Pictures That Say So Much

Gotta love Drudge:

Brings back fond memories of great Liberal leaders like:

John Kerry!

And who could forget...

Michael Dukakis!

Then there was the picture with the hat...

But through it all, ol' goofy Jimmuh kept smiling:

OK...I'm making myself a little nauseous now.

Required Rumbler Reading

A smorgasbord of articles for some intellectual calisthenics highlight this week's edition of the "Required Rumbler Reading" column.  These will make you smarter AND better looking!


1.  The 72-Hour Expert - my favorite cynic and raconteur, P.J. O'Rourke expounds on his trip to Afghanistan.  He needs to brief the Obama folks although they wouldn't listen.

2.  Can Liberal Democracies Triumph? - about the only people that don't realize we are in a long haul with Radical Islam are folks that think Chris Matthews is a journalist.  This is an excellent take on whether we are at a fundamental disadvantage in this struggle.

3. Ten Practical Steps You Should Take Now - a quickie article on what you can do to insulate you and your family in the event of a complete collapse.  When you look at the dreary macro-economic facts, this might be one to print out and hold onto...in case you lose electricity!

4. The Failure of the Liberal Economic Model - a nice summary from the good folks at Commentary on why liberalism is a dismal failure economically... well, everywhere else too.

5. Europe Jumps Off the Keynesian Bus - a follow on to #4, Europe, which is much farther down the rabbit hole of Obamanomics, is getting the hell of the bus.  Why is it that the lefties in this country that are always telling us that we should be more like Europe are now silent about this trend?

I Want Your Money

I hope it's in 3D:

More News From the Religion of Peace

Europe is already under siege - is this what we want here?  Failure to make an immigrant population assimilate with the values of the home nation leads to bedlam and anarchy.

Job Offer

A brilliant offer from Porter Stansbury over at the Casey Report:

I'd like to make you a business offer.

Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment...

Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. It doesn't really matter what you do or what you're going to do. I'll partner with you no matter what business you're in – as long as it's legal.

But I can't give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won't give you any labor – that's definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's my role in the affair: to tell you what to do.

Now in return for my rules, I'm going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? I think so. Of course, that's half of your profits.

You're also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover my expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you're my partner. It's only "fair."

Now... after you've put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out – to finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is "fair" – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As your partner, I'm happy for you to sell whenever you'd like... because our agreement says, if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.

I know... I know... you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all of the labor. That's all true. But I've done my part, too. I've collected 50% of the profits each year. And I've always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business.

Oh... and one more thing...

Even after you've sold the business and paid all of my fees... I'd recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth.

After all, I've got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don't think it's "fair" for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur... if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public... you'll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much.

I'm sure you'll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me... but it doesn't really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules – I'll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.

That's how civil society is supposed to work, right? This is Amerika, isn't it?

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs...

Back To The Future - Iranian Style

Is it just me or does this:

look an awful lot like this?

The former is the "Karrar" drone built by the Iranians and translated into the really scary cool name: "Ambassador of Death."  Well, more properly according to Achmadinijad: "an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, [which] has a main message of peace and friendship."   The latter is the V1 "Buzz bomb" of Nazi Germany, responsible for so many pensioners in England, after World War II.

What is it about Jew-hating fascists that gets them to the same place?

Perhaps the only good news coming out of that sicko state is documented in an excellent piece by Michael Ledeen in this morning's Wall Street Journal:  "Cracks in the Iranian Monolith."  The article documents the continuing unrest and some of the lame attempts of the regime to increase control.  Well worth the read.

It never ceases to amaze me that the tighter governments try to control people, to tell them how to run their lives, the more people rebel.  Is it actually possible that we are hard-wired for freedom and personal liberty?  Don't tell that to the Democrats in Congress just yet - let them find out in November!

Three Things You Need to Know About Islam

Powerful:



Hat tip EH.

Note to Muslims...

You may have the right to do this, but it does not make it right.  And your callous ignoring of the families of 9/11 and decent sensibility says more about your "religion" than any mosque ever will.

Kite Flying

Msr. Ramirez over at Investor's Business Daily nails it:

There is not a business person, banker, sales person, developer etc. that I have spoken to in the last six months that has not expressed fear and concern over the increased regulation and taxation being generated by what Melville called the "Iron Dome."  My favorite passage from whence that is drawn (from the "Conflict of Convictions"):

Power unanointed may come-- Dominion (unsought by the free) And the Iron Dome, Stronger for stress and strain, Fling her huge shadow athwart the main; But the Founders' dream shall flee.

He wrote this watching the enormous expansion of Washington's powers during the Civil War.  He must be spinning wildly now.

Required Rumbler Reading

Well, I hope the weekend was kind to all.  Down here in Rumblerville, we're suffering through a Gorean heat spell with the indexes topping the triple digits for multiple days.  Of course the Pravda on the Cumberland had the perfunctory article claiming the Gorean Oracle was right again...ignoring the fact that we also had one of the coldest winters in history this Yule past.  The sentient among us take it in stride and follow the old USMC axiom: adjust, adapt and overcome.  For this week's installment, I thought we would take a trip east.  There's much bally-hootin going on over China's passing the Land of the Rising Sun for the #2 slot in the world's economies...so let's take a closer look.

1. China Eclipses the Rising Sun:  This piece from the Financial Times is a good, straightforward analysis of the numbers.  It points out, sadly, that one of the reason for the overtaking - aside from sheer numbers, size, demographics etc., is the anemic Japanese recovery.  What has Japan been doing for the better part of the last fifteen years to get their economy going?  Massive government stimulus.  It doesn't work their either.

2. Hollow Talk in the South China Sea:  Mark Helprin's timely piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning points out the perils for our Navy in operating so far from home.

3. CIA Factbook - China:   No better place to browse to get the straight scoop.  As Sergeant Friday would say: "Just the facts, ma'am."  For comparison purposes, click here to see the CIA's line-up of the world's economies.

4. The Pentagon's Assessment:  If you want to know what our military brains think about the emergence of a modernized PLA, here it is...well the 2009 version of it.

5. Demographic Decline:  This is a link to an article about Japan's inevitable decline - demographics being destiny - but there's a chilling section in there about China:

Dr Kwan Chi Hung, a fellow at the Nomura Institute and a top China expert, said the long-term prospects for China were "horrible".

This analysis is consistent with the work done by the boys over at Stratfor - despite all the scary numbers, planes, bombs and guns they can produce now, there is a three-part fundamental problem for China: first, the rural/urban growth patterns are not promising.  Wealth is being accumulated along the coast...the inner sections of China are still barely out of the Stone Age.  Second, the ethnic split wherein less than 30% of the population, the Han Chinese control the rest...and as the economic disparity grows, the rest is going to want some of that.  Third, the demographic reality of declining birth rates and aging population.  All of this makes for a formidable threat - a wounded animal is far more dangerous than a healthy one.  We need to be nimble in our foreign policy and continue to strengthen alliances around the perimeter.

Go Monks Go!

This is an outrage!  Where are all the do-gooders that want to preach"religious tolerance" when it comes to protecting a simple monastery from gross government intervention?  Oh sure, we'll stand up for mosques in Manhattan to show how tolerant we are...but help a simple abbey in Covington, Louisiana?  Oh no - off with their heads!!  Can't have those Christian extremists ruining the country.  Governments are running totally amok. Watch this and tell me where to look for common sense in America anymore:

Motivational Poster

Obsolescence

While I live in fear of the short memory span of the American public, Fouad Ajami's piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning captures precisely what I am hearing among my compatriots, business associates and the like: this Administration is an unparalleled disaster.  While you really should read the whole thing, here are a couple of teaser passages:

He had been a blank slate, and the devotees had projected onto him their hopes and dreams. His victory had not been the triumph of policies he had enunciated in great detail. He had never run anything in his entire life. 


You mean all the shortcomings that we horrible right wing bloggers were trying desperately to point out?


Big as Reagan's mandate was, in two elections, the man was never bigger than his country. There was never narcissism or a bloated sense of personal destiny in him. He gloried in the country, and drew sustenance from its heroic deeds and its capacity for recovery. No political class rode with him to power anxious to lay its hands on the nation's treasure, eager to supplant the forces of the market with its own economic preferences.


Ronald Reagan loved this country...Barrack Hussein Obama hates it.  Compare and contrast.

It is in the nature of charisma that it rises out of thin air, out of need and distress, and then dissipates when the magic fails. The country has had its fill with a scapegoating that knows no end from a president who had vowed to break with recriminations and partisanship. The magic of 2008 can't be recreated, and good riddance to it. Slowly, the nation has recovered its poise. There is a widespread sense of unstated embarrassment that a political majority, if only for a moment, fell for the promise of an untested redeemer—a belief alien to the temperament of this so practical and sober a nation.

The masses have awakened.  This administration calls them "racists."

Here's the story in pictures:

Why I Should Be Your Senator

This is true for both parties:

Required Rumbler Reading

This week's installment is a quick cruise around the current state of affairs.  From "Cat Scratch Fever" Ted Nugent to (I'm not worthy!) Victor Davis Hanson, this will help you get caught up...in case you've been hangin' with Bin Laden in a cave.


1. Ted Nugent Nails It!: Paraphrasing Pogo - it is us!  Our education system has produced the leftists' dream: the negligent voter.  As the Nuge points out, the results are catastrophic.

2. A Second American Revolution? : Well, some of us in the South might argue that it would be the third, but nevertheless, this is a thoughtful piece that captures a lot of the angst we are experiencing.

3. The Truths We Dare Not Speak About Immigration: Victor Davis Hanson telling it like it is on the immigration problem.

4. The Mosque and the Immigrant:  Sister blog site takes up the issue of the Ground Zero mosque and illegal immigrants.

5. A Period of Consequences:  Excellent summary of where we are.

ObamaCare Charted...YIKES!

Click on to Enlarge

Get the kids and play "Where is Waldo" with this puppy...can you find the "patients?"

Great write-up over at Investor's Business Daily.

Hey Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone!

These Iranian kids got permission from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd to bravely make this revised version.  It is cut with scenes from the attempted revolution last year that Obama so strongly supported...oh wait, that's right...he did nothing.  Soon they will have a nuke.



Hat tip Doug Casey

Sneaking in the Back

Word on the street this AM was that Democrats in Georgia were running and hiding from Obama as he rolled into Atlanta - the guy is toxic and no one wants to be seen with him.  Our agents in the field confirmed this with video of our Dear Leader sneaking in the back of the Disabled American Veterans Convention:

The decoy motorcade arrives in the front after Obama is safely underground.  When the President is afraid of his people, we have reached a turning point.  The numbers don't lie:

Hat tip JG.

Damn the Constitution: ‘The Federal Government Can Do Most Anything in This Country’

Breitbart.tv » Congressman at Town Hall: ‘The Federal Government Can Do Most Anything in This Country’

Pete Stark is another one of those Liberal Congressmen that is a gift that keeps on giving.  Here he openly admits that, in his mind, there is nothing the Federal Government can do that we the people can prevent them from doing.

This is the kind of sick thinking pervasive in Washington that begets such atrocities as the Healthcare "Reform" bill and the Financial "Reform" bill.  Suggested new bumper sticker: "Repeal it All, Get Back to the Constitution."