Author Archives: Johnny Roosh

About Johnny Roosh

Husband+Father+Brother+Son+Advisor+Writer+Motorhead+ Movie Buff+Geek

The Wheels Are Off

Posted on by
3

The President serves up liberal leftovers in an effort the wrest the national fiscal agenda from Congressman Paul Ryan in his campaign speech this week.

Just one thing Mr. President:

According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans—most of whom are far from wealthy—were taxed at 100%, it wouldn’t cover Mr. Obama’s deficit for this year.

These are desperate times for a Democratic President that can’t even keep Pennsylvania in the fold, a state where the last Republican who won it was George H. W. Bush.

At least Jimmy Carter had the good sense to turn apologetic, rather than imperious, when his policies tipped over the cliff.

Perhaps it’ll be Obama’s “Oberstar Moment”.

Hm.  Just in time for the Tea Party Tax Day Rally!

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings…”

Posted on by
5

“…the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

Winston Churhill

Now hear the new poster child of the socialist movement in Amerika, Michael Moore:

Moore On Wealthy People’s Money: “That’s Not Theirs, That’s A National Resource, It’s Ours”

“They’re sitting on the money, they’re using it for their own — they’re putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We’ve allowed them to take that.

Michael Moore thinks the wealthy should give it back.

I say, you first Michael.

As If That Were a Small Thing

Posted on by
1

The argument that public workers earn more or less than their private-sector counterparts is debatable but only done so honestly when their full compensation and benefits package is taken into account.

There is no evidence that public-sector workers in Wisconsin have higher total compensation than their counterparts in the private sector. It is true that a gross comparison shows many public-sector workers earn more, but they are significantly better-educated than most workers in the private sector. When one compares Wisconsin public-sector workers with their real counterparts, as the Economic Policy Institute has done, Wisconsin pays its public-sector workers 14.2 percent less than workers in the private sector.

Walker and other Republican leaders in the state have made a big deal of the “gold-plated pensions” of state workers, yet median state and local pensions in Wisconsin are less than $23,000.

As if that were a small thing.

This is an argument that resonates unless you consider the fact that nowadays almost no one in the private sector has a pension…at all.

…and a pension is no small thing to be entitled to and no small thing for taxpayers to fund.

The vast majority of private-sector employees rely on defined contribution plans for retirement, which is to say their retirements depend on what they and their employers contribute to the plan plus any growth in the account. Whatever balance is accumulated at retirement is what you have to work with to create income at retirement.

“Pensions” refers to defined benefit plans where a worker receives a promised monthly income at a given age at retirement, until death, and in many cases with an equal or reduced benefit for a spouse until their death. Often times these plans vest well before a defined contribution plan could ever possibly have enough saved into it to create the same income benefit at retirement.

Because the factors required for managing these plans, including life expectancy and market growth assumptions, are so difficult to anticipate and therefore tricky to calculate adequate funding levels, defined benefit pensions have long since been largely abandoned by the private sector in favor of defined contribution plans like 401k’s.

Governments not held accountable by shareholders, market forces or mathematics have ignored this trend and to make matters worse have underfunded these plans for years leaving the taxpayer on the hook for billions and billions and billions of benefit obligations. At the same time, many public-sector workers are able to “retire” much earlier than their private-sector counterparts, collect their guaranteed pensions and join the private sector to finish out their careers; double-dipping for as many as ten years.

How is the perpetuation of such a thing possible? Simple: public-sector labor unions empowered by liberal politicians in exchange for their vote.

So the next time you hear anyone making the argument that public-sector workers make less money than their private-sector counterparts, remember that the dollars that are (or should be) being put away for them to make good on the promise of their pensions, more than make up for any differences in salary and blow away anything available in the private sector.

What We Can Learn from Great Tits

Posted on by
17

A recent study of Great Tits may lend commentary to America’s over-subscription to government entitlements.

In Britain, the world capital of amateur ornithology roughly half of households put food out for their feathered friends, and it is estimated that around 30m of the country’s birds are given nourishment this way every year. Other places are somewhat less generous, but the general principle holds. Encouraging birds is good, and what better way to encourage them than to feed them?

Dr Amrhein’s team conducted their study in the suburbs of Oslo, in the spring of 2007. The objects of their attention were 28 male great tits, each of which was observed at dawn three times, with 16-17 days between the observations.

The purpose of the study: to see if leaving food out for birds is beneficial or detrimental.

Dr Amrhein expected that males who were being given extra food would perform better during the dawn chorus than those that were not.

The “Dawn Chorus” being the primary element of the males’ mating ritual.

To his surprise, he discovered exactly the opposite. Those who received food supplements got lazy. He and his colleagues report in Animal Behaviour that 36% of the males whose feeders were filled started singing only after the sun had already come up. Among the birds without this extra food, that happened only 10% of the time. Moreover, the effect was sustained after feeders were removed, for it was still apparent at the time of the third observation.

Turns out gratuitous entitlements make birds lazy. Do you suppose it has the same effect on Americans?

Up Yours Oprah Opinions Vary I Guess

Posted on by
6

Oh, sorry. Was that disrespectful what I just typed?

Oprah called on President Obama’s critics on Friday to “show some level of respect.”

“I feel that everybody has a learning curve, and I feel that the reason why I was willing to step out for him was because I believed in his integrity and I believed in his heart,” the influential TV host said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in Chicago.

First of all Oprah honey, you’re a daytime talk show host. The fact that millions of women follow your advice on anything beyond that is beyond me.

And duh, of course there’s a learning curve…a huge learning curve for someone not yet remotely qualified to lead this country or any other entity.

What would you say to the President’s own staff who have reportedly been leaking their disdain for his lack of competency or comprehension of issues abroad and domestic?

Of the negative mood of the country, Oprah added, “I think everybody complaining ought to try it for once.”

Try what? The tapioca pudding?

If your boy doesn’t want the job no more, I’m sure we can find someone who does.

She said the presidency is a position that “holds a sense of authority and governance over us all,” and that “even if you’re not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect.”

You mean like the level of deference and respect you and your ilk extended to President Bush?

That’s what I thought.

I Don’t Want to Pay for your Wussie Car

Posted on by
36

Toyota has gone to great lengths to make their flagship hybrid conspicuously ugly.

Don’t worry, we will all notice you if you buy one but it will take you years to make up the difference in price versus a similar mileage compact car and hybrids are widely known to come nowhere near stated EPA mileage estimates.

So if you want to buy a Toyota Prius to make some sort of “look at me I’m greenier than you” statement, go right ahead.

…but don’t ask the rest of us to pay for it.

David Sandalow, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, said that changes will be made in order that the current credit can be claimed by dealers or others. He said that the consumers will be made to benefit from the credit, saying that this incentive will be more effective this way than if it is applied against income tax returns (which may mean waiting up to a year).

Cash for Clunkers and Cash for Your Fridge were both busts. Cash for Ugly Cars is a bad idea too.

Please Mr. President, don’t incent others to uglify the environment with those homely little loafs and get back to work creating jobs so more people can buy new cars.

You Can’t Disprove Something That Hasn’t First Been Proven

Posted on by
19

Al Gore weighs in on the veracity of Global Warming while half of America is freezing their asses off under five feet of snow.

“As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming.”

“Scientific Community” as in research scientists who rely on government grants to feed their kids in a recession, right Al?

Just remember folks:

  1. If it snows, it’s Man-Made Global Warming.
  2. If it doesn’t snow, it’s Man-Made Global Warming.
  3. The earth has often times been much warmer and much cooler than it is now but since we got here it’s our fault.
  4. Celebrities are experts on everything.

Gore said that increased moisture in the air – a result of global warming – can lead to increased snowfalls.

…and if the air is dry, or moist, or in between, it’s Man-Made Global Warming.

Oh, and don’t forget, Al Gore invented the internet.

Breaking News that Gives Me Joy

Posted on by
11

I was in Chicago last week and the papers there were headlining the huge lead Rahm Emanuel has had in Chicago’s mayoral race. The Democratic machine was running at redline to keep their scum at the top of the cesspool that is Chicago politics.

…and then it blew a gasket.

An appeals court said Rahm Emanuel is not allowed to stay on Chicago’s mayoral ballot, a blow to the former White House chief of staff who has already raised more than $10 million in his bid for mayor.

…I think Hillary still has campaign debt. Maybe Rahm could exhibit some chivalry and help a lady out.

The three-judge Illinois Appellate Court, which heard oral arguments last week in the case, issued a split decision Monday afternoon saying that Mr. Emanuel is not eligible to run for mayor. Two of the three judges reversed a lower-court decision that had given him permission to remain on the ballot. One judge dissented.

Lawyers for Mr. Emanuel said last week they will appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. The state’s high court can decide whether or not to hear the case.

But there may not be time for that…the election is in a month.

Bummer [Cheshire Grin].

“A Stunning Admission and a Damning Indictment of Socialized Medicine”

Posted on by
14

Socialized medicine in the UK is broken…and it took them sixty years to figure it out.

As the House moves to repeal the nationalization of health care, Britain plans to take a scalpel to its National Health Service, opening it up to competition and letting doctors and patients call the shots.

Geez. We hardly allow that now.

It was both a stunning admission and a damning indictment of socialized medicine when British Prime Minister David Cameron in effect admitted that the holy grail of nationalized health care, the British National Health Service (NHS), was broken and in need of fixing.

While critics of his plan are already saying it could lead to backdoor privatization of the NHS, Cameron stopped short of suggesting that is his aim. Founded in 1948, NHS could be called the “third rail” of British politics akin to our Social Security.

Which is what will happen to Obamacare if allowed to progress against the will of most Americans. It reminds me of one of my financial planning tenets: A luxury becomes a necessity twenty four hours later.

“We need modernization on both sides of the equation,” he said in his speech. “Modernization to do something about the demand for public health service, and modernization to make the supply of health care more efficient, which is about opening up the system, making it more competitive, cutting out waste and bureaucracy.”

ObamaCare promises exactly the opposite, increasing demand and coverage to the point of collapsing the system, taking decisions out of the hands of physicians who promise to quit in droves and putting it in the hands of a regulatory behemoth that decides who gets what care and when.

“Paging Doctor Dover.”

“Paging Doctor Ben Dover.”

If Not For The Grace of God, There Go We

Posted on by
8

The state of Illinois is experiencing the fiscal shit storm of the century. Minnesota isn’t far behind.

The difference? There’s a chance Minnesotans won’t get the shaft like like our friends in Illinois just did.

Our hard-won and just-in-time GOP majority, if our elected representatives stay true to their mission, will force a different tact in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn defended a massive increase in state income taxes passed by lawmakers Wednesday and promised to quickly sign the measure to help heal the state’s ailing finances.

Lawmakers worked overnight to pass the increase to raise the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent for four years — a 66 percent increase. Corporate income taxes also will rise, but Quinn rejected the notion that it would decimate businesses.

Then again, that’s not the point. The point is that governments both State and Federal will continue to spend beyond their means as long as they know that they can always raise taxes down the road.

The rate increase might be the biggest any state has adopted in percentage terms while grappling with recent economic woes. Nevertheless, Illinois’ tax rate would remain lower than in several other states in the region.

Some comfort that must be. They’re less worst.

“It’s important for their state government not to be a fiscal basket case,” Quinn told reporters outside his Capitol office.

Legislative leaders rushed early Wednesday to pass the politically risky plan before a new General Assembly was sworn in at noon, taking a slice out of the Democratic majority and removing lame-duck lawmakers willing to support the tax before leaving office.

Nice move. Screw the people and vacate.

The tax increase will be coupled with strict 2 percent limits on spending growth. If officials spend above those limits, the tax increase will automatically be canceled. The plan’s supporters warned that rising pension and health care costs probably will eat up all the spending allowed by the caps, forcing cuts in other areas of government.

Here’s a novel idea. How about a spending freeze? Everyone else has had to do so. Why not government?

House Speaker Michael Madigan said Republicans should have supported some parts of the plan instead of voting against everything. The proposal passed the House on Tuesday night 60-57, the bare minimum. No Republicans backed the measure there or in the Senate, where the measure passed 30-29.”They’re on the sidelines. They don’t want to get on the field of play,” the Chicago Democrat said. “I’m happy that the day has ended.”

But Republicans noted they were not included in negotiations. They also fundamentally reject the idea of raising taxes after years of spending growth.

…but there apparently weren’t enough of them to prevail. Luckily for Minnesota, we painted our House and Senate Red just in time.

“We’re saying to the people of Illinois, `For eight years we’ve overspent, now we’re going to make it your problem,'” said Rep. Roger Eddy. “We’re making up for our mistakes on your back.”

The increase means an Illinois resident who now owes $1,000 in state income taxes will pay $1,666 at the new rate. After four years, the rate drops to 3.75 percent and that same taxpayer will then owe $1,250.

Republicans predict the tax eventually will be made permanent.

That ladies and gentlemen is what we call “The Slippery Slope.”

“It’s a cruel hoax to play on citizens to say this is temporary,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego.

Funny how that works for liberals. Tax cuts are always temporary. Tax increases are always permanent.

Republicans also accused Democrats of doing irreparable harm to Illinois families and businesses. Business leaders decried the proposal as a job-killer.

“Based on this particular legislation the only businesses that will benefit are the moving companies that will be helping many of my members move out of this particular state,” said Gregory Baise, head of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

I suppose having a sense of humor has served him well lately.

Governors of some neighboring states quickly jumped on the issue. Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who took office last week has already proposed a tax cut for businesses that relocate to Wisconsin from other states, invited companies to head north.

Atta boy. I’m still coveting.

“Years ago Wisconsin had a tourism advertising campaign targeted to Illinois with the motto, ‘Escape to Wisconsin,'” Walker said Wednesday in a statement. “Today we renew that call to Illinois businesses, ‘Escape to Wisconsin.’ You are welcome here.”

“And we won’t tax you up the wazoo!”

Quinn scoffed at the notion. “Lots of luck to them, but that’s not going to happen.”

Except for the fact that it already is.

Democrats also bristled at being blamed for the state’s financial problems, although they’ve controlled the governor’s office and both legislative chambers since 2003.

Thank God that never happens in Minnesota (crosses fingers).

All Wheel Drive Anxiety

Posted on by
16

I apologize.

You see when it snows like this – you know, constant, fine, light snow, the roads get slippery and when you hit the gas you slip and slide.

You sit and spin.

The thing is…ever since I got this car with all-wheel-drive, when I hit the gas, I just go.

Rain, snow, small animals, volcanic ash. Nothing can stop me!

Yes!!! It’s like I’m a God!!!!!

Lord of the Lanes! Baron of the Boulevard! Potentate of the Interstate!

Four-wheeled power – an advantage, right?! Sure…if you’re not in front of me when the light turns green.

And when you are, I get so very anxious. I’ve become an all-wheel-drive snob and I’m not proud of it.

“C’mon! Letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo! What?! Are you paid by the hour!!!”

(not that there’s anything wrong with that)

It’s like being the guy that gets frustrated and everyone thinks is so annoying because his Mensa IQ affords him the luxury of “getting” things so much quicker, but then he has to wait until everyone else catches up while he rolls his eyes.

He’s not the one that gets the girl, is he.

Like that insipid commercial for AT&T where the portly passenger with the fastest network gets the download quicker than everyone else in the car, and laughs out loud. Thirty more seconds go by and the rest of the passengers get the download and do the same.

They’re the popular ones. They’re late, but having all the fun.

It’s lonely at the top.

This winter we’ve had way more than our share of snow and as a result we’ve been sitting in lines, three lanes wide, like cattle in a slaughter line, waiting waiting waiting to get to the office or home.

And there I sit, with the power to go go go!!!  …if it weren’t for the 1985 Crown Vic in front of me.

It’s like a curse.

God I miss my Harley.

Peddler in Chief

Posted on by
7

Barry is selling it but not everyone is buying his form of plagiarism.

President Barack Obama said U.S. job growth is improving after a government report showed employers added 103,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in December from 9.8 percent in November.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama today credited steps taken by his administration to reduce taxes and encourage business investment with helping to restore economic confidence and boost hiring.

Really Barry? Steps taken by your administration are responsible for discouraging people from looking for jobs?

A little perspective might be indicated at this juncture, with all due respect, Mr. President:

Although the jobless rate dropped substantially to 9.4% in December from 9.8% a month earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, employers increased payrolls by only 103,000. Economists say that is barely enough to keep up with natural growth in the labor force. Much faster employment and enduring job gains—on the order of 200,000 jobs a month—are needed for lasting improvement.

The decline in the jobless rate, paradoxically, was partly a sign of economic weakness—many people have given up on finding jobs, and thus were not counted as unemployed. Some 8.4 million jobs were shed during the recession, and in 2010 just 1.1 million were added.

Between you and a Congress that was almost gutted of your ilk in November, you’ve spent billions and billions of dollars that we don’t have…sacrificing our nation’s very solvency to create a few hundred thousand jobs when millions and millions have been lost?

Employers in the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in December, confirming Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s view that it could take “four to five more years” for the labor market to completely mend.

…and that may be just as optimistic and his assertions that the latent, yet unrealized effect of the trillions of “quantitative easing” will be quite manageable down the road.

Payrolls increased 103,000, less than the median projection of 150,000 in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed yesterday in Washington. The jobless rate fell to 9.4 percent, partly reflecting a shrinking workforce as discouraged Americans stopped looking for work. [emphasis mine-JR]

Lest we not forget why those [JR does that thing with your fingers that denotes quote-unquote] “steps” were taken by [again] “his administration.”

Mr. Obama attributed increasingly optimistic economic forecasts in part to the deal he negotiated last month with Republicans to extend Bush-era tax rates for all, along with unemployment benefits, a payroll-tax cut and assorted other tax breaks.

A deal decried by liberals. A deal that was essentially forced upon him. A move that Obama could have made two years ago had he truly been focused on jobs then.

It is a product of the aforementioned “shellacking” (in the President’s words no less) in November coupled with a sashay to the middle to save what little is left in his political capital account.

President Obama may owe former President Bill Clinton a few finder’s fees, considering all the former Clinton aides he’s been bringing into his administration to help him get through the next two years and win a second term.

Maybe my title should be “Back-Peddler in Chief.”

Pat yourself on the butt Mr. President.

Mission Accomplished.

What To Do If It Happens to You

Posted on by
14

Unfortunately, much of the advice available on the web is downright ridiculous.

You mean like this:

STEP #8: Play Dead. If you’re shot, lie down and play dead.  With any luck, the shooter will not come over and finish you off.

Uh, no. If I’m shot, and it’s possible, I’m going with:

STEP #7: RUN! If the shooter actively shoots at you, run away in a zigzag pattern.  You’d be surprised how difficult it is to hit something that’s moving like that.

I’ll play dead when I am.

What Can We Do

Posted on by
13

I originally wrote this after the Virginia Tech shootings and adapted it to current events. In light of the frenzy going on only hours after the shootings in Arizona, I feel it is no less relevant now.

What can we do?

…regarding the shootings yesterday in Arizona?…nothing.

You can’t make sense of something like this. You can’t ban guns. You can’t promote guns. Not today. Not ever.

You can’t make this about policy, religion or politics. Not today. Not ever.

We’ll hear all the angles, all the speculation, the second it’s politically acceptable – probably sooner. In the context of an isolated tragedy like this no one will be right.

You can’t lock down public places. You can’t arm everyone everywhere, even if they wanted to be, and a gun law won’t stop a person intent on harming another person.

You can’t prevent everything.

We want to try to make sense of it. We want to try to mitigate the pain by somehow surmising that there is an upside. Something to be learned. An opportunity to capitalize. A way to prevent someone intent on harming others. But there won’t be.

All we can do is support and pray for the families…and for the shooter’s family…and for the victims of similar past tragedies for whom this will be an excruciating reminder.

Hug your loved ones, your husbands, wives and kids.

That’s what we can do.

When I heard about his shooting I thought about the congresswoman’s husband and what he must be going through. I thought about what it would be like to lose a nine-year-old daughter in such a horrible way. I thought about how I would feed if the shooter were my son.

It didn’t occur to me to think about the political motivations of the killer or the culpability vis a vis a policy stance or voting record on the part of the congresswoman or her staff, let alone the bystanders who are no less or no more innocent in this context.

I think it’s sad that there are those that have already done that, even before all the facts are in; as if it would be appropriate even if they were.

There is only one person to blame. Whether he used a gun, a knife, a car or a baseball bat, it is of no import. Whether he was a Republican or a Democrat or of the Tea Party, it is of no import. Whether he was sane or not, it is of no import.

Senseless acts of violence can not be explained or rationalized.

No one in the interest of any affiliation should condone or attribute a senseless act of cruelty.

Six Million Bottles of Beer on The Road, Six Million Bottles of Beer.

Posted on by
Reply

I suppose this isn’t the first time beer has stopped traffic.

A kilometre-long convoy of beer vats is on the move, shutting down roads and downing hydro and cable lines in its path.

Massive vats that can hold six million bottles of beer are being hauled from Hamilton Harbour to a Molson Coors facility near Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

The trip, which is expected to take four nights, began Friday night as the vats — loaded on six flatbed trailers — were slowly pulled out of the docks by transport trucks.

As for me, I prefer Surly, a local beer known for for it’s quality than it’s quantity.

…and at ten bucks for four cans, thusly priced as well.

Ohio’s Cinderella Man

Posted on by
11

By now you’ve seen the viral YouTube video and the media darling it made of Ted Williams.

But is this a true story of redemption or a soon-to-be cautionary tale?

Only time will tell. I’m rooting for him. This guy not so much.

What do you think?

Should The YouTube Guy with God’s Gift of a Voice Get a Second Chance?
Yes. This is how Mitch found Johnny Roosh
No. Columbus would have to find a new Community Organizer
What did you say? I was mesmerized by his sultry smooth articulations.
Check out that penmanship. Maybe he should try blogging instead.
Uh, don’t you mean 7th chance?
Did Bambi’s mother get a second chance?
Hey, if Dick Clark can do it…
Yes, but who will save the mime on 6th and Hennepin?
Where’s Oprah when you need her?
No, isn’t this is how we found Mark Dayton?
pollcode.com free polls

Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned

Posted on by
9

I have broken the Tenth Commandment.

Quotes from “the Governor”:

“Under our administration, state government will do only what is necessary – no more, no less,”

[in] his first day in office [the governor authorized his Attorney General] to join a lawsuit challenging federal health care reform. Democrats, who controlled state government until Monday, had prevented the…attorney general from doing that last year.

[the Governor] was interrupted 14 times by applause, the loudest and most sustained coming when he declared: “What is failing us is not our people or our places. What is failing us is the expanse of government. But we can do something about it right here, right now, today.”

[the Governor proposed legislators, in special session, move to] give tax breaks to business owners and income tax credits for contributions to health savings accounts; reduce business regulations; provide protections from lawsuits; give the governor more say in state rule making; turn the state Department of Commerce into a partly private entity to focus on job creation; and require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Legislature to approve any increases to the state sales, income and franchise taxes.

[the Governor] also promised to improve education, protect natural resources, honor the role of family and “right-size state government by ensuring government is providing only the essential services our citizens need and our taxpayers can afford.”

“Let me be clear on one thing: Increasing taxes is off the table – as it will counter our efforts to provide economic growth”

“[This State] is open for business.”

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Governor.

Meanwhile, back at the Batcave, Governor Dayton was heard to say

“Meow.”

The Preseason is Over

Posted on by
3

…and there are more Republicans in the stands than Democrats.

the largest number of Republicans in the nation since December 2004 and the lowest number of Democrats since November 2002.

…but will it last?

In each of the recent election cycles, the winning party gained in net partisan identification during the course of the election year, Rasmussen Reports said, noting that gains can be short-lived. After the 2004 election, the Republican partisan decline began in February 2005, the pollster said, while the Democratic edge in 2006 began to slip as soon as the party took control of Congress in January.

The Democrats took power in 2008 and squandered their short-lived majority for the sake of deforming health care while more pressing liberal issues and campaign promises were shelved. Their anti-Bush-fueled sweep of Congress and the White House delivered them without a policy mandate.

They brought a baseball bat to a football game. They ignored reality, went with ideology, and America handed them their asses.

The GOP should not be thusly confused. Their mandate is clear and may have even less time to prove they are worthy.

As the memory of November’s sweeping congressional victory by Republicans begins to dim and lawmakers face the task of governing, the biggest question now is how far the new majority party in the House of Representatives will go to fulfil its mandate.

…they are looking to score early, albeit symbolically for now, and act on that mandate and set a vote to repeal Obamacare…yet this month, and are also drawing a line in the sand as it relates to the federal debt ceiling. This might be messy folks, the Democrats will predict Armageddon if we don’t raise the limit on their credit card, but if not now, when?

Meanwhile, while those Americans that have work return to it today, the President suns himself.

If the final day of a vacation defines how it will be remembered, the Obamas will be packing memories of teal-colored water, soft breezes and plenty of sunshine — at least until clouds rolled in and the wind picked up in mid-afternoon. But that lead to a quick stop at Island Snow Shave Ice — an island (and Obama) favorite.

Maybe he can squeeze in a round of golf when he gets back.

“Never has a Congress done so much and been so despised for it. “

Posted on by
Reply

It was 2008…

The liberal wing of the Democratic Party had been waiting since the 1960s for its next great political opening

Democrats achieved 60 Senate votes by an historical accident of prosecutorial abuse (Ted Stevens), a stolen election (Al Franken) and a betrayal (Arlen Specter). They then attempted to do nearly everything we expected, regardless of public opinion, and they only stopped because the clock ran out.

The real story of 2010 is that the voters were finally able to see and judge this liberal agenda in its unvarnished form. For once, there was no Republican President to muddle the message or divide the accountability. The public was able to compare the promise of 8% unemployment if the government spent $812 billion on “stimulus” with the 9.8% jobless result. They stood athwart liberal history in the making and said, “Stop.”

…and that was November of 2010.

Read the rest here.

I Don’t Know About You…But I’m Cold.

Posted on by
29

I have thirty inches of snow sitting on my lawn and just wrote a check to Elijah’s Tree Service for the removal of two trees felled by an ice storm that came before Thanksgiving this year. He would have been here sooner but I was like 1000th on his list.

I’m cold and I’m looking for some Global Warming about now.

I have been skeptical of global warming ever since I studied it’s origins soon after Algore’s largely discredited but hugely profitable movie An Inconvenient Truth was foisted on an gullible liberal public.

Jettison the “science” or the politics, and I’m still amazed at the amount of people that believe we have the capacity to predict the weather ten or a hundred years in the future when repeatedly, even comically, meteorologists with all their Doppler and satellite technology, can’t predict the weather accurately beyond twenty four hours.

Nothing makes fools of more people than trying to predict the weather. Whether in Los Angeles or London, recent predictions have gone crazily awry. Global warming? How about mini ice age?

Once the warming failed to appear as predicted, Global Warming conveniently became “Climate Change” as if to say that any change in the climate, despite evidence of eons of extreme and catastrophic cold and warm cycles occuring before we got here, are now caused by us.

Since at least 1998, however, no significant warming trend has been noticeable. Unfortunately, none of the 24 models used by the IPCC views that as possible. They are at odds with reality.

The sight of confused and angry travelers stuck in airports across Europe because of an arctic freeze that has settled across the continent isn’t funny. Sadly, they’ve been told for more than a decade now that such a thing was an impossibility — that global warming was inevitable, and couldn’t be reversed.

This is a big problem for those who see human-caused global warming as an irreversible result of the Industrial Revolution’s reliance on carbon-based fuels. Based on global warming theory — and according to official weather forecasts made earlier in the year — this winter should be warm and dry. It’s anything but. Ice and snow cover vast parts of both Europe and North America, in one of the coldest Decembers in history.

Is it arrogance or ignorance?

No matter what happens, it always confirms their basic premise that the world is getting hotter. The weather turns cold and wet? It’s global warming, they say. Weather turns hot? Global warming. No change? Global warming. More hurricanes? Global warming. No hurricanes? You guessed it.

Liberal icon Rahm Emanuel made famous the line “Never waste a good crisis” this past political cycle and it appears when one doesn’t present itself they’re perfect content with creating one.

Nothing can disprove their thesis. Not even the extraordinarily frigid weather now creating havoc across most of the Northern Hemisphere. The Los Angeles Times, in a piece on the region’s strangely wet and cold weather, paraphrases Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert as saying, “In general, as the globe warms, weather conditions tend to be more extreme and volatile.”

Got that? No matter what the weather, it’s all due to warming. This isn’t science; it’s a kind of faith. Scientists go along and even stifle dissent because, frankly, hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants are at stake. But for the believers, global warming is the god that failed.

Hmm. A failed messiah? That sounds familiar.

Why do we continue to listen to warmists when they’re so wrong? Maybe it’s because their real agenda has nothing to do with climate change at all. Earlier this month, attendees of a global warming summit in Cancun, Mexico, concluded, with virtually no economic or real scientific support, that by 2020 rich nations need to transfer $100 billion a year to poor nations to help them “mitigate” the adverse impacts of warming.

Hmm. A transfer of wealth? That sounds familiar too.

This is what global warming is really about — wealth redistribution by people whose beliefs are basically socialist. It has little or nothing to do with climate.

But is there any scientific method for predicting the weather, you know for those of us who would be genuinely concerned for future generations if a global climate threat manifested itself in earnest?

…pay more attention to Piers Corbyn, a little-known British meteorologist and astrophysicist who has a knack for correctly predicting weather changes. Indeed, as London’s Mayor Boris Johnson recently noted, “He seems to get it right about 85% of the time.”

How does he do it? Unlike the U.N. and government forecasters, Corbyn pays close attention to solar cycles that, as it turns out, correlate very closely to changes in climate. Not only are we not headed for global warming, Corbyn says, we may be entering a “mini ice age” similar to the one that took place from 1450 A.D. to 1850 A.D.

For those of you Algore disciples that can’t do math…that’s four hundred years of this. If man is causing a warming of the planet, now might be the time to step it up a bit.

Or move South.

Miami is experiencing its coldest December in 115 years, according to the local branch of the National Weather Service, where employees have exhausted their thesauruses trying to describe the anomaly. (One of them, Dan Gregoria, settled on this: “very rare.”)

HEADLINE IN THE MIAMI HERALD ON MONDAY “Time to Pull Out Those Winter Coats Again”

…Okay. Farther South.

It Takes a Village…or…a Parent

Posted on by
7

More and more young people are failing physically and academically. Who’s to blame and whatever shall we do?

It’s been well-documented that many high school grads are now too fat to meet the U.S. military’s physical requirements. Now it turns out that many of those same kids may be too dumb.

Hmm. Can they vote?

The nonprofit Education Trust released a first-ever report this week showing that more than one in five young people don’t meet the minimum standard required for Army enlistment.

Nonprofit? Nothing against the Education Trust, but that means benevolent, non-partisan and unbiased, right?

Among minority candidates the ineligibility rates are higher: 29 percent. In Minnesota, the disparity for black applicants was even more startling: 40 percent were found to be ineligible. Among Hispanics in Minnesota the rate was 20 percent, but among whites, it was 14.1 percent.

Who’s to blame? How can we fix this? Can we commission a bureaucracy and empower it with generous funding to tackle this issue or might there be a way to skip all that and draw a self-serving conclusion via a first-ever report and save the trouble?

This is more a distressing indictment of the U.S. education system than it is a testament to today’s Cheeto-eating, Xbox-playing youth, say the authors of the report.

…ignore the Cheetos and the Xbox, folks. Those are what we call outlying data points…they lie outside our predetermined conclusion.

It strips away that illusion that the military can be an easy landing ground for those not bound for college, and it suggests that national security is at stake.

Whoa! What?! National Security?!!

(!!!)

Well then, by all means we must move forward will all due alacrity and resolve!

By that of course I mean we must increase funding to education, create a National Department of Parenting, appoint Michelle Obama as its head, and tax the rich to pay for it for surely they are culpable for this.

“Our schools have to be upping their game if we are going to supply the military with the kind of folks they are going to need 15 years in the future”

“The welfare and security of our nation is one and the same as the welfare of our young people,” said Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications for Education Trust.

Thank you. Without this first-ever report in hand, we might have thought this alarming issue was a distressing indictment of American parents, who by their absence, abuse or worse yet, their apathy, have raised a generation of fat, dumb kids.

It’s good to know they’re off the hook and our wiser, more educated overseers are eager to absorb yet another personal responsibility.

Today a grateful nation (or about 50% of it) commends you for your tireless service in the interest of an ever growing and burdensome federal government.