Ball Diamond Ball

Here’s the graphic.  I’m going to bed. 

Correction: This activity is not confined to the plate boundary, but is in a region from the boundary to the coast.  Close enough for government work.

Professor Paul Rahe has opened an artillery barrage on candidate Romney.  Expect this to echo off the hills for a good long time.

Romney is a managerial progressive on the model of Herbert Hoover, Thomas E. Dewey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, George W. H. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and John McCain. He is what Dewey called “a New-Deal Republican.” He was a consistent supporter of programs like Obamacare until this election campaign, and the minute he thinks that he can get away with it, he will once again show his true colors. We may find in the Fall that we have to vote for him because the other alternative is far, far worse (which it undoubtedly is), but we should not kid ourselves about … Continue reading →

One of the fundamental difficulties with conservatism is that it is by nature a defensive position.  Each new attack is clothed in a new and flashy style, guaranteed to amass large numbers of those least likely to be bothered by logical inconsistencies, and who have heard all of our arguments before.  After all, when we defend a position, any defense based upon the soundness, consistency, and moral desirability of our position will not change from one attack to the next.

The key to this is to defend fixed position by breaking up attacks before they get close enough.  This was Breitbart’s specialty.  He recognized the significance of the fact that the media is on the other side.  One implication is to stop trying to convince our enemies that … Continue reading →

If the word “slut” has any meaning, it certainly includes a woman who publicly proclaims that she cannot afford the amount of contraception she uses. The “prostitute” part comes in when she then attempts to arrange for that payment to be made by others, whether involved or not.

Nobody on the right made this an issue, and nobody on the right even thought that statements like those made by this woman had any place in a hearing on the separation of powers. Which is what it was, until Pelosi blew it up with this circus stunt to deflect attention from the President’s tyrannic power grab.  To be clear, Ms. Fluke’s remarks were staged, a scripted appearance with a handful of Democrats and filmed by a compliant media to … Continue reading →

Obama to Iran and Israel: ‘As President of the United States, I Don’t Bluff’

via Obama to Iran and Israel: 'As President of the United States, I Don't Bluff' – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic.

Of course you don’t.

Bluffing requires competence, whereas this President is barely qualified to read the diktats handed to him by his Politburo.

Briefly, I’ll note that the Obama Presidency is the best thing to happen for China since, well, the Clinton Presidency.
Under President Obama:

• Pakistan has accepted Chinese promises of protection against America while we have bases in Pakistan.
• Brazil has rejected a paid-for “agreement” to develop oil resources off the coast of South America–they let the new leases to China.
• Canada (fricking Canada!) has announced that they will build a mountain pipeline to get oil to Chinese ships in British Columbia because America will not build a pipeline over flat ground to the world’s foremost cluster of refineries.

This compares favorably (if you’re Chinese) to the Clinton administration’s mere missile guidance technology transfer to the Reds.

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The CIO is the guy who can say “Screw this–next year we’re moving to (from) Macintosh .”

If that’s outside of your power, you’re not the CIO.

CNN has suspended Roland Martin in a move that I hope blows up in their pinched, disapproving faces, the shrews.  I’m quoting more than I normally would because I think that the actual “offensive” tweets are being under-reported in order to menace his image with reports of awful things, without the facts.

“Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive,” CNN said in a statement. “Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.”

Those comments, published on his personal Twitter feed, concerned a two Super Bowl ads, including an H&M spot showcasing a new David Beckham underwear line.

… Continue reading →

Just looking into my crystal ball here.  Sooner or later, the Marxists of the Obama administration are going to have to address the “Death Panel” aspect of ObamaCare.  We already see the body of the beast, in the 15-member Independent Panel Advisory Board (IPAB), which is supposed to rule on which medications and treatments are cost-effective for various patient conditions.  Unseen so far is the spirit, the animating argument that the IPAB will have to make in order to push granny off the wagon.

As they are shoehorning their baby-killing habit into every nook and cranny of our society under the rubric of “fairness”, I predict that the much-discussed “end of life counseling” talking point will morph into a supposedly grass-roots “death with dignity”, Kevorkian style of argument.

… Continue reading →

I’ve said for a while that the GOP has been at war with the Tea Party, and that we have few options as a result.  Here’s my update:

The GOP is using Romney and Paul to permanently defeat the Tea Party.  The Romney campaign and the Paul campaign have apparently reached an accommodation which gains Paul and his kooks a seat at the convention, and which all but guarantees a primary win for Romney.  Santorum’s continuing candidacy is icing on the cake, but I am confident he is not part of this deal.

The real threat of this is that the Paul deal is a long-term weapon.  By perpetuating … Continue reading →