lil' blog

Government plans massive Citigroup rescue effort
Just pray that it doesn't involve Jimmy Carter and helicopters.

Teen lives 4 months with no heart, leaves hospital
I know one that functions daily without a brain.

Socialism Defined

"Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism. Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you that I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive. This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man."
--George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams

Arrr!

2nd Mass. politician charged with taking bribe
NicFitz's Headline Tip of the Day: If they don't blare
the word Republican in the headline, it was a Democrat.

Kenya: Somali pirates make $150M in a year
Yeah, but what do they net after the Obama tax?

President-elect Obama's Cell Phone Record Hacked
Farrakhan, Farrakhan, Clinton, Papa John's, Farrakhan....

Divorce Decree for Madonna, Guy Ritchie
He hearbyeth leaveth with Exhibit A: Balls in Jar.

Shipping Route Changes Because of Pirates
"Arrrr, but me tracking number said delivery by Wednesday."

Shipping Route Changes Because of Pirates
Automated Tracking: Press 1. Arrrr!
Balance Inquiry: Press 2. Arrrr!
Customer Support: Press 0. Arrrrrrrr!

Australia outback mayor wins annual sexist award
That's just because she has nice tits.

Obese have right to two airline seats
Do they also get two servings at a restaurant?

Obese have right to two airline seats
Can they drive alone in the Carpool lane?

Obese have right to two airline seats
If they have a split personality, do they get the whole row?

Americans still giving, despite economic meltdown
...but are they paying back their V.O.L's?*

Islamists say they'll fight Somali pirates
This is the best argument for Pay-Per-View EVER!

European library site crashes hours after launch
Bush never gave us a levitating library, but Obama will.

No sign of arson in Ky. fire that killed 27 horses
I didn't even know the stuff was flammable.

Guards: Crowded Calif. prisons neglect ill inmates
Maybe their time is better spent caring for the illegal immigrants.

Who's in the running for Obama administration jobs
Farrakhan, Clinton, Clinton, Sharpton, Clinton....



*Vince Oriented Loans

Dear Mr. President, I am not crazy.

http://www.timesobserver.com/page/content.detail/id/508873.html?nav=5004

Dear editor:

Stimulus plan that works.

I've read in the Jamestown Post Journal how two people wrote about a plan that would bail out the economy, and their plan is good but not right. One wrote, take 87 Billion dollars and divide it with 200 million people 18 years and older. Each would get $425,000.00 but really each would get $425.00. Another wrote, take the $784,000,000,000.00 used to bail out the insurance companies and banksthat were in trouble, divide that money with the 200 milliom people, that each would get about $3,900.00. This is good, but it would not stimulate the economy much.
Now I've never gone to coolage and I'm not good with math but I do know that $784,000,000,000.00 is a great deal more than 200,000,000. Why can't the government take $100,000,000.00 and divide this among the 200 million people that filed a tax return like the last stimulus package, each woud receive $500,000.00. Now this not tax free, you would have to pay taxes on this money, what ever the tax percentage would be. The one person figured about 30%. So 30% of $500,000.00 each person would end up with $350,000.00, this would fix a lot of problems.
People would be able to pay off the mortgage on their home, student would be able to pay for collage, people would be able to put money in the banks, so the banks would have money to lend. People would be able to buy things, so jobs would call people back to work to make the products for the consumer. Job problem solved.
As I said, I'm no wizard, but with a plan like this, the national debt would not have to be as big as it is. The taxes each person pays for this money could go towards paying off the national debt and a lot of problems would be solved. So why can't the government see this and figure it out. If someone has and anwser to this, I would like to know.

Robert Frederick

Warren, PA

Don't worry Cooter, he don't bite in the hurtin' way.

Scientists say Copernicus' remains found
They were revolving around the Sun.

Suit forces eHarmony to offer gay dating service
It's lavender mohair and looks absolutely FABULOUS!

Mich. worries automaker meltdown could doom state
well, that and the corrupt politicians stuff.

Herod may have been buried among lavish artwork
His remains look like a Jackson Pollack.

Invasive mussel confirmed in Utah's Electric Lake
Shockingly delicious.

Scientists find new penguin, extinct for 500 years
Evolution marches on!

China's Baidu.com fights to rescue reputation
a good first step would be to stop saying 'Lescue Leputation.'

Surgeon who did first US heart transplant dies
I knew they were dangerous, but I had no idea how much!

Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells
If I were the patient, I would demand a new windpipe or my money back.

Ginkgo fails to prevent Alzheimer's in large study
I wonder how they proved....um, what were we talking about?

Ben Affleck visits refugee camps in eastern Congo
and it's there he should stay.

Manual issued to stop forced marriages
Pg. 1) Don't say "I do" unless you want to.

Farmer avoids jail in fake tiger photo trial

GLBlog

Prince Charles turns 60 waiting for throne
I hope he's wearing brown pants.

Gay activists rally outside Mormon temple in NYC
If they had balls, they'd start bashing Muslims.

More countries make spreading HIV a crime
"Officer, there are a bunch of felons hanging out by the Mormon temple."

California starring in massive earthquake drill
Call Tommy Lee Jones. I have a movie to pitch!

Study: Same-sex heart transplants are better
...AND THUPER ROMANTIC TOO!

I'M not crazy, it's YOU who is crazy!

Obama's health plan to cost $75 billion, analyst says
...to implement, but how much to maintain?

Court rules for Navy in dispute over sonar, whales
Sonar is cool, but it won't feed the Eskimos.

Paranoia on the rise, experts say
especially for experts who smoke weed.

Gov't nixes forest experiments; scientists upset
Upset? Or maybe they're just paranoid.

Brisk walk can curb chocolate cravings
Conversely, chocolate squashes the desire to walk.

Catholic bishops will fight Obama on abortion
Ooh, I hope it's on Pay-Per-View!

2,000-year-old gold earring found in Jerusalem
It's always in the last place you'd look.

Fat kids found to have arteries of 45-year-olds
Well for God's sake, I hope they don't eat them!

Study: Deadly stomach bug more common than thought
Well, at least the brain-dead are safe.

British girl allowed to refuse heart transplant
I bet she opted for the dentistry package.

Economics: Obama Style!

Obama steering clear of global economic summit
That's the kind of 'Can-Do' attitude we've been looking for!

Global Terror Map

Based upon a recent reading of the Worldwide Orgasm Meter, all of those little blinky lights will stop as soon as Obama ascends the throne. http://www .globalincidentmap.com/map.php

Veterans Day

Circuit City files for bankruptcy protection
For the sake of TiVo, the U.S. must bail them out!

Nurse in Times Square war photo reunites with Navy
It's a miracle she can walk!

9-year-old boy caught driving to grandma's house
into the river and through the woods..


Today's Highlight in History:
On Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. OO RAH!

Why I'll Miss President Bush

By JIM TOWEY

President Bush will soon be heading home and for many that day cannot come soon enough. Count me among those who will miss him and his bedrock decency.

He had a rough road from day one. His first inauguration struck me as a portent. I was there, shivering in the grandstands on Pennsylvania Avenue. At the exact moment the president heard "Hail to the Chief" for the first time and was announced to the audience, a sleet storm descended from the skies.

It has never let up.

Through it all Mr. Bush kept his head up and soldiered on. He took the criticism in stride. I remember riding with him in his presidential limousine to the Washington Hilton for a speech. A woman standing at an intersection directed an obscene gesture at him that I had hoped he missed. The president waved to her and with a bemused look said to me, "Did you see what she did?"

Many other Americans, particularly the "values voters" who helped elect him twice, will miss him because of what he achieved: Samuel Alito and John Roberts on the Supreme Court, children in schools that now are better because they are accountable, African women who now have medicines for their HIV-infected babies, and religious charities that are finally being treated by government as partners instead of rivals.

I remember coming to the West Wing one morning before the daily 7:30 senior staff meeting and seeing Mr. Bush at his desk in the Oval Office, reading a daily devotional. I remember the look of sorrow on his face as he signed letters to the families of the fallen. When he met with recovering addicts whose lives were transformed by a faith-based program, he spoke plainly of his own humiliating journey years ago with alcohol. When a Liberian refugee broke into tears after recounting her escape to freedom in America, the president went over and held and comforted her.

Little acts behind the curtain like these inspired intense loyalty by staff members. They spoke of someone never too busy or burdened to care -- like when he took time on Air Force One to call my wife when she was sick. The president's true character rendered his media image pure caricature.

Mother Teresa was asked at the end of her life whether she was discouraged because after decades of caring for the dying and destitute in Calcutta little seemed to have changed. She replied, "No. God doesn't call me to be successful. God calls me to be faithful."

History will decide whether George W. Bush was a successful President. But he was faithful. He had a charge to keep and he kept it.

Mr. Towey was director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives from 2002-2006. He is president of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.

Nostradomus tried to warn us...

The alien robots will steal the gnomes first.

I blog therefore I am

Illinois hopes 'Obama buzz' will boost tourism
Moline: The Gateway to Peoria!

50 years later, climbers celebrate scaling El Cap
The old coots will have to come down eventually.

Thieves caught with 12 pigs in car
Correction: Horny Thieves caught with 12 pigs in car.

The Do-It-Yourself Tax Hike

Obama doesn't need the presidency to raise his own taxes.

By STEPHEN MOORE

On multiple occasions, Barack Obama has declared that it is fair and even virtuous for "people who have done well like me" to pay higher income taxes. Then why didn't he?

My colleague Kim Strassel has reported on a voluntary federal fund for liberals who want to contribute more taxes than they owe -- but, alas, almost none do. The annual collections are less than 0.1% of all tax collections. As Ryan Ellis of the American Shareholders Association asks: "What's the difference between Obama and the big corporations who 'cheat' the government by taking advantage of what the tax code affords them?"

Mr. Ellis's group has reviewed Mr. Obama's tax returns for the past eight years. The Illinois Senator has dutifully paid his taxes in full. But in no year did Mr. Obama make extra tax payments to help reduce the deficit or fund all the spending programs he favors. If Mr. Obama's tax plan had been in place over the past 12 years, he would have had to pay $250,727 more in federal taxes over this period.

In the end Mr. Obama's income tax hikes aren't likely to raise as much revenues as he expects because "rich fat cats" -- as they did after Bill Clinton's tax hikes -- will arrange their affairs to realize and report less taxable income. Famous was Hillary Clinton's accelerated final bonus from the Rose Law Firm, which allowed her to keep more money than under her husband's pending tax plan. Studies indicate "rich" Americans were able to cut their extra payments by as much as 40% simply by timing their income to avoid the Clinton tax premium. Expect more of the same in 2009. Rich liberals may be fanatical about wanting to redistribute the wealth -- but yours, not theirs.

To read more stories like this one, please subscribe to Political Diary.

The Cool Table

Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again
If we want to be really cool, we should make America more exclusive. Give it the 'club' treatment. Set up some security ropes, guard the door...entry allowed by invitation only. Now that would be cool.

Gay couples disappointed by Calif. marriage ban
Fret not gayfolk. The courts will invalidate the vox populi shortly.

Stock prices open lower as economic woes mount
It's not G.W.s fault anymore!

Pope meets with Muslim scholars, urges better ties
um, Mr. Pope, Muslims call those nooses.

Mass. scrambling to adapt to marijuana initiative
but first they need to find that righteous Taco Bell coupon!

Prepare for a bumpy ride.

Voter turnout reaches the highest level in generations
It helps that dead people were invited to join in.

White House photographer who took LBJ's swearing-in photo dies
...and the Curse of the White House Photographers continues.

Pooh sketch makes $50,000
It's called "That's funny, I don't remember eating peanuts".

Kittens Fight Back!

T-minus...

World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'
America hopes for 'less whiny World'.

Earliest known shaman grave site found: study
Call Craig T. Nelson; I have a movie to pitch!

Obama casts ballot with wife and daughters
ACORN says his daughter are eligible to vote.

VOTE!

T-Minus 24

Tasmanian devils could be gone in 20 years, experts say
RRRAGHMAFGJKHGJPFTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!

World closely watching US presidential elections
Oh,I hope the world likes us now. I so want to sit at the COOL table!

Controversial ex-Chicago alderman pleads guilty
Oh, did we forget to mention he's a Democrat?

Study: War deployments make kids more aggressive
Study: Abortions make kids less.

Hungry Congo refugees get soap, no food
Wash up before dinner...PSYCHE!

Even a little caffeine may harm fetus, study finds
"I'd like a Soy Lattebortion please."