Fapo

"Oh your being silly, how much can a little fly eat?"

Airline travel is just not the way it used to be.

Perhaps it should include an earmark for building bullet proof court houses.

Understatement of the day...

"Mel Gibson has problems."

Betsy Newmark cites three possibilities (originally floated by Paul Rubin):

The President and his advisors are simply incompetent, or they prioritized labor groups over the environment (i.e. not overriding the Jones Act), or they wanted to exploit the crisis to push cap and trade.

Betsy may not be cynical enough to believe reason three, but I am. And I could add a fourth reason. For the past year Sarah Palin has been the most vocal and powerful political adversary. It's hard to imagine in the early days of the spill, Rahm Emanuel not making a case to the President that this fiasco would neutralize Palin, where "Drill Baby, Drill" morphs into "Spill, Baby Spill", This could have been compounded if the administration was amateur enough not to have foreseen that the long term political consequences would boomerang back to the Oval Office.

After all none of the conjectures above are mutually exclusive, so frankly they could all be in play.

Party tonight on the Esplanade.

Over at the Ace of Spades, Monty put up a historical post talking about the Battle of Gettysburg, which ended on July 3rd (the same day that Grant won at Vicksburg). Inevitably Southern revisionists get to the fray and offer their own interpretation of "The War".

I couldn't resist adding my two cents:

My roots are deeply Southern. My great-great grandfather was a rabid secessionist preacher from Charleston who went to England during the Civil War to lobby the court of Queen Victoria to support the South. Other parts of my family come from Virginia and Prince William county where the battles of Manassas were fought. I was raised honoring Robert E. Lee and the courage of Southerner's fighting against overwhelming odds. I still marvel and respect the courage and military leadership of the South regardless of how misplaced it was. While going to school at UVA, I would listen ad nauseum to revisionist history taught to friends raised in public Virginia schools about how the Civil War was provoked for purely economic reasons.

However I also am a father of an adopted black girl. Ask me if somehow this was 1860, would I permit my daughter to live a life as a slave because it was an institution that was on its way out, and would eventually be abolished in one or two generations?

Ask me if I would permit it for one day?

The simple answer is no. I'd pick up a gun and probably shoot first, and ask questions later.

The Civil War was provoked by a moral issue. A profoundly moral one. It required me to be a father before I truly understood it.

Thankfully there were abolishionists who understood this independent of their personal circumstances and were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to end this evil institution.

When complexity of systems prevent timely analysis, the system needs to be overhauled.

CATO on the current political landscape.

Funemployment at Ocean Beach, California one year later.

Intergalactic obsequiousness.

Our republic is in dire straights and Republicans come up with this...

Californians often boast about how their state sets trends for the nation. Perhaps, that that is not always a good thing.

I think the underlying premise of "Full Metal Jacket" needs to be revisited.

There was always something off putting about the relationship between Wilbur and Mr. Ed.

Police arrest a man with some serious problems expressing his displeasure with authority.

Christopher Hitchens has cancer of the esophagus and is fighting for his life. I am a person of faith, and I deeply admire this man, as do so many others. But it raises an interesting dilemma as to whether or not it is appropriate to pray for someone who is a militant atheist.

Much of the debate centers around the conflict between personal belief in prayer versus respect for someone else's deeply held convictions.

Terrance Malick has achieved the same stature as Stanley Kubrick because of his willingness to put years into making films whose themes are always larger than life and that challenge conventional story telling. And, like Kubrick, his films drive studios mad with schedule slips and cost overruns. His latest endeavor is film is due out in early September, and has been the focus of intense speculation due to the secrecy about the story line. The film somehow integrates the themes of evolution to the life to that of a middle American family in the 1950's. It actually includes film sequences of dinosaurs.

It sounds like a stretch to me, and could backfire for being too abstract or pretentious. But I'm a fan of Malick and hope he pulls this one off.

Apparently corporate elites have come to the astonishing conclusion that Obama is hostile to big business.

Business executives dislike the uncertainty created by health-care reform and financial regulation, and the political stalemate over climate change and immigration. They hear the demonizing rhetoric directed at the health insurance industry, Wall Street and oil companies. They see a wave of new regulation heading their way after years of writing their own rules. They know that balancing the budget will almost certainly mean higher taxes.

The Washington Post misses a bigger point. The big bogey man in this recession is the lack of job growth, which only comes from small and medium businesses who have something new and innovative to bring to market. It doesn't come from government or blue chip behemoths like Microsoft and GE which have seen their days of rapid growth. For big business growth is only a fading image in the rear view mirror.

The issues of uncertainty cited by big business becomes compounded for small businesses where the risk falls one one or a few individuals. Small business are started on private capital and, optionally, a loan from a bank.

Who in their right mind would mortgage their house to start up a small business today with consumer demand stagnant and the government poised to foist additional taxes and regulatory burdens? The uncertainty of future consumer demand and operating costs is enough to drive even the the most ambitious entrepreneur to bury his savings in a coffee can in the back yard and wait for the dust to settle.

That's the root cause of our current jobless recovery.

David Horowitz offers a great critique of Christopher Hitchens, starting with the following preface:

I had just finished this essay when I heard the terrible news that my friend Christopher had a cancer whose prognosis was dire. My heart and thoughts go out to him, as they would to a brother. I have known Christopher as a man of great courage and decency and have an affection for him that is not adequately expressed in the intellectual argument that follows. It is indeed an intellectual argument, and Christopher, I am sure, will welcome it as a testament to the way in which he has challenged us all — just as I am sure that he will continue to do so.

Horowitz's transition from a radical leftest to a conservative involved discovering how "expansive" the conservative movement was when valuing differences of opinion. In Horowitz's case, he cited William Safire's condemnation of Oliver North during the "IranGate" controversy as a big turning point in his political reorientation. He continues the tradition with a frank evaluation of Hitchens and his politics.

Real Clear Politics is a balanced news portal which features opinion pieces all over the political spectrum. So when someone on the left or the right opines, you get a wide range of comments reflecting the diversity of the readership.

Not so for E.J. Dionne's predictable piece about racists and the Tea Party. It's not his column that is noteworthy, it is the quality and universality of critical reader's comments.

With U.S. monetary printing presses working overtime and three trillion dollars sitting on the side lines, perhaps it's worth understanding why German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuked Obama's call for more fiscal spending.

John Hinderaker of Powerline writes about the collapse of faith by Americans that the Federal government reflects Jeffersonian principles.

I think the more significant cause, however, is the general one--a growing conviction that America is governed by a political class that has its own agenda, involving its own enrichment as well as the endless expansion of its own power, and that this political class is contemptuous of the opinions of ordinary Americans and is determined to impose its will regardless of how Americans vote. I think this perception is in fact true.

Folks at the American Spectator agree.

So where are they now?

Shortly after the 2008 election a website called "52to48withLove was created where the "Hope and Change" crowd could upload their photos pleading for national unity.

After eight years of abuse, a lot of people thought this gesture was hollow, and smacked of insincerity.

The best retort was from reader of Tim Blair's blog by a woman in Perth, Austrailia.

That website made me want to puke. Those head-tilts are now not of compassion but condescension. As if the left has anything to teach anyone about graciousness or moderation in attitude or behaviour.

Of course conservatives will “get along” and make nice - it’s why they knew they could get away with all the atrocious things they’ve said and done the past 8 years. Did anyone hear GWB whining about all the stuff that’s been said and written about him? Has he blackballed a network for asking “tough” questions? Has he querulously queried a news anchor about being a shill for the opposing side?

Do you know why conservatives generally have the capacity for graciousness in victory and defeat? Because, as a rule, conservatives are happy with who they are. There’s no cognitive dissonance going on, because we live what we believe - we like free markets, so we consume; we actually care for our less fortunate neighbours, so we give generously (of our OWN money that we earn) and we buy their stuff so they can gain wealth; we don’t believe the economy works by taking from one and giving to the other (as though a dollar for you means a dollar less for me), so we work hard, pay our taxes grudgingly and rejoice at the success of others while working to secure our own; we don’t believe in AGW, so we don’t agonise over the recycling or flying or driving anywhere. It’s bliss.

If you’re a lefty in a western capitalist democracy, this is impossible because you are living off the wealth created by a system you think you despise. You are inherently angry and bitter all the time, because your life can’t measure up to your impossible ideals, and you are naturally self-absorbed and self-centered because of this anger and bitterness. It’s all consuming.

Of course, I’m generalising. I’m sure some of the head-tilties pictured were appalled at the treatment of the conservatives at the hands of the minority (but vocal) radicalised elements of their pseudo-religion, and in the last 8 years raised their voices again and again in protest at such unprovoked and vicious assaults on the character and person of their political opponents, all the while gently counselling their wayward brethren to focus on critiquing ideas, and having genuine debates rather than resorting to name-calling.

And I know, some conservative once called you a name so we are just as bad. Boo hoo. Go cry in your victory herbal tea, winner, and try to figure out just how to run something and lead something for once, instead of making dopey-hopey-changey noises and singing “How many times must a man blah blah” while wearing your “Abort Sarah Palin” button on your “Sarah Palin is a C***” t-shirt while waving your “GWB is not my President” banner and throwing a molotov cocktail at the McDonald’s on the corner. Oh, and did I forget to mention the “No War for Oil” hat on your head?

This makes me sound unhappy doesn’t it? But the above is what the left actually DID. It’s so bitter, angry, twisted and unhinged that merely stating the fact makes me sound bitter, angry, twisted and unhinged. So sad. (head tilt) But I weally, weally wuv you guys and want to make it work so your heads don’t explode. M’kay?(/head tilt)

So where are they now? Perhaps behind their Prius, doing a little cosmetic maintenance.

Wow. Elites in Washington D.C. seem to be out of sync with mainstream America.

I'm getting perverse pleasure in the morning when I browse the Daily Caller to see what new hideous revelation Tucker Carlson publishes about beltway journalists who for too long have masked their biases under the pretense that they were professional and objective. The lefty minions working for NPR, Newsweak, and the Washington Post are slowly and deservedly swinging in the wind.

The JournaList scandal is the death knell of these organizations. From this point on they will be seen for what they are: biased rags that belong in the same aisle as "The Nation" and "Mother Jones".

The National Enquirer has more street creds.

Today's howler involves comments about Keith Olbermann, for whom even many lefties find pompous and reeking of misogyny. However at the end of the day, you get this kind of sentiment.

"Even if all Olbermann and Maddow are doing is mirroring Hannity and O’Reilly from the other side (which is utterly preposterous, by the way), that’s a far better situation than before they came along. It’s empowering to hear that your views are legitimate, that they are part of the national conversation."

So MSNBC's bias is "empowering" and "legitimate", but the mirror network, Fox,needs to be shut down.

This coming from First Amendment stalwarts.

Democrats and their love of identity politics are destroying our ability to become post-racial.

Every once in a while you realize that not every elected official in Washington D.C. is contemptible. Paul Ryan, an economics policy wonk and Congressman from Wisconsin has been working hard coming up with a formula for restructuring our debt

He has been floated as a potential presidential candidate in 2012 but convincingly rules it out. Why? He lost his father when he was young and realizes his kids need him. So often this is disingenuous pap, but with Ryan it rings true. Frankly in this polarized environment his role in the House might be better suited for making the case quietly to his colleagues.

Here he is educating the great unwashed (i.e. Chris Matthews) on some basics about his plan and the downside of repealing the tax cuts:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This kind of begs the question, how come Matthews with his thirty plus years of doing reporting doesn't understand that seventy five percent of the tax cuts protect small businesses which are taxed as personal income?

That's the running joke today in Boston...

While Senator Kerry is having the vapors about being confronted with his hypocrisy in evading the Massachusetts sales tax, look who is having a hissy fit about showing required identification to purchase a paltry senior citizen discount.

How bad are things in our economy? What do you get when the Federal government takes majority stock of General Motors?

Let's just say it isn't pretty...

Just imagine what health care will be like:

Courtesy of Iowahawk.