Saturday, March 28, 2009

Marine Smackdown

I found this on Blackfive - you really need to read it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm 58 today. This is not a major surprise to me; with my family history, I expect to live a long time. Although my parents died young (65 & 76), most of my relatives were around until their late 80s or 90s - a few even until past 100.

Today will be a day to enjoy myself. I have work to do (both for my employer, and on the house), but, today, that can wait. I plan to spend most of the day indulging myself.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Graphic Links



I'm adding a stunning graphic about the links from radical groups to Obama.

Yet Another ACORN Post That Links to the Big O

It's sometimes difficult to unravel the many threads that link our President to a radical group that works to overthrow the economic system of this country. The American Spectator, in a relatively short post, manages that:
And now we have the mortgage crisis, which has sent a shock wave through Wall Street and panicked world financial markets like no other since the stock market crash of 1929. But this is a problem created in Washington long ago. It originated with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), signed into law in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. The CRA was Carter's answer to a grassroots activist movement started in Chicago, and forced banks to make loans to low income, high risk customers. PhD economist and former Texas Senator Phil Gramm has called it: "a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks."

ACORN aggressively sought to expand loans to low income groups using the CRA as a whip. Economist Stan Leibowitz wrote in the New York Post:

In the 1980s, groups such as the activists at ACORN began pushing charges of "redlining"-claims that banks discriminated against minorities in mortgage lending. In 1989, sympathetic members of Congress got the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act amended to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants; this allowed various studies to be ginned up that seemed to validate the original accusation.


In fact, minority mortgage applications were rejected more frequently than other applications-but the overwhelming reason wasn't racial discrimination, but simply that minorities tend to have weaker finances.

ACORN showed its colors again in 1991, by taking over the House Banking Committee room for two days to protest efforts to scale back the CRA. Obama represented ACORN in the Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 1994 suit against redlining. Most significant of all, ACORN was the driving force behind a 1995 regulatory revision pushed through by the Clinton Administration that greatly expanded the CRA and laid the groundwork for the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac borne financial crisis we now confront. Barack Obama was the attorney representing ACORN in this effort. With this new authority, ACORN used its subsidiary, ACORN Housing, to promote subprime loans more aggressively.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Yet Another Reason NOT to Vaccinate with Gardasil

This is tragic - parents who used the new Gardasil vaccine, have found their children experiencing an ALS-type progressive disease.
Turns out, warnings concerning ALS and vaccines have been raised before. John Iskander, the CDC's associate director for immunization safety, tells me the agency previously has received reports of ALS following the anthrax vaccine. This, in addition to the deaths of Jenny and Whitney, "kind of tells us that we need to look more broadly at this issue," he says. He's quick to add that "we're doing just an initial review at this point; we don't have suspicions that these are casually related."

Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, maintains that its vaccine is extremely safe and points out that it could potentially save women from dying of cervical cancer
. "There are unusual and rare diseases that occur in girls and women in this age group whether they're vaccinated or not," says Rick Haupt, Merck's head of the clinical program for Gardasil. "These patterns don't indicate any causality." He says no cases of ALS occurred in Merck's clinical trials but also admits that the trials—which included thousands, not millions—weren't large enough to detect such rare diseases.

Barbara Shapiro, an ALS expert and associate professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who was enlisted by a mutual friend to help the Tetlocks do their research, isn't ready to dismiss the cases as pure coincidence. She's pored over the medical records of Jenny, Whitney, and Alicia and sees a striking similarity. "Juvenile ALS tends to progress very slowly over years or even decades, but these girls all seemed to have a more rapid, progressive form." She also has uncovered another VAERS report in the CDC database that could be similar, but since it was filed by a pharmacist, the CDC told her it doesn't have details on the girl's identity. Shapiro worries that there may be more cases out there that the CDC doesn't know about.

After all, she tells me, both Whitney and Alicia came to the CDC's attention only after their parents discovered Jenny's blog and Phil Tetlock urged them to file a VAERS report. This system of voluntary reporting of adverse events related to vaccines by doctors and patients is notoriously crude. All too often, adverse events go unreported, whereas many reports that are filed turn out not to be related at all to the vaccines. When I point this out to Iskander, he tells me that while VAERS certainly isn't perfect, it's pretty good at catching rare events.


I've been saying for some time, that this vaccine has been rushed to the market, and HEAVILY promoted by the same people who want all girls to be "protected" against pregnancy by pushing birth control and abortion services without their parents' knowledge or permission. These zealots think that every teen is a lust-filled organism, incapable of making moral choices.

I'm linking to previous posts I've done about this issue of using the Gardasil vaccine.

Gardasil Side Effects

2 Dead in UK, Linked to HPV Vaccine

Merck Vaccine Update

What's the Hurry?

More on HPV Vaccine

Texas Orders ALL Girls to be Given Herpes Vaccine

What's Next - Child Neglect for Parents Who Won't Vaccinate?

HPV Vaccinations

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Another New Blogger

One of my family is now on the net, Harley Dangerous She's a tattooed Harley lady who lives in AZ. Check her out; she's got information about a bike run next weekend.

Such Men Are Dangerous

I've been reading various blogs in The National Review, Powerline Blog, and others. Powerline is pessimistic - with good reason - about the economy. Many Americans are.

But Powerline - and Victor Davis Hanson - are concenred, as I am, about Obama's leanings in international affairs.

Many Americans were not happy with Bush. They felt that he was too trigger-happy. I didn't agree, but I accepted the reasonable people can disagree.

Obama, however, is way off in the other direction. His rush to appeasement is Chamberlain-like. Obama has never met a dictator - especially Islamic - that he didn't like.

I'm concerned. So I'm channeling my anxiety into work with local and state political parties. I'm also funneling my support - and money when I can manage it - to conservatives of either party.

watching the Demise of Democracy

Our economy is on the ropes. Most of the baby boomers, hovering on the edge of retirement, have seen savings diminish. One of our friends, just retired, has had his savings reduced in a matter of a few months by 800,000 dollars.

Yeah. That'll leave a mark. Madoff was a piker in comparison.

A new fear is the change of our government to a form that Americans hold in contempt - the Banana Republic.

Now, I like the Banana Republic - the store, I mean. Nice Friday casual clothes, reasonably priced.

But, I can't say that I fancy it as a government. Particularly as a replacement for the mixed type we enjoy, that combines a republic with various forms of grass-roots participatory democracy.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Free Medical Care for Everyone - Except Vets with Service-Connected Injuries?

Truly, sometimes I think we've reached a new low in stupid.

Obama is pushing a plan to get reimbursement for vet's treatment from - their private insurance companies. Yes, you read that right. Although the insurance company is a private entity, they may be held responsible for continued treatment of veterans' injuries.

Is Obama trying to get this year's Big Stupid Award?

Keep it up, O-Man - you're a real contender.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Nearing 200,000

I just noticed that the sitemeter is nearing the 200,000 mark. It's been great doing this, and I'm looking forward to the next 200,000 visits.

I found this post in the Jonah Goldberg archives; it's particularly apt now.
People ask, “Why is there poverty in the world?” It’s a silly question. Poverty is the default human condition. It is the factory preset of this mortal coil. As individuals and as a species, we are born naked and penniless, bereft of skills or possessions. Likewise, in his civilizational infancy man was poor, in every sense. He lived in ignorance, filth, hunger, and pain, and he died very young, either by violence or disease.

The interesting question isn’t “Why is there poverty?” It’s “Why is there wealth?” Or: “Why is there prosperity here but not there?”

At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own.
What makes me sleep at night, even though our retirement accounts are plunging faster than a Reality-TV participant's sense of dignity?

My human capital - I have a Physics and Chemistry certification, and that is a speciality in high demand. If, God forbid, I could not teach, I have computer skills, experience in sales, and a willingness to tackle nearly any job - and a history of having done so, successfully. My husband has the same capital assets.

Many people are willing to "do anything". They earnestly ask for jobs, not being too particular about the conditions or pay. I admire their willingness to work.

Unfortunately, if their skills are limited to non-existent, they may not be able to compete. They lack the human capital assets of education, experience, and knowledge. Think about that when planning out your future.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I finally got my copy from Amazon. It's been re-issued in paperback, and, what the heck, I had an expiring gift certificate, it was almost as though it was meant to be...

The trouble is, I'm on page 58, and I see no way that I'll put it down until the end. I have inspectors coming tomorrow, to evaluate the program, and...I just don't know how I'll manage it.

The other book is Outliers, and I have enough sense to postpone opening it until the weekend.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Moving Minutes from the Moving Picture Institute

I found this link through the Volokh Conspiracy. The Moving Minutes contains scenes from film that support freedom, independence of thought, and the American Spirit.

Grand Times Watching the Elite Backtrack

Not apologize, you understand, for their ridiculous error, but hem, haw, and stutter in a futile effort to avoid saying:
I was wrong.
Does anyone remember the Fonz having that quirky trait? He was incapable of admitting imperfection (although NOT incapable of BEING imperfect).

Imagine. Chris Buckley (son of the late, famous conservative, William Buckley), and the Davids - Brooks and Gergen - all of the Elite (with a capital E), are, at last, acknowledging the - uh, what do you call it - error of their ways.

When they famously joined the Obama Bandwagon, stoutly insisting that "O" was merely a centrist, not a hard-leftist, they contributed to the collapse of the dim Republican hopes. MANY of the elite copied their flight from reality. It was simply TOO dreadful to contemplate the non-elite Palin family in the role of VP Photo Op.

Peter Robinson, in Forbes, covers the uncovering of their awakening.
"The strange thing," Buckley wrote last week after listening to Obama address Congress, "is that one feels almost unpatriotic, entertaining negative thoughts about Mr. Obama's grand plan. ... One thing is certain, however: Government is getting bigger and will stay bigger. Just remember ... that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away."

"Just remember"? Coming from someone who just remembered, the exhortation might strike a lot of people as rich. But never mind.
Read it in full - it vindicates many of the Obama-resistant non-elite.

We were right - they were bedazzled.

But, why? What was so terrible about the McCain-Palin ticket?

The second part.

From Thomas Sowell:
Governor Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grass roots Republicans in a way that John McCain never did. But there was something about her that turned even some conservative intellectuals against her and provoked visceral anger and hatred from liberal intellectuals.

Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union.
Upon seeing the slouching, overweight and disheveled Chambers, she said, "He's not one of us."

The trim, erect and impeccably dressed Alger Hiss, with his Ivy League and New Deal pedigree, clearly was "one of us." As it turned out, he was also a liar and a spy for the Soviet Union. Not only did a jury decide that at the time, the opening of the secret files of the Soviet Union in its last days added more evidence of his guilt.

The Hiss-Chambers confrontation of more than half a century ago produced the same kind of visceral polarization that Governor Sarah Palin provokes today.

Before the first trial of Alger Hiss began, reporters who gathered at the courthouse informally sounded each other out as to which of them they believed, before any evidence had been presented. Most believed that Hiss was telling the truth and that it was Chambers who was lying.

More important, those reporters who believed that Chambers was telling the truth were immediately ostracized. None of this could have been based on the evidence for either side, for that evidence had not yet been presented in court.

For decades after Hiss was convicted and sent to federal prison, much of the media and the intelligentsia defended him. To this day, there is an Alger Hiss chair at Bard College.
As it happens, after I'd read so many conservative discussions about the Hiss trial, I became curious. I found a library copy of the Whittaker Chambers book, "Witness". While not great literature, it is engrossing. And, by the end, the weight of the evidence leads to belief.

It does, that is, if you, like me, are not that special breed, the elite.

Even the evidence from the vaults of Russian history, declassified after the collapse of the Soviet system and released in English, that supports Chambers testimony, will convince the elite. It will persuade the non-closed mind - it did persuade me.

BTW, if you don't know who Thomas Sowell is, check out his columns. I think you'll agree that he is an original thinker, and someone to watch.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Braveheart in Our Times

OMGolly, (I'm trying to cut out swearing for Lent, OK?) you have to see this Day by Day cartoon.

Warning: Don't be drinking coffee while viewing.

How Can They Call Themselves Catholic?

NOTE: I became aware of this situation via The Curt Jester's blog post.

Kathleen Sebelius is a governor who has openly, publicly, and overwhelmingly supported - even promoted - abortion as a preferred "choice".

She has been asked by her bishop NOT to present herself for Communion, due to her advocacy of abortion.

The 25 "Catholics" who support her nomination are apparently also the ones who defied the US bishops group to support pro-abortion candidate Obama. That group is examined here:

Catholics for the Common Good


Sebellius has had a long-time relationship with George Tiller, an abortionist who performs late-term abortions, and who has been investigated in the death of one of those patients. From Wikipedia:
the medical director of an abortion clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, which specializes in the provision of late-term procedures.
His clinic practices have been a subject of criminal investigation:
Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old woman with Down Syndrome from Keller, Texas, died in January 2005 after a multi-day abortion procedure performed at Tiller's facility, though reports conflict as to whether the abortion was performed by Tiller himself or by LeRoy Carhart. Gilbert had been 28 weeks pregnant. The autopsy stated that Gilbert died of sepsis following the abortion.
Last time I checked into it, the mother having Down Syndrome doesn't qualify as a medical condition. In fact, in 2005, from the KS Dept. of Health, the mother's medical emergency wasn't a factor in ANY of the year's abortions. So, despite the arguable possibility that Ms. Gilbert had a heart problem (not unknown in Down Syndrome patients), that WASN'T the reason for the procedure. If it had been a reason, they would have listed it as an emergency. Which it wasn't.

Some stats available at this site (NOTE: haven't vetted the accuracy of them yet. Will do so later today)

From that site:
There also exists a common misconception that late-term abortions are limited to medical emergencies. Nothing could be further from the truth. From 1998 until 2000, only one out of the 1168 abortions that Tiller performed after viability was done during a medical emergency. Upwards of 97% of his late-term patients weren't even from Kansas—they flew in from other states to have abortions that they had scheduled in advance.
That statement would tend to negate any defense of Tiller as doing only medically necessary abortions. It would also explain how Sebellius could state that the Kansas abortion rate had gone down, if she discounted the out-of-staters from those statistics.

Why were those out-of-state abortions performed? [I'm adding the official KS web site for those stats.] According to the KS Dept. of Health,
The patient would suffer substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function if she were forced to continue the pregnancy.
Well, that ends that discussion, doesn't it? It certainly seems to, since only a heartless villain would cause that major damage to a woman when the remedy is so easy.

Well, again from the KS Dept. of Health, a downloadable pdf report for 2007. Click on it to enlarge.



NO Medical Emergency. Just the Financial Emergency - Doctor Tiller needs money.

And Tiller is a Major Donor to Sebelius.

Lies of the Left

This COULD be a lengthy post. But, I'll try to winnow it down to a reasonable length. The CA Parent Bribery 'Scandal' - the 1...