Just what is a legislator

Scott Ott at ScrappleFace takes a great jab at the Democratic Congress in this piece. A bit to whet your appetite:

(2007-04-13) — Democrats who control the House and Senate today agreed to a long term “progressive” strategy to begin making laws sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, once they complete their investigations of everyone in the Bush administration.

Unfortunately, it may become more truth than satire. Of the promised legislation from the "first 100 days", nothing has been sent to the President's desk. So much for those promises. On the other hand, this may actually be a good thing for the country as a whole.

The 50's were better

Armavirumque has a funny, yet thoughtful, post giving 8 reasons why the 50's were better than the present. My favorite was:

4. Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1956 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Read the whole story HERE.

Sorrow in Blacksburg

Nothing can change the fact that the shootings at Virginia Tech make for true tragedy. Mitch Berg over at Shot in the Dark posts My Advice to My Kids. He makes very good points on how to avoid being a victim. The paragraph that struck me most was:

Oh, yeah - and if your school tries to “lock down” around you? Get out. Any way you can; break away before your teacher can lock the door - run over her, go out the window, whatever it takes; do not sit still with a bunch of other immobile targets. At the very best, your school’s administrators’ primary motivation is to “manage the situation”, not protect you, personally. Sitting ducks make easier targets. Most of the dead in the Red Lake massacre three years ago were sitting in a locked-down classroom, like cattle penned up for the slaughter. So were many of the dead at Virginia Tech today.

Good advice in Mitch's post -- send it to those you love.

To help you laugh

This site is just too funny. At least it speaks to me that way -- I know a number of people will be horrifically offended. But they're probably not reading this blog anyhow.

Stupid Commercial

There is a new Verizon commercial airing that touts how their phone service works "even when the power's out". An obvious shot at "cable phone" which requires a VOIP box and power to operate it. However, if you look closely at the people and the phones they are using....

The first two are on traditional corded telephones. However, the next two are on CORDLESS phones, saying "it's always on". Well, tell me....unless you have a UPS connected to your phone, how the hell is the base station on your cordless phone going to receive the signal from your handset?

Duh!

Then again, who but me is paying that much attention to a phone commercial.

Going to the dogs

News from Sao Paolo, Brazil:

A love motel in Soa Paulo has opened for amorous dogs. The love motel offers decorated rooms for dogs of pet owners who are concerned for their animal’s needs.

When they open one for bears, give me a holler.

The full story is HERE at Muchmor News.

The unified theory

The Physics Geek has it all summed up.

Find the answer HERE.

Looking into the future

The future of the Republican party may lie with the man leading the polls in the race for governor of Louisiana. Redstate has an excellent article on Bobby Jindal that everyone interested in politics should read. It's also a stirring tribute to a man who truly has chosen public service over personal gain.

The close of the article truly sums up what faces the Bayou State:

This fall, Louisiana can choose the old ways of doing things, the corrupt ways, the status quo. They can fall back. Or they can move forward under the leadership of the brilliant young policy wonk who chose his home over comfort and financial success. They can take this opportunity to walk in a better path, a path toward solving their problems, fixing the crushed houses and streets, and do what they have to do to make this broken state new again.

The choice is theirs to make.

Three Little WHAT???

From the land of Londonstan:

A junior school production of the children's story has been renamed the Three Little Puppies for fear of offending Muslims.

Organisers of a children's music festival have altered the popular characters and lyrics because of the multi-cultural nature of the youngsters involved and their parents in the audience.

Committee member Gill Goodswen, head teacher of Stile Common Junior School, defending the move. She said: "We have to be sensitive if we want to be multi-cultural. It was felt it would be more responsible not to use the three little pigs.
We feared that some Muslim children wouldn't sing along to the words about pigs," she said. We didn't want to take that risk. If changing a few words avoids offence then we will do so."

The slippery slope has now become a free-fall.

Do as I say.....

From the Qatar newspaper "The Peninsula":

Baghdad • US-led forces raiding suspected insurgent hideouts in an upscale area of Baghdad stumbled across 150 cases of booze stashed with the usual accoutrements of war, the army said yesterday. On a third day of clearing operations in the western Sunni Arab district of Mansur, the military said the 100 cases of Smirnoff and 50 cases of Johnny Walker were unearthed along with three hand grenades and several passports. Fifty gallons of nitric acid were also found in other caches of explosives, weapons and ammunition. In the four years since the US-led invasion, fundamentalists have waged deadly intimidation campaigns against alcohol retailers.

I guess that while waiting for your appointment with the 72 virgins, you can have a couple of cocktails to help relax after a hard day of jihad. Nothing like having those great principles.

My question.....was it Johnny Walker Red Label or Black Label?

Pettiness down south

Jeb Bush was a successful governor of Florida, who weathered both political and weather storms to create a generally favorable legacy in the Sunshine State. Apparently, that isn't enough for the faculty senate of the University of Florida, which voted to deny awarding him an honorary degree.

I have a sneaking suspicion that he might just take that as a backhanded badge of honor, but the public rebuke isn't justified. It does say a lot about the UoF, though.

Hat tip to Power Line.

Another inconvenient truth

I am continually amazed at how the selective reporting of the "media" goes unnoticed by the masses. To wit, the reporting on the low approval ratings for President Bush. Unmentioned by the media is the unsurprising fact that the approval ratings for Congress are even lower.

If you are going to beat up on one leader (Bush), it's only fair to beat up on all of them. But then, has fairness ever been the objective of the NYTimes et al?? (at least in the last 40 years).

Check out the poll numbers at Real Clear Politics.

Back from the Wilderness

Mr. Bear took a long vacation to the wilderness, and is back in civilization once again. Actually, there was a hibernation period in there as well, so I might be a bit sluggish. Look for more regular postings -- there's lots of info to share.

Two simple words

The US Army's Third Armored Cavalry returned to Fort Carson, Colorado in March, but it has been a homecoming almost ignored in the MSM. However, on Friday, the 3rd ACR, got some print in the Rocky Mountain News.

Seems that the soldiers were quite instrumental in securing the city of Tal Afar in Iraq. The mayor of Tal Afar had previously sent a letter of appreciation to the regiment. On Friday, Mayor Najim Al Jibouri of Tal Afar addressed a welcoming ceremony at Ft. Carson. He spoke to the crowd, through a translator, and reiterated the appreciation he expressed in his letter.

An Iraqi mayor stood before troops lined up on the lawn at Fort Carson on Friday
morning and said only two words in English. But those two words brought the
crowd to its feet.

"Thank you."

Once again, the good news never seems to get reported. Amazing how those two little words can mean so much.

Another hat tip to Power Line.

Great ideas

Peggy over at What If? has a great post where she tells how the former prime minister of Estonia was the winner of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty.

Before entering politics, Laar was a historian. “I had read only one book on economics — Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose. I was so ignorant at the time that I thought that what Friedman wrote about the benefits of privatization, the flat tax and the abolition of all customs rights, was the result of economic reforms that had been put into practice in the West. It seemed common sense to me and, as I thought it had already been done everywhere, I simply introduced it in Estonia, despite warnings from Estonian economists that it could not be done. They said it was as impossible as walking on water. We did it: we just walked on the water because we did not know that it was impossible.”

I wish that some American politicians would forget about the discredited theories of the past and start walking on water here at home.

Another Canary Trap?

Could the USAToday story about the massive NSA data-mining of phone records be another Canary Trap? Or just a partisan shot at the NSA as General Michael Hayden is before the Senate for confirmation as the new head of the CIA.

Kevin Aylward over at Wizbang thinks that the Mary Mapes school of neutral journalism is back in business:

First, she's donated the maximum amount legally allowed ($2,000) to Dick Gephardt's campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination in the 2004 election cycle.

Second, she's on TV crowing about the her confidential, unnamed sources.

And finally, the USAToday is pushing the "they didn't object" angle as a confirmation of their story. We all remember how well that worked out for CBS's John Roberts. Here's how the editors at USAToday phrased it, "On the night before the story was published, the newspaper described the story in detail to BellSouth, and the company did not challenge the newspaper's account."

Was it another Canary Trap instead? That would be my bet, but we won't know unless it comes to light in a trial.

The Newt on the border

I don't agree with Newt Gingrich on everything, but he has a pretty thought provoking article at National Review Online. He writes:

First, it is essential to understand how big and how serious this problem is.

Second, it is equally essential to understand how big the changes will have to be to really solve the problem.

Third, it is important to follow a logical set of sequential, sustainable solutions that build a momentum that over time will result in a rational and orderly immigration policy acceptable to a majority of the American people.

Getting there is a matter of national survival both in immediate and in the long-term.

He posits that there needs to be a new honesty about the issue - I for one am proud that someone is taking a principled stand without a finger to the wind.

Another hat tip to Wizbang.

Why did greed get a bad name?

I'm never quite certain how John Stossel got, or keeps, a job on network television. He presents strong messages on self-reliance, market economies and governmental waste and deception. It's almost like he's the token "right-winger" - a sop to "diversity". Never mind why he's there, just be glad that he is.

Stossel has a great column at Real Clear Politics on how greed makes things happen. Part of that article:

If pursuing profit is greed, economist Walter Williams told me, then greed is good, because it drives us to do many good things. "Those areas where people are motivated the most by greed are the areas that we're the most satisfied with: supermarkets, computers, FedEx." By contrast, areas "where people say we're motivated by 'caring'" -- public education, public housing etc. -- "are the areas of disaster in our country. . . . How much would get done," Williams wondered, "if it all depended on human love and kindness?"

Read the whole thing, and pass along the link to anyone who believes that caring is the highest virtue.

Hat tip to the folks at Wizbang for the reference.

Spray away

Two simple facts. 1) DDT works in controling malaria. 2) DDT has been demonized by junk psuedo-science.

Now for the result of combining Fact 1 + Fact 2: People are unnecessarily dying.

For stories on this tragedy, read these posts on Powerline and the New York Sun.

Steyn nails it

The wonderful Mark Steyn nails John Kerry for using Thomas Jefferson as a validation for dissent. But even more so, Steyn succinctly sums up what the philosophy of the Democratic party has become:

But the high holiness of dissent for its own sake is now the core belief of the Democratic Party: It's not what you're for, it's what you're against. Their current denunciations of Big Oil have a crudely effective opportunism but say to them "OK, what's your energy policy?" and see what answers you get: More domestic oil? Ooh, no, we can't disturb the pristine ANWR breeding ground of the world's largest mosquito herd. More nuclear power, like the French? Ooh, no, might be another Three Mile Island. Er, OK, you're the mass transit guys; how about we go back to wood-fired steam trains? Ooh, no, we're opposed to logging, in case it causes global warming, or cooling, or both.

Dissent for its own sake is like the Democrats' energy policy: We're opposed to any kind of energy; we prefer to be mired in enervated passivity. If the right is full of armchair generals, the left is full of armchair generalities: Nothing can be done, any course is futile, everything's a quagmire. All we can say for certain is that saying so for certain is the highest form of patriotism.

Read the whole article HERE. Hat tip to Peg over at What If? for pointing this out to me.