's sure excited.

Tension-Filled New Year's Day in the House of Representatives

The post title above draws on the reporting at the Wall Street Journal, "Cliff Showdown in House: Chamber Takes Up Senate Version of Bill Despite GOP Objections on Spending."

I've been out all day, visiting friends and watching the Rose Bowl. But I've been following along on Twitter. Things have been a lot more complicated today. Folks woke up this morning and went to work to actually get a grip on what was in the Senate's fiscal cliff compromise passed during the wee hours. Tom Foreman breaks down the House GOP's opposition at the clip. And the best analysis I've read all day is this lead editorial at the Journal, "Obama's Tax Bill Comes Due":

The headlines say the Senate has passed a bill to avoid the tax cliff, hallelujah. This is the way to look at it if you have a pre-Copernican view of politics where Washington is the center of the economic universe. The better way to see it is that the tax bill on the private, productive part of the economy is now coming due for President Obama's first-term spending and re-election.

The Senate-White House compromise is a Beltway classic: The biggest tax increase in 20 years in return for spending increases, and all spun for political purposes as a "tax cut for the middle class." But taxes on the middle class were only going up on January 1 because the politicians had set it up that way, manufacturing a fake crisis. The politicians now portray themselves as scrambling heroically to save the day by sparing the middle class while raising taxes on small business, investors and the affluent.

Continue reading.

And see David Malpass, "Nothing Is Certain Except More Debt and Taxes."

Also at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama wins 'fiscal cliff' victory, but at high cost":

WASHINGTON — President Obama, who campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, has fulfilled that promise even before his next term starts.

The announcement Monday night of Senate agreement on a compromise to avert part of the "fiscal cliff" meant that for the first time in two decades, Republicans in Congress were preparing to vote in favor of a bill that raised taxes, an extraordinary concession to the nation's fiscal woes and the president's reelection.

But Obama's victory fell short of what he had campaigned for, and came at a high cost. Even if the House later Tuesday or Wednesday musters the votes to approve the bill that the Senate was to vote on in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the terms of this compromise guarantee another pitched battle over spending and taxes within months.

Continue reading.

I think the costs will be higher for Republicans, actually. If I can gather the motivation, I want to go back and research how the GOP agreed to this "fiscal cliff" framework in the first place, and especially whose idea it was for "sequestration." For real. It's as if an automatic tax increase, with spending cuts to defense, was tailor -made for the Obama White House in the first place. You're not negotiating a deal when that's the "consequence" of failure. The Democrats would get massive tax increases, etc., and could blame them on the GOP. See Jonathan Tobin for more on the frankly shitty politics of it all, "GOP Plays Into Obama’s Hands on Cliff."

In any case, politics on New Year's Day isn't all that pleasant. I think most people would rather be relaxing than stressing higher taxes and spending cuts. But these are the Obama Democrats we're dealing with nowadays. They don't really care about the well-being of regular people, and they certainly don't care about economic growth. They care about political power and expanding their big government agenda, and they've been quite good at it. Ross Douthat has more, and then I'll be back with more on this later, "Liberalism’s $400,000 Problem." (Via Memeorandum.)

UPDATE: The bill passed in the House and now goes to the president for his signature. At the New York Times, "G.O.P. Advances Senate-Backed Plan, Despite Opposition."

Black Monday Sweeps Through the NFL

Seven coaches were fired.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

@ampowerblog pounding the sidelines as long as he has been pounding all you can eat buffets I gather #NFL #SNF
— Em (@lamblock) December 31, 2012

Overnight, the NFL went from Xs and O's to ex-coaches and whoas.

In a head-spinning blizzard of pink slips, seven head coaches were fired Monday, leaving openings in Philadelphia, San Diego, Buffalo, Chicago, Arizona, Cleveland and Kansas City.

The dismissals included three coaches who led their teams to Super Bowls in the last eight years: Andy Reid of Philadelphia, Lovie Smith of Chicago and Ken Whisenhunt of Arizona.

Also shown the door were San Diego's Norv Turner, Buffalo's Chan Gailey, Cleveland's Pat Shurmur and Kansas City's Romeo Crennel.

Five general managers were fired: San Diego's A.J. Smith, Cleveland's Tom Heckert, Arizona's Rod Graves, Jacksonville's Gene Smith and the New York Jets' Mike Tannenbaum.

Most of the moves were long-anticipated, but the Bears raised some eyebrows by dumping Lovie Smith after a 10-win season that failed to produce a playoff berth. The Eagles parted ways with Reid, the league's longest-tenured coach, who had been there for 14 seasons. Philadelphia was 4-12 this season.

"When you have a season like that, it's embarrassing. It's personally crushing to me and it's terrible," Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a news conference.

Lurie said he didn't fire Reid after last season because the Eagles had always bounced back after a down year.

"That was the history," Lurie said. "I really believed that this season, with our talent, that we would be a strong contender and a double-digit win team. Nobody is more disappointed or crushed than myself because I fully believed that that's exactly where we were at in August as we started the season."

Although the firings came fast and furious Monday, the turnover has yet to match that of 2010, when there were 10 new coaches put in place, nearly a third of the league. The day after the season ends has come to be known as Black Monday.

"You hope that those guys that obviously were victims of Black Monday land on their feet," St. Louis Coach Jeff Fisher said. "You've got guys that have been to Super Bowls and won championship games and all of a sudden they've forgot how to coach, I guess."

More at the top.

I'm taking my boys up to Long Beach to watch the Rose Bowl with my colleagues Charlotte and Greg Joseph and their kids. I'll be back blogging tonight. I'm still reading around on the reaction to the budget deal and I'll have more on that. And don't miss lamblock on Twitter. She's a riot.

Laguna Beach Plastic Bag Ban Starts Today

Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, bans plastic bags. I pay 10 cents for a paper bag whenever I stop off at Wal-Mart on the way home from work. It's lame. And it's coming to the O.C.

At the O.C. Register, "Laguna plastic-bag ban begins today." The best part is the argument against from the surprisingly-named American Progressive Bag Alliance:

"Laguna Beach's plastic bag ban and paper bag tax will not only hurt consumers' pockets but also push them toward less sustainable alternatives," chairman Mark Daniels said in the statement. "Paper bags are a worse environmental option at checkout – using a large amount of water and emitting more greenhouse gases than plastic bags, and reusable bags cannot be recycled and are predominately imported from China."

The organization shared the following data:

• Reusable bags have been found to host dangerous bacteria, which can carry disease;
• Plastic bags aren't usually single-use, they said, with 90% of Americans reporting they re-use their plastic bags;
• Cloth bags must be used 131 times to ensure their footprint is less than a plastic bag, according to a U.K. government study;
• Seven times the number of trucks are required to deliver paper bags versus one truck for plastic;
• Plastic bag production consumes 4 percent of the water used in paper bag production.

Long Beach and Los Angeles County have similar ordinances.

Right on.

E-Book Reading Grows

I'm not quite there yet, although I'm reading journal articles on my wife's iPad. I'm liking it, so who knows?

At Pew Research, "E-book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines":

The population of e-book readers is growing. In the past year, the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%. At the same time, the number of those who read printed books in the previous 12 months fell from 72% of the population ages 16 and older to 67%.

Overall, the number of book readers in late 2012 was 75% of the population ages 16 and older, a small and statistically insignificant decline from 78% in late 2011.

The move toward e-book reading coincides with an increase in ownership of electronic book reading devices. In all, the number of owners of either a tablet computer or e-book reading device such as a Kindle or Nook grew from 18% in late 2011 to 33% in late 2012. As of November 2012, some 25% of Americans ages 16 and older own tablet computers such as iPads or Kindle Fires, up from 10% who owned tablets in late 2011. And in late 2012 19% of Americans ages 16 and older own e-book reading devices such as Kindles and Nooks, compared with 10% who owned such devices at the same time last year.

Continue reading.

Hispanic Pregnancies Fall in U.S.

This is fascinating.

At the New York Times, "U.S. Birthrate Dips as Hispanic Pregnancies Fall."

And while we're on the topic, you gotta read this, from Jonathan Last, at the Weekly Standard, "A Nation of Singles."

Audrina Partridge Calendar 2013

Hey, a great way to start the new year. What a lovely.

At London's Daily Mail, "Bikini girl Audrina Patridge reveals sneak peek of her sizzling 2013 calendar."

Hot Jenny McCarthy Kisses Navy Officer on New Year's Eve 2013!

This was something else.

At Gossip Cop, "Jenny McCarthy Makes Out with Navy Officer on New Year’s Eve (VIDEO)."

And see London's Daily Mail, "'Thirteen is my lucky number! Taylor Swift steals the show in leather as she heads New York's star studded celebrations."

'You Shook Me All Night Long'

I was thinking about this song earlier, a classic rocker for New Year's Eve:

She was a fast machine
She kept her motor clean
She was the best damn woman that I ever seen
She had the sightless eyes
Tellin' me no lies
Knockin' me out with those American thighs
Takin' more than her share
Had me fighting for air
She told me to come but I was already there
'Cause the walls start shaking
The earth was quakin'
My mind was achin'
And we were makin' it and you -

CHORUS:
Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long

Workin' double time
On the seduction line
She was one of a kind, she's just mine all mine
Wanted no applause
Just another course
Made a meal out of me, and come back for more
Had to cool me down
To take another round
Now I'm back in the ring to take another swing
'Cause the walls were shaking
The earth was quakin'
My mind was achin'
And we were makin' it and you -

CHORUS:
Shook me all night long
Yeah you shook me all night long
Knocked me out and then you
Shook me all night long
Then you were shakin' and you
Shook me all night loooong
Yeah you shook me
Well, you took me

(guitar solo)

You really took me and you
Shook me all night long
Oaaaaaahhhhhh you shook me all night long
Yeah yeah you
Shook me all... night... long
Ya really took me and you
Shook me all night long

Yeah you shook me, yeah you shook me
All night loooong!

'It Don't Come Easy'

You know it don't come easy, at the Concert for Bangladesh:

(It don't come easy, you know it don't come easy)
(It don't come easy, you know it don't come easy)

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues
And you know it don't come easy
You don't have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy
Forget about the past and all your sorrow
The future won't last
It will soon be your tomorrow

I don't ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don't come easy
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time
And you know it don't come easy
Open up your heart, let's come together
Use a little luck, and we will make it work out better

Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues
And you know it don't come easy
You don't have to shout or leap about
You can even play them easy
Please remember peace is how we make it
Here withing your reach, is your freedom to take it

I don't ask for much, I only want your trust
And you know it don't come easy
(de de de) growing all the time
And you know it don't come easy...

Memorization's Loosening Hold on Concert Tradition

I was in band in junior high. I played French horn. We had to memorize if we wanted to play, for both marching band and the holiday classical concert. It was a long time ago. But this story at the New York Times triggered the memory, "Playing by Heart, With or Without a Score":

It would seem that the filmmaker Michael Haneke, who wrote and directed the wrenching and poignantly acted new French movie “Amour,” is swept away by the mystique of a pianist, alone onstage, conveying mastery and utter oneness with music by playing a great piece from memory. The drama of playing from memory is at the crux of a scene involving the elegant French pianist Alexandre Tharaud, who, portraying himself, has a small but crucial role.

The story revolves around an elderly Parisian couple, Georges and Anne, retired music teachers, as they cope with the stroke that has paralyzed Anne’s right side. In one scene Mr. Tharaud, in the role of a former student of Anne’s who has gone on to a significant career, makes an unannounced visit to his old teacher to see how she is faring. He can barely contain his shock at her condition. Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) asks a favor: Would Alexandre play a piece she made him learn when he was 12? It is Beethoven’s Bagatelle in G minor, the second of the Six Bagatelles (Op. 126), Beethoven’s last published piano work.

At first Mr. Tharaud demurs. He has not played the piece for years, he explains, and is not sure he can remember it. Then, saying he will try, he proceeds to play the stormy bagatelle flawlessly, at least as much as we hear before the film cuts to the next scene. I suppose it would have been too pedestrian a touch if, when Alexandre said he was not sure he could remember the bagatelle, Anne had said, “Oh, I have the score, of course, right there on the shelf.”

Over the years I have observed that the rigid protocol in classical music whereby solo performers, especially pianists, are expected to play from memory seems finally, thank goodness, to be loosening its hold. What matters, or should matter, is the quality of the music making, not the means by which an artist renders a fine performance.

Increasingly, major pianists like Peter Serkin and Olli Mustonen have sometimes chosen to play a solo work using the printed score. The pianist Gilbert Kalish, best known as an exemplary chamber music performer and champion of contemporary music, has long played all repertory, including solo pieces (Haydn sonatas, Brahms intermezzos), using scores. As a faculty member of the excellent music department at Stony Brook University, Mr. Kalish spearheaded a change in the degree requirements in the 1980s, so that student pianists could play any work in their official recitals, from memory or not, whichever resulted in the best, most confident performance.

Yet there is still widespread and, to me, surprising, adherence in the field to the protocol of playing solo repertory from memory. This season Mr. Tharaud took a little flak for performing recitals in New York using printed scores.

Continue reading.

Senate Vote Approves Fiscal Deal, Raises Taxes on Wealthiest Americans

I'm following on Twitter:

SENATE PASSES THE DEAL: 89-8. On to the House.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDCNN) January 1, 2013

There's nothing like it for up-to-the-minute news and opinion:

Republican senators abandon their party, vote with Obama to raise taxes. #fiscalcliff #thirdparty #recall
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) January 1, 2013

And here's this just now at CNN, "Obama insisted on sequester buy down":

Washington (CNN) - Fiscal cliff negotiations between the White House and Congressional leaders involved late-night discussions in the Oval Office and an ultimate hardline from President Barack Obama, according to a source familiar with the process.

The source said it was the president who insisted the final deal include a pay down on the sequester and a tax increase that hit at least inviduals making $400,000 a year and $450,000 for households. That’s where the deal ended up.

On Monday, Republicans agreed to a plan that raises $620 billion in revenue over 10 years and makes a $24 billion down payment on deficit reduction through a combination of revenue and spending cuts – also a priority for the president. Those spending cuts have been pre-determined and will be evenly divided between defense and non-defense areas.

A source familiar with the discussions and revealing a slant on negotiations argued these deal points represented significant concessions from the GOP. This person insisted that because Republicans backed off their pledge to oppose tax rate increases for the wealthiest Americans and said this deal represents one of the most significant policy victories of the last two decades.

Not everyone has the same view. The progressive group moveon.org criticized the White House for moving off Obama’s pledge to raise taxes for households earning $250,000 and more and took issue with the short-term nature of the sequester delay.

“At the end of the day, poor and middle class families deserve a better deal than more tax cuts for the rich and the potential for another hostage situation in two months,” the organization said in a statement.

Damned commies.

More at the link.

And at the New York Times, "Grand Deals Give Way to Legislative Quick Fixes."

Like I said earlier, this has been the strangest New Year's Eve.

Added: From the New York Post, "Senate approves fiscal cliff legislation hours after midnight; House yet to vote."

Obama and GOP Seal Budget Deal

Well, I'd say "our long national nightmare is over," except it's not. These idiots just kicked the can down the road. At the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Budget Compromise Is Reached":

President Barack Obama and Senate leaders reached a New Year's Eve budget agreement that would boost income-tax rates rise for the first time in nearly 20 years, maintain unemployment benefits for millions of people and blunt the impact of spending cuts that were looming as part of the fiscal cliff.

The long-sought compromise—which would raise taxes on joint filer's incomes above $450,000 and delay for two months part of the $110 billion in spending cuts that otherwise would have taken place in early January—was expected to be approved by the Senate in the early morning hours of Tuesday. The House was expected to consider it later in the day.

The delay in approval meant that the U.S. technically went over the fiscal cliff at midnight. But with U.S. markets closed Tuesday, the impact of missing the deadline could be minimal. What damage the wrangling has caused—to the 2013 tax-filing season and consumer confidence—is already assured.
Passage isn't a sure thing in the House, where conservative Republicans are dismayed that the compromise raises taxes and doesn't include more cuts in federal spending. Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said the House could amend it and send it back to the Senate, but supporters of the compromise hope that a big bipartisan vote of approval in the Senate would help in propel it through the House and onto Mr. Obama's desk for his signature by Thursday.

The compromise was prepared for the Senate floor after Vice President Joe Biden, who brokered the deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) traveled to the Capitol for a late-night meeting with Senate Democrats, including many who harbored reservations about the deal.

Major elements of the compromise would...

Read the details at the link (via Memeorandum).

And at CNN, "Latest updates: Final fiscal cliff scramble." And CNN's Lisa Desjardins is live-tweeting.

It's 10:30pm on the West Coast, so I'll be up for awhile, ringing in this weird New Year.

CARTOON CREDIT: NetRight Daily.

Des Moines Register Columnist Wants Mitch McConnell and John Boehner Lynched

I clearly remember, back in the late-1990s, how the murder-by-dragging (lynching) death of James Byrd, in Beaumont, Texas, became a left-wing rallying cry against the purported "Jim Crow" racism the so-called "radical right." So I'll be waiting with bated breath for the progressive fever swamps to rise up in outrage at gun control extremist Donald Kaul's exhortaton that the Republican House Speaker and Senate Minority Leader to be dragged to their deaths. See, "Nation needs a new agenda on guns." After a long rant in which he confesses his "anger" at the Newtown massacre, here's Kaul's conclusion (via Memeorandum):

Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I’ll bet gun sales will rise.

Interesting how Kaul calls for truly "radical" measures after that, which no doubt would be to simply kill all Republicans, kind of like how the Nazis tried to exterminate the Jews in the 1930's and 1940's.

Nice Deb's not kidding when she warns that fascism's coming to America.

It turns out as well that we've got Georgetown University Law Professor Louis Michael Seidman announcing that we should simply ignore the Constitution. It's just getting in the way of the left's totalitarian agenda, "Let's Give Up on the Constitution." Really. William Jacobson responds, "Extra-constitutional power is what they’ve always wanted":

I find myself agreeing more frequently than ever before with Glenn Greenwald, at least on the issue of the willingness and desire of “progressives” to go where even the demonized George W. Bush was not willing to go, and the willingness with which the progressive intelligentsia embraces such ideas in the service of Obama. Or maybe he’s agreeing with me.

Well, yeah. I've been finding myself agreeing with Greenwald too, since he's about the only one on the left who's willing to apply the Constitution to the current regime in power.

Remember my post from this morning, "Keep Fighting in 2013"? Well, folks need to keep fighting not only to preserve their liberty, but the lives. And I write this in all seriousness. We're getting multiple doses of the left's eliminationist rhetoric on a daily basis nowadays. Seriously. It's time to stand a post.

PHOTO CREDIT: "Jasper County Assistant District Attorney Pat Hardy displays the chain allegedly used to drag James Byrd Jr. to his death during a break in the trial of Lawrence Russell Brewer Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999, at the Brazos County Courthouse in Bryan, Texas," via the Beaumont Enterprise.

NFL Playoff Picture

At the NFL homepage, "NFL Playoff Picture for 2012 Season."

And from Sam Farmer, at the Los Angeles Times, "By and bye, Adrian Peterson, others in NFL come tantalizingly close":

Two thousand steps forward.

Two big steps back.

On a Sunday when Minnesota's Adrian Peterson became the seventh NFL player to run for 2,000 yards — coming within nine of breaking Eric Dickerson's season rushing record — two teams backpedaled in a big way.

The Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers lost on the road, both blowing opportunities for first-round playoff byes.

Indianapolis beat Houston, 28-16, and the Vikings edged the Packers, 37-34, to earn the final playoff spot in the NFC.

Swooping in to secure those No. 2 seedings — which come with a week off — were San Francisco in the NFC and New England in the AFC.

The top seedings are Atlanta in the NFC and Denver in the AFC.

The Vikings' victory secured a first-round rematch Saturday night with Green Bay, this time at Lambeau Field.

The playoffs open Saturday with Cincinnati at Houston. On Sunday, Indianapolis plays at Baltimore, followed by Seattle at Washington.

The Redskins clinched the NFC East on Sunday night with a 28-18 victory over Dallas in a winner-take-all game. The Redskins won the division title for the first time since 1999, and are the first team since the 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars to make the playoffs after losing six of its first nine games.

That means the first round will feature a record three rookie quarterbacks: the Colts' Andrew Luck, and — in the same game — the Redskins' Robert Griffin III and the Seahawks' Russell Wilson.

Also, "Philadelphia Eagles fire Coach Andy Reid after 14 seasons." And, "Chicago Bears fire Coach Lovie Smith; Buffalo fires Chan Gailey."

Hobby Lobby Fights the ObamaCare Birth Control Mandate

At the Oklahoman, "Hobby Lobby standing on principle in vow to continue its fight against mandate."

RELATED: At NewsBusters, "No, AP and Politico, It Isn't About 'What Hobby Lobby Says'; It's About What Is Actually True."

VIDEO CREDIT: Via Nice Deb, "Yes, Fascism Has Come to America."

Keep Fighting in 2013

I feel like throwing my hands up when I reflect on comments like Rabbi Pruzansky's, but then again, I imagine myself a dissident protecting the flame of liberty from the harsh gusts of leftist repression. I take a deep breath and say: "My country needs me." Perhaps that's too self-important? Okay. But then again, I keep reading folks who counsel against despair, like Claudia Rosett, "Girding for 2013":

Perhaps the most important bottom line in girding for 2013 is, if you care about capitalism and freedom, about a strong America and a safer, freer world, do not give up. There is a struggle of ideas going on here; and even when much seems lost — spun off the road, over the cliff — plenty may yet depend on even a few who keep the faith, and at the right moment, are ready with a plan.

Keep the faith. Keep fighting in 2013.

Tribune Company Emerges From Bankruptcy

As much as we bitch and moan about left-wing media bias, we still need quality newspapers out there doing essential journalism. We need quality news-gathering, and the newspapers have been the main source throughout American history. I'll be the first to praise the mainstream outlets when they offer solid reporting, and I still subscribe to the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune entity, so I guess I'm still a sucker for progressive punishment.

In any case, at the Times, "Tribune Co. set to exit bankruptcy protection":

Tribune Co. is expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection Monday with a new board of directors composed largely of entertainment-industry veterans.

Exiting bankruptcy would mark a milestone for Tribune, the parent of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper and television properties.

Tribune sought Bankruptcy Court protection in December 2008 after a leveraged buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell saddled the company with $12.9 billion in debt just as advertising revenue was collapsing. It is one of the longest bankruptcy cases in U.S. corporate history.

Tribune will emerge as a slimmed-down entity with a more stable financial base. But the media conglomerate will still be buffeted by the larger forces pounding the newspaper industry, specifically uncertainty over whether papers can generate sufficient revenue from digital operations.

"Tribune is far stronger than it was when we began the Chapter 11 process four years ago and, given the budget planning we've done, the company is well-positioned for success in 2013," Eddy Hartenstein, Tribune's chief executive, wrote in a note to employees Sunday night.

Tribune's new board of directors is expected to be made up of a who's who of Hollywood players. Most have no hands-on experience running newspapers and television stations, which are Tribune's biggest assets.

More at that top link.

Best Sports Photos of 2012

At the Wall Street Journal, "Capturing the Year in Sports: How Some of 2012's Most Iconic Images Were Snapped."

The photo of the Pacquiao-Marquez fight, by Al Bello of Getty Images, is especially good.

Gérard Depardieu Stirs Belgian Border Town

I love this, at the New York Times, "Coming Soon to Belgian Village, a French Film Idol Fleeing Taxes":

NÉCHIN, Belgium — The last time a big star lit up this sleepy village of potato fields and rain-drenched pastures was in 1667, when the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, stopped by for the day. But even he may not have created quite the commotion caused by Gérard Depardieu, the celebrated actor, turbulent bon vivant and, since a visit to the mayor’s office here on Dec. 7 to register as a resident, France’s most reviled tax exile.

“I thought it was a joke,” said the mayor, Daniel Senesael, recalling his disbelief when he was first told that Mr. Depardieu intended to leave his mansion in Paris and move to Néchin, a rural settlement in Belgium with just 2,200 people, two cafes, a fast-food fry shop, a ruined chateau and no cinema.

“Let’s be honest, this is not Las Vegas,” Mr. Senesael said. “There are no lights and no discos. I get flooded with complaints when anyone suggests opening even a wind farm.”

Michel Sardou, a veteran French singer who has joined a frenzy of criticism directed at Mr. Depardieu in France, mocked the actor’s flight to Néchin, predicting that he would be “as bored as a rat” here. “So, there is some divine justice after all,” the singer joked on French television.

For Mr. Depardieu, and scores of wealthy French citizens who already live here, however, Néchin does have one seductive asset: it is beyond the reach of the French tax authorities but so close to France that an unmarked border running through the village puts the gardens of some properties in France and adjoining houses in Belgium.

“Our geographic situation makes us very attractive,” said Mr. Senesael, noting that Néchin is an easy place to get into and out of, with a nearby airport, a major highway and a railway station just a few miles away in the French city of Lille with regular high-speed trains to Paris, Brussels and London.

“Nobody should be astonished that big fortunes have found a certain fiscal advantage” in moving to this side of the border, said the mayor, whose domain covers Néchin and a cluster of other hamlets that form what is known as the Entity of Estaimpuis. Mr. Depardieu’s critics, he said, should direct their ire not at the actor but at the failure of European governments to harmonize tax rates across the 27 nations of the European Union.

More at that top link.  (And that should be "the failure of Europe to establish a uniform 75 percent tax rate on incomes over €1 million euros...")

Also, "France's 75 Percent Tax Rate Struck Down on Constitutional Grounds."

For now. Depardieu's smart to skedaddle out of there.

BONUS: From the editors at the Wall Street Journal, "Le Tax Fairness."

New York Times Editors Call for Carbon Taxes, and Then Some

I noted previously regarding Ireland's new carbon tax regime, "folks in Washington (the progressive political class) have been talking about all kinds of alternative taxes systems, such as value added systems." Well, it's not just Washington, but also yesterday at the editorial suite at the New York Times, "Why the Economy Needs Tax Reform":

The main problem is that the current tax code is incapable of raising the revenue needed to pay for the goods and services of government....

A logical way to help raise the additional needed revenue would be to tax capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income. Capital gains on assets held for more than a year before selling are taxed at about the lowest rate in the code, currently 15 percent and expected to rise to 20 percent in 2013. That is an indefensible giveaway to the richest Americans. Research shows that the tax breaks do not add to economic growth but do contribute to inequality. Currently, the top 1 percent of taxpayers receive more than 70 percent of all capital gains, while the bottom 80 percent receive only 6 percent.

Another sensible approach is to cap deductions at 28 percent, or to convert deductions, which disproportionately benefit high-bracket taxpayers, to tax credits, which would provide the same benefit to all taxpayers, regardless of tax bracket. President Obama must also pursue other revenue raisers, including a restoration of the estate tax, higher tax rates or surcharges on multimillion-dollar incomes, and higher corporate taxes, including an end to the deferral of tax for American companies that stash their earnings abroad....

With that in mind, Mr. Obama would be wise to instruct the Treasury Department to start work on tax reform now, exploring carbon taxes, both to raise revenue and to protect the environment; a value-added tax, coupled with provisions to protect lower-income taxpayers from higher prices, to tax consumption and encourage saving; and a financial transactions tax, to ensure that the financial sector, whose profits have substantially outpaced those of nonfinancial corporations, pay a fair share.

"Pay a fair share." Hmm, where have I heard that before?

The left's solution is always more government, which requires ever increasing demands for revenue. It's never about how we can reform systems to look forward, tapping the vitality of the individual and the dynamism of markets.

And check this great Fox News segment from over the weekend, "Lawmakers Pushing a Mileage Tax For Drivers In 2013."

Mandatory Spending Cuts (Could) Kick In Wednesday

At the Wall Street Journal, "Unthinkable Cuts Almost a Reality":

Mandatory federal spending cuts designed to be prohibitively drastic will become a reality on Wednesday if negotiators remain unable to reach an agreement to avert the reductions.

The cuts would hit a broad array of departments and programs, from the military's purchase of mine-resistant vehicles to government food inspections. They would slash funding for Secret Service details and cut rental housing subsidies in rural areas.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta delivers a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Dec. 18.

Illustrating the gravity of the cuts, the Pentagon plans to notify 800,000 civilian employees that they could be forced to take several weeks of unpaid leave in 2013 if a deal isn't struck, and other agencies are likely to follow suit.

The cuts, which members of both parties have referred to as a "meat ax," are the product of a hastily designed 2011 law that required $110 billion in annual spending reductions over nine years to reduce the deficit. Their severity, representing close to 10% of annually appropriated spending, was intended to force Democrats and Republicans to come together on a broader package of deficit-reduction measures, which would replace the cuts. That effort failed, raising the prospect of the cuts' taking place.

That sounds stupid, especially so since Washington rarely ever cuts spending.

But continue reading.

Also, "Congress Meets Cliff's Edge: Senate Budget Talks Bear Little Fruit; McConnell and Biden Carry On Discussion."

Demand Gun-Grab Movie Celebrities to STFU

A video to crystallize all the celebrity gun control hypocrisy, at Blazing Cat Fur, "Demand a Plan - Demand Celebrities Go F&ck Themselves."

The Tea Party's Bad Year?

No surprise here, from Chris Cillizza, at the Washington Post: "The worst year in Washington: The tea party."

I debunked this nascent "the tea party is dead" meme here: "A Weaker Tea Party?"

And Michelle Fields offers a related rebuttal, and she nails it:

The tea party's going to be very busy in 2013. Reports of the movement's demise are predictably --- and stupidly --- premature.

Kate Upton: American Power's Woman of the Year for 2012

For sheer volume, I've probably posted more coverage of Kelly Brook, but as measured by the wider "It Girl" social trends, no doubt Kate Upton deserves the first annual American Power babe-blogging award for 2012.

Here's an amazingly good sample "Kate Upton See-Through Outtakes from GQ."

And a flashback from last month, "Gratuitous Kate Upton Rule 5 Video."

Here's to another year of blogging. I think babe blogging helps prevent blog burnout, so screw the freak progressive PC lawfare/harassment freaks. You know who you are, assholes.

And hats off to The Other McCain for keeping the flame alive amid all the progressive prudery: "Rule 5 Sunday: Come Dancing."

Stay tuned for 2013!

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: Why Romney Lost

This is amazing, at Atlas Shrugs, "THE END":

Op-Ed: Why Romney Didn't Get Enough Votes to Win
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Israel National News, November 13, 2012

*****

It is a different world, and a different America. Obama is part of that different America, knows it, and knows how to tap into it. That is why he won.
The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that Americans voted for the status quo – for the incumbent President and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility. And fewer people voted.

But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he lose because he ran a poor campaign, nor did he lose because the Republicans could have chosen better candidates, nor did he lose because Obama benefited from a slight uptick in the economy due to the business cycle.

Romney lost because he didn’t get enough votes to win.

That might seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost because the conservative virtues – the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness – no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate. The notion of the “Reagan Democrat” is one cliché that should be permanently retired.

Ronald Reagan himself could not win an election in today’s America.

The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff. Every businessman knows this; that is why the “loss leader” or the giveaway is such a powerful marketing tool. Obama’s America is one in which free stuff is given away: the adults among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly recognized for whom they should vote, and so they did, by the tens of millions; those who – courtesy of Obama – receive two full years of unemployment benefits (which, of course, both disincentivizes looking for work and also motivates people to work off the books while collecting their windfall) surely know for whom to vote; so too those who anticipate “free” health care, who expect the government to pay their mortgages, who look for the government to give them jobs. The lure of free stuff is irresistible.

Imagine two restaurants side by side. One sells its customers fine cuisine at a reasonable price, and the other offers a free buffet, all-you-can-eat as long as supplies last. Few – including me – could resist the attraction of the free food. Now imagine that the second restaurant stays in business because the first restaurant is forced to provide it with the food for the free buffet, and we have the current economy, until, at least, the first restaurant decides to go out of business. (Then, the government takes over the provision of free food to its patrons.)

The defining moment of the whole campaign was the revelation (by the amoral Obama team) of the secretly-recorded video in which Romney acknowledged the difficulty of winning an election in which “47% of the people” start off against him because they pay no taxes and just receive money – “free stuff” – from the government. Almost half of the population has no skin in the game – they don’t care about high taxes, promoting business, or creating jobs, nor do they care that the money for their free stuff is being borrowed from their children and from the Chinese. They just want the free stuff that comes their way at someone else’s expense. In the end, that 47% leaves very little margin for error for any Republican, and does not bode well for the future.

It is impossible to imagine a conservative candidate winning against such overwhelming odds. People do vote their pocketbooks. In essence, the people vote for a Congress who will not raise their taxes, and for a President who will give them free stuff, never mind who has to pay for it.

That engenders the second reason why Romney lost: the inescapable conclusion that the electorate is dumb – ignorant, and uninformed. Indeed, it does not pay to be an informed voter, because most other voters – the clear majority – are unintelligent and easily swayed by emotion and raw populism. That is the indelicate way of saying that too many people vote with their hearts and not their heads. That is why Obama did not have to produce a second term agenda, or even defend his first-term record. He needed only to portray Mitt Romney as a rapacious capitalist who throws elderly women over a cliff, when he is not just snatching away their cancer medication, while starving the poor and cutting taxes for the rich.

Obama could get away with saying that “Romney wants the rich to play by a different set of rules” – without ever defining what those different rules were; with saying that the “rich should pay their fair share” – without ever defining what a “fair share” is; with saying that Romney wants the poor, elderly and sick to “fend for themselves” – without even acknowledging that all these government programs are going bankrupt, their current insolvency only papered over by deficit spending. Obama could get away with it because he knew he was talking to dunces waving signs and squealing at any sight of him.

During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!” Stevenson called back: “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!” Truer words were never spoken...

Still more at the link.

British Schoolboy Finds WWII Bomb With Metal Detector He Got for Christmas

The boy's mom was impressed: "We are dumbfounded that he discovered this on his first go."

See, "Schoolboy finds WWII bomb on first trip out with metal detector Christmas present."

New York Journal News Employees' Personal Information Published Online

William Jacobson reports, "If the names and addresses of gun permit holders are fair game, what about this?":

When journalists start a privacy war, where does it end?

Personally, I don't think it will end, because nothing is out of bounds for the progressive left these days. Nothing will stop them in their nihilistic program of destruction, nothing, that is, but their own mutual destruction. Here's this outstanding comment at the post, from Subotai Bahadur":

An amazing burst of comments. Nerves have been touched.

Professor, we are literally in the end stage of pretending that politics as normal mean something. The Constitutional order has been de facto overturned, while retaining the external trappings of the old order. The government is at open war on the Bill of Rights. Congress has lost the power of the purse and no longer represents anything but their own vested interests. The rule of law is gone. Who you are and who you are connected to decides if you will be prosecuted for any crime. No connections = no mercy and frequently no due process. If connected to the regime, you are immune. Our courts have withdrawn from the fray or have been subverted. In any major issue, it seems that the courts rule that there is no one who has standing to oppose the will of the State; so the State wins. And if a matter does get before the courts, the courts rule based on politics, not law. The Supreme Court is no longer a barrier defending the Constitutions. When Chief Justice Roberts suddenly reversed his entire life’s work to rule that the Federal government could violate the Constitution so long as it did it in the guise of a tax; it was obvious that he has been gotten to and is now merely a tool of the regime.

Moderating our conduct while the country is still on this side of violence will not prevent things going from bad to worse. Things are going to get worse even if we become martyred saints. Our restraint in the face of ongoing attacks merely removes restraints on the conduct of those who seek the destruction of our country and Constitution. If their escalations are only met with feeble responses on our part, they are encouraged to push the envelope until they reach the point of violence.

So long as no law is broken [after all, that is the standard of combat that they have set; akin to say the real rules on the use of poison gas in warfare] then hit back twice as hard. Make them deal with their families and their neighbors being angry at them. And publicly out the nature of their bias’ in every thing they publish. Keep in mind that just recently the State got the power to wiretap, investigate, and arrest people without warrant of probably cause. Do you think that they are going to limit what they dig up in the name of “decency”? Look at their record.

Every employee of the paper should have a full background check, as deep as can be done within the bounds of the law. If a prospective employer can find it, then it should be legal. And publishable. Criminal records, court judgments, membership in various organizations, political contributions, public statements. If the investigation leads to family members, so be it. Reveal it all.

Publish the ownership/management details of all the companies who advertised in the editions where the permit holders are/were mapped who continue to advertise with them. There will be the implication that they could receive the same detailed attention as the employees. And if Gannett does not rein in the Journal News; move up the corporate food chain.

Given the nature of the Journo-List 2.0 media; it would be wise for all of their major personalities to be subject to the same investigation as the Journal-News’ staff just to have in reserve for when they next outrageously lie. And every personality in the current administration. There is a lot of work to do.

Oh, and one more little cross check on the Journal-News’ map. Do not take it on faith that their map was complete. Follow up on it and make sure that they did not “accidentally” forget to publish the names of various politically or otherwise connected individuals that they did not want to offend. If there are political or other celebrities who are calling for the abolition of the 2nd Amendment while themselves being armed; that needs to be Alinsky-ed out.

If we are to have a hope of stopping the enemies of our country before they physically attack us, we have to make them pay a price and show that they will be opposed if they cross that line. Yielding to them does not accomplish that end.

I am reminded of a quote by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his GULAG Archipelago that seems on point. It was about the greatest regret of those in the slave labor camps:

What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? Part I The Prison Industry, Ch. 1 “Arrest” (p13, The Gulag Archipelago, Collins 1974)

The forces of the Left right now know that they attack us short of violence in perfect safety. We cannot let them think that that safety will be there when they inevitably turn to violence. Thus, we must strike back overwhelmingly before that line is crossed.

Subotai Bahadur

Lots more comments at that thread.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Leftist Scum Betraying Our Country."

'Something Fundamental in America Has to Change...'

Why now?

Well, Obama would have never pushed for such a radical gun-grabbing program before the election. It's literally depraved. He's depraved.

See Twitchy, "Obama vows to go after gun rights, admits he wants ‘fundamental change’ to America."

I slept in and missed the full interview, but Althouse caught it, although I'm surprised at her response, considering O's statements on gun control: "On 'Meet the Press' today, Obama mostly came across as the moderate, pragmatic politician I like." (Via Memeorandum.)

Smokin' Paraguayan Model Claudia Galanti --- Just Wow!

Give it up for London's Daily Mail and this unbelievably hot piece featuring the Paraguayan hottie.

See: "Put it away, mum! Paraguayan model Claudia Galanti clutches onto baby Tal while wearing revealing, see-through vest."

The Leftist Scum Betraying Our Country

It's still a great country. California is nearing lost-cause status, but nationally the political order remains vital in many respects. But as I've been saying, conservatives and patriots must keep pressing on toward reform. It's not just about better policies or higher standards of living. It's about the very survival of America as the beacon of freedom in the world. I've learned a lot from reading my good friend Stogie's blog Saberpoint, and I'm glad he's not beating around the bush regarding the nature of the enemy. See, "Communist Revolution: I Never Thought It Would Come to This":

The long march through the institutions was completed some time ago, and both academia and media have a near monopoly on the transmission of biased news, cultural demolition and the ability to affect public attitudes. The "closing of the American mind" is just about complete. Moonbattery blog has an article today called "Brainwashing Works." The author, Dave Blount, points to a sign in NYC's Penn Station where a graffiti artist has penned "Kill All Republicans!" This sentiment is not an isolated occurrence. Twitchy.com reports daily the most vile bile from the left, the unhinged hatred, the desire for violence against Republicans and conservatives. The Democrat Media Complex has created a vast swath of human botnets, which can be set off in mass to launch denial-of-liberty attacks on any and all who oppose the New Progressive Order. Like computer botnets, the human variety is programmed and programmable and act in concert, unhindered by scruples or actual thought.

Lately swarms of human maggots on Twitter have tweeted their joy at the death of General Norman Schwarzkopf yesterday, expressing hope that he died painfully and is now burning in Hell. They have said similar things about former President George H.W. Bush, who is in the hospital with a serious illness, hoping that he dies "in agony." I do not recognize this leftist human scum as fellow citizens, but as traitors, agents of hostile foreign powers and ideologies. With the election of one of their own to the presidency, they are now emboldened to finish off the Republic, and as Blount notes at Moonbattery, are now in a rush to disarm us.

Read the whole thing at the link.

It's not the death wish agitation that's evidence for the left's treason, but if that kind of pure hatred --- the overwhelming desire of progressives to literally kill their political enemies --- is a needed prompt for identifying the enemy for what it is, all the better. For me, I started blogging because I'd learned that the values that I'd once identified with as "liberal" and "progressive" were in fact the very opposite. At that time, in 2006, little did I know just how depraved was the radical left. But once you start to expose these douchebags you're placed in the cross-hairs yourself. There are no misunderstandings by that time. You know intimately that progressives will stop at nothing to destroy barriers to the ideological agenda. This next year will be a time of reorganizing and redoubling efforts among the forces of decency and traditionalism. But conservatives need to abandon the nice-guy mentality that makes them suckers over and over again for the machinations of the left. Don't be fooled by progressives who attempt to befriend you with idle chit-chat. They'll sell you out in the name of the totalitarian agenda faster than you can say Lev Trotsky. And be ready to fight fire with fire. See Nice Deb for more on that, and be sure to check the links: "Hoisting Them on their Own Petards."

PHOTO CREDIT: Moonbattery.

Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves on Tablet Computers

Completely illiterate Ethiopian children.

See Der Spiegel, "The Miracle of Wenchi: Ethiopian Kids Using Tablets to Teach Themselves":

The path to Wenchi leads along the rim of an extinct volcano. It winds through banana plantations and brier patches, with wild marjoram growing rampant along the edge. There is a crater lake below, and beyond it lies the Great Rift Valley, also known as the cradle of humanity.

The ancestors of Homo sapiens lived in the valley a million years ago. Gazing across the plateau, with its green, gently rolling hills, it looks as if everything is as it has always been, before the modern age came to the village.

It takes an hour to hike to the village of Wenchi on Wenchi Lake, 3,400 meters (11,152 feet) above sea level. Eight families live there in mud huts with steeply pitched roofs covered with straw. Wenchi looks a little like the Smurfs Village. There is no electricity and no running water, the next well is an hour away and it's 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) to the nearest school.

The first time American Matt Keller stood on the crater rim, between the lake and the valley, looking down at Wenchi, he could hardly believe his eyes. He was searching for a place that was sufficiently far away from the rest of the world. He was already on the verge of turning around, because he didn't think anyone still lived here.

But Keller has felt a little closer to the people of Wenchi since the end of October, when floodwaters inundated Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lives. Hurricane Sandy was raging, his house was underwater, and nothing worked anymore. There was no heat, no hot water and no electricity. Keller spent two days in his car, charging his mobile phone with the cigarette lighter and answering calls from around the world. Scientists, journalists and sponsors wanted to know about his computer project, and about the children from Wenchi and their prospects for the future.

It's a December morning, and Keller is making his way down to the village for his fifth visit to Wenchi. He wants to know how much progress the children have made since the last time he was there. A few girls and boys run out to greet him, reach for his hand and lead them to a new hut with solar panels on the roof.

The children are barefoot. Eight-year-old Kelbessa, with his tousled hair and dreamy eyes, is wearing a men's jacket covered with dirt and carrying a brown leather case under his arm that looks like a briefcase. Abebech is 10 and is wearing matchsticks as jewelry in her pierced earlobes. She is carrying her youngest brother in a piece of material slung over her back.

Abebech is holding the same brown leather case in her hand, containing a portable tablet PC with a touchscreen, which local residents refer to as a Computera. When Abebech switches it on, three letters appear on the screen: the letter A is wearing a baseball cap, B is warbling into a microphone and C is rapping. The letters sing the ABC song with high-pitched digital voices. They sound like Teletubbies. It isn't a sound that adults can stand listening to for long.

But with Abebech it's a different story. She loves the song and can sing along for hours. Using her fingers, she paints the letters onto the screen, concentrating on the task at hand. She wipes the snot from her nose with the back of her hand, and then she wipes her finger across the screen, quickly opening applications, typing and writing ecstatically.

After a few minutes Kelbessa, the boy, shows Keller his latest work. He has circumvented the security system that's intended to prevent children from accessing photo and video programs, because they eat up too much electricity and space on the memory cards. Kelbessa has shot a two-minute video. It shows his grandfather with the cattle, a shaky image of the hut and his sisters. Kelbessa is beaming.

Keller squats in the dust next to the children, watching quietly, thinking to himself that he is witnessing a miracle, the miracle of Wenchi. He is the first person from the Western world to come to Wenchi to explore this miracle.

Keller, 48, is a thoughtful American in safari pants. The villagers refer to him as the "ferenji," or white man. Everything has changed in Wenchi since he began making his occasional visits to the village.

An amazing story.

Continue reading.

'Ways to Be Wicked'

Here's Maria McKee and Lone Justice, live during their heyday in the mid-1980s:

Honey tell me why you smile
When you see me hurt so bad
Tell me what I did to you babe
That would make you act like that
Yes I've been your fool before babe
And I probably will again
You aint afraid to let me have it
You aint afraid to stick it in

You know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing
About love

Yeah I can take a little pain
Yeah I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you're walking me through hell
Yes I've been your fool before babe
And I probably will again
You aint afraid to let me have it
You aint afraid to stick it in

You know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing
About love

Those cobra eyes
Lie with a smile
Honey you take pride
In the devil down deep inside

Well I can take a little pain
Yeah I can hold it pretty well
I can watch you little eyes light up
While you're walking me through hell
Yeah I've been your fool before babe
And I probably will again
You aint afriad to let me have it
You aint afraid to sitck it in

You know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing
About love

You know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don't know one little thing
About love

Looks like the band made an MTV-style video with the studio version of the song, seen here, although I don't remember it. I saw the band in February 1986 at the Hollywood Palace. Unforgettable.

Finding the Words to Say Goodbye (or Not)

I spent time with my dad when he was in a hospice in 2004, and he died there on December 20th of that year. We never had a final "goodbye" conversion. I knew he was near the end, although I thought I'd have a chance to go visit him again. But I got the call from the social worker saying he'd passed. Weird, that. It wasn't my sister who called me. It was his social worker.

Anyway, my advice is not to wait too long to say goodbyes if you think things are coming to the end for a loved one. But some people don't even tell their friends and family that they're dying.

See this piece at the New York Times, "Exit Lines."

Woman Charged With Hate-Crime in Queens Subway-Push Murder

She hadn't been charged at the time of my earlier report, "Thirty-One Year Old Homeless Woman in Custody in Queens Subway-Push Death."

But now the New York Times reports, "Woman Accused of Hate-Crime Murder in Subway Push."

Robert Stacy McCain relates this story to the left's depraved gun control exploitation, "New York City Needs Subway Control."

And the sickening ghouls of the radical left fever swamps bubbled up to blame Pamela Geller for the murder, "WOMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN NY SUBWAY SHOVE DEATH, CLAIMS 9/11/01 WAS HER MOTIVE." (Via Memeorandum.)

It never ends with these scumbags.

Piers Morgan Threatens to Self-Deport

My dad always had guns in the house, most memorably a WWII-era M1 carbine, with a small-capacity clip kept in his top dresser drawer in the master bedroom. And he was a die-hard Cold War Democrat. He's gone now, but I doubt he'd be pleased with the left's ignominious child-death exploitation and its depraved push for extreme gun control measures. In his last few years, when he was in his 80's and 90's, my dad kept a small handgun on the pillow next to him while he slept. He had it just sitting right there. He felt safer with it.

Anyway, I'm just thinking about this while reading Piers Morgan's commentary at London's Daily Mail, "Deport me? If America won't change its crazy gun laws... I may deport myself says Piers Morgan" (at Memeorandum):

I have fired guns only once in my life, on a stag party to the Czech capital Prague a few years ago when part of the itinerary included a trip to an indoor shooting range. For three hours, our group were let loose on everything from Magnum 45 handguns and Glock pistols, to high-powered ‘sniper’ rifles and pump-action shotguns.

It was controlled, legal, safe and undeniably exciting. But it also showed me, quite demonstrably, that guns are killing machines.

Rarely has the hideous effect of a gun been more acutely laid bare than at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, two weeks ago – when a deranged young man called Adam Lanza murdered 20 schoolchildren aged six and seven, as well as six adults, in a sickening rampage.

He gets all whiney and admits that losing his cool with gun rights advocate Larry Pratt triggered the massive public relations campaign against him. Boo hoo. What a freakin' baby. A baby who wants to confiscate guns:

President Obama seems to agree it’s time for action. After four years of doing precisely nothing about gun control in America, he finally snapped after Sandy Hook and said he’s keen to pursue a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And he wants a closure of the absurd loopholes that mean 40 per cent of all gun sales in America currently have no background checks whatsoever – meaning any crackpot or criminal can get their hands on whatever they want.

These measures, which will be resisted every step of the way, won’t stop all gun crime. Nor all mass shootings. There are too many guns out there, and too many criminals and mentally deranged people keen to use them. But the measures will at least make a start. And they will signal an intent to tackle this deadly scourge on American life.

Obama should follow up by launching a Government buy-back for all existing assault weapons in circulation (as worked successfully in Los Angeles last week). I would go further, confiscating the rest and enforcing tough prison sentences on those who still insist on keeping one.

Either you ban these assault weapons completely, and really mean it, or you don’t.

It won't be just "assault" weapons, but progressives won't tell you that.

Continue reading.

At the essay's last line Morgan declares that he'd consider deporting himself if the laws don't change to reflect his decidedly un-American outlook.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, brother.

BONUS: A must-see entry at This Ain't Hell, "OK, CNN, you’re disqualified from the gun discussion."

UPDATE: EBL links, "Remember Piers Morgan is laughing all the way to the bank by making money off the blood of children." Thanks!

Laws Are for Little People

From Mark Steyn, at National Review (at Memeorandum):

A week ago on NBC’s Meet the Press, David Gregory brandished on screen a high-capacity magazine. To most media experts, a “high-capacity magazine” means an ad-stuffed double issue of Vanity Fair with the triple-page perfume-scented pullouts. But apparently in America’s gun-nut gun culture of gun-crazed gun kooks, it’s something else entirely, and it was this latter kind that Mr. Gregory produced in order to taunt Wayne LaPierre of the NRA. As the poster child for America’s gun-crazed gun-kook gun culture, Mr. LaPierre would probably have been more scared by the host waving around a headily perfumed Vanity Fair. But that was merely NBC’s first miscalculation. It seems a high-capacity magazine is illegal in the District of Columbia, and the flagrant breach of D.C. gun laws is now under investigation by the police.

It's classic Steyn. More at the link.

And commenting is AoSHQ:

Does Howard Kurtz embrace that understanding of gun laws? Does Glenn Thrush? Do the various other know-nothings in the media -- who know both nothing about law and nothing about guns, but opine with great force and velocity on gun laws -- embrace this conception of gun laws, that gun laws should never target simple possession but only possession during the commission of a crime or possession with intent to commit a crime?

If not -- if they are less the right-wing gun nut than Ted Nugent (and even the Nuge might find this position too "extremist" for his taste -- then they are duty-bound to demand David Gregory's prosecution, as they would demand that any other Citizen Not On Television would be prosecuted.

They are endeavoring to explicitly create a High Caste with greater privileges than the lower castes, and immunities to the laws the lower castes suffer under, and that is a blood anathema to any real American -- and will be treated as such.

Also at Althouse, Ed Driscoll, Jawa Report, and Twitchy.

The Fiscal Cliff and Congressional Dysfunction

From David Boaz, at Cato:

Annual federal spending rose by a trillion dollars when Republicans controlled the government from 2001 to 2007. It has risen another trillion during the Bush-Obama response to the financial crisis. So spending every year is now twice what it was when Bill Clinton left office, and the national debt is three times as high. Republicans and Democrats alike should be able to find wasteful, extravagant, and unnecessary programs to cut back or eliminate. And yet many voters, especially Tea Partiers, know that both parties have been responsible. Most Republicans, including today’s House leaders, voted for the No Child Left Behind Act, the Iraq war, the prescription drug entitlement, and the TARP bailout during the Bush years. That’s why fiscal conservatives should look very skeptically at the “fiscal cliff” and “grand bargain” proposals, most of which promise to cut spending some day—not this year, not next year, but swear to God some time in the next 10 years. As the White Queen said to Alice, ”Jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.” Cuts tomorrow and cuts in the out-years—but never cuts today.

If the “dysfunctional” fight that has sent us to the edge of the fiscal cliff finally results in some constraint on out-of-control spending, then it will have been well worth all the hand-wringing headlines. But that doesn’t seem likely. The problem is not a temporary mess on Capitol Hill and not a mythical default; it’s spending, deficits, and debt.

The entire political class is the problem, but again, the first order of business is getting the Democrats out of power.

The Los Feliz Eatery

A restaurant feature, at the Los Angeles Times, "Counter Intelligence: Storefront Deli in Los Feliz":

Have you ever had the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at the new Storefront Deli in Los Feliz? Because that sandwich, less made from scratch than reverse-engineered from a meat lover's fondest late-summer daydreams, is at the heart of one of the strongest culinary movements in the country at the moment: the radical reinvention of everyday dishes by deconstructing them and rebuilding them to the tiniest detail.

Stop. My mouth is watering already. Sheesh.

I could go for a corned beef on rye right now, come to think of it. Yum!

'If you are not illiterate, you can use civilization, monarchy, dominance, correspond, emphasize, opposition, chlorine, commotion, medicinal, irresponsible, and succession in one sentence...'

Via Mellow Jihadi:

Too Much Wishful Thinking on Middle-Class Tax Rates

From Greg Mankiw, at the New York Times, "Wishful Thinking and Middle-Class Taxes":

IN the continuing fiscal negotiations between President Obama and House Republicans, both sides have, from the very beginning, agreed on one point: Taxes on the middle class must not rise. But maybe it’s time to reconsider this premise. An unwavering commitment to keep middle-class taxes low could be one reason the political process has become so deeply dysfunctional.

Let’s start with the problem: the budget deficit. Under current policy, the federal government is spending vastly more than it is collecting in tax revenue. And that will be true for the next several decades, thanks largely to the growth in entitlement spending that will occur automatically as the population ages and health care costs increase. As a result, the ratio of government debt to the nation’s gross domestic product is projected to rise, substantially and without an end in sight.

That can happen for a while, or even a long while, but not forever. At some point, investors at home and abroad will start questioning our ability to service our debts without creating steep inflation. It’s hard to say precisely when this shift in investor sentiment will occur, and even whether it will strike in this president’s term or the next, but when it does, it won’t be pretty. The United States will find itself at the brink of an unprecedented financial crisis.

Republicans and Democrats agree on the nature of the problem, but they embrace very different solutions. My fear is that both sides are engaged in an excess of wishful thinking, with a dash of mendacity.

If Republicans had their way, they would focus the entire solution on the spending side. They say that reform of the entitlement programs can reduce their cost. The so-called premium-support plan for Medicare, from Paul D. Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential candidate, would let older Americans use their health care dollars to buy insurance from competing private plans. (Interestingly, it’s similar to the system envisioned for the nonelderly by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.) The hope is that competition and choice would keep health care costs down without sacrificing quality.

The premium-support model may well be better than the current Medicare system, but its supporters oversell what it would be likely to accomplish. The primary driver of increasing health care costs over time is new technology, which extends and improves the quality of life, but often at high cost. Unless the pace or nature of medical innovation changes, this trend is likely to continue, regardless of structural reforms we enact for Medicare.

Democrats, meanwhile, want to preserve the social safety net pretty much as is. They balk at any attempt to reduce this spending, including even modest changes like altering the price index used to calculate Social Security benefits. They focus their attention on raising taxes on the most financially successful Americans, contending that the rich are not paying their “fair share.”

Fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Unfortunately, people’s judgment is often based on anecdotes that distort rather than illuminate. The story of the undertaxed Warren Buffett and his overtaxed secretary looms larger in the public’s mind than it should.

Here are some facts, so you can judge for yourself....

Even if President Obama wins all the tax increases on the rich that he is asking for, the long-term fiscal picture will still look grim. Perhaps we can stabilize the situation for a few years just by taxing the rich, but as greater numbers of baby boomers retire and start collecting Social Security and Medicare, more will need to be done.

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

RELATED: I'm for shrinking government, so this is the bottom line for me, at The Lonely Conservative, "People Should Pay For the Government They Voted For." Raise taxes. Go over the cliff.  I guarantee you that Obama won't get off cost-free. The real cost of the election will start biting people in the ass.