Quote of the Day II

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, concerning why socialism doesn't work:

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend].

Sourced from Wikiquote here. You and I, dear reader, are those "other people," it is our money Barry O. is spending.

Quote of the Day I

Political pundit Dick Morris writes for The Hill as follows:

GM, now renamed Government Motors, has a new CEO: President Barack Obama. By replacing the head of the company and demanding a restructuring of its board in return for further TARP aid, Obama has taken upon himself the responsibility for the future of the company...now it is Obama’s company.

Morris concludes about Government Motors:

The president’s protestations that the government does not want to own a car company are quite beside the point. It’s his now, and he better figure out what to do with it.

Barone Is Blunt

You seldom see a columnist state something as bluntly as Michael Barone does in this recent U.S.News & World Report blog post:

The Republican Party is the party of people who are considered, by themselves and by others, as normal Americans...while the Democratic Party is the party of the out groups who are in some sense seen, by themselves and by others, as not normal.

I suppose we'll hear screams of outrage at this bald statement of political reality; but the polls of who votes for what party certainly support this non-PC view.

Bad News Is Good News

This Reuters article reports the ruling Islamist party in Turkey did poorly in local elections.

The AK Party won 39 per cent of the municipal vote, but the results were below its 47 per cent target and the worst since it first came to power in parliamentary elections in 2002.

The article concludes:

Local elections have traditionally been important in Turkey, with governments severely handicapped if they failed to score well. The results are not expected to halt reforms but may force (Prime Minister) Erdogan to seek compromises with the opposition to achieve his goals, which may in turn strengthen democratic institutions.

That is bad news for the AK Party but good news for Turkey's friends in the United States.

Mystery Missiles

This Jerusalem Post article reports a strike by unmanned Israeli aircraft on a convoy of trucks carrying Iranian missiles across the Sudan headed for Gaza. A quick look at a map suggests (a) Sudan does not share a border with Gaza and (b) none of the countries with which Sudan shares a border would be logical sources for Iranian missiles.

Oddly, the press is not questioning this report. Sudan is west of Gaza, Iran is east of Gaza. The two do not share borders, not even close. Between the two is the entire Arabian peninsula, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.

What nobody is reporting is what in blazes Iranian missiles are doing in Sudan, how did they happen to be there? Somebody needs to do investigative reporting on the history of these missiles.

See How It Is Done

Check out this YouTube video of Daniel Hannnan, Member of the European Parliament for southern Britain, as he verbally kicks bloody the backside of Prime Minister Gordon Brown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

That laddie can really lay down an indictment. Where is the U.S. equivalent when our President so richly deserves the same treatment? Hat tip to Cheri L. for the link.

Ice Age Warning

See this article on an earlier solar quiet period called the Maunder Minimum and this article which talks about the current lack of sunspot activity. Put the two together and you have a recipe for cold weather.

Last time we had a lack of sunspot activity - the Maunder Minimum - we had the Little Ice Age. Now we have another lack of sunspot activity - what do we get this time? If you were a betting person, you'd bet on cold weather.

So what does our clueless President do? He appoints science advisors who are committed to AGW, anthropogenic global warming, that is, human-caused global warming.

If you believe human activity is more powerful than the sun, sign on with Barry O. and Algore. If you understand the sun totally dwarfs anything people can do, bet the other way.

I bet on science every time.

Political Humor Alert

Historically, income taxes have been due each year on April 15. The Obama Administration's has a new policy on when income taxes are due. Instead of April 15, they are only due after you are nominated for a cabinet position.

Quote of the Day III

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ambassador, senator and scholar, quoted in an article by Rich Lowry in National Review Online:

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.

The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

This is the lesson that Argentina cannot seem to learn. Their politics keeps their culture in a losing pattern.

Quote of the Day II

Judith Miller, writing for Fox News, says for the record what we all sort of knew:

Sixty days into his presidency, it’s official: President Barack Hussein Obama now owns the war in Afghanistan and has expanded it to Pakistan.

The key word there is "owns." Bush eventually pulled his war in Iraq out of the losing category; it remains to be seen whether Barry can do the same with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Quote of the Day I

P. J. O'Rourke, writing in the Weekly Standard, has the quote of the day:

The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything.

The bad news is that, according to the Obama administration, you're rich.

How do you know if you're rich? According to O'Rourke, anybody with a job is considered "rich."

Take this simple test: See if you pay double for everything. The financial bailout, for example. Pay for it once with your IRA and 401(k) plan investments. Now pay for it again with your tax dollars.

He gives plenty more examples that will evoke grudging groans, go read it for yourself.

Travel Blogging

Dateline: Santa Ynez, CA. This place is too pretty to be lawful, and far enough from L.A. to be somewhat serene. The valley contains 3-4 little towns with various degrees of charm: Buellton, Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, and of course Solvang. If you've seen the film "Sideways" you have some notion of the place, albeit a Hollywood version. This is where Michael Jackson's infamous Neverland Ranch is located.

The high school and Indian casino are in Santa Ynez; the car dealerships, movie theater, first run supermarket and drug stores are in Buellton. The mission is in Solvang, a faux Danish town with more bakeries and tourist traps than you'd believe possible. In between are a ton of vineyards, wineries, and horse farms.

If I had my way we'd spend a couple of months per year here, but in fact sometimes spend as little as a week, this year for instance. If you substitute grapevines for orange trees, it reminds me of the way the Ojai Valley used to look 50 years ago when I was a kid there, but less developed.

Travel Blogging

Dateline: Santa Nella, CA. This little burg is a completely artificial 'town' created by the intersection of Interstate 5 and a relatively busy state highway. There are multiple truck stops, motels, fast food outlets, motels, etc. There used to be a full-sized copy of the Michelangelo's Pieta, the original of which lives in St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican. What this copy was doing decorating a truckstop motel is anybodies guess.

We've stopped at an RV park at which we've stopped many times before, only this time it is nearly full, and it has never been full before. True, we are here at a different time of year, we normally pass through in December and again in February, this time it is almost April. There were fewer RVs on the highways today, but more in the park. I have to wonder if the economic downturn is causing people to live in their RVs, having let their homes go? If they already own an RV it would be a cheap way to live.

We had blue skies and highs in the 70s, with a bit of wind. I saw some people flying kites, a classic springtime amusement. Considering the cold weather elsewhere in the country, CA is having a marvelous spring.

Travel Blogging Alert

This site will carry occasional travel blogging over the next couple of months. The other DrC and I will be doing RV travel across much of the United States.

The intent is to continue world affairs and political blogging interspersed with travel blogging. We'll see how the mixture works out.

What's Next?

This AFP article reports that clerics in Saudi Arabia are arguing that images of women should not appear on Saudi television and in their press. Saudi society is really unbelievable. I suppose their next thing will be to ban any mention of women, maybe even deny their existence altogether.

Why do you suppose the world puts up with this behavior? The civilized world is supposed to be worried about human rights. Apparently a nation can do any ugly thing to its people so long as it is done in the name of religion.

Quote of the Day

In a David Warren column at the RealClearPolitics.com website we find this political insight:

To a man like Obama, as he has let slip on too many occasions when away from his teleprompter, "Middle America" is not something to be compromised with, but rather, something that must be manipulated, because it is stupid. And the proof that it can be manipulated, is that he is the president today.

I am reminded of Groucho Marx's quip to the effect that he wouldn't choose to belong to any club with standards so low that it was willing to admit him. Similarly, Obama has to be saying to himself that he cannot identify with Middle America because it was dumb enough to elect him.

Brit Hume Wins Award

As this News Busters post reports, longtime Fox News Network anchor Brit Hume has won the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence. The honor is awarded by the Media Research Center whose president, Brent Bozell, remembered:

Recently, a top ABC correspondent told me that letting Brit Hume leave that network was the biggest mistake it ever made.

Brit Hume was a class act. His retirement has left the television news business noticeably short of gravitas.

Mr. Gaffe II

Surprise, surprise, President Obama is as prone to gaffes as President Bush. Check out this Chicago Tribune article which identifies some of his more egregious screw-ups.

Obama seems most at risk when ad libbing. No wonder he clasps his teleprompter like a drowning man. Unlike his predecessor, he normally is smooth in delivering a speech writer's carefully honed words.

The Argument for Doing Nothing

Right after last November's election there was a lot of talk about how the Republican Party needed to do this or that to reinvent itself. Who knows, maybe some change is needed? On the other hand, if the last two months are any indicator, maybe nothing needs doing.

Nothing? Maybe not. This Democrat-controlled administration and Congress are doing a fantastic job of destroying their brand. And all without much help from the GOP. Could be all we have to do is wait for them to self-destruct, without doing anything to associate ourselves with their debacle.

Obama Approval Still Sinking

Scott Rasmussen's Presidential Approval Index, of which we wrote on Tuesday, March 10, then stood at +6. Today, eleven days later, it stands at +4. Go here to see Rasmussen's chart of the two subcomponents of the Approval Index: the percentage Strongly Approving of Obama's performance (35%) and the percentage Strongly Disapproving (31%).

Particularly interesting is the very clear rising trend line in the "Strongly Disapprove" ratings over the past two months. The trend is less uniformly falling for "Strongly Approve" but it is falling.

So far Obama seems less like Clinton Revisited and more like Carter Redux...that is to say, hapless.