Reed the Viking

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I know I said I'd blog again this week, but I'm not really in the mood. I decided I shouldn't blog out of a sense of obligation, but rather, I should do it as a labor of love. There's no love right now, so until I'm feeling up to it again the blogging will be on an indefinite hiatus.

Just a Reminder: It Sucks to be a Cop in Mexico

At least 75% of us still agree it's the greatest country EVAH! Optimism in U.S. Government is at a 36 Year Low.  And for those of you who read my blog, optimism is the code word I use when I'm trying not to drop the H-Bomb (hope). 

Just a reminder in case you forgot: The U.N. is completely useless. Iran and Saudi Arabia Considered for U.N.'s New Womens Agency Board.

Just a reminder in case you forgot: Mexico is now more dangerous than Iraq. Every Cop in Mexican Town's Police Force Resigns After Attack. Yikes... I'm glad I'm on an island far, far away from MS-13.

More anti-elitism from Glenn Reynolds and Meg McArdle.

In the case of climate change, there is actual scientific knowledge about the properties of CO2, but advocates of emissions mitigation schemes constantly attempt to drape the mantle of science, or more broadly expert knowledge, around public policy positions that, as I have argued many times, do not follow even from the core technical reports produced by the asserted experts.

 

Bill Buckley famously said that he "would rather by governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the Harvard faculty." So would I. But I would rather fly in an airplane with wings designed by one competent aeronautical engineer than one with wings designed by a committee of the first 20,000 names of non-engineers in the Boston phonebook. The value of actual expertise in a technical field like wing design outweighs the advantages offered by incorporating multiple points of view.

 

The essential Progressive belief that Klein expresses in undiluted form is that crafting public policy through legislation is a topic for which, in simplified terms, the benefits of expertise outweigh the benefits of popular contention. Stated more cautiously, this would be the belief that the institutional rules of the game should be more heavily tilted toward expert opinion on many important topics than they are in the U.S. today.

 

This would be a lot more compelling if the elites didn't have such a terrible track record of producing social interventions that work.

 

An aeronautical engineer can predict reliably that "If you design a wing like this, then this plane will be airworthy, but if you design it like that, then it will never get in the air." If you were to build a bunch of airplanes according to each set of specifications, you would discover that he or she is almost always right. This is actual expertise. I've tried to point out many times that the vast majority of program interventions fail when subjected to replicated, randomized testing.

 

Our so-called experts in public policy talk a good game, but in the end are no experts at all. They build castles of words, and call it knowledge.

Elites are often missing crucial knowledge, and unaware of it. In some ways, that effect is more pronounced than it used to be, with more and more of the elites drawn from a narrow class of extremely well-educated people from a handful of metropolitan areas, few of whom have ever, say, been responsible for a profit and loss statement, or tried to bring a gas station into compliance with local and federal EPA regulations. In a world where your primary output is words, it is easy to imagine a smoothly operating process based on really smart rule-making.

Good stuff.

Senator Babs Boxer is facing ethics complaints again. Who's Barbara Boxer, you ask? Why, she's the Chair of the Senate ETHICS Committee. What's she up against? Complaints that she didn't disclose a million dollar house she had in Oakland and complaints that she had solicited public school students to campaign for her. You'd think somebody on the Ethics Committee would know their right from wrong. And they wonder why we have so little... optimism in the system.

I love Jon Stewart, but I've always said that his upcoming march to restore sanity was basically a pro-democrat operation. I mean, it's bi-partisan as long as you agree with the liberal agenda, if you disagree, however, you're lacking in sanity! I've also always said that the Daily Show, while not claiming impartiality, will almost never make fun of Democrats or criticize them with one glaring exception. They will criticize and make fun of Democrats who aren't being Liberal enough. David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun has a more detailed post on that subject here. If you're interested in seeing how "moderate" his march is going to be, just take a quick look at this WaPo piece by Anne Applebaum. If you're too lazy to look, people are going to be bussed in by PETA and Arianna Huffington, hardly paragons of moderation.

And if you're really naive enough to think that this march is going to be moderate or bi-partisan, just check out Allah's summary report.

That’s one way to look at it, and the DNC is certainly trying to take full advantage. (Says a voting expert at American University, “For Stewart, sanity is a code word for Democratic.”) Another way to look at it is that the left is hot to top Glenn Beck’s rally in turnout and “prove” that they’re still the ones who Care The Most, notwithstanding the brutal beating they’re about to take next week. And a third way to look at it, I suppose, is as a reaction to what Shelby Steele identified today in his superb op-ed about the failure of Obama’s liberal Hopenchange redemption narrative. As George Carlin once said, inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist, and there an awful lot of disappointed idealists among the lefty base right now. Is it any surprise that they’d take comfort in a rally organized by two guys who’ve become superstars of cynicism, with a consoling chicken-soup theme of sanity and moderation and, heck, all-around niceness? (Plus, Sheryl Crow will be there!)

Oh, Sheryl Crow!!! Honestly, if I had the chance, I'd go to the rally because I enjoy Jon and Steven and find them hilarious. 

The Frisky: Men are from Bacon, Women are from Cupcakes. Quite possibly the best piece on gender differences I've ever read. It's hilarious and spot on. I'm not one much for sweets, but I'm always down for a bleeding, unhealthily-rare steak with a side of bacon and slathered in baconnaise with bacon salt. Chocolate covered bacon for dessert? If I was kosher, would I be from Turkey Bacon? This article is insensitive to Joos, Islambs, and Hindoods.

That's just how far our culture has gone... chocolate covered bacon, baconnaise. Just look at what King Sized used to mean, back when our country was poor and starving or something. I always marvel at the drinks when I go to Wendy's. They have a price on the board (it's for small) but when you order the meal, they assume you want medium so you end up paying more. And medium is ginormous. I don't even like soda (see above, don't like sweets) very much, and now I've got 32 ounces of it. WTF mate?

Saudi Prince Wants NYC Mosque Moved? When you've lost the Saudi Princes...

I hope I ride on these beasts: New Navy Boat Powered by Seaweed. I'll just unwrap my Lion Roll and fill up my tank.

Johnny Dollar finds more hypocrisy at MSNBC... you don't say? They might as well give Alan Grayson a TV show where he can call everybody Monkey Hitler Talibans and Whores.

New Monkey, Naked Charlie Sheen, and Turning the Tables on Galifianakis

I took nyquil last night and slept like 12 hours. Also, I need to go into work early today so this is going to be a rushed post but here goes.

New kind of Monkey discovered in Burma (I refuse to call it Myanmar, I don't give in to the demands of terrorists). Of course, the only specimen ever to be observed by scientists was already dead and being prepared to be eaten. Those southern Asians sure do love to eat their monkeys!

Charlie Sheen has made a career of playing Charlie Sheen in movies since the dawn of time. Is it any wonder that he also plays Charlie Sheen in real life, after his career and bank accounts were repeatedly rewarded for acting that way on TV? Charlie Sheen hospitalized after being found naked in trashed hotel room with hooker hiding in the closet, admits taking copious amounts of cocaine. Who's surprised?

Zach Galifianakis gets hoisted by his own petard during an interview with Texas radio host, Gordon Keith. The tables are turned, and the outcome is just as hilarious as expected.

 

Israel to Get its Own Tea Party. This might surprise some, but I don't think I like it. Their tea party is defined by opposition to a foreign president (Obama) and has nothing to do with the ideals of smaller government. I get to rain shit on Obama because he's my President, you forners (foreigners) better back off. Also, color me naive, but I think that halted settlements would be good, not as a precondition, but as part of a package deal to reach a two-state solution but that's just me.

1/9th of Our Nuclear Arsenal Goes Offline for an Hour. Heads better be rolling, I planned to use those nukes today!

Stranger Danger on Halloween is a Farce. Although there is one documented report of somebody poisoning Halloween candy:

Joel Best, a sociologist at the University of Delaware, has researched the topic and spends every October telling the press that there has never been a single case of any child being killed by a stranger's Halloween candy. (Oh, yes, he concedes, there was once a Texas boy poisoned by a Pixie Stix. But his dad did it for the insurance money. He was executed.)

Wish they had a picture of the best tattoo artist evah's masterpiece: Tattooist Charged Over 40cm Penis Tattoo on Man's Back. 

I had more to post but I'm out of time unfortunately.

South Park Pulled a Dane Cook

I thought last week's episode of South Park, which spoofed Inception, was pretty funny, but not on the same level as the Jersey Shore or NASCAR episodes. Turns out they lifted some material from an online spoof of Inception from collegehumor.com. My beloved South Park pulled a Dane Cook (stealing jokes; also known as a Carlos Mencia). At least they had the decency to own up to it, which is to be expected for a TV show that seemingly promotes the idea of individual responsibility. I think the collegehumor spoof was actually pretty good, if not even funnier than the South Park episode. Here it is for you to enjoy.

I often refer to Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds as the Instaprophet for his seemingly prophetic blog musings that are almost always accurate. Maybe I'll have to start referring to Allah as the Allahprophet after he predicted this spin just minutes before it showed up on MSNBC. Although as he himself admits:

That was posted at 4:27 p.m.; the Matthews clip below comes from the 5 p.m. hour and the Schultz clip comes an hour after that, with no doubt plenty more in store tonight from Olby and Maddow. That’s how easy it now is to predict MSNBC spin. And as I said earlier, if you think this is rock bottom in terms of liberal desperation this week, just wait. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bees are Smarter Than Computers. Well, not exactly but still pretty cool.

It's like rain on your wedding day: Three Term NYC Mayor Supports Two Term Limit. Mike Bloomberg, why are you such a schmuck?

Japan's Young Men Seek a New Path. From what I can tell, an entire generation of Japanese men are turning asexual. What does this mean for us? Hot Japanese girls desperate for real men like me!

Want to be disheartened? A round up of good old fashion voter fraud can be found here.

Want to be completely depressed? Who's the Vice President? It won't let me embed the video, so just click the link and watch to lose all faith in the youth of America. College, yes, I repeat, COLLEGE students can not answer simple questions such as, "Who is the Vice President?," "Who's the Speaker of the House?," "How many total U.S. Senators are there?" and "How many Supreme Court Justices are there?" The only question that I didn't know the answer to was "How many total members of the House are there?" and apparently it's 435.

I've said many times in my life that I'm not a big fan of George Bush. He had like a 20% approval rating when he got out of office, so I think I'm not alone on this. One problem, however, is that many people on the left assume that everybody didn't like him for the same reasons. I didn't like him because he was a terrible economic conservative who spent like a liberal. Here to make the point better than I could is Dr. Timothy Dalrymple: The Tea Started Brewing Under Bush. Two quotes that I find poignant.

The important point is this: many who now comprise the Tea Party were not Bush die-hards, but disapproved or largely disapproved of the Bush administration’s big-government tendencies. Of course small-government conservatives and independents, when Obama took those tendencies and magnified them threefold, went from frustration to outrage...

...it is entirely natural that those who rejected Bush for his government growth and deficit spending would become, when Obama exploded that growth and spending, the leaders of the Tea Party movement. Further, for many conservatives there was some amount of trust that Bush would not go too far, that his policies were pro-growth, that his deficits were more sustainable. Obama came along and tripled the rate at which the debt is growing, budgeted for trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye could see, and punishes the very same private sector that he so desperately needs to create jobs. This alone, without reference to racism or bigotry or irrational hatred, is sufficient explanation for the Tea Party movement.

And just one more reason to dislike Obama. He's not very statesmanlike, and is an obvious product of the Chicago political machine as can easily be seen by his statement to the Latino community: 

We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us

 As if the Latino community is monolithic... identity politics at it's worst. But no, I must dislike him 'cause he's black, of course!

Three Great Posts

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit had three great posts that I'd like to share on my blog. I'll post my favorite bits and perhaps add something of my own. 

1. Guilty Southern White Boys

The notion (originally suggested by one of Andrew Sullivan’s readers) is that southerners — always the target of jibes and discrimination — try to out-left the left in order to be accepted in the media crowd. Postrel and Kaus disagree, and call it the lingering influence of the civil rights era when — in the South — the left really was on the side of the angels.

I think it's a little bit of both, personally. I've known MANY Guilty Southern White people, not all of them boys. I think most of it has to do with what Instapundit reader Allison Alvarez points out:

I blame people’s misconceptions about the south on ‘Hee Haw’. Think about it; other than the southern lawyer dramas most shows about the south are still in love with that slow southern comfort, Gone With the Wind stereotype. Even ‘Designing Women’ was obsessed with southern charm. So, I can’t blame most people who live outside of the south for their cultural ignorance when all they see is Colonel Sanders and Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel.

Speaking as a snobby northerner (and I am a snob sometimes, I admit it), it's no mystery why lots of southerners want to get as far from that image as possible. For many southerners I've met, they either react against that image or embrace it, but I've always thought that the ones who react hard against it were trying so hard to get the approval of the "cool," liberal northerner as something other than a redneck. They don't want people like me to group them with those other southerners. Too bad; if you're South of Jersey you're a redneck, case closed! You wouldn't believe how many southerners make it a point to mention that they hate country music and NASCAR when they first meet me. That won't save you, hillbilly!

2. FUBU Government: By the Gentry Class, for the Gentry Class, of the Gentry Class.

LOOK WHO’S WINNING UNDER OBAMANOMICS: “As the nearby chart shows, by almost every measure, the middle class hasn’t benefited much at all over the past two years – the number of employed has fallen while wages, disposable income and home prices have pretty much flatlined. At the same time, Wall Street and big business have made out like bandits. The Dow is up 30 percent since Obama took office, and corporate profits have shot up 42 percent.”

3. What's Wrong with the New Elite

Forget cultural insularity or smugness. The main problem with the “new elite” is that they’re not an elite at all. That is, they aren’t particularly smart, or competent. They are credentialed, but those credentials aren’t so much markers for smartness or competence, or even basic education, as they are admission tickets to the Gentry Class, based on good standardized test scores. That’s fine — ETS was berry, berry good to me — but it doesn’t have much to do with ability to succeed, or lead, in the real world. Worse yet, it seems to have fostered a sense of entitlement.

B-I-N-G-fuckin'-O Glenn. The ETS was very good to me too, Glenn, I kicked ass on my SATS and AP tests too. And here's what an anonymous commenter emailed Glenn with, which is completely in sync with the way I feel.

Very long-time reader and first time emailer. Just my two cents on the elitists.

I am an elite anti-elitist Tea Partier and I made my first protest signs way back in March 2009. I’m a Yale [BA, Philosophy], Columbia [MA, International Affairs] former Wall Street trader and risk manager who is just about done getting another masters [in Library and Information Science] during a two-year “John Galt” sabbatical from work. I’ve met many, many Tea Partiers at this point and they are not anti-elitist in a general, superficial sense. Indeed, they most often admire those who have succeeded by dint of a good education or hard work or taking advantage of a bit of good luck. The subset of elitists that we are fed up with are the ones in the government, the media, and academia who think (erroneously) that they know better what we should be doing with our time every day and have the right to pick our pockets to fund it. Not only are we tired of being condescended to (and take my word for it, I could wipe the floor with most of them intellectually) but they’re obviously screwing everything up.

I won't deny (nor will I apologize) that I have lived a pretty privileged life, with the best education and a great upbringing. I have nothing against the people who have worked hard to get into great colleges, hell, I worked hard and went to a good school too. But what separates me from those who I rail against is that I don't have a sense of entitlement or the belief that I know what's best for everybody else. Trust me, if I had a sense of entitlement I wouldn't have enlisted in the Navy as an E-3, that's for sure.

Reader Jim Bennett also emailed in this:

I’ve been thinking about this, and I am starting to think that the problems with a meritocratic elite are essentially the same as those of a centrally planned economy. Every meritocratic system is ultimately dependent upon some set of metrics to judge merit. But just as no centrally planned economy can create metrics that adequately describe the needed outputs of industry, no one meritocratic system can create metrics that adequately describe all of the characteristics needed to be, collectively, the decsion-makers of a society. Inevitably, the young people start performing to the metrics rather than the desired characteristics themselves. The university system has now created a truly bizarre set of success metrics (e.g., pleasing a professor of critical theory) and it is little wonder that many kids graduate after an expensive education and have almost no capabilities that fit them for work in the real world. To the extent that we make a graduate degree a necessary qualification for any real work we are getting the intellectual equivalent of the slop that Soviet factories churned out toward the end.

Don't I know it. Part of the reason I left college to join the military was that I found it to be a waste of time, and I didn't want to play "the game" of the education system any more. I was performing to the metrics, but not actually learning anything worth a damn, i.e., had little capabilities that fit me for work in the real world.  I am speaking more towards the areas of liberal arts, as hard sciences DO teach you to be capable in the real world. Hypothetically, I could have worked the same hypothetical job straight out of high school that I could've worked after my two years at college, and I'm not sure another two years would've changed much. 

Let me leave this subject with another great quote by Sci-fi legend, Robert Heinlein:

Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

I'm glad to be in the curmudgeon camp.

Hot Spy, Dick Weather, Jewish Terrizts, Weird Food, and GGW

I'm feeling kind of sick today, so everybody leave me comments about how much they love me. 

Jihadi who threatened South Park was a Joooooooo! I've said it before, Jihadi is the new "goth." To be honest, I think Jihadis have a better sense of style, and I can't imagine their music being worse, so I think it's safe to say this is a positive social phenomenon.

Some potentially awesome news for the Jooooos in the Middle East: Gamechanger -Israel, Fossil Fuel Giant. While this is potentially awesome news, there is a downside. For years, I've been saying, "the jooz were given the only shitty piece of land in the Middle East that has no natural resources, and they turned it into a prosperous, rich nation." I won't be able to say that anymore if this article is true. I'll have to say, "the jooz were given a great piece of land but didn't know it and for decades we bought oil from Saudi Wahabists who fund radical Islam throughout the world. Great job, assholes, we could've been less dependent on anti-American oil for decades if you guys were smarter and more perceptive." Maybe China will like the Israelis more now and edge away from Iran? *Gives puppy dog eyes of hope optimism* Yikes, I almost said the H-word.

Hot Russian Spy is Hot.

I'd put my shashlyk on her borscht if you know what I mean.

New York pizza and bagels are the best because of the water, it's fact. I don't know what goes into "Brooklynizing" your water, but whatever it is, I'd like to try it and judge for myself. Depending on who wins the lawsuit (Pizza vs. Bagels), I'll have to take a trip down to Florida and see if they walk the walk.

It's not the crime, it's the cover-up: Biden makes a small gaffe, the media covers for him. The gaffe wasn't a big deal IMO, it's that the media MISQUOTED him to change it to a correct statement. Could you imagine them giving that benefit of the doubt to say, Dan Quayle? It's not the crime, but rather the cover-up here that so annoys me.

THEY TOOK ARRRRR JERBBBBBS poodle? 73 year old man has his poodle locked up because he didn't have it on a leash. They wanted him to pay an $100 fine, so he drove his tractor to the jail and busted his pooch out with some wire cutters. Then the cops arrested him and euthanized his dog. Bastards! This is why I'm so pro-gun. So if the gubmint ever tries to take my dogs, I can fight back those tyrants!

GGW doesn't stand for Girls Gone Wild anymore... it's Gubmint Gone Wild now: Cities Restrict Trick-or-treating to Those Below the Age of 12. I definitely went until I graduated High School, the only difference was the addiction of alcoholz and/or droooogz. Get yer damn laws off my candy, gubmint!

When you're a jerk to the planet, it will come back to hump you in the face. I blame the filthy pollutin' Republicans for this: The Weather is a Dick.

 I never though I'd say this, but thank you, Mexico... Thank you for existing right now.

Chinese Vending Machines Sell Live Crabs. No comment necessary, I think. Don't ask me to translate the whole thing; except for the interviews with people on the street, it's in Japanese. I can, however, translate the interviews. Not going to, but could. Yeah, I'm cool ;).

Phil Griffin of MSNBC: "You guys at Fox News are like, totally using your network to like, fundraise for candidates and stuff and like... we would totally never do that. Seriously guys, like, I dare you to find us ever doing the same thing ever. I DOUBLE dare you even, 'cuz we wouldn't do that. I promise." Ok, so maybe he didn't use those exact words, but the point remains the same. And here is  Johnny Dollar, dutifully calling the bluff. NYT, you're on notice as well. Please don't mistake me, I'm not defending what Fox News or MSNBC does, I'm simply saying that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. As Tyrone Biggums would say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first rock, and I shall smoketh it!"

The Tolerance of the Left

• Protestor who called Andrew Breitbart "gay" is a Democrat Party Official. I mean, I call people gay all the time. My friends, many of them self-identifying liberals, call people gay all the time too. I don't think that the protestor is necessarily intolerant or a homophobe, I'm just holding her to the same standard that conservatives get held to all the time. People like me - and I'm assuming Breitbart feels this way too - feel that Political Correctness is gaytarded (gay and retarded) and also has super black joo AIDS. But when you're called racist/homophobic/sexist all the time by those who disagree with you, it's fun to hold them to the same standard that they hold you to.
• Tammy Bruce, a self-identified gay independent conservative, notices that there's more tolerance for her on the right side of the spectrum. I think Juan Williams might agree with that.
• Liberals have for years tried to get NPR to get rid of Mara Liasson and Juan Williams because they appear on Fox News. Conservative Fox viewers have never tried to get them kicked off Fox for their work on NPR. Well NPR finally got rid of JW, and he learned an important lesson about the tolerance of liberals and the dangers of thinking the wrong thoughts.

 

Lando Asks the Important Questions

One way trip to Mars? Sign me up!

Another brilliant idea: Draft Mitch Daniels! Somebody get Jon Stewart on board this one, because electing this guy would truly be a move towards restoring sanity:

Why do we think our generation can unite behind this “uncharismatic” Indiana governor? Because his candidacy will give us a new hope for solving two of the greatest issues my generation faces: the degradation of national political discourse and the drastic rise in the federal debt...

...Governor Daniels, however, has gone out on a political limb by suggesting that we must declare a “social truce” in order to fix the economy and tackle the debt. We are all welcome to our social opinions, but when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says that the national debt is the top threat to our national security it is time to declare a truce in the culture war and do what needs to be done to cut the budget down to size and get our economy producing jobs.

Here again, Governor Daniels sets himself apart from other 2012 Republican contenders. He earned the nickname “The Blade” for his ability to cut out excess spending as director of the Office of Management and Budget, and as Indiana’s governor for turning a large deficit into consistent surpluses. While my generation has grown skeptical of Republican claims of practicing fiscal conservatism, there is no doubting Daniels’ record.

Between his remarkable fiscal credibility and his serious tone, he is what my generation has been waiting to see out of a Republican presidential nominee.  Party politics aside, above all else, we just want to feel as though we face a clear and serious choice. And we believe Daniels offers us that choice.

Florida Senatorial Debate Moderator Calls Mexican Candidate Anti-Mexican. Marco Rubio, the child of immigrants, is pretty much as pro-immigration as it gets. Why is he anti-Mexican? Because he's pro LEGAL immigration. If you support the law, you're a bigot, duh! I'm not sure what kind of Mexican he is, I think he's one of them Cuban Mexicans, but I'm sure he's not a racist against other Mexicans like the Colombians, Brazilians, and of course, the Puerto Rican Mexicans.*

*If you are looking for a less racist version of this post, simply replace the word Mexican with Hispanic or Latino. All you beaners are the same thing to my cracker ass. In fact, if you're not 'Mrrrkin, then you're probably either Mexican, a Terrizt, or one of those faggy Europeans. Sorry peoples of Africa, East Asia, and Australia, those are your choices. Thank you, and I apologize for any confusion.

And here's a great message from Billy Dee Williams, also known as Lando "Space Pimp" Calrissian. H/T to old buddy King Leornidas of Eretz Yisrael (and also Long Island).

I Didn't Catch Her Historical Reference, She Must Be Retarded

Ok, so I know I said I had no time for posting today but I can't leave this one be without mention. Let's play a game called, "I didn't catch her historical reference, so she must be retarded."

Sarah Palin said at a TEA PARTY rally, "Don't party like it's 1773 yet" and the liberal blogosphere went flippin' nuts over it. 

From Allah:

Yesterday, at a Tea Party Express event in Nevada, she warned the crowd not to get overconfident, telling them they won’t be able to “party like it’s 1773″ until a bunch of tea-party candidates are safely elected. Lefty insta-meme: Idiot Sarah Palin doesn’t know that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776! Because, after all, nothing happened in 1773 that could possibly be worth referencing at a tea-party rally, right?

Some prominent lefty twitter responses:

Daily Kos creator Markos Moulitsas: "Sarah Palin to supporters: "Don't party like it's 1773 yet". http://is.gd/g7rRb. She's so smart."

Gwen Ifill who works for PBS and moderated the 2008 VP debate: "Sarah Palin: party like its 1773! ummm,"

And from Perfunction, the first link:

I mean, hell, it must be extremely embarrassing to have your obvious ignorance of 5th grade American history revealed by the likes of the Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and PBS anchor & presidential debate moderator Gwen Ifill. HAHAHAHAHA, what a freakin' dumb ass! What happened in 1773, indeed!

oh, wait:

Maybe Palin's smarter than I give her credit for. The left/media consistently plays into her hands and ends up looking foolish for it. 

 

**UPDATE 10/22/2010 2:51PM Hawaiian Time**

Thanks to Texas4Palin for the link and for quoting me. Welcome to T4P readers, have a look around.

Who Loves the Sun

I've started a busier work schedule with fluctuating hours. I've also got a visitor in town from the mainland this week, so blogging may be lighter than normal. There's lots of good stuff out there today, but I guess I'll just have to keep it in the vault until I need to refer back to it.

-The Viking

[EDIT: I changed the title of the post to correspond with the update]

**UPDATE: 10:02AM Hawaii Time**

Ok, seeing as I've been a fan of the Velvet Underground since I was like, 12 years old, this interview was just too awesome not to link. Maureen "Moe" Tucker talks about her political views.

Here are some of my favorite quotes, question and answer included.

How did you get involved with the local Tea Party movement?
I'm not "involved" with the local movement. I went to the first Tea Party in June or July of 2009 because it was within striking distance and I wanted to be counted.

Are you still involved in Tea Party activities?
I do my own protesting via email and postcards. Anyone who thinks I'm crazy about Sarah Palin, Bush, etc. has made quite the presumption. I have voted Democrat all my life, until I started listening to what Obama was promising and started wondering how the hell will this utopian dream land be paid for? For those who actually believe that their taxes won't go up in order to pay for all this insanity: good luck!

What are some misconceptions that people have about Tea Parties (and their attendants) in general?
That they're all racists, they're all religious nuts, they're all uninformed, they're all stupid, they want no taxes at all and no regulations whatsoever. Those "arguments" are presented by the Dems in order to keep their base of uninformed voters on their side. In my opinion, as soon as you start name-calling, your opinion is immediately deemed invalid!

What are your feelings about the online reactions? Many people seem upset or outraged.
I'm stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do. You disagree and you're immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That's pretty f'd up!! I would never judge someone based on their political views. Their honesty, integrity, kindness to others, generosity? Yes. Politics? No!

I like her.

Pessimistic Blogger Can't Wait to Move to Outer Space

Is anybody serious about entitlement reform? Chris Christie and Paul Ryan, perhaps. Will they be able to do anything about it? Probably not, there's a lot of entrenched interests... I'll just hedge my bets and fly off to space as soon as I get a chance (well, as soon as there's fast internet access up there).

Even lefty Howard Kurtz realizes how bad the media has botched their tea party coverage. He brings up a lot of good points, but there's something I want to highlight that's not exactly the main point of the article, bold placed by me for emphasis.

Many voters are angry, especially about the anemic economy, and it’s their right to toss out whoever they deem to be the bums. But on some level, many journalists believe the White House has accomplished a heckuva lot, and they see the Tea Partiers as inchoate and maddeningly inconsistent—denouncing big bad government while clinging to their Medicare and Social Security benefits. It’s as if the pundits are collectively engaged in a group grope, feeling their way around this strange and sharp-toothed political animal that resembles nothing they’ve encountered before.

While I've been consistent in my criticism and disdain for the current incarnations of Medicare and Social Security, I do worry that for all their railing about big government, the people who are getting elected on this tea-party wave are not going to be serious about dealing with the actual problems that are breaking our budget.  Sure, 20 million dollar pork projects brought home to your district for special interests is bad, but what's breaking our budget is the large federal entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and to a lesser extent, public pensions.

Public pensions are out of control and unsustainable, and government jobs that create no wealth are incentivized. I know first hand, as I make way more than a lot of my college graduate friends who were lucky enough to find jobs (in some cases, I make double). Factor in my benefits and it's just ridiculous (dental, medical, tuition assistance, G.I. Bill for grad school, 40% of my salary is tax free, if I stay in for 20 years I get 50% of my highest salary as pension, which could be as much as I make now monthly til I die starting in my 40's. Oh yeah, and I can't get fired.). Just how ridiculous are public pensions? If my personal testimony wasn't enough, read this article by former U.S. Attorney J. Christian Adams. Let me emphasize part of his point that Government employees are not evil or the problem, it's the system that needs to go.

The larger problem is the spending. The answer is not to raise taxes, but to quit spending. I am perfectly ok with paying taxes, and I'm not necessarily even in favor of cutting taxes below the current rate. However, I am not a big fan of the tax rate. How about a balanced budget? How about our Government proves to us that they can spend our money responsibly? I like that idea. People complained about Bush's spending throughout his two terms, including many Conservatives. Bush was an awful Conservative in terms of fiscal responsibility, but he pales in comparison to Obama. Ed has the numbers laid out neatly for you to see here. Obama  and the Democratic Congress has tacked on $3 trillion to our national debt since coming into office, and the Democratic Congress starting in 2006 has done far worse. The Democrats have been three times worse in their 4 years than the Republicans were in 12 ('94-'06).  Remember, Congress makes the budget (well, not this year they didn't).

Going back to the bolded part of Kurtz' quote, I have an article about why the GOP will never cut Government. The optimist in me wants to disagree, but the realist thinks that there's some real truth to it. Despite the fact that entitlements take up 65% of our federal expenditure, they are still wildly popular, even among people my age. Newsflash, my contemporaries: we're not going to see a dime of Social Security. I know we've been paying for it for as long as we've been working, but we might as well reform it now because we're not going to see it either way.

Ed also offers his thoughts on Kurtz' article.

Kurtz also rightly criticizes Tea Party candidates Carl Paladino (R-NY) and Christine O'Donnell (R-DE). Why do I say he rightly criticizes them? Christine O'Donnell reportedly does not believe in a separation of Church and State in the U.S. Character does matter in politics, as far as I'm concerned, and no matter how much she agrees with me on government spending, it doesn't make me feel any less uneasy about the prospect of her writing and voting on laws that will govern this country in the future. Call me an elitist, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

Good thing I don't have to vote for Carl Paladino. Despite Jimmy Mac's views on Jewish people and their real estate hookups, he has some serious solutions. Here's what the founder and CEO of the Rent is Too Damn High Party believes.

• On the deficit: "It's like a cancer. It will heal itself."
• On negative campaigning: "As a karate expert, I will not talk about anyone up here."
• On gay marriage: "The Rent Is 2 Damn High Party feels if you want to marry a shoe, I'll marry you."
• On... Jesus, I have no clue what prompted this one: "We plan to bulldoze some of those mountains in Upstate to make New York an independent state. I want my own cable company; I want my own telephone company."
• On the rent: Too damn high.

Yep... the deficit is just like cancer, it'll just heal itself! Trust him, he's a karate expert ;).