They truly are on another planet

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Phil Kadath

If you’re a Democrat, we’ve lost in Iraq and it’s getting worse, US health care is the worst in the world and there is nothing to worry about with Social Security.

No, we bloggers don’t like the Republican “crisis” framing, but we also hate the idea that Republicans often get to set the terms of debate in American politics. By casting his use of Republican language as a demonstration of independence from Republican language, Obama is demonstrating that he’s really one of us even when he’s supporting a policy we don’t like. I’m impressed — even if I hope he doesn’t make a habit of this.

But I’ll add one thing. I’m on record (several hundred times, probably) saying that Social Security is basically fine and that the best thing we can do is just leave it alone and then revisit it in a decade or so.

I’m sorry, Mr. Drum, and I realize that you are one of the more respected Dem/Liberal/”Progressive” bloggers out there, but when you have nearly 1/3 (78 million) or so of the American populace getting ready to leave the workforce to draw on a government run pension/Ponzi scheme while another 100 million or so have to work to keep the coffers of the pension/Ponzi scheme full so the checks don’t bounce, I’d call that a problem of grand magnatude.

Not liking privatization is one thing. Denying there is a problem so that people will stop with their talk of privatization is suicidal and should be damn near criminal.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | Leave a comment

Why we must absolutely not let the eco-socialists win

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Phil Kadath

This will be in a town near you if they do

Today is Li Xiulan’s favorite day of the year — it’s even better than her birthday.

It’s the day they turn the heat on.

Winter weather has already arrived here, with temperatures dropping into the high 30s on some nights. But Li’s home in the 500-unit Flower Garden Apartments in a northern suburb of the capital has provided scant refuge from the growing chill.

Instead, Li and an estimated 200 million of China’s poor have been forced to shiver as they mark off the days until Nov. 15 arrives. That’s when municipal managers switch on boilers, radiators and immersion heaters, firing up central heating systems that are a throwback to the Communist-planned economy of the 1960s.

Just think of them getting control of the flow of CNG or the propane to your home, including truck deliveries, so that your home’s “Carbon Footprint” can be brought under “control”.

Got a fireplace, go ahead, try and use it. Every major city has a “burn ban” plan for when the winds don’t blow the smog out hard enough. The cops fly around with their thermals on and I know of two people who had to prove to their local officer friendly that the fireplace was their only source of heat during one of King County’s “Burn Ban” days.

Constant Vigilance. Just like with the 2nd.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | 1 Comment

The Soundboard: The Group Dynamic

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Phil Kadath

We’re goona switch it up from the past couple weeks and go for the deep funk.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted this group up so y’all who haven’t been around for all that long, this should be new. And for you long timers, this is another chance for you to buy one hell of an album.
The band is The Brooklyn Funk Essentials and the album is In the Buzzbag.

Dropping on the market in 1998, the album has a distinctly Middle Eastern flavor with the inclusion of over half a dozen Turkish musicians. Heavy bass lines and soulful rhythms meet up with an unmistakable Turkish Clarinet.

Today’s tracks are the mysterious duet

By and Bye

And the hard hitting instrumental

Zurna Preserve

Enjoy

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment

To live in instersting times

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Co-Counsel on the Parker/Heeler case, Robert A. Levy, gets an Op-Ed he wrote published in the LA Times and makes me hope I remember to check on their Letters to the Editor section in a couple days for the reactions.

It may or may not be related, but I’d like to point out that over at Uncle’s Place there is a rather lively discussion on what the “breaking point” might be. Yes, that breaking point.

Since I’m not very good at group discussions/interactions (which explains why I have a blog of my own) let me just say that I agree with Anarchangel/Chris, though I believe that it will be mostly because the majority of gun owners won’t see the BP for what it is and not because they have no will (though there are way too many who don’t).

As for Uncle’s wont to “Turn them in. Ammo first.” I hope that he dislikes playing defense as much as I do and doesn’t plan on waiting for them to come a-knockin’.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 2 Comments

I see that someone was listening

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Investors Business Daily runs through Fred Thompson’s plan for Social Security

There’s very little gain in this for Thompson politically. He will now take potshots from the AARP and other special interest groups, not to mention those on the left who will falsely accuse him of trying to “dismantle” Social Security.That said, hats off to Thompson for his plan. It would trade off future benefits of those now working — people over 57 wouldn’t have their benefits touched — in exchange for letting them create 401(k)-style accounts. He would have government match the private savings that workers put in. And it’s entirely voluntary.

Workers could put aside as much as 2% of their Social Security money in a private investment fund. Upon retirement, they’d have a nest egg to pass on to their children. They’d also have the higher returns markets have always provided in modern history.

Democrats have pushed for a tax hike to “fix” Social Security. It won’t work. The program already takes 12.4% of the average worker’s pay. Raising the tax would hurt the economy by making it more costly for businesses to hire workers and to give out pay raises.

We’re not especially keen on the matching part of the plan, which looks a lot like income redistribution to us. Still, Thompson’s proposal will solve what is without question the biggest fiscal problem this nation faces over the next century: paying for the surge of baby boomers who start drawing Social Security next year.

Without showing the American people that they can do better without the government, we’ll never get rid of SSI. To think otherwise is Pie in the Sky.

This plan, while nowhere near optimum for getting rid of Roosevelt’s Ponzi Scheme, will lay the ground work for that eventuality and gets my seal of approval.

Posted in Heroes, Comrades and Brothers | Leave a comment

Fear: More Beer

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Phil Kadath

A delicious merger took place recently

Redhook Ale Brewery of Woodinville plans to merge with Widmer Brothers Brewing in Portland to form a new company called Craft Brewers Alliance. It will be headquartered in Portland with management offices in both cities, officials said.

Existing breweries will remain, including Widmer’s breweries in Portland and Redhook’s in Woodinville and Portsmouth, N.H. The companies expect to continue making their existing beers, including Redhook’s ESB and Widmer’s Hefeweizen.

With combined production of 550,000 to 600,000 barrels a year, the new company will be one of the country’s largest craft brewers, just behind Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico, Calif.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter, pending approval from regulators, Redhook’s shareholders and Anheuser-Busch, which owns roughly a third of each company and will continue to own that much of the new corporation.

Ownership of the rest of the company will be split roughly evenly between the current shareholders of Redhook and privately held Widmer.

And now we’ll see if this means the price per pack comes down.

Mmmm, I could use a Blackhook or a Big Ben right about now.

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

Great Gun Training Post

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Alaska

over at Derek’s place. This is one hell of a good writeup. Go read.
What’s also great is that the training outfit is right here in northern California. Sweeeet!

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 6 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 11/15/07

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Once again, Instapundit gets the nod

November 19th is National Ammo Day: Pick up a box or two. Hey, get some Chinese-made ammo and at least it’ll be something that’s supposed to contain lead!

Glenn Reynolds

Posted in Quote of the Day | Leave a comment

Stupid Judge Tricks

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Phil Kadath

Dafydd put it best

“Federal Judge Declares “Mistrial” Equivalent to “Aquittal””

Apparently, U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle used his sharp as the leading edge of a basketball legal mind to discover a previously unseen conspiracy between the judge and the prosecuting attorney prosecuting 1st LT Ehren Watada.

No evidence to back it up with, just his gut feeling. But the ruling will stand because he’s got the robe.

Either way, this chucklefuck says that Watada cannot be retried now because of “double jeopardy”. I think he’s sitting on his “double jeopardy’s”, which also seems to be where he keeps his head.

And thanks to Mr. Issac Newton, we have an equal and opposite reaction…

If you remember last year when San Francisco State University disciplined the College Republicans for walking on the Hezbollah flag because it the terrorists put the word “Allah” in Arabic on the flag?

U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil told the university they had to repeal the punishment.

Who’d of thought someone would have to take a university to court to practice their First Amendment rights?

Oh wait, we did. Just about every single gotdam day.

Nice to see the good guys win one.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | Leave a comment

Too Stupid To Live

Posted on November 14, 2007 by Phil Kadath

I have a category of posts with the same title, but this guy deserves an entire post.

You know sometimes it drives me absolutely bonkers when so-called “journalists” fail to report on obvious, easily-discoverable and CRITICAL facts about current events.The looming war or strike or conflict with Iran is clearly something that affects the entire globe. Yet journalists consistently forget to mention something absolutely critical about Iran’s potential to acquire/develop/build nuclear weapons.

The ultra-short version: The SUPREME LEADER of Iran (yes that’s his title) is the guy with all the power NOT the president. And the Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa which SPECIFICALLY forbids Iran (and Iranian scientists) from ever building, acquiring or using a nuclear weapon. Ever.

The links are over there, if you care to venture, but first let me just mention one teensy little thing.

Hudna.

(I’ll explain so as to make things easier for when the above linked yokel comes following his trackbacks)

Fanatical Islamists never stop fighting. However, when they see themselves losing, they call for a Hudna, or a cease-fire. They then use this time to regroup and re-arm their soldiers. They then break the Hudna when the feel that they are at their strongest and their enemy is weakest, or just whenever their twisted minds feel like it.

Anyone who has watched the palestinian-Israeli struggle has seen the Hudna

If this “soj” cannot see a Hudna staring him in the face, then he is either dumb as dirt or has a suicide wish.

Especially since the blind-old UN has finally seen the light about Iran’s ambitions

Iran maintains it was given the papers without asking for them during its black market purchases of nuclear equipment decades ago that now serve as the backbone of its program to enrich uranium — a process that can generate both power or create the fissile core of nuclear warheads. Iran’s refusal to suspend enrichment has been the main trigger for both existing U.N. sanctions and the threat of new ones.

Both the IAEA and other experts have categorized the instructions outlined in the blueprints as having no value outside of a nuclear weapons program.

If El-Bardei can see it, why can’t this loser? Wait, I’ll bet he says that it’s all a Bush-ruse using the UN as a pawn.

We’ll see.

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | 2 Comments