Wednesday, August 26, 2009

From Best of the Web Today

Here's a blast from the past. The New York Times, July 9, 2001, reports on George W. Bush's first summer vacation as president:
On Friday, as new unemployment figures painted a newly troubling
portrait of the American economy, Mr. Bush placed himself in the same
scenes--golfing and fishing in a New England paradise--that once caused his
father electoral grief.

Simply amazing.
Here's the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, dated July 6, 2001 that "painted a newly troubling portrait of the American economy":
The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.5 percent, five-tenths of
a percentage point higher than the average for 2000.


As Barack Obama embarked on his first summer vacation as president last week--also in a "New England paradise," Martha's Vineyard--the most recent unemployment rate was 9.4%, more than double the summer 2001 figure. Covering the Obama jaunt, the Times offers no hint that there's anything wrong with a president taking a vacation during a time of genuine crisis. Indeed, it offers this justification:
Mr. Obama, whom aides described as being amused by all of the
gloom-and-doom prognosticating over his health care agenda, did not even
consider skipping his vacation. Last year, he talked about the importance of
taking a break to avoid "making mistakes."
That makes sense--and in any case, it's not as if the president actually escapes his responsibilities when he goes on "vacation." But the Times's coverage of Obama is a useful contrast to the paper's petty partisan sniping against Bush.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Question About Health Care

Keith Gabrielsky has created a website compiling the most intelligent questions about health care.

It is a must read, and it should be mandated that every legislator vote on the health care bill only after writing the answers to these questions and signing his/her name to those responses. Obama should answer these questions with factual data and refrain from the banal generalities he has been feeding the America public.

Read Questions

Thursday, August 20, 2009

MSNBC: a Clone of Old Pravda

MSNBC, in its style of taking stories out of context and manipulating videos and pictures have reached a new low. Discussing the man that brought a gun to one of Obama's townhall meetings, the commentators went on and on discussing the racial connotation behind bringing a (legal) gun to this meeting. Pundits in this network seemed to imply that this was a right winger nut who opposed the president because of Obama's race. The video showed the protester's face blurred. The unedited photo shows why. The man carrying a gun is black.

It might come as a surprise inside the beltway and upper Manhattan, but there are blacks who are conservatives and supporters of the Constitution.


See Video

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Concept of Zadak in the Muslim Religion

The concept of Zadak, or charitable contributions is discussed in this very interesting article. As a former educator, I am familiar with the way this concept, as well as Jihad, is being taught. American textbooks go through a tremendous review process that culminates with the publication of books that are so politically correct as to serve no purpose, except as a propaganda tool.

Read Article

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Cowards in Academia

Well, a new controversy is exemplifying the spinelessness of academia and The New York Times. As reported in the newspaper of record, Yale University Press (YUP) is in the process of publishing the book The Cartoons That Shook the World. The problem is that after intensive consultation with "experts" and "diplomats" YUP decided not to include the cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and that sparked Muslim violence across the globe.

When a world class university in a country with free speech is terrified to the point of self-censorship, it is time to begin and wonder as to the future of Western civilization. Where is the testicular fortitude that universities have shown when dealing with anti-Judeo-Christian diatribes? Two excellent articles on the subject illuminate more on this controversy.


Saturday, August 15, 2009

J Street

J Street is an advocacy group that portrays itself as a pro-Israel and pro-peace organization. Anytime that I hear the term pro-peace I cringe. It sounds as if those of us who want the survival of Israel are pro-war.

In any case, in an article by Ed Lasky in The Jerusalem Post , J Street is unmasked for what it is; an extreme left wing group supported by critics of Israel, Iranian apologists and downright Israel haters. Must read for those who care for the survival of Israel.

Read Article

Friday, August 14, 2009

Great Articles!


Once again, Charles Krauthammer dissects the myths behind the democrat and Obama's talking points.

Read Article


Michael Oren, historiam and Israel's ambassador to the U.S. has great article on The Wall Street Journal. The infprmation will surprise you.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Worth Reading


Is Israel's success the real reason for leftist criticism of the Jewish state? George Gilder thinks so.

Read Article
As the health care bill is further scrutinized, another provision in the bill has come under criticism. This has to do with the awarding billions of dollars of scholarships and grants to minorities.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Will you fly away in my beautiful new plane...

If memory serves me right, in Animal Farm, after the animals outlaw the use of sheets, the pigs amend this rule to give them an exception. In the Kremlin also, party members had privileges that the common man did not have.

Following this pattern of the left, the democrat Congress is in the process of buying a fleet of planes to transport them in the style to which they think they are entitled. These are the same legislators who criticized car industry executives who came to testify in their private jets.
With deficits in the trillions, Congress wants new jets. A new low for politicians that are pretty low already. At least now we have the Internet to fight them.
The Wall Street Journal has a good article on the mounting opposition.


Saturday, August 8, 2009

Sunday Blogging

Daniel Hannan, British Representative to the European Union, discusses Obamacare.

Watch Video

Friday, August 7, 2009

Vintage Charles Krauthammer

Excellent article on health care reform. If you are not aware, Charles Krauthammer is a medical doctor.

Read Article

Why India and China don't care about climate change.

Read Article

And now for a vintage Peggy Noonan on the anti-health care demonstrations. As usual, composed, cool headed and rational, she offers advise that would really help the democrats. I am not worried. They will not listen.

Read Article

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Worth Reading

Here are some articles that I have enjoyed reading while I am vacationing. Enjoy.

It's 64 years since the dropping of the atomic bomb, and the debate continues as to the usefulness of this action.

Read Article

Mr. Clinton goes to Pyongyang. This article analyzes how the cost of saving two American journalists has been the bolstering of the dictatorship in North Korea at a time when we should be thinking of helping change these regime after Kim Jong Ill. Is Bill Clinton's trip a repeat of the failed 1994 trip by Jimmy Carter?

Read Article

Our Taxes at work. Most of the $2.4 billion in stimulus for hybrid cars will hand in foreign pockets.

Read Article

The NYT has just published this list of newspapers that have ceased printing.

The Natomas Journal (Sacramento, Calif.)
The Loudoun Easterner (Loudoun County, Va.)
Tipp City Independent Voice (Tipp City, Ohio)
The Eagle Times (Claremont, N.H.)The Message (Ludlow, Vt.)
The Connecticut Valley Spectator (Lebanon, N.H.)
Ann Arbor News (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
People’s Weekly World (Nationwide, Communist Party USA)
The Franklin Chronicle (Carabelle, Fla.)

The People's Weekly was an organ of the Communist Party and subsidized for decades by the Soviet Union. Would the NYT have listed newspapers subsidized by the other extreme if they had stopped publishing? Somehow, I doubt it.

Read Article

Monday, August 3, 2009

In the news, but not the Mainstream Media

In Sudan, a woman is facing being lashed for wearing "indecent" trousers. This an atrocity that should have awaken feminists around the world. Their protests should be deafening. But once again we can see the double standard and the ideology behind this movement. In the West we can have our lives destroyed by feminists just by having given a woman the wrong look or told the wrong joke. In the Muslim world, men can subjugate women in a way that would make Torquemada uncomfortable, and the women in the West keep quiet. It's your Muslims sister who need you most. Do something. Your silence is deafening.

Sudanese journalist facing 40 lashes
Obama and Democrats in their own words. Single payer and the takeover of healthcare.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Healthcare English Style


This article from The Telegraph, a London newspaper, realy shows that the British NHS is a pain in the back.


Saturday, August 1, 2009

From The Middle East Quarterly

One of the ways Islamists perpetuate their philosophy of hatred and misogyny throughout the Muslim world is thorough the educational system in the madrassas. Now, with the growth of Muslim students in the West, Islamists are clamoring for taxpayers financed Islamic schools and an input into curriculum development and textbook content. The Middle East Quarterly has again done research on the topic and have published an article that warns of the dangers of allowing Islamic input into public schools.