Today's Recommended Reading II

Representative Ron Paul (R. TX) writes today about how the nanny state cannot survive.

Today's Recommended Reading

S.E. Cupp's blog on the myth of youth rebellion on college campuses. I swear this woman can read my mind.

Why Does This Not Surprise Me?

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) (45, IQ) spoke at Tufts University, opining that "elections shouldn't matter as much as they do". Considering the plethora of publicly unpopular measures forced through Congress under her 6 years as Speaker, I think her opinion of the will of the people has always been pretty clear. Now if only her constituents weren't such rabid liberals as to think, hmmmm...maybe we should shoot for someone else.

Where Once They Burned Books, Soon They Would Burn People

In Berlin there is a central square with a window in the middle of the ground staring down into a library painted white with no books on the shelves to commemorate the burning of books in that same place during WWII. It was a scene featured in the third Indiana Jones movie and trust me, looking down into that empty space is something that will bring you to tears. So what have we learned since then? Apparently nothing.

We believe in shutting voices down rather than disagreeing. What do you do if you disagree with Glenn Beck? Boycott. FOX News? Media Matters declares war on them claiming they will sabotage the network. Strangely, I can prove MSNBC anchors have lied and yet no one seems to care. I'd give a liberal example but I can't think of any liberal who had enough ratings to survive the lack of audience to get to the point of protest.

If we allow this, we will die quietly in a corner, shoved into a history book as something of little consequence like the millions that have died at the hand of communists but are written off. 50 million Chinese but they have a great economy. 20 milllion Russians, but Putin looked like a good guy to Bush.

Shut up and die and the world will never know you were here.

If I Posted This on Facebook I Would Be Hated

Several of my more liberal friends have posted some nonsense on Facebook about one year of NPR funding being the equivalent of 42.7 minutes of funding for the Iraq war. Something that, as most liberal ideas are, is unreasearched crap that showed up on some asshole's Twitter account. I can't imagine how anyone would know given that the Democrats refused to pass a budget in the first place. Let me cover the research for people who don't care to look up facts. NPR received approximately $5 million in federal funding last year. A pitance really. It's also only about 3% of the NPR operating budget of $145.5 million in budgeted revenues (this is according to an NPR source as reported by the AP if you can't bother checking the link).

The best I could find on Iraq war funding for 2010 is a reference to $50 billion, so we'll have to run with that (supposedly it's according to the New York Times, so...salt, lime, grimace). So, $5 million is to $50 billion .0001 %. So what's .0001% of a year? There are 525,600 minutes in a year. So, it appears closer to 52.5 minutes. Now I may be nitpicking, but there it is.

A few points:

1) Way to compare apples and dark matter;

2) If NPR is so damned cheap, why do I have to pay for you to use it? Shouldn't you be able to take care of that?;

3) NPR doesn't need the damned funding;

4) I own several CDs of "A Prarie Home Companion" and the government didn't buy them for me, nor did I expect it to;

5) I can at least make an argument that Iraq is within the constitutional powers of the government (though I believe the war to be unconstitutional) how bout NPR? Is it just me or would our founders find it disturbing that NPR gives one-sided editorial viewpoints (even if they were balanced, it's a problem) on government while taking government money to do so;

6) Just because you enjoy NPR is not reason enough to make it a government funded activity. If that were sufficient justification, we'd be running a deficit on teenagers masturbating that would have broken the government in the 1920s;

7) I'd gladly stop the war for an hour to make it an even cut;

8) I love that liberals expect me to be forced to give up the products of my labor so they can have easy access to entertainment and that it is the proper role of government to make me do so.

The idea posted misses the point of the debate entirely. NPR shouldn't be funded because the federal government doesn't have the power to do so. In that same vein, we should not be in Iraq without a Congressional declaration of war, or anywhere else for that matter.

This government will continue to spiral into debt and be a burden on the men and women of this country as long as we believe that we are entitled to some benefits from it or that it exists to nursemaid us. If you have a problem with defunding NPR, shut up and send a donation.

Come to think of it, I may post this on Facebook.

Dear Lindsey, Please Resign or Just Become a Democrat

Senator Lindsey Graham (RINO, SC) is truly the worst kind of Republican. He showed that once again spouting off this moronic quote: "Freedom of speech is a great idea but we're in a war." Senator Graham, who just by saying that violated his oath of office, is apparently no student of history, and is unaware that the Alien and Sedition Acts passed during WWI were subsequently ruled unconstitutional, i.e., being in a war is not sufficient reason to limit free speech. Second, freedom of speech is more than an idea in the United States, it's what we commonly call an Amendment to our Constitution. In fact, if memory serves, it's the First.

Now Senator Graham was commenting on the recent buring of the Quran by a moron preacher with almost no following in Florida who does this solely for the publicity and promises to put Mohammed on trial next. I don't want to be in a courtroom with a corpse that old. What he has done supposedly has ignited widespread violence and murders in the Middle East (because its so rare that you hear about that sort of thing in the news). I personally find what he did disgusting, but it's somewhat more telling that the radical Islamic morons are so willing to make his point for him. In this country we die so that people may speak freely. We don't kill them for doing so.

You listening Lindsey? In truth, how different is this from "The Satanic Verses". Salmon Rushdie has been in hiding ever since. By the way, look at the list of victims and tell me which one had anything at all to do with the burning of the book. If you can't speak for fear of reprisal then the person trying to threaten all speech has won.

Dear Yous, We da Mob, Would Like to Protect Yous From Us, For a Small Fee

If you've ever watched a TV series about mafia or a movie rotating around the criminal families, you've probably seen the "protection" scheme, where the mobsters collect protection money from local businessmen to not be harassed by the mob. You may have also noted that there are often storylines revolving around the mob involvement in union activities. Well, no more. Now the Union IS the mob, and unabashedly so.

Wisconsin unions have sent a "friendly" letter to their neighborhood businesses expressing their "disappointment" that they didn't post signs the unions gave them to support the union. In fact, the unions are so disappointed, they're threatening to boycott the stores. However, if the owner reconsiders their stance, they might get some business instead of a public boycott.

I love it when I hear liberals on talk shows express their disappointment at people demonizing unions by calling them thugs. Guess what, they are thugs. I'm only surprised that they have the gall to put their shakedown tactics in a letter for all to see. That and that it wasn't signed "Vinny".