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Do as I say, not as I do: Taxes are for the little people. Well considering the Secretary of the Treasury owed tens of thousands to the IRS, is anybody surprised by reports like this?  Glenn says, "It's easy to see why these people don't mind higher taxes. They don't plan on paying 'em anyway..."

If you ever wondered why I refer to Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit) as the Instaprophet, it's because his predictions are pretty much always correct. Here's what he said right around 9/11/01. 

In Delaware, there's a bitter primary battle for the Republican nomination for Senate between Mike Castle and Chrisitne O'Donnell. Many conservatives take issue with Castle for being too moderate. My older brother and I were talking this morning, and he said (I'm paraphrasing), "I'm kinda pissed off at some of the conservative bloggers about Delaware." Before he could explain, I said, "I know, I really don't like this O'Donnell character. She reminds me of Michelle Bachmann, but even crazier." Then I worried that I had offended him, and he supported her. It turns out that we agreed that she seemed crazy and was definitely bad for the broad group of people opposed to the Democrats' agenda. When the Tea Partiers backed Joe Miller in Alaska against incumbent Lisa Murkowski, I thought that was a good thing because she was of the political class that was more concerned with being elected than anything else (she's still trying to get on the ballot somehow). When the Utah tea partiers knocked out an incumbent who they viewed as too liberal, I thought, "representatives who do not represent their constituents should be voted out." In Delaware, not only does O'Donnell have a snowballs chance in hell of winning, she's also batshit crazy. Oh, and Mike Castle isn't even that liberal. Basically, I'm in the Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels camp. Those guys are my guys. If the Republicans line up behind the Palin/Bachmann/O'Donnell types, they can count on my vote going elsewhere. And if the Tea Party types fuck up their current trajectory and get hi-jacked by social cons, and lose a lot of their libertarian impulses, they can count me out.

This discussion provides a natural segue into this article about Christie and Ryan. These two guys are sticking it to the man. When I was young and I thought of the hippies and the 60's, I thought of them as fighting the power and sticking it to the man. When I thought about punk rock and rap music, I thought it was about sticking it to the man. Despite working for the man, part of what my blog does is my way of sticking it to the man. How the left-wing managed to convince people that they are the ones that stick it to the man is beyond me. A cursory run-down of conservative ideals in terms of the scope of government: smaller government and lower taxes. Plenty of conservatives haven't lived up to the ideal, Dubya being a prime example, but that's why nobody liked him. A quick run-down of the liberal flipside: I'm not sure there are specific ideals in modern liberalism; rather, they support a bunch of policies and concrete positions based on emotion, not principle. If they were principled and those principles ran counter to conservative principles, then in theory, they would support bigger government and higher taxes. So who are the real punks, the conservatives or the liberals?

My friend Batman went to school down in D.C. as a journalism major, and she remarkably found a job there doing journalism. I caught up with her yesterday for the first time in a long time, and when I said I was impressed and excited that she found a job there, she said it she knows how lucky she is, but since she's in D.C., all her friends have jobs because that's where all the jobs are. I said that's a telling sign for the times, that all the jobs are in D.C. while everybody else is unemployed. She also told me that she was jealous of her friends that work for the gov't because they get paid well and have great benefits. This is bad. People should be encouraged to work in the private sector, because the private sector creates wealth for our nation. Public jobs cannot create wealth, all they can do is use up the wealth created by the private sector. Public service should be just that: service. It's a bad day when people who could be out creating wealth are more incentivized to join the lucrative business of government work.

Newest Democrat campaign strategy: Vote for Justin Beiber. G-d, I wish I were kidding, but seriously, watch the video. Nevermind that he's Canadian and therefore can't vote in American elections and just watch.

I know they don't explicitly mention to vote for Democrats, but the organization behind the ad (Campus Progress) is a democratic outfit, so it's implied. It's one of George Soros' little babies.

California Newspapers lining up against marijuana legalization (despite the fact that 90% of their employees have smoked the stuff). Legalize it, tax it, and maybe sell flavored, pre-rolled blunts to attract the children. Maybe give 'em a little toy with each pack, like a happy meal.

No shit: DoJ report on rates of college rape are grossly inaccurate. As the Daily Caller notes, the reported percentage of people raped at college, according to those statistics, would be ten times higher than Detroit. I remember in high school and college, the definition of rape that they taught us was so broad that if you were to sleep with somebody, and regret it later, you were raped. Nobody likes to take responsibility for their own decisions/behavior, good thing they can just put the blame on external forces and call it a day. It kind of reminds me of when our health class told us 10% of people on earth are homosexual, which of course I didn't buy either.

Ouch: Laid-off Lawyer formerly making 160k a year now cleaning toilets. I've got it way too good. Right now, I'm currently waiting for a training course to start, so in the interim period they have me doing odd-jobs where they need me. Occasionally I get to drive a government vehicle. I'm the most overpaid, overeducated, and overqualified bus driver evah. If only the hippies knew that the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan is being played in a military vehicle...

While I came out firmly against Quran burning (and honestly, who wouldn't?), I can't help but be a little amused by this Australian Professor who compared smoking a joint rolled out of Bible paper and a joint rolled out of Quran paper. The professor was, unfortunately for his sake, completely correct when he stated that he is screwed and will lose his job over it. Well, he does represent the school, and when you represent an institution greater than yourself, you have to play by their rules; thus, I cannot wear a t-shirt that says, "Fuck fuck shit heroin cocaine fuck shit doody Sean Penn." Had to give it to goodwill :(.

Anybody surprised by this logical step: HHS Secretary Sebelius, "Insurers who criticize healthcare will be locked out of our system." Hmm, like nobody (excluding the left) saw that one coming. Ed also adds this bit in another post:

"Yes, this is thuggery, but in a free-market system, it would be an empty threat.  This is precisely the reason why government should not run private-sector industries — the management of these systems becomes political rather than fiduciary or achievement based.  And it’s started already."

Nothing any principled conservative couldn't have warned you about.

Here is one of the best examples of media bias at the NYT, along with some historical examples included towards the bottom of the post. The White House was tweeting the NYT article on their twitter page, if those two love eachother so much they should just get married or something. I know that was lame, Reed, but people hear about NYT media bias all the time and kind of shrug it off ("Well, all newspapers are biased somehow."). This is just plain dishonest, politically motivated, and looks at best like hackery, and at worst like coordination. Is the NYT on the White House payroll? Not yet, but when that newspaper bailout inevitably comes...

First living man since Vietnam to receive the Medal of Honor (military's highest honor) speaks. It's hard to comprehend just how insane being awarded that medal is, but let's just say singlehandedly taking out a base of terrizts, a la Arnold in Commando, might award you a bronze star (the 4th highest). Do all that after getting shot in the face plus saving some friends, that's the Medal of Honor.

When looking at the effectiveness of policy, you have to see if the goal is being accomplished. For example, gun control policy was created to stem violent crime. However, if you look at places with the highest crime, oftentimes they have the strictest gun control measures (Chicago and D.C. come to mind). I believe that owning a gun doesn't turn a law-abiding citizen into a bloodthirsty murderer and criminals will get guns illegally because they're criminals and break the law. The only people with guns, in a gun controlled society, are gangsters and the government, leaving the people defenseless. But regardless of what you believe, reality is hard to argue with, when presented with it. Here's a story about the relaxation of gun control laws in Tennessee and exactly what resulted from it (nothing).

Take that same argument and extend it elsewhere. What is the goal of the war on drugs? Lower drug use and a prohibition on drugs in America, presumably. Is it working? Hell no.

How about we take it to affirmative action. What is the goal? Help bridge the achievement gap between minorities and whites. Is it working? Not really.

Here's a picture I took at the Chinese restaurant near my house that was not very good at all. Silly Chinese... and for that, I have named my post.

 

Comments

[BObHO]

"While I came out firmly against Quran burning (and honestly, who wouldn't?)"

Well, Lawrence Auster is one who was positive, and I have to agree with him:

"At the very least, one must say that [Terry] Jones's planned act is not mindless. He is performing a certain act, and he has laid out his reasons for performing it. His reasons are that Islam is anti-Christ, anti the West, anti liberty, and anti human decency. His view is that Islam is a danger to everything we cherish and everything we are. By burning a Koran, he is expressing his complete rejection of Islam, and causing other people to think about why he is rejecting Islam. Since I myself believe and have frequently stated that Islam does not belong in the West, how can I condemn a man who is expressing the same idea through a strong symbolic act? An act that is not illegal and is not harming anyone. An act that will force people to think--is Islam the enemy of ourselves and of everything we cherish, or not? Does Islam belong among us, or not?

People are saying that the Koran burning will cause Muslims to kill innocent people. Perhaps it will. But the Danish cartoons caused Muslims to kill innocent people. Islam demands aggressive war against non-Muslims, including the killing of innocents, because from the Muslim point of view there is no such thing as an innocent non-Muslim. The clearest and most frequently repeated message of the Koran, appearing on almost every page, is that all non-Muslims are guilty of the monstrous crime of rejecting Allah and his prophet, and thereby deserve death and eternal torture. Why should we respect such a book? Why should we respect such a religion? Sooner or later, people in the West (and people in the non-Muslim world generally) must come to recognize the nature and teachings of Islam. They can have that recog[n]ition sooner, and prevent much violence, or they can have that recognition much later, only after Muslims have gained substantial power over our societies and get in a position to harm anyone who opposes them. My view is: the sooner the truth comes out, the better; the sooner things come to a head, the safer we will be."

http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/017272.html

[The Viking]

Ehh, I tend to disagree with you there that Islam doesn't belong in the West. I think that fundamentalist Islam does not belong in the West, and therein lies the problem. There are plenty of good, decent, western Muslims who have nothing to do with the types of people who are our enemy.

One of the big issues is that Islamic fundamentalism is almost the only way to go if you are a Muslim and you want to be devout, because unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam still hasn't gone through a reformation. The Quran is over a millenium old, obviously fundamentalist readings of the Quran will be a problem in this modern day, just as fundamental readings of the Torah or Christian Bible would seem draconian.